What's in a name?

[Ginger_Fi]

---I've noticed that everyone want to put a name to what they are and what sub-group of the transgendered community they belong to. Due to the global nature of our lifestyle, diverse ethnicities and cultures, these names vary all over the board...
cross dresser
transvestite
drag queen
drag king
transsexual
mtf
ftm
ladyboy
female impersonator
illusionist
etc....
======================================
---Allow me to offer an option that really simplifies this, and can include all, both male and female. Let's use an adjective to describe ourselves. Really the whole community can fit under one of four adjectives. It is possible to be included with more than one of the following adjectives, but at least one.

1: Performers - This of course would include anyone that gender bends for reasons of entertainment. Drag Shows, theatre, stage productions, movies etc...

2: Artists - This includes those of that really take their appearance seriously and consider themselves students in the art of illusion. It's all about expressionism and their desire for perfection in their appearance.

3: Transition (or transitioned) - Those that seek to have SRS and actually change their sex. By far the smallest subgroup of the community.

4: Fetish - Those that use the clothes of the opposite sex for reasons of sexual gratification. Usually appearance takes a back seat to the fetish item whatever that may be. This is by far the largest subgroup of the community.


---It really simplifies the TG world to shed the names (and the associated stereotypes). Of course I don't expect to start a revolution of new thinking that will sweep the world, it's just my small take on how I see thing.

[joneyhits]

Maybe this should be called, "What's in a label?" The only label we should have is human, but labels are not for the people they are applied to, but for people who have now clue about the applied label.

You can call yourself anything you want and I am just a human named Joney. Humans like to organize things into boxes though. You have, interesting enough, two have to deal with the performance or illusion of gender.

The word transgender, came from Virginia Prince, of Tri-ess fame. She wanted a nicer word for cross dresser. Ironically, it became all those who cross gender boundaries. That makes just about everyone transgender.

The labels also help people with in a subset of a community understand the path of even further subsets. In the Transgender community, people are labeled as fetishist, cross dresser, transgenderist or non -op TS, pre and post op transsexual, and occasionally Intersex.

These labels occur based on societal, medical, and interpersonal sources. When I am in Eureka, I get labeled as everything from a drag queen to a lesbian. In order to educate, I use the label that applies to me, Intersex. The actual smallest subset in the gender community. Of course, this has to deal with the amount of people who actually come out and claim the label as their own. I know many cross dressers who are actually fetishist, transsexual, or something else. I know many who claim a labels due to per and societal pressure, or just to try to figure out themselves. The human conditions is so complex, we will never have enough labels.

The question is, "Why does it matter to us?" It only matters to those who don't understand.

Joney
Intersex Tattooed Pre-op Transsexual Biker Chic