Not sure I should start this thread or whether it can be done without re-opening a can of worms but it struck me that there were a fair number of people who might benefit from the appreciation of the complexity of sexuality and defining it.
The University of Toronto offers a degree program on the subject:
http://www.uc.utoronto.ca/content/view/284/1809/
I had the opportunity of having a long discussion with someone who is enrolled in the course who is a pre-op shemale. This was done in a non-sexual environment over a two or three hour period and I just felt that we had scratched the surface on the subject of shemales. I was interested in the subject because I have a gay brother and always wondered about the difference in the psyhcology between gay and transgender.
She has also escorted to pay her way through university and is cognisant of the fact that a higher than" normal" proportion of transgender people earn at least some of their living in the sex trade at some point in their life.
My heart went out to her and what she has been through in her personal journey through hell as she started to identify her issues and then determined what her preferred course of action was in how to deal with it. She is idistinguishable from a woman now ( small in stature and hand, no adams apple, no beard) due to hormone therapy but she regularly got the snot beat out of her in the beginning phases.
Some of her observations were that the world of sex is definitely not black and white and that there is a hell of a lot of grey out there that many people are afraid to admit. You would think that the merb community would be more open minded than the general population and not so quick to want to put everything into neat little boxes. We never automatically classify women who dabble with the same sex as being gay, yet we are all to quick to do so for men even if they only do so with people that for the most part look like women. Maybe it is because we are by and large a group of middle-aged men.
Sorry for the rant but when I think what she has gone through and is still going through ( I wouldn't wish this heartache on my worst enemy) and consider this is also probably an issue on a lesser level for some of her friends and clients I think we should all stop and not be so quick to label and dismiss.
A very complex matter no different than some our more common preferences even something as simple as cof etc.
The University of Toronto offers a degree program on the subject:
http://www.uc.utoronto.ca/content/view/284/1809/
I had the opportunity of having a long discussion with someone who is enrolled in the course who is a pre-op shemale. This was done in a non-sexual environment over a two or three hour period and I just felt that we had scratched the surface on the subject of shemales. I was interested in the subject because I have a gay brother and always wondered about the difference in the psyhcology between gay and transgender.
She has also escorted to pay her way through university and is cognisant of the fact that a higher than" normal" proportion of transgender people earn at least some of their living in the sex trade at some point in their life.
My heart went out to her and what she has been through in her personal journey through hell as she started to identify her issues and then determined what her preferred course of action was in how to deal with it. She is idistinguishable from a woman now ( small in stature and hand, no adams apple, no beard) due to hormone therapy but she regularly got the snot beat out of her in the beginning phases.
Some of her observations were that the world of sex is definitely not black and white and that there is a hell of a lot of grey out there that many people are afraid to admit. You would think that the merb community would be more open minded than the general population and not so quick to want to put everything into neat little boxes. We never automatically classify women who dabble with the same sex as being gay, yet we are all to quick to do so for men even if they only do so with people that for the most part look like women. Maybe it is because we are by and large a group of middle-aged men.
Sorry for the rant but when I think what she has gone through and is still going through ( I wouldn't wish this heartache on my worst enemy) and consider this is also probably an issue on a lesser level for some of her friends and clients I think we should all stop and not be so quick to label and dismiss.
A very complex matter no different than some our more common preferences even something as simple as cof etc.
