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ramblings |
Constitution
2002.06.23
On one of the discussion boards I frequent we posed the question: did being male help you with your life? My response:
Male privilege, IMO, definitely helps. Its what gets you into the higher paying jobs, gets you respect, and forces you to learn because you might be the breadwinner in the end. (This is exactly the stuff we talked about with male privilege.)When people experience hardship they tend to appreciate life a little bit more. And for those who transition between genders you also may learn to appreciate the strengths of each of the sexes.
I also think it's more than male privilege that has helped me. Having gone through life to this point I've had to harden my skin and watch my own back. I've learned to be independent and wary. I have always been encouraged to be very active in sports and competitive even. I've been told that strength is a desireable trait and assertiveness is not a weakness.
Add to this the physical and emotional constitution required to transcend gender barriers during transition. I've learned to look fears right in the eye and pummel through them. I have now been trained how to show one face when inside I'm cowering or crying.
Could I have done well as a female having never spent a day of life as a man? Probably. I don't know that I would have been able to find the same inner strength that I have today if it were not for me having been male at some point in the past. I'm guessing that I would have been encouraged to rely more on other people and work as a team unit than forage ahead on my own. Maybe I should say that I could have reached this same point in my life as a GG but it would have taken me longer.
I think those people who have survived transition have a stronger sense of themselves and a greater value for life because they are the few people who have actually looked deep within themselves and asked that question: what makes me alive? We cherish life more because we have been given the opportunity to physically change genders which was only science fiction until recent history. We also understand that in some sense we are masters of our own destiny and that is a power that I think few people realize they have, no matter what social system they live in.
If I had to do this over, I think I would like to experience being male at least for early childhood, or if I were born a GG then I would have wanted to firsthand experience either extreme poverty or war. Hm.
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