I'm a female.

 

When I was a child I didn't like girl toys. I liked boy toys. I never had a desire to play with dolls, like most you guys didn't have that desire either, probably. My mother would get me a doll every year for Christmas. In addition to the doll, she would get me things that I really wanted "boy toys". To me, as a child, I didn't understand why my mom always got me a doll. I never asked for one, I never even showed a desire for one. As I started to get older, I asked her to please stop doing that. She obliged. My parents were very supportive of me liking sports and basically being an all around tom-boy. My dad let me work with him on "men-type' projects and I loved it, he was proud of me. I could have probably been born a boy and would have been the exact same personality wise, but I wasn't, I was born a girl.

 

As I got older I started to conform more to what society thought I should be. I wasn't just working off of instinct any longer. I was aware of what I felt I "should" be. I then understood why my mom insisted on buying dolls for me. It made sense.

 

I don't have a desire to transition to a man, far from it. I enjoy my life and am happy as a woman. My point is, there's a spectrum and I obviously fall somewhere other than the left side of WOMAN< - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >MAN. I would gather we all fall somewhere on this spectrum. Calling someone who might be born as a male, but think/feel like a woman "severe mental illness" is hogwash. If you were lucky enough to have your mind and body match up in perfect harmony, goody for you. Not everyone has that kind of luck.

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