Mummy, my teachers not a Sir any more.... (Gender Dysphoria)

Member Name: leahslad

Product:	Gender Dysphoria
Date:	12/10/01 (328 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The individual gets to change gender

Disadvantages: Its irreversible, The stigma attached to it

I'm fortunate enough not to have suffered any form of gender dysphoria, but I have had my life altered by it. When I was in secondary school, in the last year of my GCSE's, I was subjected to a topic I was too immature to fully understand. My teacher had decided he wanted to be a she, and it was happening right in front of us.

The balding 40 year old had arrived in school that morning wearing what appeared to be fake breasts and he'd grown some hair. We all thought it was a joke at first, then we sat in the assembly as the headmaster tried to explain to over 1500 pupils the reasoning behind the sudden appearance change of one of the more popular teachers.

I won't disclose the name of the individual concerned, that wouldnt be fair, but Mr. x had become mrs. x through a medical condition where a female mind is stuck in a male body. It's not transvestitism and it isnt any freaky and disgusting thing, its something that is actually rather common in society today. Try telling that to 1500 immature students who have more interest in scratching their balls than listening to the headmaster, things were about to get ugly....

The newspapers got a hold of the story and the teacher was naturally being bombarded with insults. The students in his classes began to hold regular walk outs and when parents found out what was going on, many students were withdrawn from the school. It was a situation that the school had to handle very, very carefully.

The problem was in the two sides both being perfectly justified and legal in their arguments. The parents argued that the subjection to impressionable minds of a gender change was misleading and could ruin their children. I can see where this argument comes from, without a doubt those pupils aged as young as 11 would be witnessing something that isnt considered 'normal' in this day in age. Then again its not 'normal' for a footballer to score from the halfwa
y line but was Beckham scorned for it? I know thats a different kettle of fish, but it is a similar argument. If we try to prevent anything that isnt 'normal' from happening to our children then they'd need to be wrapped in cotton wool, and that in itself isnt 'normal'. Is it really all that bad.

It's now 3 years on and I havent wavered in my sexual desires, I dont find myself seeking to be a woman and I dont think it affected me that badly. In fact I think it has helped me by opening my mind, watching a truly great teacher and a great bloke change into a woman made me realise it isnt all that bad. Meeting the new Mrs. x showed that he hadnt lost any of his teaching qulaity and he hadnt changed in anything other than his appearance. New pupils couldnt even tell he was once a she and I doubt it will even be a story in a few more years when those in the then lowest year finally leave.

I admit I was confused at the time and had a lot of questions, mainly about how it would be done, how could a human being have breasts and a vagina put on them without it damaging their body. The answers weren't easy to come by, but all teachers would openly talk about it and help as much as they could without compromising the individuals right to confidenciality.

Obviously the other side to all this is indeed the teacher. It is perfectly legal to have a 'sex change' and to sack an employee for it is a move that would have an employer in the court quicker than you can say Jack The Ripper, but this one caused more of a problem as young children were involved. For some reason parents wouldnt look at it as a sex change but would instead add all manner of other connotations to individual. He suddenty became a 'puffter', a paedophile and all manner of other things, things which were simply not true.

Either way, I went through watching all his changes, each holiday he would return one step closer to b
eing a woman and eventually he had the full operation to finalise the entire thing. It is a totally irreversible operation that removes the penis and leaves you a woman, uterus and vagina included. I never really found out if he would be able to carry children or if he could be sexually aroused by his breasts (multiple orgasms too?) but these are the sort of thing I will have to go on wondering, naturally a school wasnt the best place to discuss them.

At the end of it all, the teacher still has problems with children walking out, but unfairly in my opinion. He/she did everything by the book and didnt break any laws. The condition was a medical one and not simply some sick fetish and the man isnt a paedophile or homosexual, she's just a plain old teacher like before, a good one at that.

My whole experience of this, witnessing the abuse aswell as the brighter look in her face has led me to realise that this isnt some sick thing, its something that some individuals simply have to do, and after living as a woman for 2 years and many many psychotherapy reports it was allowed for him to take the final step. It wasnt something that happened overnight but a gradual process that we all watched evolve in him. Those who decided to remain in the class all achieved high grades, possibly proving that its generally the uneducated and less intelligent pupils who seem to take it as worse than it is. Some even use it as a reason to simply not do any work.

At the end of the day I dont think it made him a bad person, hes no different now that hes had the sex change and I dont think anyone who knows him/her would disagree with me. Its all about the public perception. Public perception says hes gay, a paedophile and a sick weirdo, but in fact hes none of those things. I dont think he deserves the stick he gets and I dont think he deserves any of the abuse and violence he sometimes recieves. Hes a great teacher and always has been and although I w
ill always remember him as a He, I will remember him as a she aswell, its something that wont leave my mind and if anything has really helped alleviate my prejudice.

I only hope those of you reading this will realise that having a sex operation is a fix to an illness, a medical condition that is well known to doctors where the body is simply the wrong gender for the brain. It's not transvestitism and its not paedophilia (why those two are connected when we think of them I am not sure....). Just remember, its whats inside that counts and inside was still the same person. Through all the temprary confusion I learnt that at least.



** I rated as yes because if you suffer the condition then I would recommend a sex change, simply from seeing how it helped my teacher. I also gave it 5* for the same reason, our attidudes towards it do need to change though **

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