Like any marketable niche product there are always business sorts exploring every angle, inspecting every nook and cranny so that they too can profit from exploiting the commodified product for their own greed. Where the consumeristic trans trend is concerned, enter the Online Gender Therapist. Yes, you read that right ONLINE gender therapy, meaning no face to face consults, pay the fee, do the prescribed sessions, receive a prescription for hormones and/or "gender" appropriate surgeries.
These online "gender specialists" determine whether you're "trans" or not based on say if you are a female whether your play or interests veered outside the straight-jacket prescribed gender roles for females. Such as whether as a female child you preferred to play with "boy" toys or wear "boy" clothes or preferred boys to girls as play mates. The young person merely has to answer the questions with the appropriate answers, then begin their "counseling". There is none of that tedious face to face contact, none of the therapist having the chance to read eye contact and facial markers that can indicate lying to deal with. This says to me that the online "gender therapist" have no serious investment in the mental health of their potential "trans" clients and are invested only in the money they can make from them.
There is no question that the trans trend has been created not simply from patriarchy's backlash against feminism, but equally from the pure greed of the medical community who has seen and is exploiting "transness" from a purely consumeristic standpoint. Transgenderism is now a full blown business, with our young people becoming in greater and greater numbers the commodified products of a medical community more vested in getting and keeping people on the lifetime of drugs "transness" requires, drugs that have no long term studies and performing substandard surgeries at outrageous prices rather than using available treatments that would resolve "trans" feelings without drugs or surgeries and wouldn't cost the patient a lifetime of financial maintenance nor a mutilated unnatural body.
"Online gender therapist" such as this seem to be the norm, the norm being "gender therapist" with no educational background or degrees in gender or gender related issues, but instead a fat bank account, while hundreds of healthy breast are incinerated by means of their signed "consent forms".
dirt
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Chest (breast) Binding: The New Corset
I made mention in my last post that the millions of negative messages looming both large and subliminally impact greatly each and every female from cradle to grave, negative misogynistic messages, many that have been with us so long we believe them to be "natural"/"normal". Like minute bits of dirt left unwashed from our skin, they sink deeper into our pores until one day they eventually break out into some form of puss filled sore or pimple or worse, a life threatening cancer. Man may have disturbed the ground that created the dust, but far too often it is women who fan the dirt from woman to woman to woman adding to the filth of women's lives.
The corset was just such a fetid invention, an invention crudely made, but one that would give females an hour glass shape, a male approved shape that signified an ultra (hyper) femininity as well as an upper class status, although later on all classes of females wore some version of the corset. The tighter a corset was worn, the more the figure would appear like the ideal hour glass, and the more females would gain positive attention from both men and women. But the tighter the corset was worn, the greater the health problems suffered by women; from light headedness to out right fainting spells, difficulty breathing, various issues with internal organs being smashed, broken ribs, some resulting in the puncturing of lungs which resulted in death. As (male) doctors began seeing more and more cases of women suffering from the assorted corset issues, (male) doctors told women not to lace the corset so tightly, some even demanded women stop wearing them altogether. But due to the pressure and expectations women received from each other, corset wearing continued until its style eventually went out of popular fashion, not because of its long history of proven dangers.
Breast binding is a more recent pustule risen out of the same misogynistic filth that germinated the corset. Binding is done in order to smash down the breast for the purpose of flattening or smoothing the breast for a more male appearance while clothed. Like the corset, the tighter one "binds" the more likely one is to suffer serious damages from regular wear. Damages such as shortened breath, potential heart attacks, damaged muscles and bones, chest numbness etc. Also like the corset it is primarily women who bind and women who pressure other females into binding. Since "passing" as a male is the ultimate goal of binding, in female trans communities both online and real-time, there is a great deal of pressure women and trans
The corset and binder are both products created for the purpose of altering the natural shape of the female body, they are both products females are pressured into through shaming or because of shame, and they are both dangerous to the mental and physical well being of women.
dirt
Monday, October 25, 2010
Transition: Which Tools?
The American poet Anne Sexton wrote in a piece she composed for both herself and the American poet Sylvia Plath, ("and balanced there suicides sometimes meet"), nearly a year after Plath's suicide at age 30 that: "suicides have a special language/like carpenters/they wanna know which tools/they never ask/why build". In a recent comment, someone made the point that this is their largest unanswered gripe about the trans community. That other than describing feeling "different", "always felt like the opposite sex", "never felt right being a girl/boy", "hated their body as long as they can remember" etc., the "why" of it remains unanswered, even by the medical community. Doctors do not seek to find out what informs "feeling like a boy or girl", they only need to hear that someone does and as "authorities" on the trans matter, why would a trans minded person seek to find out "why", because to do so might inhibit the "happiness" they seek which they believe to be found at the end of the trans rainbow.
A lot of what this blog is about is answering that "why", which is why trans folk are so desperate to slander/silence-me/this blog, I might quash their trans rainbow dreams. So lets talk a little about "why", about what informs "trans" feelings. First and most importantly they aren't "trans" feelings, they are developed feelings millions feel the world over, each ranging in severity based on their particular society, religion and family. Females have much greater body issues than males because females have over time been sexualized and commodified by men and for male sexual pleasure, even if that pleasure goes no further than the female as masturbatory "eye candy".
This has been going on so long that hyper-femininity is viewed by both men and women as "normal". So what happens when a female believes herself to be more than a sex object? More than the sum of her breast or pussy for male pleasure or male approval? And what happens when the backlash against feminism has reached such an extreme that females as young as age four are being sexualized through hyper-feminine clothing and other visual accoutrement? And what happens when that girl's society, religion and family or any combination thereof support that hyper-feminine sexualized expectation of her??? What are her options for escape?
What about the females born also into hyper-feminine expectation who cannot identify at all with those female role expectations? Nothing deemed "female" by her society, religion or family resonate with her, but what does resonate with her are "boy" things, "boy" clothes, "boy" friends, "boy" toys, "boy" games and "boy" dreams and potentials, what she understands maybe even before she can speak, are only these "boy" feelings. Depending on her society, her religion, her family, for awhile she may be allowed to ignored her biology and "do" all the "boy" things she likes, perhaps for years, till a part of her may even forget that she isnt a boy.
What happens when her body reaches puberty and her body forces her to remember that she in fact IS female? What shame does she feel when once a month her body bleeds? What shame and hatred does she feel when her breast betray her and worse, her family who ignored her "boy" play are now insisting she wear a BRA, which is totally a "girl" thing?? What happens when that same girl who desires all the "boy" things and "boy" ways, grows up in a religion and family that force her to be the hyper-feminine female they expect her to be. Force her to wear "girl" clothes, force her to do "girl" chores, only allow her "girl" toys, expect her at puberty to date boys like a proper young lady. What happens when it is driven into her head by her society, her religion and at home with her family that "girls do these things and boys do those things"? What is her option when what she wants to do, how she sees herself and her life aren't permitted under her female sex according to those that make up her world?
This doesn't take into account the sheer misogyny that has permeated the planet since the beginning of recorded history. Misogyny that is blatant and as big as the sky, and the subtle and subliminal misogyny that number in billions which we each take in little by little every day. Its in the clothes we wear, the billboards we see, the movies we love, the music we listen to, the gods we worship, the friends we hang out with and the families we own. We learn pre-verbal and till the day we die: women are spiritually, physically and emotionally weak, women caused god to turn his back on us, women aren't gods, women aren't kings, women arent presidents, women aren't savvy CEOs of billion dollar corporations, women aren't professional football players, or professional baseball players or the highest paid sports figures, women are slaves to their emotions, women cant be trusted, women cant head countries because they cant be trusted because their biology (PMS) would interfere with their decision making, women are whores, women are bitches, women are cunts, women are worthless, women are fuck toys, women's sexual organs are worthless other than to please men, the only value a pussy has is pleasing a penis, women ask to get raped, girls seduce grown men, women are sluts because they dress like sluts, women should always put men first, mothers should put men and children first, women should always put themselves last, women who put themselves ahead of men are selfish bitches, women should step down if a man needs her job, only selfish bitches steel men's jobs, women earn less than men because they cant work as hard because they are women. This list obviously doesn't even begin to touch upon the horrible, negative messages females receive from the time we're born, till the day we die.
Then there's the flip side of that which is the malecentrism that has dominated the planet since recorded history, make no bones about it, there is a reason the rocket was long and erect. Males who are the writers of history, both past and present, portray themselves as: strong, protective, powerful, more intelligent, the tamers of nature, the creators of societies, the greatest inventors, bards, masters, kings, presidents, leaders, the hero's of movies and stories, possessors of the penis, nothing is more powerful than an erect penis, an erect penis can cut a female to pieces, since men have a penis, that means women must be less than because they are "missing" something, men arent over emotional, mean arent weak, men dont let emotions get in the way of their decisions, men have a penis so deserve more, men dont have to be accountable for their desires because it is more difficult for them to control themselves sexually, male children should have more opportunities for education because they will have to help rule when they are adults, male needs are catered to sooner than female needs, since boys will be boys its not their fault when they do something wrong, again the list is infinite.
Based on what little I included here of the untold adversities that females are born and raised, is it surprising that some think or hope or desire to be males?? The fact is for every female that transitions there are thousands who grew up feeling the same way that don't transition and that doesn't mean that those women's feelings of body alienation were/are any less severe. Let me also add, because most females seem to acclimate to hyper-femininity doesn't mean those females are happy or at home in their bodies either. So what causes one female to transition and another with similar or worse body/gender dysphoria not too? Like the combination's of circumstance that cause one to think they are something they are not or wish they were something they were not, there are also combination's of circumstance that help one get beyond feeling alienated from themselves. That help can come in the form of a friend, a lover, a life changing event or just plain 'ole maturity, taking time to understand what informed those feelings, examining what informed those feelings, then working towards getting through those feelings, or seeking help to get through those feelings.
But if the "why build" is never asked, then what informs these now deemed "trans" feelings never get resolved, even after "transition". Which can be verified in every trans forum, community, website, group both online and real-time and as so many of you have seen, even here. If trans actually transitioned into "male" and "female", "trans" would be a medical issue only. Those females that are now "males" would merely assimilate into male society and live their lives as any other man and we'd never hear from them again. There wouldn't be "transphobia", there would only be homophobia, there wouldn't be "trans feminism", there would only be feminism, there wouldn't be trans communities, trans academics, transmale, transfemale, transman, transwoman, ftM, Mtf etc etc etc. The very fact that "trans" exist outside of the medical arena, proves over and over the failure of transition.
Don't ever fear asking "why build", never fear the answers to your questions and for your true self's sake, don't EVER let someone stop you from asking "why build", because those who ask only "which tools" are destined to a Sextonesque or Plathian end through the failure of transition.
Transition is, a living suicide.
dirt
A lot of what this blog is about is answering that "why", which is why trans folk are so desperate to slander/silence-me/this blog, I might quash their trans rainbow dreams. So lets talk a little about "why", about what informs "trans" feelings. First and most importantly they aren't "trans" feelings, they are developed feelings millions feel the world over, each ranging in severity based on their particular society, religion and family. Females have much greater body issues than males because females have over time been sexualized and commodified by men and for male sexual pleasure, even if that pleasure goes no further than the female as masturbatory "eye candy".
This has been going on so long that hyper-femininity is viewed by both men and women as "normal". So what happens when a female believes herself to be more than a sex object? More than the sum of her breast or pussy for male pleasure or male approval? And what happens when the backlash against feminism has reached such an extreme that females as young as age four are being sexualized through hyper-feminine clothing and other visual accoutrement? And what happens when that girl's society, religion and family or any combination thereof support that hyper-feminine sexualized expectation of her??? What are her options for escape?
What about the females born also into hyper-feminine expectation who cannot identify at all with those female role expectations? Nothing deemed "female" by her society, religion or family resonate with her, but what does resonate with her are "boy" things, "boy" clothes, "boy" friends, "boy" toys, "boy" games and "boy" dreams and potentials, what she understands maybe even before she can speak, are only these "boy" feelings. Depending on her society, her religion, her family, for awhile she may be allowed to ignored her biology and "do" all the "boy" things she likes, perhaps for years, till a part of her may even forget that she isnt a boy.
What happens when her body reaches puberty and her body forces her to remember that she in fact IS female? What shame does she feel when once a month her body bleeds? What shame and hatred does she feel when her breast betray her and worse, her family who ignored her "boy" play are now insisting she wear a BRA, which is totally a "girl" thing?? What happens when that same girl who desires all the "boy" things and "boy" ways, grows up in a religion and family that force her to be the hyper-feminine female they expect her to be. Force her to wear "girl" clothes, force her to do "girl" chores, only allow her "girl" toys, expect her at puberty to date boys like a proper young lady. What happens when it is driven into her head by her society, her religion and at home with her family that "girls do these things and boys do those things"? What is her option when what she wants to do, how she sees herself and her life aren't permitted under her female sex according to those that make up her world?
This doesn't take into account the sheer misogyny that has permeated the planet since the beginning of recorded history. Misogyny that is blatant and as big as the sky, and the subtle and subliminal misogyny that number in billions which we each take in little by little every day. Its in the clothes we wear, the billboards we see, the movies we love, the music we listen to, the gods we worship, the friends we hang out with and the families we own. We learn pre-verbal and till the day we die: women are spiritually, physically and emotionally weak, women caused god to turn his back on us, women aren't gods, women aren't kings, women arent presidents, women aren't savvy CEOs of billion dollar corporations, women aren't professional football players, or professional baseball players or the highest paid sports figures, women are slaves to their emotions, women cant be trusted, women cant head countries because they cant be trusted because their biology (PMS) would interfere with their decision making, women are whores, women are bitches, women are cunts, women are worthless, women are fuck toys, women's sexual organs are worthless other than to please men, the only value a pussy has is pleasing a penis, women ask to get raped, girls seduce grown men, women are sluts because they dress like sluts, women should always put men first, mothers should put men and children first, women should always put themselves last, women who put themselves ahead of men are selfish bitches, women should step down if a man needs her job, only selfish bitches steel men's jobs, women earn less than men because they cant work as hard because they are women. This list obviously doesn't even begin to touch upon the horrible, negative messages females receive from the time we're born, till the day we die.
Then there's the flip side of that which is the malecentrism that has dominated the planet since recorded history, make no bones about it, there is a reason the rocket was long and erect. Males who are the writers of history, both past and present, portray themselves as: strong, protective, powerful, more intelligent, the tamers of nature, the creators of societies, the greatest inventors, bards, masters, kings, presidents, leaders, the hero's of movies and stories, possessors of the penis, nothing is more powerful than an erect penis, an erect penis can cut a female to pieces, since men have a penis, that means women must be less than because they are "missing" something, men arent over emotional, mean arent weak, men dont let emotions get in the way of their decisions, men have a penis so deserve more, men dont have to be accountable for their desires because it is more difficult for them to control themselves sexually, male children should have more opportunities for education because they will have to help rule when they are adults, male needs are catered to sooner than female needs, since boys will be boys its not their fault when they do something wrong, again the list is infinite.
Based on what little I included here of the untold adversities that females are born and raised, is it surprising that some think or hope or desire to be males?? The fact is for every female that transitions there are thousands who grew up feeling the same way that don't transition and that doesn't mean that those women's feelings of body alienation were/are any less severe. Let me also add, because most females seem to acclimate to hyper-femininity doesn't mean those females are happy or at home in their bodies either. So what causes one female to transition and another with similar or worse body/gender dysphoria not too? Like the combination's of circumstance that cause one to think they are something they are not or wish they were something they were not, there are also combination's of circumstance that help one get beyond feeling alienated from themselves. That help can come in the form of a friend, a lover, a life changing event or just plain 'ole maturity, taking time to understand what informed those feelings, examining what informed those feelings, then working towards getting through those feelings, or seeking help to get through those feelings.
But if the "why build" is never asked, then what informs these now deemed "trans" feelings never get resolved, even after "transition". Which can be verified in every trans forum, community, website, group both online and real-time and as so many of you have seen, even here. If trans actually transitioned into "male" and "female", "trans" would be a medical issue only. Those females that are now "males" would merely assimilate into male society and live their lives as any other man and we'd never hear from them again. There wouldn't be "transphobia", there would only be homophobia, there wouldn't be "trans feminism", there would only be feminism, there wouldn't be trans communities, trans academics, transmale, transfemale, transman, transwoman, ftM, Mtf etc etc etc. The very fact that "trans" exist outside of the medical arena, proves over and over the failure of transition.
Don't ever fear asking "why build", never fear the answers to your questions and for your true self's sake, don't EVER let someone stop you from asking "why build", because those who ask only "which tools" are destined to a Sextonesque or Plathian end through the failure of transition.
Transition is, a living suicide.
dirt
Sunday, October 24, 2010
This Weekend's Who is Transitioning
Practice being the woman that you are, not paying to be the man that you can never be.
Expand the narrow notions of female through being the unique female that no one can be but YOU!
Conformity under any other name still isnt transgressive, conformity is cowardice.
Send me a video of you being an out and proud strong unique female (gay or straight) and I will post them on my blog. Tell me what makes you unique, your passions, dreams, your strengths, what you are doing in your little corner to make a difference, things you do that make you feel powerful, beautiful, special.
dirt
ps I am working on several blog suggestions, so if I haven't gotten to yours yet, it doesn't mean I'm ignoring your suggestion. Please keep them coming, its helpful, because I'm only one person and can only be in so many places.
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