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The One Ring Forums: Off Topic: The Pollantir:
Are you "trans"?
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Poll: Are you "trans"?
another gender
another race/ethnicity
another species
myself with one key difference
happy as I am!
other
View Results (39 votes)
 

Annael
Immortal


Jun 15 2015, 4:05pm

Post #1 of 34 (1883 views)
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Are you "trans"? Can't Post

You may have heard about the woman who is the head of the NAACP in Idaho who has been "outed" as not actually being black as she has claimed to be. She has now said that there's such a thing as being "trans-racial" - that despite her actual genetics, she feels like she's black. She also said we all come from Africa, which is true - did you know that there is less genetic variation between all of the races in the rest of the world as there is still between different African groups?

BUT that's not what this poll is about (so let's not debate it here please, I'm sure that will get the poll locked in no time). After this news broke, a Chinese-American friend, somewhat jokingly, said that in her heart she's always been a blonde Scandinavian so she would like us to consider her "trans-racial" as well. In fact she's the second of my Asian friends to admit that she really wants to be tall and blonde; we've been calling a Japanese-American friend "Ingrid" for years. I know at least one person on TORn who identifies as Scottish in her heart although she's neither Celtic nor white.

The phenomenon of "furries" is about people who wish they were animals. I know a few.

I responded to my friend with a request for people to consider me a "trans-height" person. Although I am built like a hobbit, in my heart I'm a tall and willowy Elf. Or at least, NOT the runt of what is otherwise a very tall family (I am the shortest woman by 4 inches - many of my women cousins are 6 feet tall! Not fair!)

So are you "trans" in some way? Let's celebrate the diversity of our inner selves.


arithmancer
Grey Havens


Jun 15 2015, 4:44pm

Post #2 of 34 (1763 views)
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Yeah. [In reply to] Can't Post

I'm trans-fit. I am quite heavy and out of shape, really. Also, 45. But I'm still the Amazon I was at 30 in my mind. Laugh


BlackFox
Half-elven


Jun 15 2015, 7:28pm

Post #3 of 34 (1743 views)
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I voted 'Other' [In reply to] Can't Post

Gender-wise, I would describe myself as androgynous.


sevilodorf
Tol Eressea


Jun 15 2015, 7:39pm

Post #4 of 34 (1741 views)
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transplanted [In reply to] Can't Post

from WV to CA

which also makes me transregional from the East to the West....


wishing I could be transgalactic


(This post was edited by sevilodorf on Jun 15 2015, 7:40pm)


Lissuin
Valinor


Jun 15 2015, 9:49pm

Post #5 of 34 (1722 views)
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trans-Pacific [In reply to] Can't Post

I was born in California and lived there for twenty-two years. Three other states and three other countries later, we moved to New Zealand. "Comin' home to a place she'd never been before..." and pretty much everything else John says in the song. No place is Paradise (or Middle-earth Evil ), but this spot on the other side of the ocean will always be Home now.


Elarie
Grey Havens

Jun 15 2015, 11:33pm

Post #6 of 34 (1709 views)
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I clicked "happy as I am" [In reply to] Can't Post

but wish there had been another button marked "completely mystified by the whole concept". From what I've read in various articles, identifying as "trans" comes from a much more fundamental level than just "wishing" you were different in some way. I totally get wishing to be taller, or shorter or thinner or whatever, but the very fact that you are wishing means that you know that you are not those things. It's the idea of actually believing that you are something different than what you see in the mirror or what your physical biology is, that I don't think I'll ever grasp. But, live and let live and all that, or, as my generation said back in the day, "Go with the flow, baby". Smile


Annael
Immortal


Jun 16 2015, 12:11am

Post #7 of 34 (1701 views)
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know many such [In reply to] Can't Post

lots of folks living in the NW corner of the US who came here on a visit and said "I am never leaving!"

Where do people from here move? Alaska.


Annael
Immortal


Jun 16 2015, 12:13am

Post #8 of 34 (1701 views)
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I hope I made it clear [In reply to] Can't Post

that this is meant light-heartedly.

I do know people who not only say they have always felt they were another gender, but in fact feel to me like they are that other gender. I have also met people who claim to be trans but don't feel "other" to me, but who am I to say they aren't?

And what does it mean to feel very strongly attracted to another culture? Maybe you were one in a past life, who knows? I just like the idea that maybe who we are is not entirely explained by our genes OR our environment.


(This post was edited by Annael on Jun 16 2015, 12:20am)


Kilidoescartwheels
Valinor


Jun 16 2015, 1:05am

Post #9 of 34 (1693 views)
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Um, trans-"fat"? [In reply to] Can't Post

I mean, I'm probably NOT as fat as I think I am, but I definitely "feel" like I'm fat.


zarabia
Tol Eressea


Jun 16 2015, 6:30am

Post #10 of 34 (1681 views)
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I have a friend who's the opposite of yours [In reply to] Can't Post

I have a friend I met in Poland who is Polish-American; she was looking to get in touch with her roots there. Though she enjoyed her time there, she never felt the connection she was looking for. She has that connection, however, with Japan. She loves all things Japanese and visits there almost every year.

I, however, fell completely and unexpectedly in love with Poland though I have no Polish blood whatsoever. In my heart, Krakow, Poland feels more like home than Oklahoma ever has. In fact, I feel more comfortable most any place other than Oklahoma. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot that I love about my home state. I get all choked up whenever I hear the song Oklahoma and am filled with pride - a lot of annoyance and exasperation as well Tongue - but pride above all Smile But I've never felt like I "fit in" here. Then again, I love to travel so any place that's not here, no matter where here is, is attractive.

Sometimes I also feel like I might be trans-Time Lord. Laugh


(This post was edited by zarabia on Jun 16 2015, 6:39am)


Brethil
Half-elven


Jun 16 2015, 2:22pm

Post #11 of 34 (1659 views)
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I'm happy with myself as is - but one key difference is career. [In reply to] Can't Post

I work in medicine but I think I'm a trans-farmer. Feels more like what I am 'meant' to be doing, on a very deep level. But on my little suburban property, at least I can play at it a bit.


swordwhale
Tol Eressea


Jun 17 2015, 4:32pm

Post #12 of 34 (1629 views)
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I had to chuckle... [In reply to] Can't Post

at the other choices...

another species....LaughLaughLaughLaughLaughLaughLaughLaugh

Well, I've been identifying with the Elves, despite looking more like a Dwarf chick, since 1978...

And I spent my childhood as a horse.

Maybe I should explain that. No, not actually a pooka raised by mustangs, but I did spend a lot of time, as an only child with a pony and an obsession with horse books and horse models, playing horsie, being a horsie, galloping around the yard with a tail made from towels or handkerchiefs or wispy tree branches... and at school, that was the only game I'd play, being a horse.

Yeah I had like two friends. And got a horse at age twelve when I outgrew the pony. Good Ol' Saraf probably saved me as a teen. My dorkiness was obscured by the fact I had this Big Powerful Ally.

Almost as cool as Chris Pratt on a motorcycle with a raptor pack...

...and that's what horses are mainly about: you're a powerless kid, a wimpy nerd girl, and you have this buddy who's like 1200 pounds, can run 40 mph, and kick in a door. Yep. I can relate to Hiccup too.

I kind of get the "trans-racial" thing... I have always been more attracted to Celtic and Native American cultures than to my own German/American ancestry. When I spent a few years hanging out in Native culture, I saw a lot of "Tribe Wannabee", often extremely white folks who identified with the Native cultures, or had the ubiquitous "Cherokee Princess Great Grandmother", or who had one but couldn't find her in the family tree. Some were trying to understand the viewpoint of Natives who grew up in the cultures, and some Wannabees were just clueless. What I took from it all was you need to listen to what the people in that cultures are saying, blogging, writing etc, not the anthropologists. If you hang out in those cultures (and consider this, in America, Black people have to enter "white spaces" all the time... White people rarely enter "black spaces"... this from a show on NPR)... you need to be sensitive to what the people inside those cultures want, need, think and expect of someone who is still an outsider.

Oh... and now, when I hit the water, whether in my years diving, or snorkeling now, or kayaking, I ...am.... swordwhale.


Darkstone
Immortal


Jun 17 2015, 5:59pm

Post #13 of 34 (1622 views)
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Trans-age [In reply to] Can't Post

Every morning a thirty-something me gets up then wonders who the heck that old guy is in the bathroom mirror is.


Alassëa Eruvande
Valinor


Jun 17 2015, 6:12pm

Post #14 of 34 (1614 views)
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Same for me, but it's my mom in the mirror. And occasionally my grandma. // [In reply to] Can't Post

 


Otaku-sempai
Immortal


Jun 17 2015, 7:28pm

Post #15 of 34 (1603 views)
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I know what you mean. [In reply to] Can't Post

I still have the heart of a 10 year-old boy (I keep it in a mason jar).


Annael
Immortal


Jun 17 2015, 10:56pm

Post #16 of 34 (1572 views)
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yeah [In reply to] Can't Post


Quote
the ubiquitous "Cherokee Princess Great Grandmother", or who had one but couldn't find her in the family tree.


I was actually raised with that family legend. Not Cherokee but Mashpee (Massachusetts tribe), and of course a princess. Then I read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" where he talks about all the white people who believe in the Indian princess ancestor, and got suspicious. Turns out there IS a Native American woman who married into the family but she's not my direct ancestor, she's a several-times great-aunt.

Still, growing up thinking that I might have a dollop of Native blood made me both sympathetic towards and interested in Native American cultures.


Ethel Duath
Half-elven


Jun 18 2015, 12:06am

Post #17 of 34 (1562 views)
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Transgalactic! (Or at least, transstellar) [In reply to] Can't Post

Count me in!Cool


swordwhale
Tol Eressea


Jun 18 2015, 3:17pm

Post #18 of 34 (1540 views)
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there is some thruth [In reply to] Can't Post

behind every archetypal myth...

The Indian Princess happens partly because it was more acceptable to have a Native woman in the family tree than a man. Cultural attitudes of the time meant women married "up" in class, so a "lower class" woman was acceptable more than the male version (which meant the wife would be "marrying down").

The other side of that is that the early explorers were largely male, and often took on Native wives, because, there they were. So there were more Native women in the family trees.

I know a guy who's in his ...late 60s?... science teacher for many years, discovered he had a Seneca grandfather when he was an adult, it had been buried in the family skeletal closet for decades (oh, gasp no no no!!!). He decided to honor his grandfather by learning all he could, and telling the winter tales (in the correct season) locally to educate kids and adults, as well as participating in Native events. He looks more like the German/English Irish side of the family, but he is legitimately carrying on that one thread of his ancestry.

The great aunt thing is still great. Puts your roots a bit deeper in the land.


Kilidoescartwheels
Valinor


Jun 18 2015, 5:19pm

Post #19 of 34 (1533 views)
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the whole "trans-racial" thing [In reply to] Can't Post

My original answer (trans-fat) was meant as a joke, but I read an article yesterday defending the "identify as Black" lady on the grounds that "race" is a social construct more than anything else, based on culture and ethnicity. I can kind of agree with that - as a White chick I often feel like I have no real culture, just kind of a plain vanilla white girl. Yes I have Scots-Irish and Austrian ancestry, but I also believe there MUST be some American Indian ancestry as well. (I AM a Native American, I was born here - yeah, I follow that meme). My great-grandmother Ruth Ella was often described as "that Native girl," yet she called herself Black Dutch. I have tried to locate who the Black Dutch were, and found answers ranging from "Northern Germanic" to "Dutch of Spanish Ancestry" to "there's no such thing/nobody knows." I've since found out that back in the early 1800's a large group of mixed blood Cherokees decided to call themselves Black Dutch to keep from getting transplanted to Indian Territory (my home state Oklahoma). However, Ruth Ella's husband Benjamin was blood brothers with Commanche war chief Quanna Parker, naming my great-aunt Quanna in his honor. Now, you just can't walk up to a Commanche war chief and say "Hi there, I'm Ben, can we be friends?" I can't help but think there's a family connection somehow that explains this - but my Mom & Aunt both thought I was crazy. It's probably something that I'd never be able to prove, and even if I did it wouldn't be much more than an interesting annecdote to my life. I would LOVE to visit Ireland someday, I have been to Scotland on a short trip & definitely like reading & watching documentaries on the Celts (they have a bit in common with Commanches, interestingly enough). I was truly excited to hear that the oldest Celtic village ever found was located in Austria - which backs up the article I read on culture and ethnicity probably being more fluid than we tend to think of it.

But most likely I will remain what I am - a plain vanilla White chick from America - and I'm okay with that.Cool


Kilidoescartwheels
Valinor


Jun 18 2015, 5:19pm

Post #20 of 34 (1523 views)
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LOL! [In reply to] Can't Post

So, 'bout that "Hannibal" show...Wink


Otaku-sempai
Immortal


Jun 18 2015, 6:30pm

Post #21 of 34 (1517 views)
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Pre-dates 'Hannibal' by a long time... [In reply to] Can't Post

I think that cartoonist Gahan Wilson originated that joke many years ago. Or maybe it was Harlan Ellison.


Eowyn of Penns Woods
Valinor


Jun 19 2015, 12:53am

Post #22 of 34 (1511 views)
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I can't deny it. [In reply to] Can't Post

I've seen the results of my dad's ancestry DNA test (and I don't expect to see much difference in any test results from Mom's brothers), and "Dude, could you be any whiter?" is the first thing that came out of my mouth. Looking through the list of varying degrees of cousins in the testing pool would indicate that we are not the most glow-in-the-dark and transparent of the lot, so the answer is 'yes'. Yes, he could! ;) Fortunately, the reports go into more details than than just "Europe: 96% " and the simple pie chart revealing percentages of Great Britain, Europe West, Ireland, and "9 Other regions" so I can feel a little less boring than some of my new-found kin.

As expected, there was a big ol' "Native American: 0%". Two way-way-wayyy back uncles/cousins are documented as having married American Indian women, but nobody in Dad's direct line, so no surprises there. We still have an interest in the French & Indian War era, but no family ties to the culture other than the trader and interpreter uncles who worked and married into it.

I did, however, get to say "I told you so!" about the legendary Scandinavian roots Dad had questioned, so that was a win for me. I always believed it, because I felt a connection. Now there is research and DNA evidence to help back it up.

"I yam what I yam, and that's all that I yam!" And I'm okay with it, too. =) Although, I would have been perfectly fine with seeing 'Rohirrim' somewhere on there, as well. ;)


Annael
Immortal


Jun 19 2015, 1:57am

Post #23 of 34 (1504 views)
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it's complicated! [In reply to] Can't Post


Quote
watching documentaries on the Celts (they have a bit in common with Commanches, interestingly enough). I was truly excited to hear that the oldest Celtic village ever found was located in Austria - which backs up the article I read on culture and ethnicity probably being more fluid than we tend to think of it.


The Celts came from Eastern Europe originally (well, originally we all came from Africa, but the Celts got to Eastern Europe & stuck there for a while before moving NW).

I have a Scottish friend who lives in the US now and he has connected strongly with folks from Native American nations because of cultural similarities.


Elarie
Grey Havens

Jun 19 2015, 12:37pm

Post #24 of 34 (1476 views)
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No problem! [In reply to] Can't Post

____________________________________________
quote: Although, I would have been perfectly fine with seeing 'Rohirrim' somewhere on there, as well. ;)
____________________________________________

Hey, the Rohirrim are Middle-earth's Anglo-Saxons, so with that background I think you qualify! Get yourself a green flag with a white horse and fly it proudly! Smile

And don't worry - white ethnic heritage isn't boring. Or at least Tolkien didn't think so when he wrote LOTR. Smile


(This post was edited by Elarie on Jun 19 2015, 12:41pm)


swordwhale
Tol Eressea


Jun 19 2015, 4:58pm

Post #25 of 34 (1426 views)
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well said [In reply to] Can't Post

Apparently, scientifically, there is but one actual race: human.

Our random colors and subtle differences in shape are nothing compared to the differences in dogs (just a subspecies of Wolf, at that).

Yeah, I think too it's as much a social construct as anything. It also constantly shapeshifts depending on who migrates where, and who they marry, and what the politics separating the new migrants from the old ones are.

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