Sasha - defender of mankind!
Oct. 15th, 2006 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_fantastic_ms_foxTomorrow I'll go see a shrink about gender issues, then I'll sit on the SFU Senate. Good. Good. I'm not sure which is more of a mindfuck. No. It's Senate. Senator Fox? Mmm? Oh yes.
I'm faced with a decision about names, or two. Introducing myself to people as "Amy" sucks. It's stressful, and even genderqueer people make this almost-audible 'click' as their brains turn over. Most importantly, I can't do it everywhere. This said, I like "Amy" - I even respond to it without thinking.
The traditional MTF route is to get good at passing, duck out for a weekend and leave a note explaining things to one's coworkers asking for them to refer to you under a new name while you deal with the fact that your home life just imploded, then come back to work and get fired. In other words, man-woman; Robert one week, Roberta the next. Alternatively in some cases of taste beyfond my comprehension, Dale Green one week; Xuna Starleaf the next.
I do not need this; it does not fit.
The traditonal FTM route is usually girl-andro-butch-FTM-man. And it is usually done at school. The name trick here usually goes more like Christine-Chris-Christoper or Veronica-Adrian*-Clark.
This is better for me. Much so.
Cassidy sounded too sassy; Garren is too masculine; Greer sounds like either "Queer" ("yes," ::looks up and down:: "I gathered that you're queer.") or, worse, Pam Greer; Unity is inspiring, save for in this backwards "democratic" culture; Carbon is, well I like Carbon, and might name my first child Carbon, or someone else's if I they lose to me at poker; and, finally I'm not religious, but "Loki" is asking for trouble. This being the case, I'm thinking that if I'm going to fuck up my gender, I'll go with "Sasha" first, and then decide where to go from there - the people I meet can draw their own conclusions. I was planning on changing my name anyway.
Besides, Sasha means "defender of mankind," or at least that's what Aleksandr means, and somehow Sasha = Aleksandr.
I tried to fathom Slavonic naming customs once. I went blind for three days.
So I'll practice a bit, and may answer the phone as such, to see how it feels. I have to look into the paperwork so's to get all my ducks in a row at once, but I feel like doing it at a ceremony of some kind; where people are gathered to commemorate some annual event - like Yule, or sooner perhaps?
(I still can't believe I'm going through with this)
*There are about a dozen critical androgynous names circulating among 80% of FTM's and genderqueers - these come with a two year waitlist so as to avoid name erosion. "Adrian" has been declared at-risk by memetic ecologists and the UN FTM/GQ authourity ("UNFTMAGQA") has asked that all people named Adrian turn in their name in exchange for a shiny new nomiker and a pleasantly masculine toaster.
I'm faced with a decision about names, or two. Introducing myself to people as "Amy" sucks. It's stressful, and even genderqueer people make this almost-audible 'click' as their brains turn over. Most importantly, I can't do it everywhere. This said, I like "Amy" - I even respond to it without thinking.
The traditional MTF route is to get good at passing, duck out for a weekend and leave a note explaining things to one's coworkers asking for them to refer to you under a new name while you deal with the fact that your home life just imploded, then come back to work and get fired. In other words, man-woman; Robert one week, Roberta the next. Alternatively in some cases of taste beyfond my comprehension, Dale Green one week; Xuna Starleaf the next.
I do not need this; it does not fit.
The traditonal FTM route is usually girl-andro-butch-FTM-man. And it is usually done at school. The name trick here usually goes more like Christine-Chris-Christoper or Veronica-Adrian*-Clark.
This is better for me. Much so.
Cassidy sounded too sassy; Garren is too masculine; Greer sounds like either "Queer" ("yes," ::looks up and down:: "I gathered that you're queer.") or, worse, Pam Greer; Unity is inspiring, save for in this backwards "democratic" culture; Carbon is, well I like Carbon, and might name my first child Carbon, or someone else's if I they lose to me at poker; and, finally I'm not religious, but "Loki" is asking for trouble. This being the case, I'm thinking that if I'm going to fuck up my gender, I'll go with "Sasha" first, and then decide where to go from there - the people I meet can draw their own conclusions. I was planning on changing my name anyway.
Besides, Sasha means "defender of mankind," or at least that's what Aleksandr means, and somehow Sasha = Aleksandr.
I tried to fathom Slavonic naming customs once. I went blind for three days.
So I'll practice a bit, and may answer the phone as such, to see how it feels. I have to look into the paperwork so's to get all my ducks in a row at once, but I feel like doing it at a ceremony of some kind; where people are gathered to commemorate some annual event - like Yule, or sooner perhaps?
(I still can't believe I'm going through with this)
*There are about a dozen critical androgynous names circulating among 80% of FTM's and genderqueers - these come with a two year waitlist so as to avoid name erosion. "Adrian" has been declared at-risk by memetic ecologists and the UN FTM/GQ authourity ("UNFTMAGQA") has asked that all people named Adrian turn in their name in exchange for a shiny new nomiker and a pleasantly masculine toaster.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 08:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2006-10-16 09:08 am (UTC)I am currently reading Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky at the same time. I couldn't actually remember my roommate's name.
tolstoy.
From:Re: tolstoy.
From:no subject
Date: 2006-10-16 04:00 pm (UTC)Yes, oh lord, yes. The other route is when chosing a 'male' name when you're all out and shit, but a 'male' name on the top 10 list of male names. Therefore, I hereby refuse to refer to you as "Michael" "David" "Matthew" "Robert" or "Andrew", or any commonly used variant.
Another idea is you can just go by your last name for a while. "Fox".
I know a couple peeps who have done naming ceremonies, for various reasons. You could always, of course, take your time with it and make sure the name will settle well.
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Date: 2006-10-16 05:25 pm (UTC)And beginning to refer to yourself by the new name will help. Look at Navi. How many people even know her real name? I knew her for over a year before I even heard it.
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