Those Damn Trees Again!

Is "minutia" a word? If it is, can I please use it to describe how the transgendered community takes an initial relevant point and proceeds to grind it into dust. By the time two or three of us are cat fighting  over the same point that was beaten to death all over the web days, weeks or months earlier-those damn trees are in the way and we can't see the forest again!
Just when I get frustrated enough to scream, along comes an article such as this from an unlikely place; Winona State University in Minnesota.
It's a very long and complex article. Read it here.

So You DON'T Want to be a Girl!

I have two friends who identify on the "cusp" of ftm transsexuality. Until I met them, I had very little knowledge of the "Super Butch" end of the lesbian culture.
One thought did occur to me that I was similar to them on the other end of the gender spectrum.  I operate as my chosen gender without actual surgery and so do they in many ways-I think. Obviously I can't speak for them. I do watch with interest their interaction with the lesbian community. Again, I compare it to my limited interaction with the male gay folks.
Of course, as with everything in this internet/social media driven world,  others have concerned themselves with way ftm trans men interact with the lesbian community. It comes from Canada's "Xtra".
Here's an excerpt:

"The female to male trans community has long found refuge in the lesbian community but the trans community's growth is causing some re-thinking of the relationship, according to some activists.

“The comment I hear a lot is there aren’t going to be any butches anymore because they are all going to turn into men,” says author and activist Patrick Califia.

“I think that the truth is that as the trans community becomes more visible it is going to impact the structure of the lesbian community."

If you go to the link there is a video attached also!

So You Want to be a Girl?

A friend of mine (genetic female) gave me an idea for a couple posts which are fun to look back on but were not so funny at the time.
Every once in  a while I will chat with a novice trans person who is fairly sure that beautiful feminine creature staring back at her from her mirror at home is enough to establish her life in the world.
Of course "back in the day" I felt much the same way. To make matters worse, I felt the female gender had it so much easier. Back in those days, girls didn't get drafted, just had to wait for guys to ask them out-blah, blah blah.
Along the way, I found those thoughts were as much fiction as a "Stephen King" novel.
A couple of the more amusing incidents involved uniquely feminine experiences with toilet paper and high heels.
The high heel one is very common to any woman who has worn heels for any length of time.  Except I had to do it different.  My copy of the book "High Heels for Dummy's" told me about being careful for the occasional sidewalk grate and the occasional chip in the concrete. What I didn't see in the fine print was the warning about the extreme danger presented by those nasty little concrete grooves in a busy mall. 
Yes, there I was attempting to be elegantly,nonchalantly beautiful in my heels and hose; cheerfully minding my own business until-BAM! One of my shoes got firmly stuck in a crack so small only my heel could find it and the gorgeous creature (in my mind) came to a screeching halt. Not only did she come to a stop, so did the line of people walking behind her.
By this time my priorites had changed from shopping to damage control. Of course I had to pry the shoe from the crack while the world watched and then try to slide it back on without falling over!
Long story short, life went on and I learned very dramatically heel lesson #12 on page 40.
Oh, by the way I'm sure you know I was making up the book but the story is true. Just like the toilet paper story in the next post.