He/She, We, et. al.

This entry is a composite of a couple of posts I made in the female to male portion of crossdressers.com

I finally got a handle on pronouns..I think.

AND it was so simple. All I had to do to quit making mistakes (knock on wood) was to quit using the word GUYS and instead use the word BOYS when referring to my BROTHERS on this board.

I found that when I used the term GUYS it has become too non-gender specific. I would lose track of whether I meant:all us guys (GG's MtF an FtM included),us guys that wear dresses,you's guys or whom. I found myself slipping on pronouns and with the pronouns, I found that I made errors in thinking that followed the pronouns. It is interesting how words show ones thoughts and in fact ones use of words tends to guide thoughts like a Judas goat at the head of a sheep's pen.

Someone suggested I could call them anything as long as it was masculine.

I was thinking maybe I'll call American and possibly Canadian Dudes, "BOYS" and those from the UK and Ozzies I'll call "BLOKES" Course then I'd have to go with "GIRLS" For US and Canada, and what, "BIRDS?" for the UK and "SHEILAS: for AU? naw, I could never keep it straight.

I wonder a bit if some of my Freudian slips with you blokes is because of the teasing and it subsequent defensiveness I got for being a little feminine as a boy. In a way, the worst insult in dude mode when young is to be called a girl, girl, or gay (as if the two were even related).

Clearly a GM does a transman no favors by treading lightly at calling a Dude a Dude.

The thing that all the mental gymnastics meant to me after it was all said and done was that it made me think about under what circumstances I would want to be called Ma'am or girl. Funny how I now aspire to recapture whatever the mannerisms and the shape that I had years ago when I was so unmercifully teased about not being masculine enough.

~sings Aerosmith~ Dude, looks like a BLOKE.......