Andalusite -> RE: Defining Gender: No Wrong Answer (8/18/2010 8:37:52 AM)
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I haven't seen anyone else post with a similar perspective to mine yet. I'm bisexual, leaning heavily toward men. I've played with one FTM who had transitioned as much as he wanted to (testosterone, mastectomy, but kept the original equipment elsewhere as surgery really isn't advanced enough to work well), and his energy and look were very masculine to me. I also played with a MTF who was just at the beginning of her transition (starting hormones, got surgery several months later) who had a lot of self-esteem issues with her body. She showed up on my "radar" so to speak as male, and I reacted to her hormonally/etc. that way a lot, even though I had no objection to using the pronouns she preferred and respected her self-identity. It would not have been fair to her to date her rather than playing casually, since I was attracted to the masculine side which she so desperately wanted to get rid of. On a gut level, I had trouble reacting to her as female, and she needed and deserved a partner who did. I didn't engage with either of them sexually, just as casual play, but I still would have felt a little weird if they hadn't explained. A couple of people asked about sharing health history. Yes, I do so with anyone I play with casually or in relationships, for anything that could remotely have anything to do with play, and I want them to be open with me as well. Not knowing that someone has diabetes or bipolar disorder or some such could be a real issue, even though I would probably still be open to playing with them. Flat out lying, like the person who did that to QSM, would make me doubt their truthfulness in everything else as well. It would be like making up stories about their ex-wife when they had never been married, or sharing stories about their previous job in a certain field when they'd never worked doing that. As to asking, nobody who is single is likely to object to someone asking if they're married/in a relationship/have a FWB or playpartner. I think a lot of bio men and bio women would get very offended if I asked them if they were transgendered, even if they didn't have a problem with transpeople or homosexuals as friends. If someone asked *me* that, I would probably assume it was a lead in to them asking for naked pictures or wanting to grope me when we hadn't developed that level of intimacy yet, since I have run into quite a few jerks who ask for "proof" that I'm really a woman.[:'(] I agree that it's important to me that I know what someone's relationship status is, and I do ask, but if they didn't tell me already right up front, I'll probably avoid dating them even if they fess up when asked. I don't want to date people who deliberately hide things that I express are important to me in my profile (don't have one up yet, but I mentioned it in my previous one, and plan to when I start looking again. I can't necessarily know all the right questions to dig out the truth from someone, and I don't want to conduct it as an interrogation scene. [;)] I'm very open and forthright about things that I think anyone I date needs to know about me, and I value that in potential partners. I see it as similar to limits and the discussion on aftercare expectations. As much as possible, we can negotiate things up front, but there will always be things that we couldn't have even dreamed would be an issue. In that case, honest and open communication and being a little flexible in the moment is important.
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