"He found acting like a woman 'exhausting,' and feels more free as a man" <Daily Mail Link>

[Moghedien]

Anyone else see this and want to scream?

"tired of putting on make-up and wearing heels"
I'm tired of it too. So I don't. Still a woman.

"he finds dressing and acting as a girl 'exhausting'"

"So being male again, it's quite freeing actually" I'm sure it is.

Obviously I'm not a woman in this person's eyes. Binary gender bullshit. Argh, just venting, no doubt once I've recovered from reading this dross I'll sit and digest but I wanted to share and have your opinion. I tend to be able to order my thoughts better after reading a thread on here regarding subjects like gender and feminism.

I feel like he's stating the obvious and get missing the point completely at the same time.

[TunipTheUnconquerable]

''In the real life experience - those two years, I think maybe you should have a year of intensive weekly therapy just to keep pushing you, to keep checking you, keeping tabs.
'Not just meetings every month or three months, or by letters or emails, but by intensive therapy.'

I don't exactly disagree with that. But ffs, the therapy waiting lists are months long (and not for weekly meetings either) in my area for people who are suicidal. While I don't think this is just 'vanity' as the Taxpayers Alliance is quoted as saying, I just don't see how the NHS can afford to do this.

[OddBoots]

Oh goodness, where to start with that article!

[FloraFox]

Conforming to patriarchal standards of behaviour is hard on women. Stop the press.

He's right about a lot of things, particularly that living as a man is more freeing. It's a shame he felt unable to be himself as a non-conforming man before he put himself through these medical interventions. I agree he's missing the point when he says he's still a woman inside.

[BriarRainbowshimmer]

^Matthew, who lives on welfare benefits, told a magazine last week that he finds dressing and acting as a girl 'exhausting' and feels he has never been fully accepted as a real woman.
Matthew, now living in London, was shocked to find out how many more social restraints are placed on women than men and admits he longed to be as free as a man.
Appearing on This Morning earlier today to defend his comments, he said: 'Going from male to female, they are two completely different gender roles in society - I found I had to be different with men completely.
Matthew is now embracing life as a man again, after feeling the restrictions on acting feminine too stifling
'Girls were still the same, but guys start opening doors for you and all of those great things, but then you do have to conform to society pressures as a girl.
'So being male again, it's quite freeing actually, just to be able to live.'^

I wish the next sentence was 'And that was how gained some insight and became a pro-feminist man'

[BriarRainbowshimmer]

*how I

[UriGeller]

katie price told him to "go for it" Oh god

Has he not thought of suing her for the cost of the operation reversal? Jeez.

[FloraFox]

I wonder whether he told the doctors who originally assessed him that he modelled being a woman on Katie Price or that he had been inspired to "go for it" by her comments during a chance encounter in a night club.

[Viviennemary]

I don't wear make up or heels very often and some women don't wear them at all. But he's has certainly got a point about life being difficult for women. But I think it's difficult for men too.

[AbbieHoffmansAfro]

I tried to come up with a thoughtful response to that article and the issues it raises but really, all I could come up with is that Matthew is very dim and hugely attention-seeking. Watch this space-there will be another shock tactic to get him back on television before too long.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

During his two years of dressing and living as a woman, prior to the surgery, did he not put on heels or make up? Did he not try to conform to what he thought feminine behaviour was?

Where is his personal responsibility in all this?

And I am not even going to start with what Moghedien rightly calls binary gender bullshit - better minds than mine will deal with that!

[KarmaViolet]

That's just really sad and it's a pity the Daily Hate feels the need to do a full feature on someone who is evidently struggling so much, there's something distinctly exploitative about that. It sounds as though his sense of identity whether male or female is constructed entirely of fantasy.

Acting like a woman is exhausting though, he's right about that. It's why I don't bother.

[grimbletart]

He finds dressing and acting as a girl 'exhausting and was shocked to discover the social restraints on women…….

Do bears shit in the woods?

Jeez - he had to "become" a woman to understand that kindergarten bit of information.

And now he wants another sex change on the NHS because it's free.
News alert - the NHS is not free sunshine. We all pay for your self indulgence.

People are dying out there and waiting in queues for mental health treatment while you do your pick and mix gender swaps.

[YonicScrewdriver]

"'Girls were still the same, but guys start opening doors for you and all of those great things, "

I haven't read the article, but what a piece of feminist bingo!! I can't remember the last time a guy held a door for me except in normal social context where two people need to get through a door and the one nearest the door probably holds it and wAits.

And yay! Someone did something a bit polite that saves me 10 seconds a couple of times a week? Well, that is worth the gender pay gap and the differing child care expectations and street harassment and everything. Yup.

[IdealistAndProudOfIt]

I've often wondered - hope I don't get flamed to death - just how much of the modern transgender issue is simply down to too much gender stereotyping in youth. There will be the odd exception of course who has deeper troubles, but the number of times I've read about transgender people saying 'It all started in childhood, I was more comfortable playing with girls' toys'.... if they weren't called girls toys and limited to girls would it have developed to such an extent? Just wondering.

It is nice to come across a transgender going from female to male - O don't know whether they are just shouting louder, but I have always been puzzled by the apparently larger numbers going the other way. Why on earth would a male want to take on our lives of constant sexual harassment.

[IdealistAndProudOfIt]

'nice' was very wrong word, meant 'interesting'. sorry. This chap really seems to have had a very shallow idea of being female. Is it actually a true story I wonder?

[AMumInScotland]

So, he 'lived' as a woman for 2 years pre-surgery, but only after the surgery did he work out that wearing makeup and heels was hard work?

I don't get it. Either he thinks that those things are necessary to being a woman, in which case he should have been doing them pre-surgery.

Or he realises aren't, and he doesn't have to do them post-surgery.

Even without getting into why that's nonsense, it isn't even consistent.

It sounds like what he really wanted was to wear a frock and heels when he felt like it - and lied to get the surgery. Intensive checking isn't the key. Being honest when asked why you want to do it, and whether you are actually doing everything you can to get used to living as the other gender, is enough. If the person is honest.

[KarmaViolet]

Idealist there are plenty of trans men around but they tend not to stand out so much - once someone has grown a beard and their voice has broken, you wouldn't have a clue that they had ever been a woman, other than some of them are a bit short. But not every short bloke is a trans man obviously.

Whereas it's often (not always) more obvious the other way round and the press are more interested in a) anybody who "looks funny" because the tabloids love a modern freak show and b) it's more of a story if someone is giving up male privilege than if they are acquiring it - the same reason that it's unremarkable for a girl to wear jeans but front page news if a boy wears a skirt to school. We code boy things as superior to girl things, and someone wanting to "upgrade" is no surprise but wanting to "downgrade" is. A lot of the press coverage of trans women I find horribly misogynist.

[FloraFox]

I don't get it. Either he thinks that those things are necessary to being a woman, in which case he should have been doing them pre-surgery.

Or he realises aren't, and he doesn't have to do them post-surgery.

Or he thought that because he wanted to look like / be Jordan, he thought he must be a woman and that now he's realised it's a massive PITA to live like that full time, he thinks he's not actually a woman (except that he is a woman "inside").

I don't think there could be a clearer example of a person who thinks that because they fancy doing some of the things that are only socially acceptable for women, they must actually be a woman.

[trevortrevorslattery]

Conforming to patriarchal standards of behaviour is hard on women. Stop the press.

YY Flora

he finds dressing and acting as a girl 'exhausting' and feels he has never been fully accepted as a real woman.
... shocked to find out how many more social restraints are placed on women than men and admits he longed to be as free as a man.

This is how I feel. I am a woman though!

[PuffinsAreFicticious]

I have decided that I must be a man then.

I don't like wearing heels. I don't give a shit if a man holds a door open for men out of a sense of chivalry. I hold doors open for whoever is behind me because it's good manners to do so, and a door in the face is painful. I don't conform to patriarchal ideals. I am not nice and quiet and pretty.

So I must be a man. And those pesky chromosomes and sexual organs will just have to fall into line.

[Miggsie]

How on earth did he get through the initial assessment for surgery?????? My male friend had 3 years of therapy and assessments and a year of facial hair removal - and he was wearing dresses and heels the entire time - before he had his surgery.

It isn't normally a "oh, I'm a bit conflicted, think I'll have a sex change" decision made in an afternoon.

[AMumInScotland]

In the UK at least there are significantly more surgeries male to female than female to male. The best estimates I can find are 2009 but they say "between 1,300 and 2,000 male to female and between 250 and 400 female to male transsexual people in the UK"

I think it has to do with it being easier for a woman to dress and behave in a 'masculine' way than for a man to behave in a 'feminine' way, without being made to feel that they are 'wrong', and therefore maybe starting to think that they ought to do something about it.

So, I'm sitting at work in jeans, rugby shirt and flat boots. I can dress in a way that would be classed as masculine (if people felt they had to categorise it as one or the other) and nobody bats an eyelid. If one of my male colleagues decided to turn up one day in a skirt and heels, people would be a lot more surprised and judgemental. So, if they feel that's a side of themselves they need to express, they would be more likely to question whether their gender wasn't the right one for them. Whereas I can sit here and not question the fact that I'm a woman who has no interest in being a man, but doesn't do the whole 'make up and heels' thing.

[IrianofWay]

Gosh! So would I. Good thing I don't have to 'act like' a woman.

[FloraFox]

AMum I think there's a bit more to it than that. Women fought (and they did have to fight) for the ability to wear "masculine" clothes not because of any sense of identity expression but because women's clothes were and still are uncomfortable and impractical. I assume that's why you're wearing what you're wearing? Women are still under a lot of pressure to dress for the male gaze, in particular by wearing skirts, dresses and high heels. If one of your male colleagues showed up in a skirt and heels, it would not be for comfort or practicality.