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

[Redryhno]

Interesting to know. I'm admittedly not completely familiar with the law.
Those that I wear follow the safety regulations, those that don't cut your toes when something falls on them.

Also, mind if I gett back to you later to give my personal oppinion about the questions you have? Even if it is obvious that I'm not the one that made this topic.

Yeah, basically if you're wearing the classic type biker and goth boots with steel toes that are clearly visible that are essentially just a hunk of metal hanging off the front of your shoe, it's inadvisable, but not illegal from what I know.

And go on ahead, so long as I get some kind of answer from anyone trans I don't mind. I didn't think it'd be a one and done answer anyways. If I get more people answering, it's even better.

Edit: Also, just thought of one of the questions I've wanted to ask again for anyone that feels they can answer it.

If you are trans, and the options to change either mind or body were available, with no discernable drawbacks(essentially the way it is now) to either, would you take the choice to change your mind to match the body you have? Or change the body to fit the mind?

Following that, do you believe that GRS and other trans related surgeries should be covered under healthcare and not require you to invest your money yourself or that they shouldn't and continue being considered largely elective surgeries?

 

[Olas]

Perhaps this comes from being cisgendered, but I don't really understand what people mean when they say that they're a woman in a man's body or vice versa. The way I've seen it my whole life, being in a woman's body is what made you a woman, and being in a man's body is what made you a man. I don't "feel" like a man or a woman, I just know that I have a penis and my biology textbooks tell me that it means I'm male.

I know that there are some general mental and emotional differences between men and women, but these seem very vague and fluid to me. I've seen men cry, and women act stoically, and the overall difference doesn't seem substantial enough to justify labeling someone's mind either "male" or "female".

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

Perhaps this comes from being cisgendered, but I don't really understand what people mean when they say that they're a woman in a man's body or vice versa. The way I've seen it my whole life, being in a woman's body is what made you a woman, and being in a man's body is what made you a man. I don't "feel" like a man or a woman, I just know that I have a penis and my biology textbooks tell me that it means I'm male.

I know that there are some general mental and emotional differences between men and women, but these seem very vague and fluid to me. I've seen men cry, and women act stoically, and the overall difference doesn't seem substantial enough to justify labeling someone's mind either "male" or "female".

I can understand this point of view. But being male and cisgendered is part of the difference. You are biologically male and at the same time your brain agrees that's absolutely correct. For trans people it's different, we are born one way, and our minds say "this is wrong!" It can be hard to express gender disphoria to someone with no gender identity issues, but it's a part of intrinsic identity, and in a trans person we don't identify as the gender we're born.

 

[Notshauna]

This confuses me. Does this mean that that you can be transgender while being content with your Sex and Gender Expression conservatively expected of you? Doesn't that leave being transgender nothing more than a pronoun game?

For some Transpeople, yes. There are some people who are only interested in transitioning socially, which means being referred to as their gender. The sex gender crossing is the defining aspect of being trans, not the severity. That's why some people only transition socially, others keep the pronouns of their sex, others transition socially and go on HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) but don't get SRS (Sex Reassignment Surgery) and others do get SRS. Personally, I'm going to (haven't yet) transition socially, which includes a name change, legal gender change (when available) and stating that I want to be referred to with both my name and female pronouns and receive HRT to eliminate the Testosterone from system and replace it with Estrogen. As for SRS I'm undecided about it, right now my penis isn't something I'm uncomfortable with but, that may change.

 

[Notshauna]

Some men are born with two Y chromosomes and no X Chromosome.

Sorry to nitpick and stray off topic, but that's impossible. The mother can't produce Y chromosomes so there will always be at least on X chromosome in a man's genome. It's possible for a man to have XXY or XYY albeit rare, but never YY.

Sorry if this has been said before, I couldn't be arsed to check all 5 pages of responses.

It's technically possible, Turner's Syndrome is when someone doesn't receive a X chromosome from one of their parents, this technically could be combined with the father's sperm containing two y-chromosomes to create a zygote with two Ys but such a zygote would not survive.

 

[Loonyyy]

A basic self-defence course that specialised in locks and takedowns sounds like something that won't get me sued. Also sounds pretty useful if you're grabbed suddenly, or against a drunk.

I'd recommend some sort of self-defense course, they have them at some gyms, and it'll probably get you into the stuff you need quicker. Most traditional Martial Arts, Karate, Taekwondo (While new, it hews to a traditional structure), run off a grading system of ranks. So White belts will do basic punchs, blocks, and front kicks etc, whilst as you get higher in rank, you'll learn more applicable self defense skills. Some classes will restrict take downs, etc, until one has reached a certain rank, which isn't so good for learning right away.

And this Taekwondo sounds pretty good for me. I have shitty upper body strength, but my leg strength isn't so bad (and my reach with them is phenomenal), mainly because I walk almost everywhere in the city. I thought muay thai uses a lot of elbow work, so I might not be so good at that.

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.

Elbows are really useful. Punches are a really bad idea. They don't do a lot, but they will fuck your hands right up if you don't practice bareknuckle strikes regularly. A palm strike, or an elbow strike, is much more effective. A proper hand or elbow strike is a whole body motion, so upper body strength isn't the deciding factor. Elbows hurt a hell of a lot when they hit, and they make a good lever motion.

They'd also need to be some killer steel-toed boots. Like, GORGEOUS. I wear a lot of boots though, as I ride a motorbike. Though they tend to be the fashionable sort.

Well, motorcycle boots would also be pretty good. They're fairly heavy. You can't do head kicks etc easily in boots, but if you're ever in a self defense scenario, a set of heavy boots, and a kick to the underside of the knee, the shin, or the side of the knee, can hurt someone enough to let you run away. Fortunately, I've never had to use them in person, but they make you feel a lot safe in dangerous neighbourhoods.

 

[NoeL]

I think the issue is just ignorance and exposure. Not to be presumptuous, but if your primary source on what the trans folk are up to is people commentating on what the crazies do then of course you're going to come away with an incredibly biased understanding. An analogy would be a YEC whose only exposure to evolution has been what his church leaders have told him, or an atheist whose only expose to Christianity has been watching Thunderf00t (hey, two religious analogies... it was all I got).

The problem is that the majority of people "answering" questions are the crazies(and by answering, I mean people repeating what they say with a question mark and then repeating themselves again). The majority of the ones that make themselves known(nearly exclusively MtF in my experience, still trying to figure out why that seems to be the case, apologies to MtF that aren't intolerable douches, who knows, maybe it's just like my luck with gay guys being much the same, never met a lesbian I wanted to skin myself to get out of a social event with them) are the ones that go apeshit over simple things like Ranma characters and the Ventura crapshoot.

With religion and evolution, you can find other voices relatively easily, heck, even feminism with all its constant fracturing is easier to find voices for, but with trans, you get the crazies, and if you're lucky, a thread like this one every sixth blue moon on the third rotation of Beetlegues that I'm still hoping to get some answers from.

And it REALLY doesn't help that alot of them(again, apologies) don't have a sense of humor when it comes to them. You can say it's because they've been the butt of jokes for a huge amount of time, but there's not a single section of society that hasn't - and shouldn't - be off-limits to comedy.

I'm not going to discount your experience, I'll only say I don't share it. From your posts here it does just seem like you're intolerant of people voicing their gripes on life (or at least LGBT folks that do that, since your only other example was homosexuals), so when a trans person quite reasonably says "I don't like this" - as we're all entitled to do - you just dismiss them as a "crazy" whiner. I think it's made you a bit of a cynic so you get that confirmation bias of "most MtF trans are crazies" more than what's justified (and since you don't have that bias towards religious people it's much easier to see them for what they are).

So yeah, rather than dismissing people like PaulH as "just another crazy trans person that won't let me speak my mind without getting offended", try and open yourself to actually listening to what they're saying and why they might not've liked what you said. Really, anyone would get a bit peeved being generalised like that, don't you think?

 

[Redryhno]

I'm not going to discount your experience, I'll only say I don't share it. From your posts here it does just seem like you're intolerant of people voicing their gripes on life (or at least LGBT folks that do that, since your only other example was homosexuals), so when a trans person quite reasonably says "I don't like this" - as we're all entitled to do - you just dismiss them as a "crazy" whiner. I think it's made you a bit of a cynic so you get that confirmation bias of "most MtF trans are crazies" more than what's justified (and since you don't have that bias towards religious people it's much easier to see them for what they are).

So yeah, rather than dismissing people like PaulH as "just another crazy trans person that won't let me speak my mind without getting offended", try and open yourself to actually listening to what they're saying and why they might not've liked what you said. Really, anyone would get a bit peeved being generalised like that, don't you think?

Dude, I never called PaulH anything, if you're going to say I said something, please at least make an attempt to use what I wrote.

I have a huge beef with religious types for the record, same as I do with alot of atheists, they're both sorta morons in my book. The difference is that the true believers respect that not everyone is down with it, and they're MUCH easier to find.

Now, can you contribute to answering any of the questions I've yet to have answered? Because that's all I'm interested in here.

 

[Platypus540]

I do have one question, for you or anyone else knowledgeable: What, exactly, is the difference between bisexual and pansexual? I've never been able to get a clear answer from anywhere, including a friend of mine who is himself transgender and very active in the LGBT community. Thanks in advance.

 

[Ishal]

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?

 

[Areloch]

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?

To be perfectly frank, if you're looking for something that will help you survive a dangerous encounter, I wouldn't recommend most traditional martial arts. They're excellent for discipline, and great for getting in shape, but most of them aren't designed for grubbing survival, which is what the real life, bad scenarios are likely to be. If you're looking for practical self defense, you want something that's specifically designed to not fight anyone. You want something that incapacitates, disables or breaks your attacker long enough to get away.

Military arts are honestly more a sound choice for self defense than traditional martial arts because those were designed to help you survive in dangerous situations.

I personally learned by barely-held-back street brawling with friends, so my combat knowledge was about actually trying to stop the opposition, not fight them. So when I went and later joined tae kwon do for a year or so, I actually intimidated and scared a lot of the other people there because I didn't operate on nice, clean forms, but instead irregular movements, anticipating where people would go, and how to get into blind spots.

So, for some advice from a random person in the internet, if you're looking at self defense, look at something that isn't designed to fight people, but break them. You'll be closer to something that'll keep you alive if it goes bad.

 

[Ishal]

I personally learned by barely-held-back street brawling with friends, so my combat knowledge was about actually trying to stop the opposition, not fight them. So when I went and later joined tae kwon do for a year or so, I actually intimidated and scared a lot of the other people there because I didn't operate on nice, clean forms, but instead irregular movements, anticipating where people would go, and how to get into blind spots.

So, for some advice from a random person in the internet, if you're looking at self defense, look at something that isn't designed to fight people, but break them. You'll be closer to something that'll keep you alive if it goes bad.

Well, as a prim and proper white kid from a upper middle class sub urban neighborhood, I know little of that. My friends weren't like that. However I do know some things about martial arts having taken classes.

And yes, I see where you're coming from. Discipline, and combat against other martial artists, such a tournament fighting for points, are some of the things that are taught there. Some, not all.

I thought Akido? Or Hapkido? Was along the lines your described. Come at me, I break your arm. Keep coming, I do worse. Dangerous holds to hurt people. Problem is while that does sound appealing, I'm not sure if I could show restraint in tense situations. We all say we will, but that's armchair thinking. I don't want to get in trouble for what I might do to someone.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

I personally learned by barely-held-back street brawling with friends, so my combat knowledge was about actually trying to stop the opposition, not fight them. So when I went and later joined tae kwon do for a year or so, I actually intimidated and scared a lot of the other people there because I didn't operate on nice, clean forms, but instead irregular movements, anticipating where people would go, and how to get into blind spots.

So, for some advice from a random person in the internet, if you're looking at self defense, look at something that isn't designed to fight people, but break them. You'll be closer to something that'll keep you alive if it goes bad.

Well, as a prim and proper white kid from a upper middle class sub urban neighborhood, I know little of that. My friends weren't like that. However I do know some things about martial arts having taken classes.

And yes, I see where you're coming from. Discipline, and combat against other martial artists, such a tournament fighting for points, are some of the things that are taught there. Some, not all.

I thought Akido? Or Hapkido? Was along the lines your described. Come at me, I break your arm. Keep coming, I do worse. Dangerous holds to hurt people. Problem is while that does sound appealing, I'm not sure if I could show restraint in tense situations. We all say we will, but that's armchair thinking. I don't want to get in trouble for what I might do to someone.

Um this is kind of derailing the topic. While the input is interesting, perhaps you could start a new thread on this?

 

[Ishal]

I personally learned by barely-held-back street brawling with friends, so my combat knowledge was about actually trying to stop the opposition, not fight them. So when I went and later joined tae kwon do for a year or so, I actually intimidated and scared a lot of the other people there because I didn't operate on nice, clean forms, but instead irregular movements, anticipating where people would go, and how to get into blind spots.

So, for some advice from a random person in the internet, if you're looking at self defense, look at something that isn't designed to fight people, but break them. You'll be closer to something that'll keep you alive if it goes bad.

Well, as a prim and proper white kid from a upper middle class sub urban neighborhood, I know little of that. My friends weren't like that. However I do know some things about martial arts having taken classes.

And yes, I see where you're coming from. Discipline, and combat against other martial artists, such a tournament fighting for points, are some of the things that are taught there. Some, not all.

I thought Akido? Or Hapkido? Was along the lines your described. Come at me, I break your arm. Keep coming, I do worse. Dangerous holds to hurt people. Problem is while that does sound appealing, I'm not sure if I could show restraint in tense situations. We all say we will, but that's armchair thinking. I don't want to get in trouble for what I might do to someone.

Um this is kind of derailing the topic. While the input is interesting, perhaps you could start a new thread on this?

That's fair, I'll take the rest to PM's and stop it here.

 

[Mong0]

Well, I'm not at all confused about them, but I don't think that sex reassignments change ones sex any more than clipping the thorns off of a rose makes it a tulip. I only consider sex to be a biological and genetic classification, and that is my right.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

So, here's my question:

Notwithstanding XX Male syndrome (which is exceptionally rare), what would be your thoughts on a person whose attitude is this: "I have no problem with trans people, I acknowledge that Gender Identity Disorder is a real thing and that being trans isn't a choice, and I would never discriminate against nor harm someone for it. It's your body and you have the right to do whatever you want with it. However, chromosomes determine sex, and thus no matter how many surgeries you have or how many hormones you take, as far as I'm concerned you'll always be a man (or woman, or whatever the case may be)"?

In other words, how much does it matter that others acknowledge your identified gender even if it doesn't affect their behavior towards you?

Honestly? It's fine, I respect the position. Just if it comes to them referring to me as my birth sex instead of the gender I identify as, we're gonna have problems. If you see me as male because that's how I was born, that's alright. But making my life harder by not respecting my identity is not alright. Basically use the right pronouns and respect how I am, I'll do my best to reciprocate the gesture.

But doesn't that, by its very nature, require the person to essentially betray their own beliefs to accommodate your feelings? I get that it's not particularly difficult, and something one should do out of courtesy, but telling someone "I know you don't actually believe I'm female, but you need to refer to me using female pronouns anyway" sort of feels like, for example, a Christian telling an Atheist "it's fine that you and I have fundamental disagreements, and I'm ok with that, but you still have to tell me you believe there is a God, because otherwise I'm offended".

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

But doesn't that, by its very nature, require the person to essentially betray their own beliefs to accommodate your feelings? I get that it's not particularly difficult, and something one should do out of courtesy, but telling someone "I know you don't actually believe I'm female, but you need to refer to me using female pronouns anyway" sort of feels like, for example, a Christian telling an Atheist "it's fine that you and I have fundamental disagreements, and I'm ok with that, but you still have to tell me you believe there is a God, because otherwise I'm offended".

Apples and Oranges I'm afraid. Like I said I'm not asking for you to go out of your way. It'd be just as offensive for a Christian to demand an atheist to say they believe in god, as an atheist demand a Christian to state that there is no god. On the other hand I'm not asking you to support my identity, just respect it. If you called a biological cisgender woman a man, or a cisgender man a woman, they'd be very insulted, I'm just asking you to apply those rules as to how they fit me best. You don't have to agree, but I'm not asking you to deny, or confirm the existence of god either. To be blunt, ignoring my wishes is just plain rude, where as respecting them doesn't fundamentally destroy your beliefs either. Your example was basically making an unreasonable demand, my wish to be refereed to as the gender I identify as isn't.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

You put it in your last sentence in that post, it was a joke...Like again I have to question if people take the internet too seriously anymore.

No, I said treat your position. Not you. Your opinions are not you, because opinions change. Well, so do bodies, but as a concrete object of the senses, you are you.

But sure, vocal opposition changes stuff. Doesn't mean that the vocal opposition could easily do more harm and go way too far. My mother's still got a bit of a thing when it comes to Malcom X where she just shivers a bit because he terrified her as a kid.

And guidelines should be expected, but strict rules? Sorry, but the idea of educating the ignorant runs against the strict rule setup. You are going to get stupid questions when people don't know all you do. And going so far as to start insulting and declaring you an enemy to transpersonhood because of that and refusing to answer questions that you haven't approved? Way too far and sorta not what understanding should be about. For the record, that is something I've actually been accused of by some crazies, so please don't tell me that it's just a case of the internet warping perception. People take things far too seriously and apparently forget how to laugh when they get on.

Sorry for sounding heartless, but I got bullied everyday at school, by virtue I do not label every student a 'fucking arsehole'. I label the people who did bully me 'arseholes.' Generalities do nothing but display your confirmation bias, beause you and I know the grand majority of trans people are not like that. (Edit) Also, rules, guidelines ... whatever. Semantics. They're there for a reason. Because it makes the dialogue civil. At least tries to.

Be respectful in how you address people and how you talk about them in relation to your question. And also, no trans person is required to answer any of your questions in general. No person is required to have to listen to you. If you yourself write something fairly nasty sounding, and write it off as 'sorry, tired.' Why exactly is this an excuse? Just, before you call it 'language police' or whatever. Repeat the question out loud, and imagine it in ANY social setting. Would you use that language?

If the answer is 'yes' ... then is it really unreasonable for someone to excuse themselves?

If the answer is 'no' ... then why is it any better to use it here?

Pretty basic rule. Anyone can use it.

OT: So exactly what is your personal thoughts on transgenders(pre-op, transexual, whatever the correct word is for the ones that still their original junk) asking out straight, "normal", people and getting rejected once it comes to light? Transphobic or just sorta being a straight person and wanting genitals that don't look like their own? In addition, should a person feel obligated(wrong word, but I think I'm getting the idea out, just got off work, sorry) to date a transperson they have no sexual interest in because of the above because they're a "real" woman(not trying to be a dick here, just trying to be clear and differentiate) and there's not a substantial difference?

'Cis' ... this is why this is a good term when talking about trans people comparable to cis people. Because you avoid sounding like a dick. It's also been mentioned in the OP. Also; "no sexual inerest in because of the above as they see trans women as women." Far less complicated. Also, of course it's not transphobic. Why should anyone be obligated to date anyone? A better question to ask is why the hell would a trans woman want to be in this relationship in the first place? People want to be loved ...

The thing is, I've found plenty of people who like me as I am. Surely this would be a better relationship to aim for than a loveless one? I haven't found 'love', I've come close. And I consider physical intimacy and compatibility of sexual chemistry to be a pretty central aspect of a loving relationship.

But again, acting paranoid constantly is not healthy at all. Just because you MIGHT have something like that happen to you is not grounds for acting like it already did that day and taking it out on the people you are saying you want to help understand. And I have to say, where do you all live that you have to live the way you seem to have to? Most people I meet I can bet you either don't know anything about trans, or don't care enough to bring it up, much less make fun of.

I live in Sydney. Well, DID live in Sydney. Kinda more Eastern Suburbs now.

It's also not paranoia when ALL the things I said did happen to me. It's not paranoia if it happens to you, you suddenly believe it's never safe to ever let down your guard. It's not paranoia when it continues to happen to other Australian youth. And the youth halfway lodges in Australia are run mostly by Christian groups, many of whom will spit curses at you and make your life a general Hell ... probably because we'll end up there anyways in their eyes.

It's also mighty scary when a lot of LGBTQ teenage runaways and homeless are because of family abuse due to them being outed or coming out voluntarily. You can see why this cmbination of Christian zealotry in boarding houses and a lot of homeless LGBTQ youth on the streets causes a whole lot of problems. A lot of times you have to flee the abuse, again. And then there's no real avenues for you after that.

You can see why simply writing it off as 'paranoia' is pretty insensitive now? Paranoia assumes an irrational fear of something. If it happens with family who are supposed to love you, then why exactly wouldn't you fear the same rejection with roommates, who are essentially strangers?

Whether you think this is bad or not is irrelevant. It's there for a reason.

As for your martial art question, there's a couple of things you could check out, TaeKwonDo is probably the easiest you can find(I know there's like six courses around where I live done by different people), but is largely more like a competitive sport and fitness routine than fully practical unless you get decently advanced in most situations you'd probably be in around bars.

Krav Maga is also a decent technique you can probably find at least one in pretty much any city you're in anymore given how popular it's become, but has a bit of emphasis on fully incapacitating someone normally by way of breaking bones and injuring the more sensitive parts of a person's body as soon as possible, so may not be the one you're looking for since you said you were looking to not get sued.

Personally I'd advocate for alot of the Southern Chinese styles, alot of them are based in self-defense scenarios historically. But the two I know the most about are HungGa and Win-Chung(I may be remembering this name wrong). Krav Maga is sorta a mix of bastardization and descendent of a couple of these styles. Bonus too, since both have somewhat popular visual aids for what it sorta looks like.

The former is essentially Earth-Bending(as in, the animations in Avatar were based on this one), alot of emphasis on having solid footing and having strikes hit with the full strength of your body as opposed to most that have you just using your leg or arm mostly with origination coming from elsewhere. One of the most versatile styles if I remember right, lots of "strong" blocks and hits that hit with the full force, but not a huge amount of grappling since that normally screws your footing up. Ok, I sorta lie, the grappling they do have is more like grabbing their arms and head, holding them, and then going to town on their abdomen and kidneys if you have a free arm. Or just grabbing an overextended appendage and getting them off their footing to again go to town on their abdomen and kidneys.

Also a VERY good fitness routine, considering alot of early training is based on building core strength and stability and the liberal use of weighted rings on arms by just standing in the forms for minutes on end, stretching, and then switching to a new form. This obviously speeds up as you progress, though the rings get a bit heavier. If nothing else, I'd advise you learning some of the basic forms and techniques if you want to build strength for any other things you do.

Win-Chung(again, I may be telling you the wrong name, sorry.) is essentially what they use in Arrow alot of the time, heavily defensive style with a few kicks. Mostly focused on angled blocking and dodges to dissipate a hit's strength and basically having your opponent wear themselves out on you or just screw up entirely because they tried to hit you too hard and overbalanced, meaning you can go in for a nasty little strike.

Two problems though. The first is me, I'm a few years out of date, the guy I started Hung Ga with died a few years ago, and before that, I sorta had to stop because I've had one knee constantly injured by random things throughout my life, and it eventually is going to stop working because of them, so I had to heavily tone down what I did and I could easily be remembering this wrong. The second is that both of these are going to be sorta rare to find outside of major port cities I think, in the U.S. at least, I don't know where you live. Neither are immensely popular, but they get the job done and allow you to fight in decently small spaces. And as Kyuubi has said, Judo is ok as well, but still requires a substantial amount of upper body strength and needs a bit of space to use to the fullest extent, like, more than you'd expect, which you say you're lacking.

Very much lacking in upper body strength. But I'll check out to se if any of these are available through the university I go to.

 

[Dark Knifer]

Gender is a social construct.
Sort of. Gender roles are a social construct, but they also have a natural role. You can't expect a male lion to suckle the young, they don't produce milk. Similar can be applied to male humans. Human males can use formula to feed babies, but that's a technological ability. We can make formula. Gender roles are both natural and social. As humans we have more social gender roles. But they developed over our evolution. But identity is more than just roles. Gender identity is part of how we express ourselves and not everyone fits in the same categories. Not even all men and all women fit their birth gender roles, but for transgendered individuals we identify as the opposite sex.

So what does identifying as a gender mean? Most people identify as a gender but I get confused what that means. As a cis straight man I don't think about my gender much. Maybe that's because I'm not ridiculed for it so I don't think about it but I assume I identify with my gender but basically does gender it entail personality traits, preferences in general life, appearance? What does it mean to identify?

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

seeing them as higher risk of assault which, well ... unfortunately goes without saying.

One of many reasons why I prefer wearing steel-toed boots when outside, even if it is a grey area according to the law when used outside construction zones.

I think I could get away with it given I ride a motorbike.