Very big fan of the "if you erase every societal aspect of transition, what hormone do you want" and then repeating that for pronouns and how you want to be treated and that's your transition done
If I had the choice I'd rather go ace, honestly. (And yes, I've thought about it.) Removes one potential angle of manipulation of me as well as the risk of accidentally making a bad pass or showing interest and ending my career.
I'm unexpectedly, oddly un-bothered by gender philosophically, especially for someone who is a contradictory mixture of very gender-typical and VERY gender-atypical (occasionally seen as combative by other women) behaviours and traits and actively likes being misgendered (for "let's inject some chaos into this world", not validation reasons).
I'll tell you* what I'm bothered by philosophically**. Ethics of care. Trauma informed practice of anything. Suicide prevention by "you're needed" argument.
* obviously not you, Ozy, directly.
** I'm not sure if any of those count as truly philosophical, but I mean "trying to use abstract thinking and general principles to think my way out of what probably really is personal, emotional and/or physical discomfort".
I managed to redirect from the philosophical issues to "what transition actions do I want to do?". So now I'm 15 years later and still have a bunch of the philosophical issues... but they're less pressing with my dysphoria well treated.
Am I a woman? I don't, particularly, care to get lost in the weeds debating that anymore, but also the 15yrs HRT / social transition and 8yrs post-op and zero regret, that might possibly be some sort of Clue.
> Further applications of this principle to other life problems left as an exercise for the reader.
God, this hit so hard. I agonised over my physique. I bent my head over backwards to be okay with it. Finally, I decided, "I'm going to lose some fat", dieted for 3 months, and now my brain is quiet.
Sometimes just....change your body. If the end-goal isn't an unhealthy state and the journey there isn't a super unhealthy state, just change your body.
This is weird to me because I have the experience of abstract philosophical (specifically metaphysics and identity) problems bothering me in many areas of my life. Such that it would be expected, rather than exceptional, to find myself bothered by the metaphysics of gender.
I dunno, I think for some people hormones don’t solve gender-related philosophical conundrums. Sometimes they can just plaster over them and make them easier to ignore, though.
I have none of these problems and am seriously troubled by the idea that my mode of life is completely unprecedented and therefore we have no idea what it means to be this way, how or if people can find meaning, to what extent it is for me compatible with life as we know it. I'm also majoring in classical languages and literature, though, so...
The classical 'Is life really suffering or have I skipped lunch again?' debate.
Very big fan of the "if you erase every societal aspect of transition, what hormone do you want" and then repeating that for pronouns and how you want to be treated and that's your transition done
If I had the choice I'd rather go ace, honestly. (And yes, I've thought about it.) Removes one potential angle of manipulation of me as well as the risk of accidentally making a bad pass or showing interest and ending my career.
Soooo. The last line!!! Huh.
I'm unexpectedly, oddly un-bothered by gender philosophically, especially for someone who is a contradictory mixture of very gender-typical and VERY gender-atypical (occasionally seen as combative by other women) behaviours and traits and actively likes being misgendered (for "let's inject some chaos into this world", not validation reasons).
I'll tell you* what I'm bothered by philosophically**. Ethics of care. Trauma informed practice of anything. Suicide prevention by "you're needed" argument.
* obviously not you, Ozy, directly.
** I'm not sure if any of those count as truly philosophical, but I mean "trying to use abstract thinking and general principles to think my way out of what probably really is personal, emotional and/or physical discomfort".
I managed to redirect from the philosophical issues to "what transition actions do I want to do?". So now I'm 15 years later and still have a bunch of the philosophical issues... but they're less pressing with my dysphoria well treated.
Am I a woman? I don't, particularly, care to get lost in the weeds debating that anymore, but also the 15yrs HRT / social transition and 8yrs post-op and zero regret, that might possibly be some sort of Clue.
> Further applications of this principle to other life problems left as an exercise for the reader.
God, this hit so hard. I agonised over my physique. I bent my head over backwards to be okay with it. Finally, I decided, "I'm going to lose some fat", dieted for 3 months, and now my brain is quiet.
Sometimes just....change your body. If the end-goal isn't an unhealthy state and the journey there isn't a super unhealthy state, just change your body.
Tell everyone that you're doing it, and then the comments are mostly congratulations for achieving your goal?
This is weird to me because I have the experience of abstract philosophical (specifically metaphysics and identity) problems bothering me in many areas of my life. Such that it would be expected, rather than exceptional, to find myself bothered by the metaphysics of gender.
I'm also religious so perhaps to be expected.
I dunno, I think for some people hormones don’t solve gender-related philosophical conundrums. Sometimes they can just plaster over them and make them easier to ignore, though.
I have none of these problems and am seriously troubled by the idea that my mode of life is completely unprecedented and therefore we have no idea what it means to be this way, how or if people can find meaning, to what extent it is for me compatible with life as we know it. I'm also majoring in classical languages and literature, though, so...