31-01-2016, 11:41 PM
(This post was last modified: 31-01-2016, 11:43 PM by LeanneKaosTG.)
I was debating on posting this, because I'm not sure I'm going to be a regular here and I hate to rant&run. But the one line... I feel needs to be addressed.
"All of the things men look for in finding sexual attractiveness in a woman; but there is virtually no importance given to things like facial hair – the male beard"
First, just saying that makes me skeptical of her claimed experience. I have no idea how she managed to talk to over 7000 trans people and come away with the notion that "there is virtually no importance given to facial hair" - unless she did the age old trick of hearing what she was listening for instead of what was being said.
Second, I don't know of a single heterosexual man who doesn't find facial hair something of a turn-off, so clearly "hairless face" is *also* one of the things "men look for in finding sexual attractiveness in a woman." In fact, it's likely an implicit part of the 'softer skin' she'd already mentioned.
It is true that in terms of presenting and being read as a woman, electrolysis does have a higher impact than SRS or even breast growth. But it's also one of the most expensive and time consuming procedures involved in MtF transition; and one of the hardest to get medical coverage or financial assistance with.
HRT, on the other hand is one of the most effective elements for actually dealing with dysphoria. Despite the mood swings common when starting it, the neurochemical effects of estrogen have an overall soothing effect on trans women (likewise testosterone on trans men.) It also brings many of the other physical changes she mentioned (breast growth, softer skin, fat redistribution to hips&butt, sometimes improving hair and nail quality) which, while individually of lower impact than a hairless face on presentation, feels like it's addressing *more* things at once.
So when budgets (time or money) are tight, it's easier to rationalize putting off electrolysis than HRT. So maybe what she's seeing on that front isn't a case of "virtually no importance given to facial hair," but "sour grapes rationalization from people who've had to make compromises."
If she really wants to help shift that, the place to do it would be in advocating in favor of medical coverage for electrolysis :p And in opposing the employment discrimination that keeps many of us poor.
I doubt she would, though, because something in the way she phrases things makes me suspect she's more of an activist within the "gender critical radical feminist" (aka "trans-exclusive radical feminist") community than she is within the transgender community.
"All of the things men look for in finding sexual attractiveness in a woman; but there is virtually no importance given to things like facial hair – the male beard"
First, just saying that makes me skeptical of her claimed experience. I have no idea how she managed to talk to over 7000 trans people and come away with the notion that "there is virtually no importance given to facial hair" - unless she did the age old trick of hearing what she was listening for instead of what was being said.
Second, I don't know of a single heterosexual man who doesn't find facial hair something of a turn-off, so clearly "hairless face" is *also* one of the things "men look for in finding sexual attractiveness in a woman." In fact, it's likely an implicit part of the 'softer skin' she'd already mentioned.
It is true that in terms of presenting and being read as a woman, electrolysis does have a higher impact than SRS or even breast growth. But it's also one of the most expensive and time consuming procedures involved in MtF transition; and one of the hardest to get medical coverage or financial assistance with.
HRT, on the other hand is one of the most effective elements for actually dealing with dysphoria. Despite the mood swings common when starting it, the neurochemical effects of estrogen have an overall soothing effect on trans women (likewise testosterone on trans men.) It also brings many of the other physical changes she mentioned (breast growth, softer skin, fat redistribution to hips&butt, sometimes improving hair and nail quality) which, while individually of lower impact than a hairless face on presentation, feels like it's addressing *more* things at once.
So when budgets (time or money) are tight, it's easier to rationalize putting off electrolysis than HRT. So maybe what she's seeing on that front isn't a case of "virtually no importance given to facial hair," but "sour grapes rationalization from people who've had to make compromises."
If she really wants to help shift that, the place to do it would be in advocating in favor of medical coverage for electrolysis :p And in opposing the employment discrimination that keeps many of us poor.
I doubt she would, though, because something in the way she phrases things makes me suspect she's more of an activist within the "gender critical radical feminist" (aka "trans-exclusive radical feminist") community than she is within the transgender community.