Latina Transwoman "Endry Cardeno" Makes the Cover!

First of all I must give credit to a link I have on the blog to a site called "A Gender Variance Who's Who" by "Zagria"  I'm a history fanatic and Zagria's documentation of historical transgendered and transsexual women and men is nothing short of amazing! Check it out if you haven't.
Equally amazing is the Latina beauty "Endry Cardeno" who she featured in her latest post.

 I normally don't like to repeat content from blogs I follow unless I really am impressed by content or appearance.
Guess which I'm impressed with here?

Actually I'm impressed with more, read on:

Endry Cardeño, who underwent a sex change when she was 17 years old, shot to fame as a popular star of the soap opera "Los Reyes" ("The Kings") and has since acted in several films.
The transsexual actress is from Cucuta, Colombia and is an icon for LBGT (lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender) rights.
She initially faced criticism from conservative sectors of society upon first assuming her role in the soap opera but now enjoys a large following!

A Day In A Transgender Life

One day-24 hrs ago, I sat here and wrote how my life had reached a certain plateau.
I wasn't discouraged by any means by my physical development but then again I have never been a patient person. A waiting game was never my strength.
When I woke up this morning though, I noticed (for the first time) a definite soreness in "the girls".  Obviously something was happening.
I'm light years from developing hips  but as I happened to check my faint waist line,  I can imagine what my body could become.
All of this was great, but I'm actually saving the best for last.
It has been a very windy February day and my hair was all over the place. In a act of frustration in my back yard I pulled it back to see if I could finally form a pony tail. The answer was YES I could.  The process was  relatively easily although I have never done it.  By no means is my hair flowing down my back but I can now wear a two inch "tail"! I will say I need a lot of practice of even tying off my pony tail but it is a labor of love!
Here's the best part. The rubber band I used today was actually off the first estrogen prescription bottle I received. No bottle before or after has ever had a rubber band. I saved this rubber band as a sign of good karma and the future.
Today, I put it to good use!

A Big Transgendered Leap In India

From "India Today" this is Nikkiey Chawla is a transgender model who has walked the ramp for some leading jewelry brands.     


She is yet another trans woman who has forsaken the "stealth" tag to make lives better for other transgendered women and men in India.
Now:
"Last week Channel V's chat show, My Big Decision, left viewers with food for thought about an issue that wouldn't have been aired at another time, that of sex reassignment surgery. The show featured young transsexuals and transgenders from middle class families who were quite vocal about their issues and open about their identities. In fact, the faces of transsexuals and transgenders appear regularly on reality TV: While Bobby Darling and Lakshmi stunned the audiences in the last two seasons of Bigg Boss, Sylvie has made her mark in recent Survivor India.
While some call it nothing but a TRP stunt, experts say this reflects a subtle change that's bringing the gender debate from closed-door film festivals to living rooms of ordinary Indians. "It's a welcome change," says Anjali Gopalan, executive director and founder, Naz Foundation (India) Trust. "Unlike earlier when transgenders were mostly portrayed as caricatures to be ridiculed at, the media is now presenting them as 'normal' human beings with intelligence, mannerisms and thinking ability," says Gopalan who has worked with sexual minorities for many years.
"For years we have been mocked at as uneducated fools doing either commercial sex work or dancing at weddings. Thankfully reality shows are breaking such stereotypes now," points out 25-year-old transsexual, Namrata. "This image is changing since members of our community have begun modelling, doing social work and writing books and blogs ," she adds."

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/transsexual-transgenders-media-nikkiey-chawla-maria-mehra/1/174906.html

Just When You Thought There Was No News

Just when I thought things were getting boring in the transgendered press along comes the UK and the "Daily Mail Online"
According to their story:

"These are the two faces of a transgender fraudster who made thousands of pounds in scams by posing as both male and female friends to take out loans and credit cards.
Con artist Frances Harris, 71, of Brighton, Sussex, was born as Frederick but now lives as a woman.
She admitted three counts of deception over a three-year period, but was only handed a suspended 15-month sentence after her lawyer said she would not be safe in a male prison because she has had breast augmentation."

OK, I can't resist.
Way to go UK! Long live the queen!
Come on now-where's your sense of humor!

A Day in a Transgendered Life.

It's days like today when I sit here and say hmmmm wasssup girl?
Well I said to self, not much actually.  Ordered another month's supply of hormones today which means unbelievably I will have completed three months when this supply runs out.
I did get my order together for girl scout cookies which I consider a real neccessity this year because of all the idiotic right wing attacks on the scouts for their transgender and birth control stances. I am going to pass along the "Femulate" link to "Stana's" post about the scouts and a petition you can sign.
 Also, I have a friend who is researching bits and pieces of the "Two or Dual Spirit" beliefs of a few of the Native American Indian Tribes.
Here are a couple very interesting excerpts from what Don has sent me:

'The first step on the path to a two-spirit life was taken during

childhood. The Papago ritual is representative of this early

integration: If parents noticed that a son was disinterested in

boyish play or manly work they would set up a ceremony to determine

which way the boy would be brought up. They would make an enclosure

of brush, and place in the center both a man’s bow and a woman’s

basket. The boy was told to go inside the circle of brush and to

bring something out, and as he entered the brush would be set on

fire. “They watched what he took with him as he ran out, and if it

was the basketry materials they reconciled [sic] themselves to his

being a berdache or female in male's body.

 

 

The Mohave ritual, usually carried out when the child is between

the ages of nine and twelve, has a different form, but keeps the

central element of allowing the child’s nature to manifest itself:

A singing circle is prepared, unbeknownst to the boy, involving the

whole community as well as distant friends and relatives. On the

day of the ceremony everyone gathers round and the boy is led into

the middle of the circle. If he remains there, the singer, hidden

in the crowd, begins to sing the ritual songs and the boy, if he is

destined to follow the two-spirit road, starts to dance in the

fashion of a woman. “He cannot help it,” say the Mohave. After the

fourth song the boy is declared to be a two-spirit person and is

raised from then on in the appropriate manner."

 

I will be passing along more from his research later!

So I guess the bottom line is today was an example of the more things change, the more they stay the same.

As my body slowly starts to feminize itself, society begins to view me different of course. All in all though, I still view society as the same and probably always have.

My I guess I would have picked up the baskets from the burning circle!

 

 

Revisiting Danielle Berry

Following my post called "Another Transgendered Pioneer" I received two very compelling comments from Anne here on the blog.

"Some food for thought...

by Danielle Berry
[1949-1998]

[Compiled from a number of emails I sent in response to requests for input from those considering their own change.]

"Don't do it! That's my advice. This is the most awful, most expensive, most painful, most disruptive thing you could ever do. Don't do it unless there is no other alternative. You may think your life is tough but unless it's a choice between suicide and a sex-change it will only get worse. And the costs keep coming. You lose control over most aspects of your life, become a second class citizen and all so you can wear women's clothes and feel cuter than you do now. Don't do it is all I've got to say.


http://anna-es-asi.blogspot.com/2011/05/high-price-of-tg-borg-hive-think.html

AnneFeb 20, 2012 08:19 PM

More fro the late Ms. Berry.....

"That's advice I wish someone had given me. I had the sex change, I "pass" fine, my career is good but you can't imagine the number of times I've wished I could go back and see if there was another way. Despite following the rules and being as honest as I could with the medical folks at each stage, nobody stopped me and said "Are you honest to God absolutely sure this is the ONLY path for you?!" To the contrary, the voices were all cheerfully supportive of my decision. I was fortunate that the web didn't exist then - there are too damn many cheerleaders ready to reassure themselves of their own decision by parading their "successful" surgeries and encouraging others."

"I can speak the transgender party line that I was a female trapped in a male body and I remember feeling this way since I was 4. But, it's never that easy if you look at it sincerely and without preconception. There's little question that a mid-life crisis, a divorce and a cancer scare were involved in at least the timing of my sex-change decision. To be completely honest at this point (3 yrs post-op) is not easy, however, I'm not sure I would do it again. I'm now concerned that much of what I took as a gender dysfunction might have been nothing more than a neurotic sexual obsession. I was a cross-dresser for all of my sexual life and had always fantasized going fem as an ultimate turn-on. Ironically, when I began hormone treatment my libido went away. However, I mistook that relief from sexual obsession for validation of my gender change. Then in the final bit of irony, after surgery my new genitals were non-orgasmic (like 80% of my TG sisters)."

First of all I would like to thank Anne for wonderful insight into a situation so many of us sacrifice our lives and families to accomplish
At the risk of becoming too controversial again I have a couple thoughts on Anne's.
Are there more than just a few "fully operational" transsexual women who wished they had not gone all the way? Have I just been unlucky in the number of really bitter trans women I have known? (NOT Anne!) Are they bitter because they wish they had not went through the change?
I was lucky. In my formative transgendered years. I knew a person who I felt was a very unhappy individual after "going the distance".
From her I learned to be careful what you wish for. I also learned try to be very introspective into my transgender status.
NONE of that makes me a better person. For some reason, my gender identity problems were always centered mentally and not so much genitally. So I don't have a pedestal to climb up on.
At any rate I can't thank Anne enough for adding her very valuable comments.
Every time I think we have covered nearly all of the many facets of our transgendered world-we uncover another!

Two More Transgender Videos

Due to popular request, I have one more video to Cyrsti's Condo "Home Entertainment Room" and one to "Trannsnation.com.".
The one here shows a more natural "Andrej Pejic" and the beauty that he is. The one on Trannsnation shows a truly phenomenal transition!

Dating the girl in the mirror?

I started this post literally a year or so ago and discovered it when I was searching the blog for "Trannsnation.com" pieces to transfer. Here is how it started:
Who is your "girl in the mirror"?
Do you want to date her, bring her home to mom or be her?
Good question! I do believe I have written about our Mom's influences on who we have become or are trying to become.
I have said a number of times, my Mom was a good provider and had definite ideas on raising me and shaping my life-but was emotionally distant.
In addition, she was very skilled at trying to intimidate and run off the very few girlfriends I would bring home.
Probably the one I identify with the most now was the one college woman I was friends with for a period of time. (As with most of you, you have to understand my relationships were less than the male norm.)
She was a very outgoing curvy young woman with all this wonderful auburn curly hair. Needless to say, not my Mom's ideal!
So I guess I would have never truly been able to bring my girl self home to my Mom.
I have written a number of times about the blunt rejection I received when I tried one time only. The subject simply disappeared, never to resurface again.
A current meeting would be interesting in that I resemble her and may even inherit some of her body attributes such as breast size.
Would she ever embrace me at all? No, I doubt it. We are similar. Both are not going to change directions. For what ever reasons she couldn't change as much as I couldn't. In reality, did it make her any less of a person?
I often wonder how my life would have changed if she would have at all? If just a portion of the information was available to both of us in the 50's and early 60's, where were we have ended up?
Of course I "googled" the answer and got "no results".
Does it really matter? No. Do I think about it? Sure. In fact, I think about it every time I read about a young transgendered person who is attempting to follow their true gender preference.
The courage to go public with the process and not go "stealth" and help no one is astounding to me!
Deep down, I believe my Mom would have reacted different today.
On the other hand, I can't believe she would have ever accepted my version of my latest girlfriend anymore than the others!

Is Anything More Than a Handful Wasted?

Perhaps you have heard the title of this post (or a variation of it) to describe small breasted women. After two and a half months on hormones I am to that point.
I have devised my own measurement system-my hands.
This morning "the girls" are at a point of comfortably spreading the fingers of my hand as I cup them.
Other changes included a negative desire to eat my way through every piece of food I see.
So far I haven't gained much weight fortunately and  very little in my belly area.
I have been told my body is reacting to building a "female" layer of fat in the body. The fat of course is what enables the female to be softer and develops more fat in the hip and thigh area. I simply can't wait to be able to fill out a pair of jeans better than I can now!
I'm far from an expert on the subject, but the extra layer of fat equips women to survive as a gender over men because of child bearing reasons.
As I have written hear a number of times, one of my wonderful summertime goals this year is to finally be able to wear sleeveless tops and sundresses. Of course the softer my body becomes and the more my hips and breasts happen to feminize, the more satisfying the season will be.
If only from the fact I will be able to wear the same fashions as any other woman this summer and be much more comfortable in the heat-it will be such an improvement!
I have been told to expect a nice increase in the "girls" and the rest of the body will start to catch up in a year.
Of course there are many factors I know which can influence the process and my biggest goal is to relax and try to appreciate the process I've waited so long for.
Not much else to tell all of you in the emotional department. Smaller hot flashes after the huge initial one and no crying jags yet! I'm sure the first crying binge will come at exactly the wrong time!
Well, that is the current update! Now I have to go take my meds!!!