Distinction

From the time well before I began blogging I wanted to understand the fundamental question of whether the desire to dress as a woman and becoming one could overlap. In other words, are what we used to term transvestism and transsexualism able to blur themselves in some people?

For some individuals the answer was evident but then they tended to very clearly reside on the extreme ends of the Benjamin scale. However for those who felt somewhere in the middle (and I count myself among them), is it inability to distinguish between the two or is there simply a milder version of transsexualism at play where the gender dysphoria is less virulent? Clearly the creation by Benjamin of his types III and IV seemed to suggest so. Undoubtedly, due to today's more open environment and were he still with us, he may have re-examined his typologies as his patients and their narratives reflected the era they lived in.

Nevertheless, I have concluded that today possessing a definite answer matters less than individuals finding solutions for themselves which are ultimately beneficial to their well being and sense of self. Judging from the amount of self-doubt I have read in countless blogs over the years plus my own personal wrestling with what to do in my own life, it seems that expression and identity are not easily and perfectly decoupled. We can talk about them as concepts but making that division within the context of a lived life isn't necessarily simple and many struggle with how to convert their feelings into concrete steps which result in a baseline.

Ultimately I feel the answer lies in freeing people to self determination while providing them resources to help them make the right call. For that to happen we still need some work on societal acceptance of gender variance such that they do not overshoot or undershoot a response to their own situation.

The aim is to increase self-esteem and avoid hiding which is anathema to establishing and keeping it. Once they are more self-assured, they will be much more able to make the right call as to how to best live which is what I saw in those young transitioners I met recently. 

They simply knew who they were and clearly proud of it.