14-03-2015, 01:39 PM
(14-03-2015, 08:31 AM)MissC Wrote: Myself, I find the shoe (the definition of autogynephilia) fits, if a bit awkwardly, but as I've mentioned previously, I don't care to view the matter through the lens of psychiatry as though it were a disease.Do you mean a disease, as in something acquired which impairs or damages the ability of an organism to function? Like how ISIS or ISIL or the acronym of the month for murder and control cults impairs the ability of their society to function, for example? If so, then it is a disease if you blame your desires on the constant overt and subliminal sexual objectification of women which has been going on in much of the world for decades now. On the other hand, if you don't believe outside influences caused any of your desires, then it certainly wouldn't be a disease by that definition but is instead a trait or attribute you simply possess.
As a separate comment, I think it is healthy and awesome that you have found a way to accept and take joy in your own unique self. I wish that were more common.
(14-03-2015, 08:31 AM)MissC Wrote: Gender-othered people do exist as a biological reality, but I'm not confident in all the science yet. While it's hardly scientific, I find it difficult to think of a better descriptor than "two-spirit" and its embodied philosophy.I never liked that two-spirit term much. It only reinforces the gender binary. It feels like it confirms there are two genders and only people who aren't integrated within their own minds can have both male and female traits. Thus it becomes yet another way of describing it as a problem to be overcome, instead of something to be acknowledged as simple diversity. I mean diversity within the population, not within an individual psyche. The term two-spirit suggests schizophrenia to me. If you really take the concept of gender as a societal construct, then you can recognize that it's definition is also made up by those with a self-interest in classifying members of the society. History tells us that those who classify others are doing it for their own purposes.
These gender roles and gender-related expression expectations are really and truly only a product of the times and circumstances in which we live. I recognize there are differences between people which do correlate to some extent with the differences in their bodies (the entire body, not just its visible parts), but the classification of those differences as being defined by the bodily differences alone is just small minded.
Find what makes you happy and pursue it.

