"The Whole Woman"were thought provoking for me. As a purely intellectual exercise, how does one identify as female? Make up? Clothes? Sexual attraction that is not homosexual, but something much harder to describe?
I think part of the problem is not understanding the difference between transgendered and transsexual.
Another part is thinking that there are only two genders.
If we acknowledge that social gender is a social construct we're getting somewhere because nobody who is transgendered would put themselves through the hell they have to go through. Greer thinks that letting the transgendered default to female somehow lessens the female experience, it reinforces the idea that females are lesser, and less complete than males, it lessens any power females may have or gain (I'm totally paraphrasing, I have the book somewhere)
A good friend, a M-F, has helped me clarify a lot of my own conflict. She Is an incredible woman, one who inspires. As a male she was lost, crazy, a little creepy. As a woman, when she walks in a room she has presence that goes far beyond the physical. (she's comely and middle-aged)
She is clearly a woman. She clearly always has been. She also suffers from PTSD from her tours in Vietnam. Now THERE'S a special insight. They say women aren't allowed in combat? Bullshit they weren't, no matter what genitalia they were dangling at the time
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