Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Changes, "Power" and life...

There is a mystique in and around the trans community that transition automatically means losing everyone in your life. Friends, family, co-workers, everyone. As more time passes I don't know that It's all the fault of the transitioner. As a group in a very general sense we spend a lifetime subjugating our own closest needs for those of the people around us. Eventually the pressure of our own needs drives us to address things closer to ourselves. Cthis is when everything changes, and the people aroundus see our own needs as uncharcteristically selfish.

Because we spent so many years so focused on others needs utterly out of balance, when we swing towards a more sustainable position it throws everything out of whack. Those around us who depended on our focus and apparent lack of needs are confronted with something cannot possibly really understand.

The outward signs are all clear, why to be sure It's nearly impossible to miss. I mean really, most people see NO reason to "change" gender, however what we are talking about is deeper than that. It's about "change" period. We are changing and It's way deeper than gender.

Human beings are, at worst, heard animals. At best, shining beacons of individuality. The "social contract" is just very elaborate window dressing on the tired old concept of the alpha male. It's the realative safety of a place for everything (or everyone) and evrything in It's place. It's all about the alpha making the rules and having everyone follow then. Going against these rules is seen as a challenge to more than just the gender binary, but to the vertical fabric of time and space.

It's hardest for so called male to female transitioners because it seems, however subtly, like we are turning our backs on the "power" of "male privlege" and moving into a weaker position in society. Female to male transitioners don't usually see nearly as much trouble but I've often suspected that is because they are moving to a position of strength and if you will, "taking" power.

What throws things so out of sorts for male to female transitioners is that while we seem to be moving to a relative position of weakness, it's anything but. We are in fact taking more of our own "power" back than ever before in our lives. We truely become it would seem a wolf in sheeps clothing, because women aren't after all supposed to be this strong...

More to follow...

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