Greetings, and well met! <(^_^)>

So, I'm Tatsuya, and I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm a more masculine than feminine androgyne. Lol, that sounds a bit strange... Rather like an oxymoron, but I just can't come up with any other way to describe my gender. At any rate, I know I'm not female, regardless of what my birth certificate says.:icon_wink

I didn't have any real gender issues until puberty, up until that point I was perfectly happy with my androgynous looking body, and just being me. I can't remember my parents ever really stressing gender, or trying to shape my perception of myself, gender wise. I played with "boy's" toys and did "boy's" activities just as much as I played with "girl's" toys and did "girl's" activities. My parents never really referred to any toys or activities as being for girls or for boys, nor did they ever stress that any toy or activity was more appropriate for one gender over the other.

Interestingly enough, even when playing with what are typically considered girl's toys, I perceived myself as a male, and when playing pretend my characters were always male, that includes playing house.:icon_wink I can't say if my parents were aware of this or not, and sadly they are no longer around for me to ask now.

Then puberty hit, and it all came crashing down. My once perfect "genderless" body began to change shape, suddenly I had curvy hips and horror of horrors.... Breasts! Not little ones either! :tantrum: Worst of all, it hit when I was only in fourth grade, and way before most of the other girls!:bang:

Gods, but I hated this new body I'd been given. I must have driven my mother, a registered nurse, nuts, constantly wanting to know why I couldn't just get a hysterectomy and have my breasts removed. I just couldn't understand why they wouldn't do it, it seemed like a totally reasonable request to me. You have remember, this was back before Christine Jorgensen hit the front page, and you started hearing words like transgendered. So my mother's response was always that, "No Doctor would ever perform a hysterectomy on, or remove the breasts of a healthy young woman!"

Well, that's a start, but I'll have to stop here for now. I have to get ready for a seminar/workshop on dog agility handling that I'm attending.

I hope I haven't bored everyone, and I'm hoping to find some fellow travelers on this path, and perhaps make some good friends along the way. (*hug*)

Tatsuya <(^_^)>
(Becoming the Dragon)