I know.<\/p>\n
I know.<\/p>\n
I know.<\/p>\n
Given my fondness for double entendres …<\/p>\n
And occasional use of sexual innuendos,<\/p>\n
One might think that my use of the word …<\/p>\n
Woodworking<\/i><\/p>\n
References possible activities with a man’s penis:<\/p>\n
Blow jobs,<\/p>\n
Hand jobs,<\/p>\n
Whatever.<\/p>\n
But no …<\/i><\/p>\n
This post has nothing to do with such.<\/p>\n
(Editor’s Note:<\/b> At this juncture, I ask my regular viewers to fill in the oh so predictable, funny probably only to me, smart alecky, sexual innuendo sort of comment<\/i> one would normally expect me to have included at this point, but which at the current time I’ve chosen to refrain from offering. :))<\/p>\n
And then of course,<\/p>\n
Since that’s not the case,<\/p>\n
You might then think I’m talking about something bland like …<\/p>\n
Making or building things with wood.<\/p>\n
Construction stuff, ya know.<\/p>\n
But come on,<\/p>\n
This is me we’re talking about,<\/p>\n
Meaning I have absolutely no clue,<\/p>\n
Nor interest,<\/p>\n
In construction activities beyond tool identification and delivery assistance.<\/p>\n
Building things for us is one of the reasons why we have men in the first place.<\/p>\n
So nope …<\/p>\n
Woodworking in this context refers to neither.<\/p>\n
Actually,
\n
\nIt simply describes how I’m currently trying to implement my reintegration into the world,<\/p>\n
Post-transition.<\/p>\n
Now understand,<\/p>\n
The following are just definitions of mine,<\/p>\n
And though probably similar to those used by others,<\/p>\n
I’m sure there are more aptly described definitions elsewhere,<\/p>\n
Mine are just Amy-speak, dig?<\/p>\n
Anyways …<\/p>\n
In a very general sense,<\/p>\n
You have three types of post transition integration:<\/p>\n
Out,<\/p>\n
Stealth,<\/p>\n
Woodworking.<\/i><\/p>\n
Out<\/i> simply means that by your actions, disclosures or presentation – most people you encounter in your post-transition life will probably become aware of your transsexual history.<\/p>\n
Stealth<\/i> basically means that one makes an attempt, again by their actions, disclosures and presentation, to conceal their transsexual history from most people, if not all, in their post-transition life.<\/p>\n
Woodworking<\/i> refers to not making an active effort to disclose your transsexual past to others you encounter in your post-transition life, but at the same time, not making any great effort to conceal or deny it either … one just tries to blend into the woodwork<\/i> with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
Now of course,<\/p>\n
As with any set of categories …<\/p>\n
There is some variation within each category.<\/p>\n
You can have those who are really out and out in the out category, while having others who are out and about in the out category, but less born again\/in your face than others.<\/p>\n
Likewise, you can have those who are deep stealth in the stealth category, letting no one know their past, while also seeing others who are in the stealth category trusting the information with a few people.<\/p>\n
When making the decision for how I was going to implement my post transition life … I considered each.<\/p>\n
Stealth had certain appeal because I know it’s much easier to be treated just like your average girl next door when the person interacting with you doesn’t know you’ve been anything otherwise.<\/p>\n
With stealth, one doesn’t have to deal with the judgments, misjudgments and stigma often experienced by transsexuals.<\/p>\n
The big downside to stealth is having to live in fear of having your past revealed and having to hide your past in practically all ways.<\/p>\n
Out had certain appeal because it’s so liberating not having to live in fear of anyone figuring out your transsexualism or having to hide your past. One can experience the ease of life and personal contentment that those who are true to themselves get to experience. The big downside of course, is that one then does have to deal with the judgments, misjudgments and stigma often experienced by transsexuals from others.<\/p>\n
Woodworking was Donnie and Marie … a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll … part stealth, part out.<\/p>\n
I always figured that woodworking was the way to go for me, because it would allow me to just blend into the world in so many ways … deal with life as any woman would have to as she encounters things from time to time, but at the same time, allow me to be true to myself and not have to lie about my past that I cherish in so many ways.<\/p>\n
Kind of the best of both worlds.<\/p>\n
I felt that stealth would just doing what I had done the first 40 years of my life … keep a huge secret from people important to me. Living a again in so many ways.<\/p>\n
And I’m far from being an out and about regarding my function type person. Again, despite my openness here, I’m really a very private person … sharing my feelings, believes, opinions with very, very few. I sure don’t like advertising my function to people and though I understand why it happens, am far from comfortable having it the topic of other’s conversations.<\/p>\n
Now originally it was my plan to do a woodworking approach with emphasis on the stealth.<\/p>\n
I figured since I was moving away … it would be fairly easy to do.<\/p>\n
I’d tell those who I became friends with, but other than that … I’d try to keep it pretty quiet.<\/p>\n
However, when I decided to stick around town … well, woodworking\/steath emphasis became a little more impossible … considering practically everyone I work with knows my function !! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
But other than my work world,<\/p>\n
I’ve try to keep my function no big deal in most other settings.<\/p>\n
I don’t deny it by any means,<\/p>\n
But I also don’t advertise it.<\/p>\n
I just want to blend into the world.<\/p>\n
However,<\/p>\n
Remember how at first I thought Option 2<\/a> was a good compromise for dealing with my transsexualism, because it offered some of the benefits of Option 3<\/a> and Option 1<\/a> …<\/p>\n But when living it,<\/p>\n Found that it sucked because I was basically stuck in the middle doing nothing.<\/p>\n Well, I’m finding now that when living Woodworking,<\/p>\n A sort of similar situation occurs.<\/p>\n Though it does have some advantages,<\/p>\n It’s much harder than I thought it would be because I’m having to deal with the disadvantages of both<\/i> Steath and Out …<\/p>\n Namely the judgments, misjudgments and prejudices of some while at the same time dealing with the concern that some of those same people may be sharing news of my function more aggressively than I would desire.<\/p>\n Anyways …<\/p>\n As I have yet to find a How-To Guide for Implementing A Woodworking Approach to One’s Post Transition Life,<\/p>\n I’m pretty much doing this by trial and error …<\/p>\n And figured I’d let you know how I’ve handle situatiooooons I’ve encountered along with way,<\/p>\n The good, the bad, and the funny.<\/p>\n So when you see a post title beginning with the acronym … AGW<\/p>\n Woodworking stuff is what the post will be all about.<\/p>\n Got it ??<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I know. I know. I know. Given my fondness for double entendres … And occasional use of sexual innuendos, One might think that my use of the word … Woodworking References possible activities with a man’s penis: Blow jobs, Hand jobs, Whatever. But no … This post has nothing to do with such. (Editor’s Note:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":139,"label":"General"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Amy","author_link":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/author\/amy\/"},"comment_info":24,"category_info":[{"term_id":139,"name":"General","slug":"general","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":143,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":775,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":139,"category_count":775,"category_description":"","cat_name":"General","category_nicename":"general","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}