If your soul had a gender...

[entropie]

Does it have hairy teeth too ?

 

[Lucas]

I expect my "soul"(I use the word tentatively) would be considered more masculine, although I don't really assign it a gender. It just is.

 

[entropie]

That's the right spirit (ouh unintended word pun alert )

 

[Saslou]

I wouldn't want to give my soul as gender, if i possibly could .. It is nameless and formless.

 

[Randomnity]

I'm having a hard time understanding how you can have a different-gendered body/soul without being transgendered. I guess you're just using "gender" very very very loosely, here.

My "self" doesn't really have a gender. I suppose it's female by default, but it's not something I'm really conscious of.

I wish it were possible to detach "soul" and slip into new bodies. That would be sooooo cool. It'd be neat to see how people treat you differently.

 

[cafe]

I don't really feel any disconnect between my soul and my body, though I do get frustrated with my body for needing stuff that I'd rather not bother with or when I want to do something and my body won't cooperate because of size/strength or energy issues. I guess that makes my soul a girl. I dunno.

 

[Mole]

Transfigured

I'm having a hard time understanding how you can have a different-gendered body/soul without being transgendered. I guess you're just using "gender" very very very loosely, here.

My "self" doesn't really have a gender. I suppose it's female by default, but it's not something I'm really conscious of.

I wish it were possible to detach "soul" and slip into new bodies. That would be sooooo cool. It'd be neat to see how people treat you differently.

They say that in heaven there is neither male nor female. And of course the aim of all of us is to get to heaven, to become pure spirits, to shuck off this mortal coil and fly as free as the angels.

All of us have been told that the internet was created by the USA military to fight a nuclear war and win, so how ironic that the internet is as close to heaven as we have come, for on the internet we are all disembodied pure spirits.

On the internet time and space have been abolished by the speed of light, and here you sit, listening to me in, of all places, Australia, where it is Spring and the Sun is shinning. But even Spring and the Sun are totally irrelevant and I might as well be in the next room.

It takes a while for our minds to catch up to the reality around us, in this case, the internet. For our minds still think we are embodied. Just look, we are still obsessed with sex. We are still trying to meet one another physically. It's as though being transported to heaven, we look back nostalgically to the vale of tears called earth and earthly embodiment.

Of course there is nothing wrong with the internet, it's just that we lack the imagination to appreciate it, to value it and use it for good. We are still fixated on our bodily concerns where they can't be met and where it is ridiculous to try.

The internet is exquisitely suited to develop our inner life. We can lie back and relax for all the hard work has been done. All we need to do is prick up our ears and listen.

And what do we hear? Only the songs of yesteryear. We are deaf to the songs of today. The music of the internet passes us by.

But no matter what we do, the internet marches on, and the saints are comin' in, and we are being transfigured despite ourselves.

 

[Mole]

Transgendered, Transformed, Transported and Transfigured by Trance

I'm having a hard time understanding how you can have a different-gendered body/soul without being transgendered.

Whether we are transgendered, whether we are transported, whether we are transformed or even if we are transfigured, it is a trance that does all the work.

And it does it behind our back while we are not looking. It puts us to sleep, or half asleep. And while we are dozing, wields the scalpel and we emerge from the trance a new beast entirely.

And while whole population are being transfigured, we blithely ignore the process.

So, dear Reader, I thought I would send you a heads-up and by clicking on www.tranceinstitute.com we can learn what trance is doing to us.

 

[Totenkindly]

Does it have hairy teeth too ?

Not if you shave it.

 

[Totenkindly]

Does it have hairy teeth too ?

Not if you shave them.

(I've heard European women just let their teeth hair grow freely.)

 

[Ingenue]

I wish it were possible to detach "soul" and slip into new bodies. That would be sooooo cool. It'd be neat to see how people treat you differently.

Isn't this what people do online??? On the internet no one knows you're [ a man / ugly / ISTJ / ]

Actually the tale of the Greek soul-splitting reminded me of the Buddhist version...

In Buddhism it is believed that your soulmate is the same soul, only a more advanced (more reincarnated) version of yourself, because time is not temporal and multiple versions of the same soul can exist simultaneously. The mission for the older soul is to guide the younger soul through knowing was has already transgressed, and through the process the older soul reaches deeper understanding and attains enlightenment.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

The popular definition of "soul" is a misconcept based on poor understanding of religious texts. One could of course invent their own concepts and propagate them, but this soul thing really actually heavily relies on old texts.

Abrahamic religions, of which christianity is part of, actually present animal and people being souls. The scriptures actually make sense with that definition. Not that many people by the old definition though. The concept of some ethereal spirit is a lot more mystical.

Anyways, I have most of the male and female traits in my mind, but just the behavior of a male. I don't think that everyone who has atypical male brain, for example, has to go gay or something. Free for everyone to do what they wish, though. I just think that I've got it figured out just well. I've liked to attach to people and things like a female would, I've liked to explore my feelings like a female would, I've wanted to engineer and systemize like a male would, and I've wanted to control and deal with things like a male would. I really can't understand how my female traits could ever have resulted in any further than that. I think that one's "brain settings" or preferences don't really have to have anything to do with one's social identity. One's social identity and how their brain works are separate. Or, perhaps if one is really reliant of fitting in, then one desires to identify with the gender that best matches with one's own brain structure.

Edit: I have to clarify a bit. I have no real information of the girl-in-a-guys-body experience or the other way around, so that's not what I'm speaking of. What I am speaking of is this: not everyone with the usual brain gender atypicality should need to experience any troubles with it. As many as 10% of each gender has atypical brains for their gender. It's quite a usual condition and shouldn't result in any trouble.

 

[Totenkindly]

I was avoiding saying much, but my general thoughts are along Sanntu's lines.

Speaking of a "soul" as some actual, distinct entity attached to (rather than included as part of) the body seems to be a pretty big leap. We have no evidence such a thing exists. But it's an extremely popular idea, since it ties into the desire of life after death and the most obvious way for such a thing to exist.

Likewise, a lot of the "gendered stuff" here just seems to be how one aligns with social notions of cultural gender. Men and women who instinctively accept and perceive themselves as said men and women, who might be noting that they possess attributes that align more with the other gender in their cultural setting -- such as what is exemplified in the Yin/Yang concept (and no one is all Yin or all Yang).

For example, guys who have some degree of sentimentality aren't necessarily women, and despite sentimentality they might still totally scan as male; my FIL is a clear-cut ISTJ, but he can be very sentimental (and cry at holiday family gatherings) without it reflecting anything at all about his gender or making him read as less male.

 

[Ingenue]

lol I was waiting for someone to go Judith Butler on me.

Just because gender is culturally constructed doesn't make it less "real" in our everyday sense.

 

[Queen Kat]

My soul would be male, because I don't understand other women at all. I don't understand men either, but they're still easier to get. If my soul was a person, I think it would be Voldemort, a chain smoking version.

 

[Qlip]

Yeah, I grew up in a religion that taught the soul is just another word for 'entity'. I understand the concept of a soul, but it really doesn't resonate with me. I think of spirit as female, not my own, but everyones. I have no idea where the association came from.

 

[Unkindloving]

Deep down.. in the absolute depth and core of my being.. Female. It doesn't matter how heavily I attempt to mask it with a 'male' musk.
I'd say my basis comes across as more 'male' to those who don't know me well and who are on the outside of who I associate with. As for myself and the people I care about, I'd say the 'female' aspect is blaringly obvious. Maybe. Either that, or my Fe keeps showing.

It would likely be better if I asked those select people.

 

[Thalassa]

I am such a girl. When I was little I had pink bedroom walls. Even when I was a senior in high school one of my friend's moms rolled her eyes because my bedroom decor was so feminine. I can't fathom being anything other than female.

 

[Blank]

Isn't this what people do online??? On the internet no one knows you're [ a man / ugly / ISTJ / ]

Actually the tale of the Greek soul-splitting reminded me of the Buddhist version...

In Buddhism it is believed that your soulmate is the same soul, only a more advanced (more reincarnated) version of yourself, because time is not temporal and multiple versions of the same soul can exist simultaneously. The mission for the older soul is to guide the younger soul through knowing was has already transgressed, and through the process the older soul reaches deeper understanding and attains enlightenment.

Fuck. I had no idea I was an ugly male ISTJ with narcissistic tendencies. D;

Nah, but in all seriousness, I would hope to think that my soul was asexual and embodied something more substantial than arbitrary feminine or masculine traits...which actually makes me want to argue the point of what's seen as masculine or feminine, since much of what we consider masculine or feminine is culturally based.

 

[Ingenue]

lol I was waiting for someone to go Judith Butler on me.

Just because gender is culturally constructed doesn't make it less "real" in our everyday sense.

Okay I'm quoting myself here because there seems to be similarity in the criticism, and it's better that I expound.

When I say that I am drawn to female souls, I am alluding to what I feel is at someone's core. If I take it apart and try to understand it outside of myself, I am probably just drawn to givers--because I am a greedy bastard. And yes, perhaps this is a cultural construction, and we can further this discussion ad infinitum with all the poststructuralist language we want. But just because what we understand to be "male" and "female" is part of our shared imagination does not make it any less real than even the construct of the soul itself--which some have also pointed out is also a kind of imaginative fixture. Even the notion of "objectivity" is itself a cultural construct arising from the institution of science that claims to be value-free. To disregard man's or woman's "essence" because the definition is fluid and subject to socio-historical context is silly. Our shared, and dare I say fallacious, consciousness is equally as real as something that is "real".