This whole gender identification thing is going too far, for me!

treeguy64

treeguy64

Hari Om, y'all!
Location
Austin, TX.
OK, I just got back from the bookstore. The person who checked me out was a nice person, but our interactions were quite strained. Why? Well, as I approached this person's counter, I was expecting a girl/woman. I had seen what I thought was a female outline, out of the corner of my eye, before checking out. When I got up to the counter, it was easily seen that this person had a chin beard. While this beard was not bushy, or very dark, it was, for a fact, there. I tried to keep myself from looking at this person's face, because I didn't want to stare at his/her beard. The added problem was that his/her voice was soft, and, as I needed to use a gift card and sign up for a mailing list to save 20%, today, on my purchase, we had to talk, back and forth. This person did have female breasts, absolutely no doubt. I couldn't wait to get everything rung up, and get out of the store, such was my level of discomfort. I honestly don't know if that clerk was male or female.

I can hear the hip, liberal, groovy voices of today: "Hey, old man, what the hell difference does it make? Was this person business-like and efficient? That's what should matter to you, nothing else!" OK, he/she was an excellent clerk, no doubt about that. However, that did nothing to ease my discomfort. Anyway, I guess this is further incentive, for me, to stop patronizing shops, anymore.

I think this whole gender ID thing has gone wayyyyyy too far, again, for me. Adding to my feelings: Now, you have genetic men, who say they're women, competing in women's sports, breaking all kinds of records as they do that. Gimme a damn break! There was a movie entitled, as I recall: "Stop this world - I want to get off!" (The show stopper was the great tune: "What Kind of Fool Am I?") I may just have to watch it, as I am feeling this way, more and more, with each passing day! (Yep, maybe then I'll know, what kind of fool I am.)
 

I once had a similar experience with a store clerk, Treeguy. She was obviously a woman from her shape, voice, etc, but she had a pretty substantial dark mustache. Not a joke kind of thing, it was really a mustache! I also felt uncomfortable and was glad when our transaction was over.

Just this morning, our paper had an article about a restaurant critic in San Francisco who is female, identifies as "queer" (still not sure exactly what is the difference between a queer woman and a lesbian?), but further down in the article, it talks about her husband, saying she is pansexual.

This whole gender-fluid thing has a lot of us in a tailspin. I guess I am not "hip" or "groovy" either!
 
I, too, find all these "gender" issues somewhat confusing. IMO, males and females are born with "interlocking" body parts, and that is the way they Should "identify". To me, all these gender issues seem to be a sign of some mental problems.
 

I'm not qualified to make any judgment about folks who don't fit into the usual categories that us old folks are used to. And can't say that it really upsets me, although I do have to scratch my head about it. I just go with the thought that the person is dealing with their life the best they can, just like the rest of us. Live and let live, and all that.
 
Now, this is funny...…..back in the late 70's, when I was in EMS (but wasn't called that then), my ambulance partner/driver and I picked up a girl at house that had done a little OD on something. I was the Attendant, so I sat in the jump seat next to her on the gurney. I couldn't help but notice a little "5-o'clock shadow" on the face and sort of hairy legs. From what I also noticed, this girl was the most "flat-chested" girl I'd ever seen. I took at look at the drivers rearview mirror and could see my partner smiling like heck and almost laughing. After we got the ER, I asked him and found out that this girl was really a guy. Before I had started working with him, he'd picked up this person before for another OD. Back inside our Unit, my partner just couldn't help laughing at me and I was doing the same.

Sort of like when Robin Williams character "Mrs. Doubtfire" was urinating in the bathroom and his son walked in. Totally shocked and told his sister, "Mrs. Doubtfire is a he-she".
 
I get a little confused and amused but that says more about me and my place in the world than theirs.

When it happens to me I think of my stepfather back in the early 70's, we were driving along and he saw a young slightly built person with long hair walking along and he thought that it was a girl until we drove past and he noticed the beard. Now I find myself having some of those same difficulties and so it goes from one generation to the next. :):playful::eek:nthego:
 
The worlds gone mad, to date there are 112 varieties of ‘gender’, I couldn’t care less personally as it dosn’t affect me, what I do care about is the affect it’s having on todays children.

Growing up is tough enough without all this to contend with, same sex marriages, transgenders, gender neutral toilets and changing rooms in gyms and public swimming pools, (even in some schools) sex changes, dads suddenly becoming women, mums turning into men, schoolchildren being questioned about their sexuality and taught about different genders, when they should be learning how to read and write etc.

I cannot imagine how confusing it must be for the little ones and don’t even get me started on those parents taking their kids to sex change clinics because they are a tomboy or a little boy prefers to play with a doll than a train set

I dread to think where it will end......
 
I agree with MarkinPhx. I lost track a long time ago as to the names associated with all these genders and I really could care less. What I don't like is when it is purposely thrown into movies and TV shows on a regular basis. This happened years ago when sex in movies and then TV was the 'in" thing to film. It was thrown in and had absolutely no reason nor was it pertinent to the story line. Now they are doing it with gender.
MarkinPhx said:
Just my opinion but as long another person is considerate, kind and does no harm to others it's really not my concern how they identify themselves as.
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MarkinPhx said:
Just my opinion but as long another person is considerate, kind and does no harm to others it's really not my concern how they identify themselves as.
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I agree Mark, if anything I feel compassion for folks that are going through this, they must suffer extreme inner turmoil in their lives and I can only wish them well.
 
Now that I’m old as dirt, those that dress funny, or trans gender folks, aren’t much considered one way or the other



As far as kids?
They have their own minds that even a parent or God can’t change

And if they are anything like when I was a kid, they’ll chat about it with their buds, giggle a bit, tease each other…and walk away…with some serious and some shrugging (whatever) thoughts

Then get a team together for some sand lot baseball
 
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When we meet another human, we note characteristics and assign a gender. We do this with everybody. When we perceive a different gender, we don't like it, It causes consternation in us. I used to work with a female, who dressed as a male, with a men's watch, hairstyle, etc. I wanted to call her "him". So yeah, it gets weird. Back in the days when we didn't talk about this stuff, a person was forced to compromise on a gender, sex, and sexual identity. Now, we are finding out it's not so simple as a boy is a boy, and a girl is a girl. Hormones, at different amounts, at different times in a person's development can cause all kinds of problems, both physical and emotional. As long as it doesn't adversely effect another, everybody is free to live the life that makes them happy.
 
MarkinPhx said:
Just my opinion but as long another person is considerate, kind and does no harm to others it's really not my concern how they identify themselves as.
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I respect everybody’s opinion and of course, agree with this in theory, but not when it does affect others

Having to share public facilities with men, (just under 90% per cent of complaints regarding changing rooms, sexual assaults, voyeurism and harassment are about incidents in unisex facilities) little girls not going to school at their, ‘time of the month’ because they’re too embarrassed to share the toilets with boys, gender fluid people, who may identify as either male or female complaining if their colleagues do not address them in whichever they have decided that day, the list is endless and hardly kind and considerate, more like selfish and reeking of ‘entitlement’.....

My concern is mainly about the affect it has on children but also, what about the rest of us ? as long as the gender varied people are happy and comfortable, we don’t seem to count any more


 
I just find the whole thing fascinating. I drive through Starbucks for my daughter about once a week and am regularly served by "Chris." I don't know if this is a male or female person. Chris wears beautifully done makeup but sounds like a man. Chris' hair is always beautifully done and the long nails are manicured, but the hands are overly large and masculine looking.

At my local Kroger one of the baggers a very obviously feminine shape that is not in any way hidden, but the clothing, hairstyle, mannerisms are male.

Two of my dear friends each have children who have transitioned from girl to boy. After some years of counseling, the choice was made. They each take or have taken hormones to eliminate their menses and give them facial hair and lower voices. They've each had surgery to remove their obvious lady parts, though I don't know about their reproductive parts. One of them has a girlfriend, the he who used to be a she has had the girlfriend for about 6 years. That same person also used to be a sister, and is now a brother, and his sibling brother has no problem with that.

Both these friends of mine have dealt with all kinds of issues with these children for most of their lives, because they were so uncomfortable as the genders they were born as. Issue upon issue. Counseling. Dysfunction. Problems at school, with friends. Acting out. After their gender reassignment surgeries and hormone and protocols and counseling, they are functional, happy, apparently well adjusted individuals whose parents are honestly relieved that their kids are finally evened out and happy.

So, I dunno. I don't care one way or the other, I have enough of my own issues I'm sure not gonna judge anyone else.
 
Ronni wrote
whose parents are honestly relieved that their kids are finally evened out and happy.
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Isn't that all that parents want after all is said and done?

Anyone remember the character Pat on Saturday Night Live?
 
I am comfortable enough in my own masculinity so as not to feel threatened by someone else's gender identification.
 
Many of the issues dealing with this subject seem to focus on public bathrooms. That seems to me to be the least of it: why not just eliminate group "rest rooms" once and for all, and have individual, one-person, unisex toilets, such as they have on planes? (But preferably a little larger and more comfortable.) If that's all the problem is, that would solve it!
 
God has a master plan. Nature is a powerful remorseless regulator. Things that have happened before will happen again .... and again. Our planet, and our species, are by design self-correcting. Corrections can be slow or rapid, subtle or cataclysmic.

We're currently living in a dissipated, self-centered, self-serving, dissolute, and rapidly failing culture. Sooner or later the correction will certainly come. I fear it may be most unpleasant.
 
Trade said:
I am comfortable enough in my own masculinity so as not to feel threatened by someone else's gender identification.
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I agree, so long as [they] do not start asking for special privilege , or anything involving taking my tax dollars.

The restroom war for example, IMO they should be required to use the restroom that fits their sex @ birth.
 
Sunny said:
Many of the issues dealing with this subject seem to focus on public bathrooms. That seems to me to be the least of it: why not just eliminate group "rest rooms" once and for all, and have individual, one-person, unisex toilets, such as they have on planes? (But preferably a little larger and more comfortable.) If that's all the problem is, that would solve it!
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They don't even have to be one person. There could be any number of stalls with doors for privacy. As for urinals, they can be done away with as far as I am concerned. Those old geezers such as myself with enlarged prostates will know what I mean.
 
Wren said:
I respect everybody’s opinion and of course, agree with this in theory, but not when it does affect others

Having to share public facilities with men, (just under 90% per cent of complaints regarding changing rooms, sexual assaults, voyeurism and harassment are about incidents in unisex facilities) little girls not going to school at their, ‘time of the month’ because they’re too embarrassed to share the toilets with boys, gender fluid people, who may identify as either male or female complaining if their colleagues do not address them in whichever they have decided that day, the list is endless and hardly kind and considerate, more like selfish and reeking of ‘entitlement’.....

My concern is mainly about the affect it has on children but also, what about the rest of us ? as long as the gender varied people are happy and comfortable, we don’t seem to count any more
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Amen, sister.
 
Wren said:
I respect everybody’s opinion and of course, agree with this in theory, but not when it does affect others

Having to share public facilities with men, (just under 90% per cent of complaints regarding changing rooms, sexual assaults, voyeurism and harassment are about incidents in unisex facilities) little girls not going to school at their, ‘time of the month’ because they’re too embarrassed to share the toilets with boys, gender fluid people, who may identify as either male or female complaining if their colleagues do not address them in whichever they have decided that day, the list is endless and hardly kind and considerate, more like selfish and reeking of ‘entitlement’.....

My concern is mainly about the affect it has on children but also, what about the rest of us ? as long as the gender varied people are happy and comfortable, we don’t seem to count any more
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ABSOLUTELY AGREE with everything you said, couldn't have said it better myself. Sometimes I feel like life is a dream and someday I'll wake up to a saner world.
 

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