Physical pain. I’ve been experiencing a lot of it in the past week.
One of the chronic conditions that contribute to my VA disability rating of 100 percent is the lumbar area of my back. A combination of exaggerated lordosis (an exaggerated curve in the lumbar region of the spine), years of lifting heavy gas bottles and components while serving in the Navy “beat up” my lumbar region and a spina bifida (where my lumbar bones didn’t fully close around my spine) cause me to be susceptible to back aches. The past six months have found me in more pain than I have been in the last six years.
Also, I was exposed to a lot of sun during my life time, especially time I spent serving our country in the Navy. In the last few years I’ve had a significant number of precancerous growths frozen off my face, but new growths keep popping up. My VA dermatologist recommended a two week treatment of Flourouracil cream to remove the hidden growths below my visible skin, so I applied the cream twice a day to my face for those two weeks. My dermatologist told me it would leave me looking like I had leprosy – and here a week after ending the treatment my face is in pain as the facial sores from the “killing” of those hidden growths heal.
Lastly, while my face and back have been in pain, I had two root canals on two molars. Multiple medications I take to control chronic conditions cause me to have dry mouth. That dry mouth has resulted in numerous dental problems during the past three years, and that’s resulted in painful dental problems.
I’m growing older, and the resilient body I had during my twenties and thirties has slowly changed into a body that causes me pain.
I’m talking about these conditions because I’m human. Fully human. Having a gender identity that doesn’t match the sex I was assigned at birth is a part of my life, but it’s not my whole life.
The public interest in transgender people seems to focus on transition and surgical treatments. The trans community saw this in a recent Katie Couric show where Carmen Carrera and Laverne Cox were subject to questions about what surgeries they’d had on their genitalia. When Couric introduced Carrera, she began by stating, “She was born a man and that’s why she’s on our show.” Couric made it very clear that Cox and Carrera were only interesting because of their transitions. Couric asked Carrera if surgery on her “private parts” were “different now,” and if the surgery was painful. “I don’t want to talk about it, it’s really personal,” Carrera responded to that line of questioning, telling Couric that she is lot more to get than the shape of her genitals.
Laverne Cox was subject to a similar line of questioning. “I do feel like there’s preoccupation with [transitioning],” Cox responded. “I think the preoccupation with transition and with surgery objectifies trans people and then we don’t get to really deal with the real lived experiences. The reality of trans people’s lives is that so often we’re targets of violence. We experience violence disproportionately to the rest of the community … when we focus on transition we don’t get to talk about those things.”
Trans people experience pain that has nothing to do with transition; trans people experience lives that are often filled with oppression, discrimination and painful physical violence.
When you next meet a trans person, remember that he, she, ze or then is fully human, leading a fully human life. Our lives shouldn’t be boiled down to the shape of our genitalia, but should be seen in terms of who we are and how we live our individual lives. What Cox said was true: focusing only on a trans person’s genitalia objectifies trans people. We are people; we’re not caricatures of people.
Autumn I agree, I am disabled and don’t get to much with outwardly being trans. I have been told by some I am not really trans because I am not in transition. But I know who I am and thats OK.
(P.S. try Biotene brand of toothpaste and mouthwash it really helps with my dry mouth)
What I don’t understand is why you are pouring out all of your ills like an old person in the waiting room of their doctor’s office.
We are all people, Autumn the problem is some of those people are liars, claiming to be women when they are equipped with male anatomy.
The so called transwoman is the biggest single threat to feminism because they will if allowed colonize our cause and hijack our narrative.
Anne
The thing is Anne, that “those people” aren’t actually lying. It takes a LOT to wish to go though such stigmatizing pain. We don’t “claim to be women,” because we are women. hundreds of years of research proves this. Just even under the fact, we are born with a female brain, the bodies that we are born into don’t fit our our brains and therefore our souls. take into mind the idea of a phantom limb. even though you know its not there you can still feel it. We have that for our bodies as our brains say “that’s not whats supposed to be there,” and this causes us to be dysphoric of ourselves, all we want is for our bodies and minds to be in alignment. We aren’t trying to “Invade your bathrooms” or “Take your gender roles,” we aren’t trying to be anybody else, we aren’t trying to become somebody else. Those of you who say this think far too much that this is about you, or even the genitals in general. this has NEXT TO NOTHING to do with sexual intercourse. and definitely NEXT TO NOTHING to do with you and everyone else in the community. We would hope that people who fight for equal rights would be accepting and understanding of this, but apparently its too much to ask to want to be accepted for who we are as a person. That is just selfish privilege showing is ugly face. We do this, so that the war within ourselves can be over, once and for all. We do this KNOWING that people like you will attack us. We do this KNOWING that trans-phobic people may one day physically assault us and may even try to kill us. We weigh all these terrible highly probable outcomes, and people like you STILL think its for you. STILL think its for some dumb sex role. People who identify as male to themselves… guess what? they don’t go through this. because the pain we face everyday is NOT WORTH a silly sex role. There is a reason that when you go to see the psychiatrist to have this specific talk, that transitioning is the ABSOLUTE LAST RESORT. the standards of care make sure that this isn’t for a sex role, and they make sure you aren’t running away from the law. but i know your pseudoscience
makes that hard to grasp, but the facts are far to easy to reach. The idea that we are a threat to feminism is a pathetic excuse to pick on a minority group. The trans* community is one of the people fighting for the TRUE feminists dream. for there to be true equality among all genders, races, orientations, Etc. What you spew is nothing more than a leap towards trying to get cis-female supremacy. And that is definitely NOT equality. Nor is it human rights.
She pulled out those ills in that way so that the story wouldn’t paint her as a trans* person. but just a person. THAT, is the goal we wish for. just as you may wish to be seen as equals to men. We wish to be painted as people. people who just want to be equal with every other human.
I’d also like to admit an oops after reading my post. When i mentioned men i was referring to cis-gendered men. I did not by any means wish to discriminate against my own community in a way of saying that trans* woman are the only ones. Our male counterparts definitely apply to my argument too. They go through this just as much as I do.
Well fix your body, have sex reassignment surgery.
In the case of Autumn, she has not had sex reassignment surgery.
If people like her really are women then they need to get rid of all the man bits.
Anne
If Sandeen has surgery, it will be a mistake. Surgery is not for everyone, and while I agree, those who truly are transsexual, and thus truly are women, will seek it, having it when one does not need it is wrong. I mean, it cannot be reversed. And for some it can be a mistake.
For some, that “stigma” is part of the desire… For some, being normal is anathema.
If you have a female brain then why in the world would you want male body parts?
And where is this hundreds of years of research?
To my knowledge the “research” is less than a hundred years old.
I have no axe to grind with those who were born male and have some physical birth defect that drives them to change their body to one that is representative of the female sex, but there are those who are transgender who are pretending to be female in order to satisfy their fetish needs.
Anne
Exactly. And if one of those fetish driven types get carried away, and has surgery, it turns out bad…
So, I can’t be acknowledged for who I am until I satisfy your standard requiring me to spend $25K for surgery, (not that it is any of your business what is or is not in my pants) which I am currently saving for. Mind you AMA and psychiatric groups both agree that it is not a cosmetic procedure and is a proven treatment for GID and can be life saving, yet is not covered by insurance companies as ‘experimental’ or cosmetic. Some women do not have the luxury of coming up with that kind of money, and if they’re lucky do not have the level of dysphoria related to their physical bodies as I do.
Blind people cannot get drivers licenses ether, in spite of the 1 or 2 who feel their life isn’t worth living without being able to drive a car.
It is only money, there are disabled women who have paid for their own sex reassignment surgery in order to call themselves female and know they are not lying to themselves. There are plenty of jobs out there. The lack of money canard is warn out.
On one level it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks, you know who you are. On the other hand, anybody with male genitals trying to convince the average man or woman on the street they are female is delusional.
Anne
Simply put, if you have a penis, and you claim to be female, then you are delusional. Yes, if you are unwilling to take the steps to actually be a female, then you have no right to recognized as one. Nope, not mine, but if you want to change your birth certificate, it is certainly the government’s. And it is NOT your right to perpetuate a fraud.
If you are really a “woman” and you have a penis, you WILL have that level of dysphoria. Otherwise, you are simply a cross dresser. Robert Stoller wrote rather extensively about the desire to be a “woman with a penis.” I used to think that rather odd until I a) found out that he was heavily influenced by Arnold Lowman, aka Charles “Virginia” Prince who was very much into that sort of idea.
Yes, Prince also thought men who lacked that dysphoria were lucky….
Transgender woman and men need to be able to come out and not deal with any discrimination. The so called threat to feminism is rediculous. You are one of those people who are a threat to society because you think you have the right to classify people just on genitalia alone. Keep your negative comments and try to learn more about transgender and how their lives are.
When it comes to sex, genitalia IS how such things are classified. Females DON’T have penises…
Well, the real issue is not being a caricature of people, but more being a caricature (and often a highly insulting one) of a women. Especially when you have male genitalia, but you expect people to accept you as “fully female.” Seriously, that is pretty silly…