I dont wanna talk about it
Dec. 12th, 2002 12:58 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
radiophlegm.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
transI recently read Kate Bornstein's "Men, Women, and the rest of us" and came across an interesting point about FtM's that I wondered what you all thought of...
Kate Bornstein is an MtF transsexual and in the q & a section of her book was asked something along the lines of,
"It seems like we always see, read, and hear about men becoming women. Even though women become men just as often, they don't ever seem to be in the limelight. Why is that?"
After giving perhaps the 'generic' answer that we don't "see" FtM's because the surgery generally has a better outcome as far as appearance, she went on to hypothesis that, well, FtM's are MEN, and men don't like to talk about their feelings. MtF's have little problem talking about their insecurities, emotions, and experience of the entire 'dysphoria' (i hate that term) and transformation because talking about feelings and body image is very feminine.
I thought this would be interesting to this community in particular because it seems to be mostly made up of FtM's. It also made me think again about whether this entire 'men are strong and silent' business is biological or socialized - if old Kate is right it could still go either way. On one hand, us FtM's may very well be biologically male on some level, and hence are not as in touch with our emotions on a verbal level. On another hand, since most of us have probably in some ways thought of ourselves as male from a very early age, we may have socially conditioned ourselves along with what men do and don't do. Just food for thought I guess.
Kate Bornstein is an MtF transsexual and in the q & a section of her book was asked something along the lines of,
"It seems like we always see, read, and hear about men becoming women. Even though women become men just as often, they don't ever seem to be in the limelight. Why is that?"
After giving perhaps the 'generic' answer that we don't "see" FtM's because the surgery generally has a better outcome as far as appearance, she went on to hypothesis that, well, FtM's are MEN, and men don't like to talk about their feelings. MtF's have little problem talking about their insecurities, emotions, and experience of the entire 'dysphoria' (i hate that term) and transformation because talking about feelings and body image is very feminine.
I thought this would be interesting to this community in particular because it seems to be mostly made up of FtM's. It also made me think again about whether this entire 'men are strong and silent' business is biological or socialized - if old Kate is right it could still go either way. On one hand, us FtM's may very well be biologically male on some level, and hence are not as in touch with our emotions on a verbal level. On another hand, since most of us have probably in some ways thought of ourselves as male from a very early age, we may have socially conditioned ourselves along with what men do and don't do. Just food for thought I guess.