[Samantha Rogers]

Interesting comment about the mirror. When I was trapped for most of my life behind the mask I had created for myself I continilually would look unhappily at my reflection in the mirror. I thought always that I ( my body) was ugly, because it did not fit the ideal shape required by the mask. Now, with the mask falling away, or rather, being deliberately stripped away, I see my refection when I step out of the shower and I am pleased finally. Not because of vanity...I see my flaws all too well...lol...but because what I see is female. Flawed female, obviously, but female...and it feels right. It just feels right. I dont know if that is weird or understandable, but what I seek is to be whole within my mind and body...to be aurhentic. To be real. It is no easy thing.
What Eva said about guns and so on...I dont see those things as gender related. I am no longer sure at all how to define male and female. It all seems so arbitrary. Things do not have gender anymore than personality traits This is a hard lesson to learn.