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[dave6139]

I would just like to offer my understanding and support. I don't believe any of us are 100 % wholly male or female. I have struggled with some gender identity issues myself. I think the important thing to remember here is that we are human beings placed here on earth with a special unique purpose. It is most unfortunate that we "judge" individuals on their physical appearance and just "assume" we know what kind of individual that person is, based only on the external.

[Betsy]

Hi Dave,

Welcome to Bodies Like Ours. I look forward to having you here!

Betsy

[Natasha]

Love your attitude Dave. You are a nice addition. I sure hope that you stay with us.

[Az1]

Interesting concept.......
Take Gender out of your life .What is judged then my friend.
Everyone rides a different trip in life ,
I would love not to be judged by Gender. I am based on gender and I have to admit being of not but of what is at times extremly diffucult.
I also have to admit being me I do not focus my life onto others of what gender they may be.
I treat all as the same , AZ 1.
Have a Nice day

Muhoe

[beach]

a big {hal} hello dave............beach

[Glenn]

This is a very good bunch of people, IMHO. Hope you enjoy your time with us.

Your message reminded me of a cool special I saw the other day on Jean-Paul Gaultier. He's a fashion designer who blatantly plays with peoples' expectations about what a 'man' or 'woman' should wear. Accordingly, he will sometimes put the same outfit on both just to make his point. Pretty cool for a mainstream designer. You can find his stuff on elle.com, style.com, or any other fashion site.

Glenn

[Emily]

Oh yeah! I love him! Not that I would ever wear any of his stuff becasue my parents would murder me, it's too expensive and too generally bizarre for school, but he is very artistically creative and fashion is so cool when it's really explored as an art form rather than as merely a covering for the body.

On that note, it's such a double standard that I could walk down Main street in a pantsuit wearing a tie and no one would think it was at all strange, but if my brother walked down Main Street in a dress, people would gawk and stare. Once my friend Brian got sent home because he came to school in a dress! What's with that? I've come to school in ripped jeans and logger boots and none of the administrators have ever said I was dressing too oddly.

Also, my neighbors are lesbian couples, and please don't get me wrong, they are the two lovliest sweetest ladies on earth, but they totally look like men! If you didn't know they were women, you would think that they were men. They are so masculine looking, but they don't get accused of being "cross dressers." But a guy who was that feminine sure would be.

It's really weird, women are a lot, lot more free to play with gender than men are. It's considered kind of cool for a woman to be a tomboy, everyone thinks it's so cool that I have biceps and pecs, it's okay for a girl to have masculine qualities like aggressiveness and whatnot, but if a man is "effeminate" and "sissy," that's very socially unacceptable.

[beach]

hay i know what you mean ,im 5ft8in ,built like a female body builder,the muscle covers a lot but ,i still get the is that a chick crap!........beach

[Freewriterr]

Welcome Dave! Nice to have you here!

You know it is interesting, because gender is so fluid that it does indeed change with time and with space. I think back to the 40's and all when women could not wear the jeans like what Emily is talking about...but it has shifted in the US for men too. Men can wear ear rings, and they can even wear makeup in some places. I sure saw enough of it in LA. But there is no question gender bending is more socially accepted I think for women than for men.

In some countries this of course does not hold true. Either sex tries to bend and they are killed for it. Pretty harsh punishment for threatening the sex roles huh?

Several years ago I interviewed a TS M 2 F that had lived and worked in Sadi for 23 yrs. as a man and married, who later relocated to the states to stay alive, told me that in Sadi, if you are a "male" and are found in womens clothing they place you IN your home, bury you in the ground under your floor up to the chest and bull doze the house in, killing you and destroying the
house you lived in. The idea that someone would give up the "superior" male status is just repulsive to their culture, and the crime for gender bending is death with public shame and humiliation.

I often think we sure live in a very sick world. I also think we have in some places made great headway with the flexability of gender roles, but there is no doubt to me it is easier for "women" to bend than for men to do so, almost anywhere. The power structure is world wide with out question. And it is about power structure. "Males" are seen as superior due to the almighty penis, and females of course by "default". It is hard for many societies to even comprehend how a "male" would want to reduce themselves to the female status. Sick, but how it is viewed.

A tid bit more info. in the start of the settlement of the US colonies, the Indian tribes often had "female" Chiefs, and because the "whiteman" refused to deal/accept "women" as being in places of any position, the shift to male Chiefs became a must for tribes that had never separated the sexes by way of power structure prior to the English settlements. They had to do this in hopes of doing anything in way of political meetings with the settlers. Now currently, well as of two years ago that I know of for sure, the Cherokee Nations Reservation in Western NC. is headed by a really good Female Chief. So the practice did not die completely out, but it was indeed stopped for a good time due to the complexity of other worlds denying and rejecting "women" with power.

I think gender bending will continue to cross all lines and barriers, and I am glad to see it happening. With this comes other benifits, such as equalizing people from all sides. It is a slow process but it is indeed being challenged and making progress .

Dave I too agree that all humans are IS to some degree or another. There is no true method of measuring sex identity, and there is no way to isolate, observe or define what is male verses female in the sense of absolution. But in the sense of IS as defined currently in the medical field, that is what makes things so complex as well. I also think that is why everyone has this need to "fix" things. And nothing is truly being fixed, just altered and in some cases destroyed.

Well just my thoughts on this all.... peace!

Free