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'Something I'm not' -- nope, I never try to pass as that. Passing as a woman is passing a something I'm not, in a way. And I don't pass as a man, or at least very rarely. Yet.
Ganesh wrote:
'I'd say this is more important to many transsexuals than having actual physical relationships with other individuals; they're less concerned with obtaining a fully-functioning penis/vagina, for example, than with having genitals that look (and feel) 'correct enough' to pass muster in social situations (swimming pool, changing rooms, etc.). Which made me wonder if a transsexual individual's most significant relationship was his/her relationship with society.'
Okay, Ganesh, this is probably gonna sound narky. But it might be really useful if you stopped using the generalising category of 'a transsexual' entirely, both in yr thoughts about the subject and in your posts. It really does sound like a broad generalisation. As I've said before, trannies have hugely diverse, contradictory and different reasons for wanting to transition. Or wanting to pass.
I'd also take isue with the implicit assumption that one needs fully-functioning genitalia to have intimate sexual relationships. The lack of, or existence of, a 'fully-functioning' genital arrangement has hardly anything to do with whether or not trannies can fuck, or with how willing various people who fuck trannies are to engage in sexual practices with someone who doesn't have a 'normal-looking' cock or cunt. A doctor told me yesterday that about 80% of ftm's choose not to have bottom surgery, or at least 'defer' it (his words) -- and yet an ftm email list I'm on has a thread right now about tricking in gay sex clubs, passing tactics in that situation and so on. Lots of the people posting are already in long-term relationships and they're getting lots of cock-sucking on the side... Hello, look, intimate sexual relationships are important. Ria said this in a post a while back, and all I can do is repeat it: the internal and the social are both huge reasons for transitioing, as well as a huge range of other reasons. They are difficult to separate out and I don't even think it's terribly useful to try.
Passing is not just a transgender or transsexual phenomenon, obviously. Lots of people have written really interesting stuff about passing in terms of race, skin colour and ethnicity -- passing as white, for example, and the politics of that. Even in terms of gender, t might be useful to unhook ideas about passing from transsexuals altogether. That is, lots of people pass as something other than their born gender without transitioning, having surgery or taking hormones. Jack Halberstam talks about a category she calls 'transgender butch' -- which may involve passing as a man in public and private situations, but doesn't necessarily involve identifying as a 'man' in quite the same way that a transsexual man might. Passing is sometimes inportant for safety, for not getting hit, for fitting in somehow -- and passing is always different depending on the different contexts you find yourself in. |
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