tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56349249089611204912024-03-13T09:26:30.355-07:00Jodie's PageThought's on programming and gender roles in modern societyJodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-74402080949944651282017-03-05T06:43:00.003-08:002017-03-05T06:43:24.898-08:00What I’m talking about<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/03/how-a-drag-queen-launched-the-this-is-the-future-liberals-want-meme.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-64LklgZFXP4/WLrwh804zrI/AAAAAAAAAn0/Js6QAWu3kPMIf1USzou4hWsfOfuwaSU5ACK4B/s400/DailyBeastArtical.png" width="266" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ok so many of you will have seen this photo</span></span><span style="background-color: white;">, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">absorbed and passed it by. I just caught it on a video artical on the </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39157526" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;" target="_blank">BBC website</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">. Quite frankly I was surprised. I was surprised it was even an article? But in essence this is simply what a lot of my Blog is about. People being different and getting on about their own lives. I'm not even going to 'lable' the two people as they are unique individuals.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As it’s old news I’ll leave you to make your conclusions but all I’ll say is whilst most of the focus of the media has been on the subjects of the photo what about the entire scene? When you watch the BBC interviews of New Yorkers and then recognise the fact apart from the photographer there must have been a few more people in the carriage. You can see one off shot to the right. Assumidly these were less interesting subjects? But all these New Yorkers give testament to how good New Yorkers are at letting people be people.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The viral aspect of this case was propegated by less tolerant individuals. <b>I guess some people can't abide people not fighting and living side-by-side... These are the sort of people are the danger to society not the subjects in the photo...</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">End note. Despite the negitivity on the world stage the USA has recieved recently mentioning no names - <b>Go NYC!</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-35940471396919045202016-12-13T04:57:00.001-08:002016-12-13T04:57:08.616-08:00Equality<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The constant striving for equality among peoples has been going on from the start of time. It is unlikely to cease. It is unlikely to not be a part of humanity. It is one of our better characteristics.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">BUT, and there is a but, this should not mean we should put off today what can be done tomorrow. At any one point in time we all, as a society and especially as individuals, have the power to make the world a better place - or a worse one with every thought we think, every word we speak and every indiscretion we accept among our piers - or not. Our actions dictate our future and importantly the future of our society.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In an earlier post I wrote that the struggle for Trans' / LGBT rights is the struggle for all human rights. It is the same for black rights or women rights or disabled rights or any one who does not have an equal chance in our society.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Am1LYsqYbuI/WE2D5SSdyKI/AAAAAAAAAm8/sWEzftp-8fobzCx8qcfpOQxgA8BIEx2UgCK4B/s1600/LGBTQ_Symbols.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Am1LYsqYbuI/WE2D5SSdyKI/AAAAAAAAAm8/sWEzftp-8fobzCx8qcfpOQxgA8BIEx2UgCK4B/s400/LGBTQ_Symbols.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In a recent TED talk “<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/tiq_milan_and_kim_katrin_milan_a_queer_vision_of_love_and_marriage" target="_blank">A queer vision of love and marriage</a>” Tie and Kim Katrin said that the LGBT or <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-07/sexuality-gender-glossary-definitions/7287572" target="_blank">LGBTQIA+</a> acronym was attractive because the acronym strove to not leave anyone behind. This really resonates with me. Just as Emma Watson's 2014 Speech on <a href="http://sociology.about.com/od/Current-Events-in-Sociological-Context/fl/Full-Transcript-of-Emma-Watsons-Speech-on-Gender-Equality-at-the-UN.htm" target="_blank">Gender Equality </a>noted men’s equality was tied to women’s equality. They is part of a whole and not a separate element.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://sociology.about.com/od/Current-Events-in-Sociological-Context/fl/Full-Transcript-of-Emma-Watsons-Speech-on-Gender-Equality-at-the-UN.htm" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3MOfyMLKi7Y/WE2FmZceodI/AAAAAAAAAnM/e0NTibzMI7QCWgJZZwJ_FKVcUsctpH4DwCK4B/s320/gender-as-a-spectrum.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So recently I listened to <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/sandi_toksvig_a_political_party_for_women_s_equality" target="_blank">Sandi Toksvig’s TED talk</a> wherein she said the relatively new Women’s Equality Party was almost hopeful of making itself redundant by being successful and correctly noting how this made it different from other political parties.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/sandi_toksvig_a_political_party_for_women_s_equality" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NpJFbO2n3ek/WE2GmwnbK-I/AAAAAAAAAnU/GETmotkWN0wXaZLDNjipmP6gF0_gxLoAQCK4B/s400/Sandi_Toksvig.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Also of note was how she mentioned it wouldn’t get involved in deriding the opposition parties. Hopefully this will work out. More than this she said this was a party women could set up in other countries as the problem of woman equality was global. I think these are all admirable and would seriously consider voting for them myself. However I think they could do more. Whilst the ‘Women’s Equality Party’ gives people a clear picture and a focus they should make more of the equality element and the positive values Toksvig states - political-non-bitching and global relevance. These things are fairly unique and no one wants not to be equal, or respected. Time will tell.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And so to the timing of this post. On January the 21st the <a href="http://www.womensequality.org.uk/why_we_will_march" target="_blank">Woman’s Equality Party will be part of a protest march</a> intersecting with other marches all over the world, but especially <a href="http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/11/11/million-women-march-being-planned-for-january-21-2017-in-d-c/" target="_blank">Washington </a>against the incoming administration of Donald Trump and Mike Pence. If you plan to go here is a <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/womens-march-on-london-tickets-29951554907" target="_blank">reference site.</a></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.womensequality.org.uk/why_we_will_march" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--yAlldJGRfs/WE2EgMOcZOI/AAAAAAAAAnE/Hcc26B1q-EcQMbfr1LP_8co9yXLkBo0XwCK4B/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-12-11%2Bat%2B16.52.25.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If, like me, you can't get to London or another location to march and show solidarity and support then do what I do and make people aware of the issues. Anyone who doesn't feel that the current system in the UK/USA or where ever gives them a fair deal, owes it to themselves to question the </span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 16px;">establishment and what the politicians</span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> are doing for their pay. Is there anyone who doesn't feel disenfranchised? After all it's our taxes, it should be our government.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I’m not telling you what to think, I’m just helping you know where to look. Inside is a good start.</span><br />
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Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-35514957956393709892016-11-07T13:45:00.000-08:002016-11-07T13:45:42.655-08:00More education and awareness<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-size: large;">“Police records show there has been a significant rise in the number of transgender hate crimes over the last four years - from 361 attacks in the year ending 2012 to more than 600 last year.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ok so leading with the shock headline I must state this isn't something I've personally </span><span style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">experienced but it emphasises </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the need for educati</span></span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">on and awareness. Echoing back to one or two of my <a href="http://jodiedawson.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/education-education-education.html" target="_blank">earlier posts</a> </span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">education is especially important given the above quote from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37790773" target="_blank">this BBC news article</a>, Here is a re-point to the same BBC post from a few days ago where Stephanie Hurst is helping make the police more aware of Transgender issues to help them help others in turn.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37790773" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rqXVmagnfmE/WCD0Pd7ZztI/AAAAAAAAAlg/vUt4UAgrKCAG2pgewQKn15zekuGMjXuCwCK4B/s400/transgender%2Btraining.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The session she ran is one of a number of similar training programmes running in other areas of the UK.</span>Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-86132125721403121862016-10-09T03:01:00.001-07:002016-10-09T03:07:42.500-07:00XD-ing<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have an issue with the word ‘<a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cross-dressing" target="_blank">Crossdressing</a>’ or rather,<b> it’s misuse</b>. In day-to-day useage it supports the notion that there are no-go areas for certain genders.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Females continue to have an ongoing battle to gain equality in global society. I’m speaking about the world here so this covers every country from the USA to Saudi Arabia. If as a society, we wish to segregate groups as a principal, then the notion of 'crossdressing' helps this non-constructive cause.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Like Eddie Izzard, I believe that if you buy an item of clothing it is yours, you own it. It doesn’t belong to someone else. I’m not a legal expert but I feel on relitively strong ground here. Clothes may be historically more feminine or masculine but other examples of historical note are slavery* and witch-hunts. Crossdressing is simply a brick in the old world / small world mindset.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>*I accept that sadly slavery too is not <b>totally</b> purged from the world - yet.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Our individual expression is ‘ours’. It is by definition personal. It may be feminine or masculine or a mix but to limit expression is a true sin, just as is limiting someones ability in a career because of their genitalia. Whilst not intrinsically tied, notionally support one and you help endorse the other.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Today there was a lady in front of me at the chemist. Her hair was unkempt to say the least, she wore old trainers, baggy jeans and a polo top, so her clothing was that of a typical man of her age. However, at no time did I think ‘<i>Oh it’s a crossdresser’</i> until writing this. Of course she wasn't crossdressing. She was just wearing something she felt comfortable in.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I started this post off by indicating the word Crossdressing's misuse. <i>So what do I understand the term to mean? </i>Well;</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Crossdressing is a term for a fetish practice wherein individuals believe that certain clothes belong 'only' to the opposite 'sex' and wear them purely for fun.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>*Sex being different to gender.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In that context it is fine and I can see how it could be fun. Been there got the T-shirt, or was it panties? Everything has a place and a time. If you wear any clothing just because it feels right for you then that's not crossdressing, it's just your clothes. If you're wearing clothes which are not predominantly worn by the genetic sex and you are just doing so for a sexual thrill, it could well be crossdressing. Either way is not wrong or right, but it's important we understand our actions and when to use words correctly. </span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As I said in an <a href="http://jodiedawson.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/finding-door.html" target="_blank">earlier post</a> “Words can be used as positive tools but they can trap us if we don't use our minds when we communicate.”</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If I'm out and someone thinks I'm crossdressing or says it, I won't get 'cross' if they are being genuine. We all see the world from a unique viewpoint. I'll just take it that they have little experiance of a 'non-binary' perspective on the world, just as I don't understand some other aspect of society.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Life's to short to worry about it - but not to short to try and help.</span>Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-47959096705212169322016-08-24T15:53:00.000-07:002016-08-24T15:53:05.425-07:00R-love-ution <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Very little to do directly with gender issues but very much to do with programming and modern society, this I feel is very relevant.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My father is a wise man. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,(or it may have been Newcastle) he told me <i>“Whoever you vote for the government always get in”.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I just finished the 9 hour marathon that was REVOLUTION by Russell Brand. Disclosing the governmental and political issues we face every day and linking it deeply to spirituality this is compelling and informative. Also, as always with Russle Brand it is heavily spiced with wit and earthy humour. Brands stream of conscious writing style is reminiscent of the wonderful Douglas Adams but here Russ' uses it to allow the important message of his book to push through more easily.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Uniquely British but globally connected and deeply relevant. Many critics argue he has no real answer or solution but I’ve yet to read a critic that says Russ' is wrong. </span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: '"verdana"', sans-serif;"> I</span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">n terms of the 'essential argument' and call to action it is very hard to disagree with.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Whilst I don't agree with it all 100% </span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: '"verdana"', sans-serif;">I'd reccomend it 100%.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.russellbrand.com/download-the-revolution-audiobook-for-free/" target="_blank">Listen to the free-to-download audiobook to capture the true delivery and spirit of Brand’s point - but buy the book to help.</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22774741-revolution" target="_blank">Goodreads Review:</a></span><br />
<br />Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-1444053331335518492016-07-20T15:10:00.000-07:002016-07-20T15:12:49.719-07:00Finding the door<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b>You don’t always know you’re in a cage until you find a door.</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We all live in a prison. It is the prison we build every day when we label the world around us. Some people’s prisons are strong and inescapable. Others are more open. How you think and use language changes these conditions.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The struggle for Transgender rights is only another step on the road for all human rights. Whether it’s the colour of your skin, your gender, your class, your age or some other aspect of ‘you’ that makes you different. It is also the struggle for womens rights, men’s rights and everyones right to personal self expression. To be you, to be free.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b>"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm" target="_blank">- Martin Luther King, Jr.</a></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I was inspired to write this by Sarah McBride’s talk which eloquently focuses on these issues toward the end:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw5vyJ30djM" target="_blank">Gender assigned to us at birth should not dictate who we are.</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It’s interesting in the 'comments section' of Sarah McBride’s talk on <b>YouTube. </b>Whilst most are positive, the few negative comments seem to focus on the fact she isn’t what they ‘label’ her as. Likewise these negative comments seem to be by individuals who don’t understand the difference between the sex and gender lables. Can they not see in labling (or miss-labling) her they are building a cage for themselves, their families and everyone? So much trouble and negative energy in our world is caused by too little education or miss-understanding. Education free’s us. And we all can learn.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b>“The sign of intelligence is that you are constantly wondering. Idiots are always dead sure about every damn thing they are doing in their life.”</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b>― <a href="http://isha.sadhguru.org/" target="_blank">Jaggi Vasudev</a></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Words are tools we use to explain things and hopefully clearly communicate. They are not reality. We do need words and labels but we must recognise when a potentially useful label stops being a word ‘we’ use and instead becomes a word that uses us. When this happens it becomes another brick in our cell wall, it becomes our reality.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b>“People have fallen in love with words and lost the world.” </b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><b>― <a href="http://isha.sadhguru.org/" target="_blank">Jaggi Vasudev</a></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When will we learn to treat people as individuals not as a label, a preconception or construct we feel they should be? If we as humans don’t give ourselves these rights no one else can, and we can never be truly free as a species. Until then we will daily create the prison for our mind that is the natural outcome of letting labels control us.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We should allow ourselves the freedom to express who we are without prejudice. We need to give ourselves and our children's children, the right to be free. </span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Words can be used as positive tools but they can trap us if we don't use our minds when we communicate.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "\22 trebuchet ms\22 " , sans-serif;">We may never truely be free in our own lifetime's, but at least we can begin to define the prision walls and learn where the door may be.</span>Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-33483252752427770602016-06-13T14:02:00.002-07:002016-06-13T14:02:48.143-07:00Toilet Talk<br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Following my last post we inevitably come to the great toilet debate regarding Transgender folk.</span><br />
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When I’m out dressed I will naturally go to the female asigned toilet but I do so because my natural intent is <b>not</b> to upset anyone. Often if there is a ‘disabled’ toilet I will use this if it’s quiet. After all a disabled toilet is for both male and female. Why society can't do this for everyone is totally beyond me?</span><br />
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Also, let me know if I am wrong on this but so far as I understand; in the UK it is perfectly legal for either ‘sex’ to use either restroom.</span><br />
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On a more general note I really cannot see why we logically have gender separate toilets. I speak with some small authority here having had to plan a few building toilet facilities myself. Also I find it uncomfortable to see women queueing for ages while men swoosh past into their little box of no queues. So why don’t we have gender neutral toilets with a smaller percentage of stalls (if any) so everyone can experience a better and swifter visit to the loo. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Also it’s not just the average straight guy or girl or Trans* who needs the toilet. This is something that is well put in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUKAVcj9NVA" target="_blank">Ivan Coyote’s great TED talk</a> which toward the end speaks of other members of society - not just Transgender.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If you know someone who worries about what will happen if we don’t have separated toilet facilities I suggest you worry less about that issue and more about how they view the world and their motives. Personally when I go to the loo I need to go to the loo (okay maybe check how I look in the mirror too). I spend as little time as I can in there as they arn't the nicest of places genearlly and I want to be back out getting on with my life. Motive is important, something some US politicians get totally confused over. </span><br />
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I’ll leave you with <a href="http://www.toledoblade.com/Education/2016/05/01/Schools-boost-transgender-access.html" target="_blank">another article about converting existing restrooms</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So to conclude the link to my previous post on <b><i>getting out</i></b>. The world is changing but as Trans* folk we must work extra hard to make it work. Sad but true. Every time I go out and everything works out fine, <i>so far 100% of the time</i>, I think there's a lot of new people who now have first hand personal experiance of a Transgender individual in 'their' society and everything was cool - normal even?</span>Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-63430566457402617722016-06-09T14:02:00.001-07:002016-06-09T14:02:40.627-07:00Normal is how we define it<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We are living in a delicate time.</span></div>
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This post is linked directly to a post I will follow on with shortly after regarding the use of restrooms and this I start leading in to the USA given recent events...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">America feels threatened and like all treated entities it is in a process of anger and lashing out. Whilst not the superpower they were, when the US feels threatened and reacts, the world feels it’s ripples. A wave of anti-tolerance by I'm happy to say, political minorities, towards people of a ‘different’ way, be that a faith or in my case my gender presentation, is written across the face of the world's media every day.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is vital now more than ever, that if one is different, we try to integrate and show by example, that diversity is complimentary to the human condition and not destructive. There may be individuals and factions of groups who are negative and want to separate the people of our world but it’s certainly not me and I hope not you - not transgender folk. It's an oppertunity.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So partly because of the above and coincidentally, over the past year or two I’ve been getting out dressed more. However 'getting out' can mean several types of place so here’s my basic list.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A - Trans* friendly places like <a href="http://www.pinkpunters.com/" target="_blank">Pink Punters</a>. Obviously I’ve never felt any animosity or worry here!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">B - Then there is another level of getting out to the more accepting ‘gay’ areas of a town like <a href="https://www.timeout.com/birmingham/bars-and-pubs/gay-bars-and-clubs-in-birmingham" target="_blank">Birmingham</a> in my case. Here again rarely will anyone bat an eyelid. I actually prefer these areas as you’ll always be accepted and it is a more diverse set of individuals. Straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, whatever you want to call people. Everyone is usually just out for a fun / relaxed night.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-size: x-small;">The Arcadian, just off Hurst St, Birmingham</span></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">C - However I’ve also been out out to everyday restaurants or pubs whether in the centre of London or a small pub in Warwickshire. And you know, people are on whole to be very accepting and unflustered. Yayyy, go humanity!!!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The worst I’ve encountered is someone, usually a grandmother out with their family or an older guy out alone (both occurrences have happened more than once) where their faces tell a story. They cannot stop staring and I’ve even seen their family get somewhat embarrassed at this. They are fighting an internal battle between what they’ve been told or told themselves all their lives and the reality they see before them. So effectively it’s their issue and their internal struggle - not mine. On the one hand I’m not sure what they expect of me but my having a polite conversation with a friend and behaving civilized obviously isn’t one of these pre-programmed thoughts.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">D - Finally I’d say just going shopping in town dressed. I’ve only done this once and it was similar to the run of the mill restaurant or pub but I don’t class once as a good working knowledge so I’ll not pretend to give advice on this.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Neverthelss - my advice for getting out is...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>First</b> - just do it. Make the decision, then think seriously about why and what it means to you. While you can go out alone, I’d seriously recommend you go with a friend. It’s more fun and you can share the experience.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Second</b> - Be sensible. Don’t pick somewhere you know to be synonymous with trouble. I wouldn’t do that regardless of my gender or presentation!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Third</b> - Don’t be a parody - be yourself. However you present on the outside let your natural person on the inside come through.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>And finally </b>- Take pride in your appearance and make it obvious you’ve tried your best to present how you want to be. People respect that, so respect them by doing so.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', sans-serif;">So you are out and about, what bathroom do you use? Queue my next post...</span><br />
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Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-40884372617930392662016-04-27T13:01:00.000-07:002016-04-27T13:01:23.358-07:00Gender non-conformist?<br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A short post to say have a listen to this <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03r8pgf" target="_blank">BBC Documentary</a> about the growth of Non-Binary as an </span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">acknowledged way to be. I was directed to it via <a href="https://twitter.com/rebeccaroot1969" target="_blank">Rebecca Root’s Twitter</a> which often discloses these little gems. As usual I found the BBC’s a very level headed report - so listen!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Interestingly they also use the term ‘gender non-conforming’ which to me sounds a touch more active in attitude whereas ‘Non-Binary’ is very neutral. It sparked a teeny bit of rebellious creativity in me so I created the emblem for this post.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Personally I still prefer the term Trans* assignation <i>(with the asterisk to allow you to say what you are) </i>as it is snappier and is suggestive of<b> change</b> not a so much a static condition. I'd still say I was Gender non-conformist of course.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How about you?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Side note: as I mention in a previous post, I actually love the extreems of gender so I'm not against gender. I just feel people should be free to live happily as either or 'between' them wherever is best for them.</span></i></span></div>
Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-78882252572049674452016-04-02T07:43:00.001-07:002016-04-24T20:16:13.859-07:00After a while...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This article is ostensibly about transitioning post-forties or later. That said, much will ring true to many who are younger or indeed <i>not transitioning at all</i> as largely it is about how we all change over time and at it’s core, it is about stereotypes and social programming.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is essentially about tribes and law.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Our cultural and societal conventions and traditions can be worthy but they can also be deeply negative if they don’t allow total honesty. If people are not allowed the right to openly express how they feel at a young age then relationship problems will inevitably occur later in life.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">If in your fifties, be you male or female, you discover a repressed love of baking cakes you may annoy some people with random purchases or smells in the kitchen but you don’t ask them to realign their understanding of society. If however, you realise you don’t fit the binary gender model it can present a big issue to those with whom you may have, by now, a lifelong deeply personal and legal contract.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">For those of us who have already gon</span><span style="font-size: 12px;">e far down a life path, shifting our gender expression, coming out or transitioning - even the thought of it - presents it’s own unique challenges. The obvious question most ask is, why now? If you felt this way why didn’t you say earlier. <b>Why did you hide what you felt?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">This is a question I asked myself and the point of this post.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Casting my mind back I was very unsure about what I felt. So far as I knew the world in which I grew up in and live now says, it is bad or at best, abnormal to not conform to a gender stereotype. Now everyone ‘hates’ stereotypes, but not when it comes to gender. Odd that, don't you think?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I hid what I felt because I was not free. I was not free to express it or explore it. For many of us living in the west we like to believe that we live in a free world, but that is not true. Much of our reality is based in social acceptance...</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I pause here for a moment and look at social acceptance from a very non-gender perspective taking the form of two different TED talks.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">In one of the most emotive and stirring <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii6L_Aux9RU" target="_blank">TED talks</a> I’ve ever seen on what shapes many as they grow, Shane Koyczan </span><span style="color: #a64d79;">at time point 2.28, </span><span style="color: #a64d79;">says that as he was growing up he was being told to…</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>“Accept the identity others would give me”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another supporting argument comes form Hetain Patel in this<a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/358360814/playing-with-perceptions" target="_blank"> TED Radio hour talk</a> which describes when as he was growing up and from a minority background, he just wanted to fit in. Echoing Shane Koyczan about how all kids want to 'fit in'. As usual the whole episode is good but specifically listen at at point 26:40. Further,</span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">at point 27:47</span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> he goes on to say about how he felt ‘</span><b style="color: #a64d79;">ashamed</b><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">’ because he was different.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Now Hetain Patel mentioned he felt ashamed which leads me to the <a href="http://transcendmovement.com/" target="_blank"><b>Transgender Philosophy</b> <b>Podcast</b></a>, in which Felix Conrad argues the reason for not coming out is shame and it is the <b>removal of that internal shame </b>that allows us to come out. Essentially, as you get older you gain the life experience to question the things society tells you are really you. There is a constant thought of I must be wrong if everyone else says so. <i>Maybe if I wait another year it will all just go away as I can’t be right. </i>Yet after so many years you realise you were right all along. Therefore a late onset of acceptance of oneself occurs as natural part of a maturing process.</span></div>
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<a href="http://transcendmovement.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Ppv3XfY1gk/VrU5YuN4KxI/AAAAAAAAAdI/4FYcDt2eTEc/s400/TPP.png" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So there is a basic instinct in all children and in all people indeed, to ‘fit in’. A natural survival instinct to be part of a tribe. However, as humans our tribes are shaped by its laws.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the fifties and especially the sixties revolutionary times no doubt, but gender was what it had always been. In fact in the 60’s and into the seventies in the US and UK, if a male was found dressing as a female then <b>by law</b> the result could be…</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>“…incarceration in mental institutions and the application of aversion therapy through the use of electric shocks or nausea-inducing drugs.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://isj.org.uk/transgender-oppression-and-resistance/" target="_blank">ISJ</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Into the seventies gender bending moved on and through into the eighties and make-up wearing new romantics then breathed life into the concept of a non-fixed gender role. However, by and large these were transient social statements by young people discovering themselves. Themselves who usually ended up from a gender perspective being exactly what there forebears had been. Not a bad thing, it just dilutes the understanding of non-binary gender.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Beyond the laws, and in turn what shapes them, is the information we have to hand and our own understanding of it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>"I was growing up in a very different time and I had <span style="text-decoration: underline;">no information</span>. Meanwhile, I had all of my diversions — sports...this...that...married...family — but after 65 years, here I was right back with the same problems that I had when I was 10 years old and I had to finally do something about that."</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.etonline.com/news/167867_caitlyn_jenner_reveals_her_tipping_point_for_coming_out_as_transgender/" target="_blank">Caitlyn Jenner / etonline</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Then there is the physiological argument.<b> </b>At a recent Trans' support group meeting I was talking with a woman from the <a href="http://www.beaumontsociety.org.uk/" target="_blank">Beaumont Society</a> who said some people also believe that late transitioning may be to do with a drop in testosterone. I certainly think this could well be a contributory factor but in and of itself, not the actual reason, the spark as it were. This could back up a view again by Caitlyn Jenner in the same article where she says:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>"I firmly believe that there are intensity levels of being trans," she wrote. "For example, a boy at a young age — four or five-years-old — might refuse to wear guy clothes and will only wear dresses. Not as a one-time thing, or as just dress-up play, but insistently, every day saying, 'I'm a girl.' They can't — and won't — hide their true identity, even at that young age. Then there are others, like me, who can (kind of) live with it for a long time, even though it's very uncomfortable."</i></span></div>
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<i style="color: #a64d79; font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://www.etonline.com/news/167867_caitlyn_jenner_reveals_her_tipping_point_for_coming_out_as_transgender/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Caitlyn Jenner / etonline</span></a></i></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So then, what's my answer? Why do some people come out in later life? I’d argue it is simply due to a lack of true freedom in our society. A society shaped by the law which by our own acceptance creates it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We do not acknowledge this feeling inside because at first as children we want to fit in and therefore set our path. Then in later life we do not want to hurt those close to us. However as time moves on we realise our lives will mean nothing if we propagate a system which does not allow true freedom for ourselves and of course, others.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #a64d79;">We are all our own victims in this respect, transgender - <b>or not.</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I’ll leave you with another quote and link:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Look at me </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>You may think you see </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Who I really am </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>But you'll never know me </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>It's as if I play a part </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Now I see </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>If I wear a mask </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>I can fool the world</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>But I cannot fool my heart </i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8GUCQQZS64" target="_blank">Christina Aguilera "Reflection"</a></i></span></div>
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Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-5683038313327727262016-02-12T12:40:00.000-08:002016-02-12T12:40:57.117-08:00A mountain is made of grains of sand<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/parenting-and-families/what-to-do-when-you-witness-sexist-parenting-20160209-gmpqg0.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3FfbEwVVlUI/Vr488yX8uiI/AAAAAAAAAdg/2fCTQt7_lBI/s400/No%2BProgress.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The above advertisement is a good example of what happens when we stop questioning how we unconsciously condition society. We talk of advancement but in reality socially changes </span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">little</span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">. Of how small phrases and dogmatic repetition, especially to the young, make the world we live in. A point I will come back to strongly in the next post I publish...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So directly with reference to the whole title of my blog </span><i style="color: #a64d79; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>“Thought's on programming gender roles in modern society” </b></i><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I point you at another good article by </span><a href="http://www.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/by/Kasey-Edwards" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" target="_blank">Kasey Edwards</a><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> on </span><a href="http://www.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/parenting-and-families/what-to-do-when-you-witness-sexist-parenting-20160209-gmpqg0.html" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" target="_blank">Sexist Parenting</a><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. It describes how we are subtly programmed from an early age. Programmed by small instructional social code which embeds itself creating the deeper program path we almost blindly follow in later life.</span><br />
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<i style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">“It feeds into a broader system that disadvantages and devalues women and squeezes men into a suffocating mould of masculinity.”</span></i><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/parenting-and-families/what-to-do-when-you-witness-sexist-parenting-20160209-gmpqg0.html" target="_blank">What to do when you witness sexist parenting - Kasey Edwards</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In a more graphical post than usual and because of my net bound search for gender stereotyping imagery, here is another wonderful ridiculous piece of advertising to chew on...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But finally, I'll leave you with what I believe should be the main point of both Kesey's article and my blog, in the hope of a better future future for all...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Think before you speak to <b>everyone</b>, but especially to <b>children </b>for they are the grains of sand upon which the mountain that is our world, is made.</span></div>
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Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-29652956309249446652016-01-24T02:53:00.000-08:002016-01-24T02:59:15.708-08:00Men, better than women?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A deliberately provocative question. My answer and I'd hope most peoples would be a big fat "NO"!</span><br />
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<i style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"...a big part of our reluctance to feminise boys is about power and the systematic devaluation of women."</span></i><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">However this article called <a href="http://www.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/parenting-and-families/the-subconscious-misogyny-of-unisex-baby-name-trends-20160119-gm9cay.html" target="_blank">“The subconscious bias of 'unisex' baby name trends”</a> by <a href="http://www.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/by/Kasey-Edwards" target="_blank">Kasey Edwards</a> explores a little more about the issues and manifestations of the negativity of femininity in our culture, even if many are subconscious.</span><br />
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<i style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"...the reality is that this one-way naming trend is an expression of our casual and unexamined misogyny."</span></i><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Whilst Kasey's article focuses on historical naming practices she goes on to mention similar trends in regard to toys and clothing and how this seems a 'one-way' street. Women can adopt the traits of men, but rarely ever the other way around.</i></span><br />
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<i style="color: #0b5394; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Why is it that only girls are permitted to enter the playground of gender fluidity? Might it be because, despite all our talk about gender equality, we still believe deep down that the worst thing a boy could be is like a girl?"</span></i><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Her conclusions are very much where I was when I wrote my more fumbling post </span><a href="http://jodiedawson.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/like-girl.html" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" target="_blank">"Like a Girl"</a><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> on the same issue, back in 2014...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If we believe in real freedom then we should all aspire to a fairer world for all women and men - and everyone in between. If we can't make a choice then there is no freedom. Let us not unconsciously propagate and unbalanced past and make sure it is a gender balanced world. And not like this old tie advert!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-88989840460683697802016-01-23T15:01:00.000-08:002016-04-28T13:20:15.343-07:00Why do we need gender on our passport?<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Why is it even an issue? Read the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35214487" target="_blank">BBC article here</a>...</span><br />
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<br />Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-24497107988393121872016-01-22T07:48:00.000-08:002016-01-22T07:48:40.019-08:00Boy Meets Girl - Again<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's a whole new series of "<i><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/boy-meets-girl-returns?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_press_office&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=corporate" target="_blank">Boy Meets Girl</a></i>" planned for 2016. Shooting to start in Manchester in </span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">February</span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">-ish - what happened to Tyneside...? Oh well, I love Manchester too.</span><div>
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<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/boy-meets-girl-returns?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_press_office&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=corporate" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hnoBym4eKyI/VqJM1r6NsjI/AAAAAAAAAb0/z8Bpa27KMpM/s400/624.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i style="background-color: white;">“This series demonstrates comedy’s unique ability to bring insight, warmth and understanding to challenging subjects…”</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ok so I just joined </span><a href="https://twitter.com/JodieTgirl" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" target="_blank">Twitter</a><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. Yes I know it's about bloody time you might say. So this 'tweet' came my way and given I'd praised the original series thought I'd post it ahead of the series actually being on catch-up this time ;)</span></div>
Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-30408500641397338632015-11-19T12:18:00.000-08:002015-11-19T12:18:42.942-08:00Transgender Day of Remembrance 20th November <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-49859689313592539752015-11-11T00:44:00.000-08:002015-11-11T00:44:56.825-08:00Identifying gender when you're blind<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So a quick and direct link to an interesting perspective on gender identity or rather identifying gender from the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-34776343" target="_blank">BBC</a>? Not judging the article but for me the take out has to be...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i style="background-color: white;">“…with a little honesty and humour, I think it's turned out to be a valuable and thought-provoking experience for both of us.”</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m sure that’s true regardless of gender or ability?</span><br />
<br />Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-91259434595127847922015-11-10T06:29:00.002-08:002015-11-10T06:29:57.841-08:00Go B-O-Y-S! Ra Ra!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11488546" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="222" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4wUWfjHJcC8/Vjttu3AcO9I/AAAAAAAAAa0/nSHg7KPxAe4/s400/Dazl%2BDiamonds%2B.png" width="400" /></a><span id="goog_1380675677"></span><span id="goog_1380675678"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Quick and I hope sweet n sour post here about boy cheerleaders. Don’t think it is or was something for me but hey, each to their own. Saw this so tiny snipped in the London Metro last Wednesday and thought I’d put it out there.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.google.co.uk/#q=boy+cheerleaders" target="_blank">Google</a> is your friend too, so just hit return and get some more info. So as usual for me the </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11488546" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" target="_blank">BBC</a><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> had an interesting, if older, article and quote which seems more evidence of the males of the world being boxed in to a ridged role.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">"When the men went away to fight in the first World War, women took over cheerleading and claimed it for themselves,"</span></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Pat Hawkins, president of the UK Cheerleading Association 2010.</span></i></span></span></div>
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Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-16060350131694076392015-10-30T18:44:00.000-07:002019-11-09T00:00:41.684-08:00War<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This post is first, a thanks to those who fought and died to protect our way of life and second, a somewhat rhetorical question about why they did it?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, war, what is it good for?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Whilst Mr Edwin Starr’s lyrics were largely an anti-Vietnam reaction there are other wars and</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> it’s now that time of year in the UK to remember those</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> who fought and to to those who gave their lives in wars so we may enjoy a life of relative freedom. Whilst we do have a long way still to go, had people not fought on our behalf, our freedom to explore our self expression would not be so far advanced.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So as we approach Remembrance Sunday, November 8 2015, I thought I’d state my great admiration and thanks to all those who fought and continue to do so, for this way of life. Similarly for our US brothers and sisters they have Memorial Day towards the end of May each year.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And so to part two of this post. Sparked off by a comment on a You Tube video about transgender people</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">*</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> that all it needs is a ‘good war’ and it would weed ‘them’ out. My summary not the persons actual words.</span><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">* I believe it was on a Caitlyn Jenner YouTube video.</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now I dare say there are those with a point of view that goes along the lines of, “we didn’t win the (<i>insert war of choice</i>) to allow people the freedom to change their assigned gender.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>I’d argue quite the opposite.</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As an example, the allies fought WW2 to prevent invasion and protect a growing way of life. A culture that believes in democracy and the ability to make our own choices. Not to be dictated too. </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One person, one vote etc. Our democratic system we use has largely come to terms with the fact that the LGBT community have the same rights as anyone who can cast a vote, which is totally logical. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Anyone remember the Nazis? They may not have gone along with this thought and I can think of some others who wouldn't in todays world.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No, the democratic systems of the world are not perfect. They are not resolved. They are a process of refinement so that as a society we can grow fairly and not waste the talents and positive energy of all individuals who contribute to it.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So why did they fight for freedom? Why do they fight for freedom?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So we can choose and not be dictated too.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That we can be free to grow and explore who we are as individuals and a society, without oppression of irrational conformity under someone else's ideal of what or who we should be.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dedicated to not forgetting those who fight for us, Five Finger Death Punch's track, <i>The Wrong Side of Heaven</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>* I believe it was on a Caitlyn Jenner YouTube video.</i></span>Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-55759927465502366812015-10-22T09:45:00.002-07:002015-10-22T09:45:23.841-07:003 hours later<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/girls-to-men" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="221" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BR7RNQtTtAA/ViUcd-IV3OI/AAAAAAAAAao/rO_-M2YFKuU/s400/3-hours-later.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">OMG I so can’t believe it’s another TV program this month! </span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You have until around the 11th of November to catch this on <a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/girls-to-men" target="_blank">Channel 4</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So why <b style="font-style: italic;">3 hours later</b>? When the documentary is called:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/girls-to-men" target="_blank">Girls to Men</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because of what this documentary seemed to focus on. Allow me to explain.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This post isn’t specifically about the guys who are the subject of this documentary. No, it’s about the documentary and what it means as a reflection of society. And yes it’s <b>good</b> I’m writing yet another post about the Trans issue on UK TV. Trans is definitely on topic. So yeah, <b>good</b>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m so onboard with people being the people they want to be. For all three of the guys in this documentary it was good to see their journey and so very brave of them to be in this program.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And yet the more I watched the more I felt resonance with the article in the Independent<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/channel-4-documentary-girls-to-men-criticised-by-genderqueer-person-who-featured-in-episode-a6693866.html" target="_blank"> here</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>It is understandable for young trans people to be excited about these milestones, but media interest in surgery on trans people is harmful as it reduces all trans experiences. It suggests you become your gender through surgery or medical intervention which we disagree with.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><i>Jamie Pallas</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Rather than me write it all up poorly, do read this other article from the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/14/channel-4-genitalia-surgery-trans-people-girls-to-men" target="_blank">Guardian</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, <b>3 Hours Later </b>was the slide which followed an operation...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For me the interview with Alfie’s mum Cathy was so much more poignant of the whole transgender issue today. That being the belief someone is one thing when they feel to be something else and then managing that process of transition to become there true selves. Cathy's difficulty as a mother is exactly what I'm on about. I'm sure Cathy is so proud her son. Alfie is so brave.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I personally don’t believe the program was specifically “transphobic” as some Twitter feedback may have said, but I do believe it could so easily have been done better and <i>‘played up'</i> rather than down.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As for the title of the program. It's a tabloid headline and succeeded in grabbing attention. It did a job. For me the issue was what the program did once it had that attention.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overall I’d agree with what Ethan who said, “The journey is never really over…”</span><br />
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Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-38526127522707863372015-10-16T14:21:00.002-07:002015-10-16T14:21:54.455-07:00Trans Lovers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/oct/13/sex-diaries-trans-lovers-review" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HdbPGCxxdeQ/ViFkHb0S_zI/AAAAAAAAAaM/VIsffcnaedg/s400/2755.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So in what seems to be a month of UK television reporting for moi...</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With a write up in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/oct/13/sex-diaries-trans-lovers-review" target="_blank">Guardian</a> this is from <a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sex-diaries/on-demand/60441-003" target="_blank">Channel 4</a>. The last in the series of 'Sex Diaries' documentaries. Whilst I was put off by the program description, <i>"Meet the heterosexual men declaring their love for transgender women with male genitalia"</i> I can forgive the director Charlie Russell and C4 for wanting to grab attention for this program. I guess they had to appeal to the sensationalist crowd.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Moving on, this is available on C4 until mid' November and in my opinion worth a watch. </span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overall I'd agree with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/oct/13/sex-diaries-trans-lovers-review" target="_blank">the Guardian's</a> write up, </span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The focus is largely on the men but the women’s stories are often more interesting. </i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Take-outs are on the one extreme, a throw away comment early on <i>“Transgender are like Ferrari”</i> from one 'admirer'. Obviously uses a different emotional garage to me. </span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum being the scene wherein Lorena describes her awful rape and subsequent falling in love with Mark which was so very emotional.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The documentary itself aside, it reminded me why I don't watch too much traditional television... bloody adverts! Arrrgghhh!</span>Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-47412622961768129652015-10-09T06:55:00.001-07:002015-10-09T06:55:04.970-07:00EastEnders transgender<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/34479713/eastenders-casts-transgender-actor-in-transgender-role-on-uk-television" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t8RQXdHddeE/VhfGZnkyt-I/AAAAAAAAAZ8/91-BXjWskqk/s400/_85982534_pariley.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another quickie here and congratulations to Riley Carter Millington for hopefully another sign of changing attitudes in society. Must admit I am not a Eastenders fan but kudos to them or is it a case of fashion as Bethany Black says…</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>“It's about time we saw more trans roles on television. Being trans is like being gay was in the late 90s - it's a cool thing, so people are saying, 'Let's go and do this as a storyline'."</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bethany Black</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you agree?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Read the full article on the BBC website <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/34479713/eastenders-casts-transgender-actor-in-transgender-role-on-uk-television" target="_blank">here</a>.</span>Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-92140274989317871272015-10-03T00:42:00.001-07:002015-10-03T00:42:04.078-07:00Boy Meets Girl<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/sep/24/boy-meets-girl-a-transgender-comedy-full-of-sitcom-warmth" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NPOGWP8PCio/Vg-FCs9R_JI/AAAAAAAAAZU/TA32z_bXuIk/s400/Boy%2BMeets%2BGirl.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ok so a really quick post to let you know about “Boy Meets Girl” and prove my finger is not on the pulse of modern media.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This almost new BBC sitcom is set in the North East and I feel is made stronger by being not overly focused on the Transgender issue. And yet transgender is a strong message within.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There is a Guardian summery article <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/sep/24/boy-meets-girl-a-transgender-comedy-full-of-sitcom-warmth" target="_blank">here</a> to find out more. </span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I confess I only caught 10 minuets of it last week but enjoyed it. Typical BBC fare being down to earth humour.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Stars <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Root" target="_blank">Rebecca Root</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Hepple" target="_blank">Harry Hepple</a> amongst others. My only question; why didn’t anyone tell me about it sooner ;)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>As of the date of this post you can 'just' catch from episode 1 on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer" target="_blank">BBC iPlayer</a>.</i></span></div>
Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-24774634702678193532015-09-19T04:18:00.000-07:002015-09-19T04:21:54.718-07:00Changes<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P1NTbQXpxxo/VfhIZhoCn5I/AAAAAAAAAZE/K97vHMp3evM/s1600/Change.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P1NTbQXpxxo/VfhIZhoCn5I/AAAAAAAAAZE/K97vHMp3evM/s400/Change.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“One of the great dogmas of biology is that gender is fixed from birth, determined by the inheritance of certain genes on the X and Y sex chromosomes.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/from-minnie-to-mickey-and-all-they-did-was-turn-off-a-gene-1838170.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Impermanence is a basic principal of Buddhism and for good reason. We talk about death and taxes but the one true constant in life and indeed the universe, is <b>change</b>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From stars to dust everything changes. Over time, we change as individuals, our relationships change, as do nations, as do cultures and of course, as a species. And yet accepting and managing change is one of the most difficult things we can face, especially changes in gender and how others relate to you.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our society has changed over the past few decades. When I was young any male who displayed and feminine traits or heaven forbid wore a dress for example would be lucky to get down a street without abuse, psycological or physically. Nowadays things may not be radically different ‘on the street’ but they are so much better, in city centres certainly. This has been driven I believe by the interconnectedness provided by the web and some research which has permitted the media to feedback into peoples understanding in society, our politics and laws.</span><br />
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<a href="http://nationswell.com/watch-obama-dismantle-gender-stereotypes-one-simple-gesture/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OUnvfpMQuwo/Vfbv3ZAWkWI/AAAAAAAAAYg/NJn8Jjz3itg/s400/Obama.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>“I’m just trying to break down these gender stereotypes.”</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Barack Obama</span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I know I’m largely preaching to the converted here but I’m pretty sure there are many more younger people accepting of their transition even accounting for the increase in population now compared to say 40 years ago.</span><br />
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Because gender roles in general are becoming increasingly fluid, it’s possible that some younger people didn’t feel so confined by expectations, so they don’t feel as strong a need to experience adolescence in their correct gender. Also, maybe they remember their first adolescence better, since they have just recently lived it, and they don’t really want to go through another one so soon.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><a href="http://tranifesto.com/2012/05/14/ask-matt-transition-and-a-second-adolescence/" target="_blank">Tranifesto</a></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Still in 2015 for a young person there are many challenges to coming out and being accepted as not part of a binary gender position, which may in society still cling too. For younger people just growing up through </span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">adolescence</span><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> is difficult enough without even adding in gender confusion about how they may feel compared to what they are told. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also there currently seems to be a bracket of T-girls who are approaching or passing 50 years old. It is logical to give the reason to this change as a mid-life crisis. Now I’m sure relative age and timing have a lot to do with it but maybe it is all part of the same change in society and could more be termed a <a href="http://www.nextavenue.org/7-signs-youre-entering-second-adolescence/" target="_blank">second adolescence</a>. A process that affects all genders and all people to some degree in different ways - not just M2F or Trans' individuals. I know that is certainly how I feel about it.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For more mature persons (yes moi) we have the benefit of being more sure of the world and our abilities. However the challenges are big simply because our personal history and commitments are stronger and appear clearer. Work and income could be lost. If you have a family, as most do, this could then all disappear, effectively destroying everything you may have spent your life working for. And yet like fine rain over time, the feeling of what you are supposed to be, the character your programmed past as written in the minds of others is inevitably soaked completely in the realisation of who you are inside.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>But these were the things that we were supposed to say and do, and the clothing and hairstyles that we were supposed to wear, and the attitudes and behaviours that we were supposed to have when we were going through our first adolescence. It’s just that we never got a chance, because it was the wrong adolescence. When we finally have a shot at the right one, I say we should go for it. It passes soon enough.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><a href="http://tranifesto.com/2012/05/14/ask-matt-transition-and-a-second-adolescence/" target="_blank">Tranifesto</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For young and not so young, any friends you have will stay friends, if they really are friends; even if the friendship changes, but you should expect the relationship to change if you do.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As for a reason as to why we do this I can’t give a single answer as I’m sure there are several factors. But click <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/from-minnie-to-mickey-and-all-they-did-was-turn-off-a-gene-1838170.html" target="_blank">here</a> or on the <b>Independent logo below</b> for an interesting article on gender and change at a cellular level which may be a part of it. The following three quotes are from that article.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“…findings suggest that being male or female is not a permanently fixed state but something that has to be continually maintained in the adult body by the constant interaction of genes to keep the status quo – and the gender war – from slipping in favour of the opposite sex.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“The results could explain some of the great mysteries of human gender, for instance why some women after the menopause develop male characteristics, such as facial hair and deeper voices, or why other people are so unhappy with the gender they were born with that they seek hormone therapy and radical sex-change operations.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“…If it is possible to make these changes in adult humans, it may eventually remove the need for surgery in gender-reassignment treatment…”</i></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/from-minnie-to-mickey-and-all-they-did-was-turn-off-a-gene-1838170.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fxOGmUT-c2Y/VfbyRKWVD5I/AAAAAAAAAYs/KfJy28SrU18/s1600/indy-masthead-small.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A more technical link regarding the story can be found here:</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674(09)01433-0" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="80" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PmBL3JtHd_g/VfbyfI66gCI/AAAAAAAAAY0/6rbAKl0vNnk/s400/CELL.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From a species over time down to our individual cells on a daily basis, our gender and understanding of it changes constantly.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So why do so many seem so surprised by this?</b><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My point on change in general and specifically gender?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Flexibility (change) is a strength not a weakness.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Diversity (because of changes) is a strength.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>So try not to overly judge,</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>where it is so obviously unnecessary.</i></span></div>
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Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-66962033405516876702015-09-14T00:58:00.002-07:002015-09-14T00:58:50.964-07:00Good to talk<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just a short post and highlight some of the local group gatherings organised in the UK for Transitioning people not just M2F. I’ve mentioned them before in an earlier post but in all the digital transgender talk on the internet you might easily miss the <a href="http://www.beaumontsociety.org.uk/" target="_blank">Beaumont Society</a>. They’ve been going since 1966 working transgender community so have some experience on the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They have <a href="http://www.beaumontsociety.org.uk/regional-organisers/" target="_blank">regional organisers</a> to contact about these local gatherings so if you feel like you need advice or support in how you feel or even with thoughts on coming out or your family etc please follow the link here or the <b>pin in the map</b> <b>below</b> and ask for a little help and advice. It’s why they are there and why they were established.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>This post was prompted by a discussion this weekend with someone to whom I totally forgot to mention the above. So hope its of some help.</i></span>Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5634924908961120491.post-12019939568289683752015-09-08T03:40:00.004-07:002015-09-08T03:45:14.227-07:00From Hollywood to Milton Keynes<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This blog title doesn't have exactly the same ring as Patsy Gallants <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TohEJPjyi-U" target="_blank">'From New York to L.A.'</a></b> but following on from my <b><a href="http://jodiedawson.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/sparkle-2015.html" target="_blank">post Sparkle blog</a></b> I thought I’d jump in before this to let you know about this one <u>before it's over.</u></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.pinkpunters.com/" target="_blank">Pink Punters</a></b><span id="goog_1474923689"></span><span id="goog_1474923690"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a> in Milton Keynes is well known for it’s ‘Every second Friday of the Month’ Big Night Out (BNO). A night for T-girls to go out chat, dance and feel more accepted.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.pinkpunters.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="153" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V35EXiXuta0/Ve64Sshp9pI/AAAAAAAAAXg/R34pqvSMK2k/s400/BNO.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So anyways this weekend is the annual <b><a href="http://www.thebigweekendout.co.uk/">Big Weekend Out!</a></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also as part of the BWO this Saturday night (21:30-06:30) is a <a href="http://www.pinkpunters.com/events/2015/hollywood.aspx" target="_blank"><b>Hollywood theme night</b>.</a> So for those confident enough to be a Marilyn Monroe, Madonna or hell, even a George Clooney, go along and sparkle in Milton Keynes. And if you don’t want to be someone else, just slip into a posh dress and go as you.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.pinkpunters.com/events/2015/hollywood.aspx" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="181" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8EtwWIcLpT4/Ve64_ciU5QI/AAAAAAAAAXw/oTsggkcsvQY/s400/Hollywood.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Below is some of the official blurb but hit the links in this blog to find out more.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>From noon until early evening Pink Punters Nightclub and its grounds on the A5 at 2 Watling Street, Fenny Stratford, Milton Keynes (MK2 2BS), will again be transformed into a Transgender Community marketplace, also featuring live entertainment. It will become a haven for those wanting to spend a few hours (en femme or not) browsing, shopping, meeting old and making new friends, and having a ‘jolly good time’ in a very supportive environment.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>ENTRANCE IS FREE!</b></span></div>
Jodie Dawsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14517299162431809037noreply@blogger.com0