I am a social sciences student looking into transsexualism for my dissertation. I am extremely interested and need someone willing to talk to me in an open and frank way. I would like to speak to anyone who will help me get a deeper understanding of your thoughts and feelings, prejudices you face, if you feel you fit in with society etc and the steps involved in changing sex. I would also be interested in how a person classifies themselves e.g. do you see two genders or more. I need a rich informative interview with people who can help me with the dissertation. Thank you in advance.

Emma

Welcome to the forums ssllxx.

Due to past events T-people can be suspicious of requests like these, and often rightly so. As I'm sure you are aware there is a vast amount of information published, both on the internet and in book form, on the subject. Also as there is such a wide spectrum of T-people, finding one persons to interview for your project is a bit like trying to find one black person to interview to find out the thoughts and feelings of black people. I notice you say 'people' as opposed to person, and apologies if you are already aware of this diversity.

If you 'prove yourself' a bit more and display the knowledge you have gathered so far I'm certain it would greatly improve your chances of getting what you want.

Good luck.

thank you, yeah i understand what your saying. Obviously times an issue but trying to get more than one person because in sociology the move evidence of the same thing is better than just one person saying it. The trouble is i like reasons why, not just making up statistics, but these methods are time consuming but i still feel that they are better than facts and figures!!! But thank you for your advice, the trouble is i just don't have an opinion to express because i don't know enough to develop one so will be hard to get stuff out there!!!
I know alot of 'researchers' listen and still write what they want. I want the truth and have no preconcieved ideas!!!

Hello Emma, what do you expect to get from our members that is not already available in the large body of clinical and social-psychological literature on the subject?

As for the prejudice we experience, if you take the trouble to read through the postings in our News section you will have a very clear idea of our situation, both globally and internationally.

Once you have read all the news postings for the last year or so, you will then be in a very much better position to interview anyone who might come forward to talk to you once we have received confirmation of your project from your course supervisor.

Never a week goes back that someone doesn't come in here for the first time wanting an interview for their 'research' or magazine or reality TV show. Some are genuine, and well-motivated, but most are not. Which are you, I wonder? How will your student project help us?

Yeah i never thought about like that. I really didn't want to come across like a researcher who's just interested in what people can do for them. The discipline i have chosen is sociology so i can use more subjective measures. What do i expect to get from members thats not already there in books etc? I know that those books are engineered to what the researcher wants to find out about and to support their theories or whatever. I haven't got any preconceived idea's so no reason to manipulate answers or research. The working title of the project is 'the body as a project'. Using areas such as class (do middle class find it easier to obtain sex change ops), gender (do we still have a binary system), and identity (why is gender so closely linked with identity) and consumerism (finding out about the NHS's attitude v. private). I can read/watch alot of secondary resources, but they only give me half an idea. As my project is just for my course use and will never be published its unlikely i can give anything to anyone. This wont be a place where opinions can be voiced so that they can be heard.

i think it's intresting, because personal narratives can often give a little more colour and depth to the 'avaliable literature'. indeed, the avaliable literature can often feel quite silencing to some trans-people as it doesn't always allow us our own voices, but rather assumes an objective standpoint. much of the literature, from clinical to academic to media, is often written by people who are not trans. as long as emma's aware that the diversity between trans-people in terms of their own experiences, and ways of coming to terms with those experiences, is as great as for any other social grouping then i think this might be intresting*, even if it is only informing one student in an undergraduate course. i mean, all the people who wrote the avaliable literature have to start somewhere.

if emma would like to PM me her assumptions (she's already outlined the areas she's intrested in), and convince me her ear is fully open and unbiased (not saying it isn't, but that's the cagey trans thing coming out) then I might be willing to play if i can find time

*that of course means that she'll need a suitible number of candidates from different backgrounds with different ways of viewing their own experiences. i'm guessing anyway.