#mddn314

Insult, neglect

Damage, upset

  Violence, exclude

Cruelty, abuse

  Who must I be?       

He or she?

Gender norms don’t fit me.

Out on my own,

Here all alone;

Guilt and shame forced on me.

I like the night ‘cos it speaks in a fantasy,

Free from prejudice and ends in equality.

Words and walls,

colours and clothes;

Rigid confines bind me.

I see my face

Can that be me?

Trapped in this mess, must be free.

I like the night ‘cos it speaks in a fantasy,

Time for the change to come, now that I can see.

Am I her?

Am I him?

Kilogram, birthdate,

Password, self-hate

  School grades, filenames,

Numbers, life games

  ‘She’, ‘he’ (‘she’, ‘he’)

Gender norms are what I’m forced to be.

Labeling, pressuring (labeling, pressuring)

Guilt and shame and forced identity.

Night time comes and speaks in a fantasy

No divisions and total equality

In the darkness I can just be me,

Sunrise comes and it’s back to ‘she’ or ‘he’.

I see my face, who is that, is it me?

Kilogram, birthdate,

Password, self-hate

School grades, filenames,

Numbers, life games

‘I’ and ‘she’ and ‘he’ and ‘you’,

Don’t you know the damage you do?

What are we measured by; what is our identity?

Labels tied with individuality.

I like the night ‘cos it speaks in a fantasy,

Erasing all divisions and ends in equality.

But the black tears me down and I give up the fight,

For the right that I have to be who I like.

Kilogram, birthdate,

Password, self-hate

School grades, filenames,

Numbers, life games

I see my face, who is that, is it me?

I am him, I am her, I am trapped, must be free.

Words and walls and colours and clothes,

Our black-and-white genders juxtapose.

I like the night ‘cos it speaks in a fantasy,

Erasing all divisions and ends in equality.

And the light burns my eyes as it rises with the sun  

It took me a long time to realise what transsexuality was. I barely knew what the word meant, let alone the impact it can have on someone's life - to be born in the wrong body.

Growing up is hard enough, without the judgement, bullying and all the other problems that come part and parcel of being a transsexual.

I wanted to use my video project to educate, in a way I wasn't until I started finding out about it at around age 18. Before then, I was fairly judgemental and naiive, like a lot of society is in general. I am not transsexual myself, so this will be a challenging topic, which I aim to do justice to; though I do identify as lesbian, so from personal experience, I am able to relate to the discrimination and misunderstanding that minority groups like mine and this face.