GenderLife Forum: The Information Exchange

Data?

Politely but firmly ask for his money back? Or is prostitution not merely another legitimate business enterprise in Australia?

OTOH, the shock of encountering a prostitute of all people, engaging in a blatant act of deception, would likely be enough to plunge any decent man into a bleak fugue of cynicism and despair. Under such soul-devastating circumstances, how could anyone be expected to pass up a perfectly good opportunity to commit justifiable rape and/or homocide?

I've met enough TS women in my life to know that is the norm. Anechdotal evidence which, in this case, is good enough to have made me quite transphobic. Or, rather, MTF-phobic.

Not a logical position, but an emotional one. And I'm ok with it, so far people like most of you stay out of my "real" life.

Just checking.

Good.

And (I must say) society is a lot more accepting of FTMs since they are children. Less trauma makes for also more "normal" adults (or teens). From my experience, FTMs are usually ok people, even if some are madder than a hatter. But they are not as likely to agonize over their own existence or live trying to prove themselves at each moment, and the self-esteem is a lot higher.

Of late the situation for MTFs is getting better, though. The younger ones (under 25) in the most T*-tolerant cities strike me as a lot more normal than those who are older, or had/have to brave a Bible Belt or worse.

I avoid traumatized MTFs because I'm one of them, of course. It's bad when two folks with that much baggage are together in the same room.

I know that I was numb for a long time, and it took years for the numbness to dissipate.

I find that I am distressed at the pain others are suffering, no matter the reason. My own defense against that distress is a rather macabre sense of humor, under certain circumstances. It comes out, when the unpleasant consequences, of some act, end up biting the perpetrator.

Some examples:

1. The protestor sitting on the railroad tracks, trying to block the train. Of course, the train could not stop in time. This is the source of some really macabre jokes, because the protestor brought this on himself, by sitting on the tracks.

2. The would-be robber that tried to rob a gun store, when there was a sheriff's car parked in front, and the shop was located in Washington state, one of the first states to have shall issue concealed weapons licensing. Of course, the robber got shot by the store owner, the deputy and the customers. He did qualify for a Darwin Award.

3. The idiot that tried to detonate an M-80 firecracker in his mouth. Needless to say, he also earned a Darwin Award, for his stupidity.

In these cases, I have a lot of trouble feeling any sympathy.

Well, the originator of the Darwin Awards is a woman, Wendy Northcutt.

Initially she included _children_ among the candidates for it, until people protested that nominating, for example, a ten year old who drank some Drano for the award, turning the thing into a joke, was cruel beyond belief.

So cruelty is not a "male characteristic" at all.

Black humour is what remains, I guess. The last protection, what makes you survive (without actually forgetting) trauma? Who knows.

I don't know what to say. I am glad I read this thread because it helped to remind me how everyone's life is precious and it also reminded me that SRS or a name change doesn't necessarily make someone more of a woman than someone else.

The truth is that the people doing the brutalizing and the murdering of "trans" people, they don't care if you had SRS or if you changed your name or whatever... they pretty much hate all of us the same and to them we are all gay men.

I have (to my knowledge) never met a TS woman who thought that all other TS women were men in drag.

Then you're very lucky or a fine liar.

In the support groups it was the common thing to do: call the "newbie" aside and inform her that the others were really CDs, that so-and-so was a psycho, that such-and-such was a thief, and that X did drugs and Y was a whore. And none of them, of course, "real" women.

In the online communities it's just a matter of time before stuff like that also happens, although you're not called apart but sent private messages and such. And those experiences are in no way unique, but seem very common.

Well, there's a third option: that I'm unlucky. And even a fourth: that some characteristic of mine brings forth the worst in some people.

The possibility of that last one is quite displeasing.