Having difficulty understanding transgendered people? I'll try to help.

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

I'm aware that some do and alot don't, I'm just wondering if I could get a couple people's thoughts on it. I know it's sorta callous considering the circumstances, but it IS a largely elective surgery much like any other form of plastic surgery, it is not required to keep living, it's someone not being comfortable with part(s) of themselves. Which I can get behind and understand, just not having them not need to pay for the majority of the cost.

There's plenty of actual medical things that aren't covered by most healthcare as well. My mom injured her back like thirty years ago to the point of causing nerve damage, but any surgery to fix it has never been available to her, either due to them not knowing how to fix it, it not being covered under any kind of health insurance/care/etc., or just being too far out of any plan we knew of. I've got a friend that was born without a hand or arm until around two inches after his elbow, any surgery or treatment for his stuff has never been covered as well(not to say he laments this, he's got to be one of the best people in terms of positivity and fun-having I've met).

It's just I've seen a bit more pushing of it being needed to be covered under health plans without paying attention to other things that have been affecting others as well. Yet there's a whole slew of people that also haven't been able to afford the treatment they need to work in modern society. And it doesn't have anything to do with being born the wrong gender, you can still function on everything but a perfect societal level as that. These people I'm talking about? They have to HEAVILY change the ways they do nearly everything in the world to function in it. And they're not getting the attention that I can guarantee you affects them much more(at the very least in terms of numbers if nothing else) than trans-individuals.

I'm sorta hoping that some will read this and think slightly more about the non-trans people that have their own medical-related problems that aren't covered as well that really do affect their daily routines mostly as opposed to just having GRS, hormone therapy, etc, be talked about needing to be covered and making it more important than other things, don't mean to be preaching at you, just off work and I'm rambling.

Ugh why does this keep coming up? I'll be as brief as possible on this point. Studies indicate that trans people who are unable to transition to a satisfactory level are significantly more likely to have suicidal thoughts, attempt suicide, and succeed in committing suicide. Then there are basic day to day issues that cause massive problems, even post transition, like bathroom and locker room usage just as simple ideas. Finally trans people who are not fully through transition are far more likely to be targeted for abuse, assaults, rape, and murder, than those who have fully transitioned. Being trans is it's own bucket of day to day issues that really do affect daily life. Consider that mental illness is also a disability, trans people often suffer mental illness from abuses they've suffered through out their life.

Physical disabilities can also be a bit of a skewed comparison, because it is horrific that so many medical plans don't cover necessary medical care. Even after the affordable healthcare act here in the US. Especially in the case of your mom who was injured and never given treatment. The other person, with the deformity that prevented his arm from fully forming? Well unfortunately there is no real surgical fix for that, so he's limited to prosthetic, which are usually covered.

Edit: I notice I tend to externalize when I talk trans people being abused... I wonder why that is? Perhaps it's because I've been very fortunate not to have really suffered much abuse for it myself... Hmm. Then again I tend to post when I'm dead tired too, that might have something to do with it.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

Well to be perfectly honest, transgender people, while we're still people, we are also different from the typical person who's gender identity matches their birth sex. Cis, and cisgender are just a more or less easy to remember, not too weaponized as words, and not a terrible mouthful to say. I understand your position, but for a lot of trans, being trans is part of our unique life experience, and though it makes us different in a way, it's also part of our identity.

I respect your opinion, understand it, and agree to an extent, but we need a basically non-hurtful way to express the thing, and cisgender as it's applied generally fits that. Remember that application of a word can change it's definition, especially in English, and especially when we're taking it from another language. Kamikaze is a great example here, we use it to mean "someone performing a suicide attack" but in Japanese it means literally "divine wind."

Kamikaze is a bit of an odd one, though I get it was just the first example you could think of, culturally it was all about the whole... crashing the plane was like for the Emperor who's descended from Amaterasu and all that...

Anyhow! I do get what you mean and despite what I might say or think, I'm also aware that cis- is now a thoroughly ingrained prefix and is pretty much perfectly functional. I just feel like it's got some problems that I wanna address. Only problem I see is how you might view the trans/cis deal once you reach a comfortable point but I guess that is all pretty personal in the same way everyone has some elements of hetero/homosexuality :-/

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

Well to be perfectly honest, transgender people, while we're still people, we are also different from the typical person who's gender identity matches their birth sex. Cis, and cisgender are just a more or less easy to remember, not too weaponized as words, and not a terrible mouthful to say. I understand your position, but for a lot of trans, being trans is part of our unique life experience, and though it makes us different in a way, it's also part of our identity.

I respect your opinion, understand it, and agree to an extent, but we need a basically non-hurtful way to express the thing, and cisgender as it's applied generally fits that. Remember that application of a word can change it's definition, especially in English, and especially when we're taking it from another language. Kamikaze is a great example here, we use it to mean "someone performing a suicide attack" but in Japanese it means literally "divine wind."

Kamikaze is a bit of an odd one, though I get it was just the first example you could think of, culturally it was all about the whole... crashing the plane was like for the Emperor who's descended from Amaterasu and all that...

Anyhow! I do get what you mean and despite what I might say or think, I'm also aware that cis- is now a thoroughly ingrained prefix and is pretty much perfectly functional. I just feel like it's got some problems that I wanna address. Only problem I see is how you might view the trans/cis deal once you reach a comfortable point but I guess that is all pretty personal in the same way everyone has some elements of hetero/homosexuality :-/

I'm not trying to shoot you down here, no pun intended... >.>; Cis/cisgender almost certainly very well have problems associated with it, I just can't think of anything better off the top of my head to use in it's place. Also it's become more or less the accepted terminology, and that's probably not gonna change unless, or until it becomes sufficiently toxic to both sides. I'd bet that's more likely a when, rather than an if considering how few people understand transgender people and how many are still actively hostile to the concept of transgenderism.

 

[hentropy]

I hope you don't mind some more "inside baseball" questions, mostly I'm just looking for another opinion on it, as someone who is... well, non-conventional myself.

Some of it has to do with terminology. Do you think using the "LGBT***+" format is really helpful? I feel like the whole thing may be counterproductive the more letters you tack onto it, and it seems like no matter how many you use you're still leaving someone out or relegating them to the plus sign. I prefer to use the term "GSM", Gender/Sexual Minority, as a catch-all term, and it also doesn't prioritize any group with the ordering.

Though, there's also the question as to whether or not gender identities should be lumped in with sexual orientations at all. I feel like tying gender intrinsically to those that you enjoy sexually confuses people, with them thinking that gender identity is more like orientation.

since transgender isn't about being on 'the other side' of gender, it's about transitioning between them from one you aren't comfortable with to one you are.

Not sure about that.

I might be wrong but I thought that was the definition of being trans? I welcome corrections because if I am wrong then I may have been talking a load of crap this whole time.

Transgender simply means that you sincerely do not identify as the physical sex assigned to you. It's not technically stipulated by whether someone is actually in the process of transitioning, though the name does sort of imply that. Transitioning can also be defined as something as simple as wearing different clothes or changing one's hair, it doesn't imply surgical sex change. It gets particularly sticky when you get into non-gender-binary individuals, where one doesn't "transition" in any direct way, or their identity might change frequently.

You could say that the moment of "transition" is when one admits to themselves that they do not identify with their assigned sex or gender.

 

[Actual]

I've always had trouble wrapping my head around the "male trapped in a female body" and vice versa idea, personally. If someone were to approach me and ask "What does it feel like, mentally, to be a man?" I would have absolutely no idea how to answer that question. So, when I hear the trans community speak as if they are trapped inside the wrong body, I'm legitimately puzzled by this. While I think the trans community deserves everyone's love and support, I've had a hard time buying into the rhetoric and I can't bring myself to advocate gender reassignment surgery just yet. It just seems too similar to other psychological disorders. I really and genuinily want to be on the other side of this issue because I feel like I'm the wrong side, but I feel like all I hear are appeals to emotion.

Just quoting you because I feel exactly the same and I never see anyone else who shares this viewpoint. But then I rarely comment myself because I'm afraid of seeming unaccepting when that isn't my desire.

I don't feel like a man in a male body, I'm just me and my body is coincidental. I can't imagine I'd feel any more or less comfortable in a female body.

So I'm all for trans people being happy and treated with the same respect everyone else gets but I also think we should be discouraging surgery and encouraging more research into what causes these feelings of not fitting in your body and perhaps finding a way to treat that.

 

[Dark Knifer]

So its a mindset basically? Well I can see how trying to actualize that would be difficult. If it makes people happy I'm glad but I'd like to learn more about it. So its something that bothers people and they can't put their finger on until until they make this realization and that puts it into perspective? Hope I'm understanding this right.

It's more a sense of despair in the face of lacking a means to marry flesh and mind from the beginning. About authentcity of character and shaping the self. Allowing oneself to be open with others in how they wish to be, and how they wish others to associate. Being true unto oneself. It's hard to articulate, primarily because it's like an existential crisis for most since their earliest thoughts. They know they are wrong, and want to correct that wrongness. That deficiency. So that they can be owners of, and embody, truth of character and self.

Thanks that clears up things quite well. Thanks for explaining it

 

[Platypus540]

As for pansexual, someone needs to correct me on this if needed, and sorry if I sound blunt, a person can be attracted to someone who possibly doesn't fall under the gender binary but also to those who do. It's seen as a subset of bisexuality.

See, this is what I don't get. At the risk of being overly blunt, what difference is there in attraction to someone who doesn't fall under the gender binary? Regardless of what their mental gender is, they still look like one or the other of the two physical sexes. So is pansexuality then just willingness to date/have sex with a non-binary person? Because that's not the impression I've gotten.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Some of it has to do with terminology. Do you think using the "LGBT***+" format is really helpful? I feel like the whole thing may be counterproductive the more letters you tack onto it, and it seems like no matter how many you use you're still leaving someone out or relegating them to the plus sign. I prefer to use the term "GSM", Gender/Sexual Minority, as a catch-all term, and it also doesn't prioritize any group with the ordering.

Ah, but who does GSM actually refer to? If you say "LGBT", that's at least 4 groups (with overlap). GSM can be as wide or as narrow as you want it to be.

Though, there's also the question as to whether or not gender identities should be lumped in with sexual orientations at all. I feel like tying gender intrinsically to those that you enjoy sexually confuses people, with them thinking that gender identity is more like orientation.

There is that. "Not cishet" would often be easier, but there are problems with that.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Thanks that clears up things quite well. Thanks for explaining it

No probs! Every trans person is different. Not all want surgery and HRT, I did for example. But at the same time, I wanted HRT and surgery so that I could achieve a gender neutral expression of self, leaning towards an easier means to preset and identify as female. In ten years time, I might just go full-time trans woman and just do that, as that's my likely natural and most present state of being.

It's kind of like ... hmmm ... I'm not sure how much you're invested in philosophy or how much you'd like to learn about it, but if you want a book that I think best encapsulates the nature of despair and how it correlates to at least my understanding of it as myself (there is only a subjective sense of self, after all), I kind of suggest Kierkegaard's The Sickness unto Death.

That book changed my life in so many ways. And it's pretty understandable in terms of most big philosophy works. Just remove Kierkegaard's ideal of Christian existence and just insert a subjective transcendental ideality of self as pertaining to manhood or womanhood.

But I think that book best encapsulates why (most) trans people are so excited by not merely treatment, but being offered extensive means to individualize their treatment in terms of moving towards an ideal sense of self and form. Why it's important to marry body and mind, and why it's difficult to contemplate if you do so happen to be cisgender. Like, I honestly get why cisgender people might feel perplexed by why trans people feel despair, or feel like they have to alter their physical presence to attain a sense of self-happiness.

That book REALLY clears it up, and it also helps as a leeway into other existentialist writers that came after.

It's not that big ... just send me an email or note if you decide to read it and get stuck on some concepts. But I think it will answer all (or at least some) of your questions about why trans people feel despair as it relates to self (the ONLY way that despair can relate to and be born by), and how they find liberation in marrying form with mind, and the importance of having the right to expression and agency in terms of self construction.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

I hope you don't mind some more "inside baseball" questions, mostly I'm just looking for another opinion on it, as someone who is... well, non-conventional myself.

Some of it has to do with terminology. Do you think using the "LGBT***+" format is really helpful? I feel like the whole thing may be counterproductive the more letters you tack onto it, and it seems like no matter how many you use you're still leaving someone out or relegating them to the plus sign. I prefer to use the term "GSM", Gender/Sexual Minority, as a catch-all term, and it also doesn't prioritize any group with the ordering.

Though, there's also the question as to whether or not gender identities should be lumped in with sexual orientations at all. I feel like tying gender intrinsically to those that you enjoy sexually confuses people, with them thinking that gender identity is more like orientation.

Some people have taken to using LGBTIQ anymore and that covers Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer. It's a bit weird but as it is there it actually makes the best catchall I've seen so far, as the final part, Queer covers everyone who doesn't fall in to other listed groups. Still I don't really approve of it much as a lump term because it's also supposed to cover the whole community it's supposed to fit, and we're anything but unified. I've actually encountered more gay men and lesbian women who are less accepting of trans than most other people I end up getting outed to. Also as far as bisexual and other sexuality groups, too many gay and lesbian people have given me the line of; "you're either gay, straight, or lying." So I have mixed feelings on the whole thing.

since transgender isn't about being on 'the other side' of gender, it's about transitioning between them from one you aren't comfortable with to one you are.

Not sure about that.

I might be wrong but I thought that was the definition of being trans? I welcome corrections because if I am wrong then I may have been talking a load of crap this whole time.

Transgender simply means that you sincerely do not identify as the physical sex assigned to you. It's not technically stipulated by whether someone is actually in the process of transitioning, though the name does sort of imply that. Transitioning can also be defined as something as simple as wearing different clothes or changing one's hair, it doesn't imply surgical sex change. It gets particularly sticky when you get into non-gender-binary individuals, where one doesn't "transition" in any direct way, or their identity might change frequently.

You could say that the moment of "transition" is when one admits to themselves that they do not identify with their assigned sex or gender.

That's probably the most accurate description of the whole thing I've seen thus far, at least to my own mind. Not everyone is as open to that broad a definition though. As I said before the larger grouping is already divided. Some trans individuals I've known insist that you're not trans unless you're getting full GRS all the way up to the "bottom surgery, or have already gotten it.

I've always had trouble wrapping my head around the "male trapped in a female body" and vice versa idea, personally. If someone were to approach me and ask "What does it feel like, mentally, to be a man?" I would have absolutely no idea how to answer that question. So, when I hear the trans community speak as if they are trapped inside the wrong body, I'm legitimately puzzled by this. While I think the trans community deserves everyone's love and support, I've had a hard time buying into the rhetoric and I can't bring myself to advocate gender reassignment surgery just yet. It just seems too similar to other psychological disorders. I really and genuinily want to be on the other side of this issue because I feel like I'm the wrong side, but I feel like all I hear are appeals to emotion.

Just quoting you because I feel exactly the same and I never see anyone else who shares this viewpoint. But then I rarely comment myself because I'm afraid of seeming unaccepting when that isn't my desire.

I don't feel like a man in a male body, I'm just me and my body is coincidental. I can't imagine I'd feel any more or less comfortable in a female body.

So I'm all for trans people being happy and treated with the same respect everyone else gets but I also think we should be discouraging surgery and encouraging more research into what causes these feelings of not fitting in your body and perhaps finding a way to treat that.

Gender dysphoria in general needs more research into it, but so does every other issue that discomfort with ones own. The problem is that if there was a medication treatment it'd either be making one's self into an emotionless zombie just to function, or a treatment that changes who someone is inside their own mind. In either case the moral questions that go with that sort of thing are really kinda damning, because one way you're just medicating someone until the pain goes away, in the other you're changing who they are as a person on a fundamental level.

As for pansexual, someone needs to correct me on this if needed, and sorry if I sound blunt, a person can be attracted to someone who possibly doesn't fall under the gender binary but also to those who do. It's seen as a subset of bisexuality.

See, this is what I don't get. At the risk of being overly blunt, what difference is there in attraction to someone who doesn't fall under the gender binary? Regardless of what their mental gender is, they still look like one or the other of the two physical sexes. So is pansexuality then just willingness to date/have sex with a non-binary person? Because that's not the impression I've gotten.

The simple answer is that pansexuality means that gender has no bearing on weather or not you love someone. You can be attracted to a person no matter what their sex or gender identity, the attraction instead from falling in love with that person emotionally first.

 

[Redryhno]

Some of it has to do with terminology. Do you think using the "LGBT***+" format is really helpful? I feel like the whole thing may be counterproductive the more letters you tack onto it, and it seems like no matter how many you use you're still leaving someone out or relegating them to the plus sign. I prefer to use the term "GSM", Gender/Sexual Minority, as a catch-all term, and it also doesn't prioritize any group with the ordering.

Ah, but who does GSM actually refer to? If you say "LGBT", that's at least 4 groups (with overlap). GSM can be as wide or as narrow as you want it to be.

Eh, there's enough letters added to the LGBT group that I honestly wouldn't be surprised the stupid part of EA wasn't behind it all. I mean it used to just be called the Queers, no negative connotations for the most part, just a word that encompassed those that weren't like the majority of people around(not that not being like the majority is bad, but hey, gotta clarify half the time anymore). Then it became the LG, then B was added, T, now I think it's all LGBTIQ/LY or something similar. So let's not be silly and just say that it "LGBT" specifies with some overlap, the official thing already casts a gigantic net.

It's sorta needlessly complicated is the main problem I have with it is all. GSM's is something I'm pretty sure I've seen start popping up a bit though, I sorta like it too, easier to remember what it all stands for.

Ugh why does this keep coming up? I'll be as brief as possible on this point. Studies indicate that trans people who are unable to transition to a satisfactory level are significantly more likely to have suicidal thoughts, attempt suicide, and succeed in committing suicide. Then there are basic day to day issues that cause massive problems, even post transition, like bathroom and locker room usage just as simple ideas. Finally trans people who are not fully through transition are far more likely to be targeted for abuse, assaults, rape, and murder, than those who have fully transitioned. Being trans is it's own bucket of day to day issues that really do affect daily life. Consider that mental illness is also a disability, trans people often suffer mental illness from abuses they've suffered through out their life.

Physical disabilities can also be a bit of a skewed comparison, because it is horrific that so many medical plans don't cover necessary medical care. Even after the affordable healthcare act here in the US. Especially in the case of your mom who was injured and never given treatment. The other person, with the deformity that prevented his arm from fully forming? Well unfortunately there is no real surgical fix for that, so he's limited to prosthetic, which are usually covered.

Edit: I notice I tend to externalize when I talk trans people being abused... I wonder why that is? Perhaps it's because I've been very fortunate not to have really suffered much abuse for it myself... Hmm. Then again I tend to post when I'm dead tired too, that might have something to do with it.

It may keep coming up because while people may understand that there's mental issues, there's also mental issues that come with being born different in any noticeable way anyways and why they should get special treatment and/or a free pass. Genetics and randomness screw with everyone, and people don't like one group getting attention when the underlying problem for both is the same/similar, but only some that scream(metaphorical) the loudest get added onto the list of fix-its.

Bathrooms I have no problem with, but locker rooms are slightly different, most have no privacy areas unless it's also a bathroom, which most aren't really, and most societies still have problems with nudity. There's some exceptions such as the locker room, and even that's not a clear rule, but you've said that transition may not include GRS, and that you have no interest in it, most people aren't that comfortable being naked around the opposite set of genitals that they either aren't related to or sleep with. And that's not going to go away until we get rid of the nude "problem". But that's just my opinion on alot of the reasons behind it.

Not to mention the multitudes of people that go from a very active and independent lifestyle not being able to adapt to their new one being very dependent(or entirely, as the case may be) on another person or thing to keep them alive in a very restricting manner and the resulting, sometimes inevitable, suicide.

 

[Thaluikhain]

So let's not be silly and just say that it "LGBT" specifies with some overlap, the official thing already casts a gigantic net.

Those 4 letter specify 3 groups (which can overlap), I meant. Adding more letters adds more groups, of course.

"Queer" isn't very specific at all.

It's sorta needlessly complicated is the main problem I have with it is all. GSM's is something I'm pretty sure I've seen start popping up a bit though, I sorta like it too, easier to remember what it all stands for.

Complicated, sure, but I don't agree on needlessly.

For example, there are gay rights activists that hate bisexuals. They'd claim to support the rights of GSMs, but not include bisexuals. They aren't LGBT supporters, so the LGBT descriptor is useful.

Likewise, there are plenty of GSMs who hate trans people.

 

[holy_secret]

I was booking a hotelroom for a transgendered woman, yet her name on her credit card and ID was male. I had to add a gender for the guest and got a bit stumped. I chose to put in female.

Once it was all done I told my boss about it, and she flipped out. Apparently I should have added the gender stated on her ID.

I am still confused now as to what I should have done.
Just needed to vent a bit. Thanks for listening

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

I was booking a hotelroom for a transgendered woman, yet her name on her credit card and ID was male. I had to add a gender for the guest and got a bit stumped. I chose to put in female.

Once it was all done I told my boss about it, and she flipped out. Apparently I should have added the gender stated on her ID.

I am still confused now as to what I should have done.
Just needed to vent a bit. Thanks for listening

Yeah, this is an exceptionally confusing part. For trans people it's much simpler for us to be able to work in these situations as our presented gender. From a legal standpoint this can be a legally grey area. Partially due to it could be counted as fraud in the legal sense. Though you could always say it was just a clerical error I suppose.

I really wish we could get past this kind of bias. But some people on the anti-trans side scream bloody murder every single time we get the slightest bit of kind treatment. Which really sucks because this applies to people who aren't actually actively anti-trans, but simply ignorant of our situation, when they agree with the anti-trans side, just because they don't understand.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Ugh why does this keep coming up? I'll be as brief as possible on this point. Studies indicate that trans people who are unable to transition to a satisfactory level are significantly more likely to have suicidal thoughts, attempt suicide, and succeed in committing suicide. Then there are basic day to day issues that cause massive problems, even post transition, like bathroom and locker room usage just as simple ideas. Finally trans people who are not fully through transition are far more likely to be targeted for abuse, assaults, rape, and murder, than those who have fully transitioned. Being trans is it's own bucket of day to day issues that really do affect daily life. Consider that mental illness is also a disability, trans people often suffer mental illness from abuses they've suffered through out their life.

Physical disabilities can also be a bit of a skewed comparison, because it is horrific that so many medical plans don't cover necessary medical care. Even after the affordable healthcare act here in the US. Especially in the case of your mom who was injured and never given treatment. The other person, with the deformity that prevented his arm from fully forming? Well unfortunately there is no real surgical fix for that, so he's limited to prosthetic, which are usually covered.

Since Redryhno quoted me about this in the first place, do allow me to say that I agree on this.

The simple answer is that pansexuality means that gender has no bearing on weather or not you love someone. You can be attracted to a person no matter what their sex or gender identity, the attraction instead from falling in love with that person emotionally first.

And you've answered this better than I most likely ever could.

 

[Loonyyy]

Taekwondo has a lot of useful kicks, which can be good, they're a way in a punch up to really level the playing field, but the kicks aren't so good if someone goes in close, or wants to fight on the ground. A lot of big guys will abuse their size to easily win fights by going in under and just knocking people down (I discovered this trick after I got a lot taller, it's ridiculous.). But, with the right leverage, you can learn to do the same thing to someone who weighs more than you. I knew a lot of very badass girls at mine who could kick you in the head seventeen different ways, it's all down to how you can use these things. A lot of the MMA terminology really helps for understanding it, I find.

As someone who is 5'6" the size thing is something I've had to deal with my whole life. Sucks.

When I took Karate and a bit of Taekwondo I was taught to counter it a little bit, but not all that much. I wanted to learn Judo and more take down stuff but they closed the local dojo. That combined with my parents moving up in the company they worked at meant they couldn't take me anywhere else, no time.

It really sucks just being taken to the ground by someone bigger. Quite infuriating. When I get my proper job after grad school I'm going to start taking classes again. Akido or Judo sounds pretty good right now. All the UFC kids at my undergrand would always go on about the Gracie Jiu Jitsu stuff. Is that really as good as everyone says it is?

I've never done any Jiu Jitsu, but we did a bit of a mix at my TaeKwonDo club, and integrated other techniques, particularly in self defense. For instance, while if you're smaller, a straight tackle is out of the question, but if someone swings at you, and you duck under their arm, you can run in, and get behind them, and with the right positioning of your arm on their torso, and lean, you can yank someone up and off their feet, and into a drag, at which point, they can't use their legs for easy leverage, so long as you keep moving back. There are other techniques like wrist locks, which, with a minimum exertion, you can freeze up an entire limb. There's a lot of kicks, and used correctly, allow you to keep people at a distance, but also strike really hard. And sparring for sport can be a lot of fun.

The big distinction that MMA really introduced that I found useful, from a very brief contact, is this way of classifying fighting styles, up close, on the ground, kicks vs hand strikes, etc. It can really help to work out what you're looking for.

 

[Dark Knifer]

snip

I dunno if I will get the chance to read that, but I'm definitely considering it. Your point about body and mind I find the most interesting because that's the point I had the most confusion about. I know very few trans people in real life so my main source of what the experience is like is through the internet and many had told me the body is not important, it's the mind.

To me this issue included both body and mind and that's what had me confused. I'm going to do further research but I will say that what you wrote has been some of the most informative thoughts on the subject.

I'll be sure to send you messages in future if I want some clarification.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

snip

I dunno if I will get the chance to read that, but I'm definitely considering it. Your point about body and mind I find the most interesting because that's the point I had the most confusion about. I know very few trans people in real life so my main source of what the experience is like is through the internet and many had told me the body is not important, it's the mind.

To me this issue included both body and mind and that's what had me confused. I'm going to do further research but I will say that what you wrote has been some of the most informative thoughts on the subject.

I'll be sure to send you messages in future if I want some clarification.

It is really quite interesting because not everyone is the same within the broader sphere of transgender as a whole, the unfortunate part is that it can become maddeningly complicated. Some times the body isn't the problem, it's just the limit society has on ways people express them self as the gender the identify with versus the one they're born. Sometimes it's a full mind and body problem that is so extensive it requires every method of transition available. We're all individuals trans or not. So if you're not satisfied entirely, or just want some more views on the subject I'm happy to help too.