Friday, February 25, 2011

Pioneer Women?

I do possess a degree in history and follow the past with some sort of passion and interest.
Of course transgendered history is very high on my list! I do believe through the past we can sometimes predict the future, or at least use the years as a yardstick. How far have we advanced? If at all?
Of course we all remember "Christine Jorgensen" who broke the gender barrier early in the 1950's.
The first British Transssexual possibly was "Roberta Cowell".
Roberta actually went through her operation nearly a year a half before Jorgensen.
There obviously won't be national holidays to remember pioneers such as these two ladies. Think of how difficult it was for them to go through basically an experimental procedure.
Think of how society as a whole viewed any gay person, let alone a trangendered one?
In society we are still largely made to ride in the back of the bus.
However, thanks to courageous  women like these, we have been able to move up a couple of rows.
Sooner more than later, we too will be able to sit where we want on the bus!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

My Time of the Month?

Maybe it's the winter "blahs". It seems my part of the world has been locked in the grips of a gray snowy winter longer than usual. Maybe it's the decision of where and how my life may go is affecting me? No matter how I cut it I'm on this cliff looking down at major decisions. Do I continue down the same dual gendered path or do I explore the wild wonderful world of hormones?
Complicating the matter even further is the sexual aspect of all of this. Which, by choice I don't discuss here.
Right or wrong, I have lived my life on it's own playing field. It has called the plays and I have responded. Do any of us have the right or opportunity to really challenge destiny?
Deep down inside the girl in me feels so at home. Life obviously has shown be the path but not how to walk it or the courage to do it.
Then again, is all of this just a reaction to coming off of a tremendous high at the first of the year?
New look, new friends and challenges have leveled off as they always do. I cherish my friends and they are so difficult to find that I find a tremendous satisfaction when I find one.
Maybe it's time for my own personal trip to my beauty salon.  Why not work with a new hair style? Cis-women have done it forever. I just have been hesitant to go that route too much.
One of the benefits in my part of the world is the changing of the seasons. The rebirth of life in the spring is just around the corner.
It's time to shop for more than new spring fashion!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

High Maintenance?

This quote came to me from one of the many places I subscribe to. I don't remember which one and it doesn't really matter. We have heard it before.
She wrote: "A look that has comes to us via porn, ladyboys, transsexuals, queer
culture and high fashion is a look I now see on the bus. This excess
of femininity may compensate for endless anxiety about appearances.
There is nothing natural going on here, and some women are not hiding
that fact. To become a woman is to become a female impersonator. How,
in such a world, can we say to any young girl: "You are fine just as
you are"?
All so true. Every young girl should feel she is fine as she is. BUT it's unfair to blame the female beauty ideal on us!
Men are visual creatures and women provide the vision. Isn't that how it works?
Since the first cave woman put berry juice on her lips to attract a caveman, what was that?
There are many women with fine natural beauty. There are as many if not more without it. Does that mean the rest of us can't take advantage of all the resources to look better?
As role models go in today's society shouldn't women mentor the young girls? Feed their self esteem? Makeup, fashion and clothes do not make the woman. That is all inside.
All of this reminds me of the early rhetoric of the feminist movement. Burn your bra...unless you look terrible without it.
How is it so terrible to take pride in our outside appearance?
Human nature has made us the high maintenance gender. Work with it!

Gender Lost and Found

  Image from Patrick Hawlick on UnSplash.   Navigating the path of lost and found is often very difficult for a transgender woman or transg...