Your Personal Space

by Douglas J. Moore, Ph.D

I will be writing a regular mental health column for the Gay People's CHRONICLE. clinical

a

I am psychologist in a private practice which provides therapy for women and men with a broad range of concerns and circumstances. In addition, I teach, consult, and do research at several institutions in Cleve-land.

several

This column will use different formats to focus on mental health issues. First, it

for for

will provide an opportunity readers to submit questions which they would like some infor mation. Though I will not be providing individual personal advice, I will discuss

issues

how

related to the question and others may have coped with simi-

ત

to

lar situations. If you need specific advice or counseling, please indicate that in your letters, and I will try to refer you someone who can help. Second, this column will provide forum for readers to express their views on mental health issues and how they have coped with them. Third, it will explore mental health topics which suitable particularly prevalent to people who are gay, and report on current psychological news of general interest.

In

I encourage readers to send questions, accounts of personal experiences arid opinions. addition, I welcome input from persons who are not gay. Friends, co-workers and family members

can

also need a forum where they exchange their Views on mental

DEFINITIONS: Woman/Man

By Janice T.

know

Mast people what the words Woman and Man mean. When you ask for a definition of womari and/or man you find how wideranging, incomplete, these words are.

and

vague

What do the words womari man mean?

arid

Woman and Man can be defined in a clinical sense. They can be defined in terms of historical documents, or in terms of what a person considers themselves to be. Unfortunately, even some of our most common sources for definitions are not helpful.

Why should I care about these definitions?

The definitions of these words serve as tools to limit

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NEED To Talk? LAKE GEAUGA GAY Social Advocate task force Can Help

Call 357-1199

AM Support Grap

two US

can

men.

and divide us. A man and woman marry, but not two women or two Women and men are limited on the job and elsewhere. Clinically, a woman is a person who gestates, lactates, and menstrates. A man is a person who impregnates. That covers a good number of the population but it is not complete. It does not cover older "women" or preadolescents. It does not cover people who are incapable of participating in the child making process because they are not equipped to do so. Or those who are dually equipped, or ill-

formed.

Historically, we have been defined as women and men, or more precisely female and male on our birth certificates. Afterwords our families "socialize" us into womanhood or manhood using more or less strict guidelines guidelines which are supposed

to

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health

issues pertinent to and lesbians.

gays

November and December can be difficult months because of the

holidays. Some of the

may include:

*Increased

reasons

pressure to

drink

or take drugs.

*Loneliness.

*Confusion as to how to divide

family

up time between your and your lover's family. *Wanting to be with your lover alone vs. with the family. *Pressure from not being

to the family.

*Initiation of old

out

family

roles you have tried to change.

Next month I will describe some of the coped with the

ways

people have

above problems. Please send suggestions that have worked for you.

be understood by all. Using the birth certificate, all people are defined male or female (except those who lack the paperwork or whose paperwork was improperly prepared).

Most of the time people become a woman or a man because that is what they are taught. Girls are given dolls and boys are given trucks and toy guns.

Ironically, few if any legal challenges to these definitions exist. Or maybe you can't challenge something that has been defined by legislation. We do know, however, that there are somethings that a females (or males) can not do legally.

Even lexicographers (people who write dictionaries) have trouble defining the words. Go ahead and examine your favorite. You'll probably a definition that uses another form of the root word in its definition. shop owner and I chased tions for quite sometime made the circle back original words.

we

are

Perhaps the best

A bookdefinibefore

to the

definitions themselves.

from the person Accepting a persons definition of his or herself leads to the best understanding of that person.

So, what do the words

and man mean?

woman

November 1987

The CHRONICLE