28-08-2011, 12:31 PM
Hi Chrissie,
Don't take the cogiati too seriously in that respect. It was designed by an IT professional, not by a psychologist. Apparently, it didn't occur to this person that calling someone a "late onset" transsexual is deeply insulting to exactly those people that the category applies to.
"Transsexuals who spent much of their life in denial and fighting it" might have been more appropriate. "Late onset" is a technical term in the statistics of gender clinics, referring to the age at which their clients first presented for treatment. According to professor Swaab, transsexuality is fixed at birth, so there is no such thing as "late onset".
@hoselover,
I agree with Beverley's broader definition, but in Paul Vennix' original work, there was an underlying assumption that everybody "normally dresses" according to gender identity. Beverley's definition makes Vennix' conclusions valid for people like Pansy Mae, who was perfectly comfortable dressing in girly things at a very early age. I wonder if Paul Vennix is even aware of the broader validity of his conclusion.
I can't find the full text of Vennix' original work on-line any more. The booklet can still be ordered at www.rng.nl
And for a sub group of people like you and me, who were perfectly comfortable dressing as boys in childhood, there's still the blog of Mik van Es, who spent a lot of time on Vennix' data (unfortunately, this is also in Dutch):
http://mikstravestienotities.blogspot.co...roeit.html
The blog post in the link confirms my experience. During emotional crises in life, like puberty, the wrong job, or a bad marriage, cross dressing starts as a way to temporarily deal with emotional issues. Over time, the excitement and comfort it provides becomes very rewarding, certainly if two of the rewards are a huge social network and a couple of really good friends.
By the time one really begins to wonder where all this will end, maybe in transsexuality, there is also a price to pay: the inner satisfaction tends to decrease, and presenting as male becomes increasingly difficult. At this point, I chose to hit the brake. But learning to present as male again, and to enjoy crossdressing again, is not easy.
I haven't read enough of Mik van Es' blog to know if it also occurred to him that "gender transposition" also describes the experience Pansy Mae described, of "wanting to be a man for her". For Pansy Mae, dressing as a highly feminized transgenderess is comfortable, because it agrees with her gender identity. Dressing away from that in either direction is gender transposition.
Don't take the cogiati too seriously in that respect. It was designed by an IT professional, not by a psychologist. Apparently, it didn't occur to this person that calling someone a "late onset" transsexual is deeply insulting to exactly those people that the category applies to.
"Transsexuals who spent much of their life in denial and fighting it" might have been more appropriate. "Late onset" is a technical term in the statistics of gender clinics, referring to the age at which their clients first presented for treatment. According to professor Swaab, transsexuality is fixed at birth, so there is no such thing as "late onset".
@hoselover,
I agree with Beverley's broader definition, but in Paul Vennix' original work, there was an underlying assumption that everybody "normally dresses" according to gender identity. Beverley's definition makes Vennix' conclusions valid for people like Pansy Mae, who was perfectly comfortable dressing in girly things at a very early age. I wonder if Paul Vennix is even aware of the broader validity of his conclusion.
I can't find the full text of Vennix' original work on-line any more. The booklet can still be ordered at www.rng.nl
And for a sub group of people like you and me, who were perfectly comfortable dressing as boys in childhood, there's still the blog of Mik van Es, who spent a lot of time on Vennix' data (unfortunately, this is also in Dutch):
http://mikstravestienotities.blogspot.co...roeit.html
The blog post in the link confirms my experience. During emotional crises in life, like puberty, the wrong job, or a bad marriage, cross dressing starts as a way to temporarily deal with emotional issues. Over time, the excitement and comfort it provides becomes very rewarding, certainly if two of the rewards are a huge social network and a couple of really good friends.
By the time one really begins to wonder where all this will end, maybe in transsexuality, there is also a price to pay: the inner satisfaction tends to decrease, and presenting as male becomes increasingly difficult. At this point, I chose to hit the brake. But learning to present as male again, and to enjoy crossdressing again, is not easy.
I haven't read enough of Mik van Es' blog to know if it also occurred to him that "gender transposition" also describes the experience Pansy Mae described, of "wanting to be a man for her". For Pansy Mae, dressing as a highly feminized transgenderess is comfortable, because it agrees with her gender identity. Dressing away from that in either direction is gender transposition.
