Time magaizine has an article about Transmen. I found it a fascinating story about a few Transmen who discuss their transition and how society treats men differently than woman. We all know about the different treatment but reading about it from people who moved from womanhood to manhood was interesting. It shed a new light on my transition from manhood to womanhood.
One item was grocery shopping. As a woman he use to spend time debating which brand to purchase. Now it takes less time for him to shop as he is more decisive and just grabs an item and keeps moving. As a guy I get it. When I shop, I move through the store quickly grabbing what I want. But does this mean that I will soon be spending more time shopping as the estrogen makes me less decisive? Will I now spend more time figuring out which butter to buy?
Another issue was making friends. One of the Transmen found it more difficult building male friendships because he is unsure how the dynamics work. If a guy punches you on the should, what does that mean?
For me, 60 years as a guy gives me enough experience to build male friendships fast. I get it. But what about female friends. I have no experience in female to female friendship building. I have noticed how attentive women are to each other when they talk, But I do not get the verbal and non verbal queues. For example, I am eating a meal and sitting across the table from a female friend as we talk she reaches over and touches my hand, what is that signal?. Now I know if depends on the conversation but I am use to being a male and that signals of possible future sex. But does it now signal that she understands and is caring? I will need to learn these new queues.
If you have some time, watch the video and/or read the Time article, I have links below. I think you might find this interesting and make you think about transition issues in a different way.
Transgender Men and Sexism
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