what is the difference between a man and a woman?

[meredith101]

soooooooooooooooooo many transexuals out there and on the web! But you can mostly just...............tell. Even when they've had facial surgery. But you can't put your finger on it......Some have the browridge, but not all. Some have the shoulderline.....but not all. It's imperceptible. What is the most reliable 'tell'?

[Doc Spock]

Meat and two veg.

[meredith101]

what, see if they can cook it right?

tickle tackle gooooooooone.............

[plowter]

I'd have thought that blokes tend to have heavier features, browridge, nose, jaw but especially the hands.

Surely clothes is the biggest tell? Very few TVs seem to want to dress like a normal, boring housewife. Don'tcha think?

[meredith101]

heh, yes, that's a good point. Many are gay I suppose and carry on 'camping'.

[VillageVicar]

Many years ago, long before it was in vogue to even acknowledge that gender realignment could be achieved, I sat next to a young woman on flight somewhere in the states. It�s too long ago for me to remember where I was flying, but I vividly recall the experience.

I tend�no, I prefer not to chat whilst on flights. Typically I have lots to do, or I�m in desperate need of some kip. But this poor soul wouldn�t have registered any of this. She just needed to talk and I don�t think she really cared who it was she was going to talk to.

I recall moving down the aisle and finding my seat. She was already at the window seat. I really didn�t register anything other than the fact her long blonde hair was bright in the light coming from the window.

I don�t think we had backed off the stand before she started talking � she was going to stay with her mother after just having some �major surgery.� She told me where she worked and that she had suffered (her words) for a long time, caught in her personal nightmare.

When you�re strapped into a seat, it really isn�t always the most comfortable thing to do to keep turning your head towards the other person. So my physical acknowledgements of what she was saying were more or less just gestures of politeness. But she caught me off guard. She asked me whether I thought she was pretty. I didn�t hesitate in saying, �I�m sorry, I didn�t pay attention when sitting down.� She immediately responded by saying �I�ve just had the final stages of my gender reassignment.� That did cause me to turn my head. It wasn�t for long � I was gripped with a mixture of surprise and curiosity. But I quickly turned my head back. I remember shaking my magazine slightly as if I were straightening it out to better see the printed words.
Continued:

[VillageVicar]

Part 2

She went on saying how difficult this had been for her family and how all those who she thought were her friends had deserted her � they just thought she was too �weird.� I remember so vividly her saying that she had been tortured since a child, both emotionally and physically, by her father who was determined to make her someone that she wasn�t. He forced her to go to a Pentecostal church where they tried to cast demons out of her. I remember as she said this I was looking at her hands as she used them in gesticulating towards adding emphasis to her words.

I remember asking her if she were happier now. She said she was delighted because she now knew who she was and she was looking forward to the rest of her life.

I�ve reflected on that flight from time-to-time. I think the experience provided me with an up-close opportunity to hear the humanity within a person whom I probably could not understand or digest from afar. My age at the time was such that I would have simply discounted this person as an odd-ball. That brief experience helped me in understanding the chromosomal diversity in others. And although I didn�t realise it at the time, it helped me to understand some of the diversity in people�s suffering.

Fr Bill

[plowter]

Afternoon vicar. Glad I didn't post the link to the Tranny or F*nny? quiz. lol

Fr B, is there not a balance to be struck between having sympathy for someone who is obviously troubled and the selfishness of putting so much time, effort and expense into someone's appearance?

[meredith101]

interesting read thanks bill.
To be frank, I don't think most people feel they'e a man or a woman because of their physical makeup. They feel like a man or a woman because that's what their brain says. So the brain could say the wrong thing?

[VillageVicar]

Plowter: Absolutely. But I believe we�re talking about very different things here. Sometimes it�s difficult to see the difference between personal self-absorption and vanity or acute narcissism.

I know some people who simply are incapable of walking past a mirror without looking at themselves. And it�s generally those same people who tend to have the most emotional outbreaks at the silliest things.

Narcissism runs much deeper and often interrupts their ability to interact in society. Transsexuals, transvestism and effeminacy are all distinctly different subjects.

It�s human nature to become frustrated with those who are so demonstrably selfish that they disrupt our own sense of propriety. I might be ever-so polite and surrendering to the person who breaks in front of me in queue for the bus. But if they�ve jumped in front of me to get that last slice of chocolate cake�well..they might just have to go to hospital to get my fork extracted from the back of their hand!

Be well

Fr Bill

[s10driver]

A woman has a distinctive gait because of her wider pelvis.