Transnational Spansexual Foundation
by 
We have been taught from birth that humans come in two varieties, male and female, and that every human is one or the other.
This is true.
This is not true.
It is true, in as much as for reproductive purposes, some humans produce ovum, and other produce sperm. This does not account for every human, but it does account for the amount of human activity that is essentially male or female.
It is not true, in as much as it is presumed that there are ways of behaving that are male or female outside of basic reproductive functions.
What makes us human is much more than simply our capacity to breed other humans.
Yet we have been taught that we are either boys or girls, men or women, and our behaviour must always correspond to these roles.
Inside, perhaps even in that part of our minds formed before we learned how to speak, we know this is false. Though male, we sometimes wished to cry, or show (non-sexual) affection, or not have to be in control of everything. Though female, we sometimes needed to show anger, or look after our own needs ahead of others.
When we learn that acting like the wrong sex is unacceptable, or when we learn that we must act in ways that do not feel right for us to be good boys or girls, or real women or men, we are cut off from half of who we are.
"Real man" is defined as excluding "female" characteristics.
"Real woman" is defined as excluding "male" characteristics.
We are not "real men". We are not "real women". We are human beings.
Whatever our essential self may be, it is, for the time being, being human. That is what the phrase "human being" signifies. It is a being thing, not a doing thing.
"Male" and "Female" ( and thus "man" "boy" "woman" and "girl") are not what we are, they are simply roles that we play, roles that we do.
I'd be the last to deny that there was such a thing as male and female. I know there is, for I am aware of possessing both kinds of energy, and of being capable of doing both roles.
But I am here to tell you that it is not necessary to be one or the other, to be limited to only one set of gender behaviours, feelings and expressions.
This is a principle set forth in the Eastern philosophy of "Yin" and "Yang", which teaches that there is never one aspect without the other in any being. (More of this later.)
It is also a principle demonstrated in modern western society by people whose expression and behaviour transcends the limits of gender. Gay men, lesbians and bisexuals are obvious examples here, if only because their sexual desire transgresses the "Gender norms", which are exclusively heterosexist.
It is also demonstrated in the behaviour of many people, perhaps notably those who often assumed to be gay, lesbian or bisexual, but not because of any actual display of homosexuality.
Why, after all, should a man be labelled as gay simply because he swings his hips as he walks? Surely he should only be labelled as gay if he proclaims himself such, or makes a pass at or is seen engaging in sexual activity with a man.
Why should a woman be labelled as lesbian because she rejected a man's advance, or because she walks tall and wears no make up?
Why are presumptions made about her sexual activity made without observing her actual sexual activity?
We often presume people to be "lesbian" or "gay" simply because they are breaching the roles of "real woman" or "real man". Many instances of "homophobia" are actually instances of transgender-phobia, that is, fear of the transgression of gender norms.
We usually assign the "appropriate gender" and its consequential norms to others on the basis of what we assume their biological sex to be. Most humans usually have their sex organs concealed in public, so this is at best a guess. (It's particularly ironic that social gender expectations are based on assumptions about an aspect that must be socially hidden.)
Doctors, brought up to believe all proper humans are either males or female, alter at birth most humans who don't physically fit these roles. Intersexed infants, whose sex appears ambiguous to the gender-fixated doctors, are usually surgically altered at birth to fit in with the assumptions of medical "science." The evidence, that is, the proof that Nature does not make all humans clearly of one sex or the other, is tampered with to fit the assumptions of medical "science." And in the process, helpless human beings are surgically interfered with without their consent, denied their birthright, and scarred for life.
Humans who, later in life, manifest behaviour thought to be appropriate of "the opposite sex", are offered various medical and surgical procedures to alter their bodies to conform to the "sex" they are presumed to "really" belong to.
Many people may find themselves more comfortable with the social role of the gender opposite to that which would be assumed normative for them based on their genitals. Modern medical "science", rather than confront its faulty assumptions about the "naturalness" of gender norms, classifies these people as transsexual or "gender disordered".
Some people who transgress gender norms (or "transgender people") accept the medical view, but many do not. In fact, a recent Australian study of people classed as "transsexual" (which is defined as those seeking "sex-change surgery") revealed that only twenty percent of transsexuals actually undergo genital restructuring. (And only four of that twenty percent are actually fully satisfied with that restructure.)
Some people may assume aspects of one gender on one occasions, and the other gender on other occasions. Modern medical "science" invents all sorts of labels for these people, ranging from transvestite to gynandromorhophile. Homosexuality was listed as a psychiatric disorder until a few years ago, and all sorts of horrifying "treatments" such as electrical shock treatment were perpetuated in futile attempts to "cure" patients of their nature.
In fact, most people transgress so-called gender "norms" in one form or another.
But men are left feeling guilty about needing to cry or being weak or vulnerable or needing support. They may feel drained at always having to take the initiative or prove themselves better than others.
And women are left feeling guilty about needing to be angry or stand up for themselves or be independent or be heard. They may feel drained by always nurturing others, and unfulfilled at always ignoring their own needs, perhaps even forgetting they have their own needs and desires. Nobody wins from this. Both men and women are left unfulfilled, and those of us who obviously transgress the roles of "real man" or "real woman" are made to feel less in value.v Yet these roles do not fulfill anybody.
Perhaps those of us who transgress the roles should relish the opportunity to realise our whole value as humans, beings capable of expressing Yin and Yang.
I suggest that all of us, those who obviously transgress gender roles, and those of us who want to be all that we are, have a lot to gain in transcending gender limits.
It is a lie that all humans are either one of two exclusive biological sexes. (This lie is demonstrated by the existence of hermaphrodites, other intersexuals, genitally restructured transgenders, and other neuters.)
Furthermore, the values that are ascribed to those biological sexes, "masculine" or "feminine", have, apart from the biological functions of breeding, nothing to do with being biologically male or female.
Why should we live our lives by lies?
Let the truth set you free.
My Father is Hermes God of message, communication, My Mother, Aphrodite, Goddess of massage, and copulation Though born of one sex I fell in love with the other And my desire was to be of one flesh with my lover |
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And so I beseeched the Gods and Goddesses I came from To be one with my true love Male and Female, in one form And now each man who has nipples And each women a clitoris Deflects the Body of Me, Divine Hermaphroditus. |
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| Blessed be All who desire To be all That they are |
UltraSex index:
or visit these other pages in this site:
Bi-Gendered: an alternative to polarised or exclusive genders
words and pictures, male
and female: tranys in comic
books
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Linked Notes
These percentages are from the Transgender Lifestyles and HIV/ AIDS Risk Report by Robert Perkins, Australian Government Publishing Service, 1994. [click here to return to text]
This last mouthful (so to speak) gives a "distinct psychological condition" to men who fancy tranys. A spokesperson for Toronto's Clarke Institute of Psychiatry (which invented the term) defensively adds that these men are "heterosexuals of some stripe". (Source: Polare 16, The Gender Centre Inc, 1997) [click here to return to text]
a brief history of
the author