@sykochica I wish I had a basis for comparison. But this was helpful and thanks. So the answer to how you crossed the uncanny valley, was just that you were close enough to begin with that you already crossed it?
Closest thing I can come to the experience would be when I was 14 and my girlfriend dressed me up as a hooker for halloween. I didn't feel anything different about who I was and mostly it was just to humor her. We had a lot of fun and no one ever made mention of it afterwards.
But to my mind, this isn't anywhere near the same is it? When you present as male, you don't feel male. You might or might not have the plumbing, but in your seat of consciousness where it matters, you look in and find your homunculus is a female?
Was there ever a time you felt both or neither genders? Have you ever met people who simply refuse to be one or the other? Sorry i guess I'm just intrigued from an experiential perspective. I can understand feeling out of phase. But like I said when I cross dressed for halloween it meant nothing to me. It was just live action role play. However this is much deeper and I'm trying to understand how that works since gender is such a vital part of identity in general, yet I've met people who refuse the entire concept of gender.
I love this, but I'm about to fall over tired. I promise I will get back to this tomorrow.
I forgot to mention that i have met non binary, gender fluid and androgynous people. Many have similar issues in common with transgender people.
First, yes! To me 'essence' = homunculus!
[These are MY answers and don't necessarily speak for all trans or non-binary/gender-fluid people]
Prior to beginning to come out in my early 30s, I had kind of given up on the idea of intimacy and focused more on my intellectualism and developing personal philosophy. This was my closest to feeling 'neither' gender since I had accepted the idea of being single, found social gratification with friends (even if not intimate) and defined myself outside of gender lines. I was my soul, passions and ideas...all of which are essentially gender irrelevant in the traditional sense.
I'm not sure how much other feel this way, but I tend to think of myself more since coming out as what has been called 'Two-Spirit.' While I still feel and choose to present female, I do still have and understand a male perspective to a degree. In some countries this is revered due to the insight and knowledge from both sides of things. But much as we travel up and down through Maslow's Hierchy of Needs, my male/female needs and proportions flow as well.
While I can't deny biological sex, I've wondered how much effect society has in actually defining gender. It's nearly impossible to seperate especially with it being so deeply rooted into out languages. He/she pronouns are use countless times a day, when really a gender neutral term like they/them could easily be used, but why? Why do many languages like french, spanish and italian have a masculine/feminine applied to everything. (It is la bibliotèque not le bibliothèque) What sense does it really make to apply gender to inanimate objects? This is really a hard one to separate since for many people conscious concepts require a word, and those words have un-noticed implications. I get the concept of 'gender role' in the evolutionary biology/psychology sense, but it really doesn't explain why it's still held to tightly or embedded in our vocabulary.
Great question!