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Re: what does Eunuch mean to you as an identity term?
Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2013 10:22 pm
by Neutered (imported)
I have no testicles and only a 1/4 of a scrotum. I am not a eunuch or a Eunuch or an Eu. I'm just a man with no nuts. Everything else works just fine with TRT.
Re: what does Eunuch mean to you as an identity term?
Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 4:02 am
by unencumbered (imported)
Neutered (imported) wrote: Thu Aug 29, 2013 10:22 pm
I have no testicles and only a 1/4 of a scrotum. I am not a eunuch or a Eunuch or an Eu. I'm just a man with no nuts. Everything else works just fine with TRT.
By definition, you are a eunuch, whether you want to admit it or not. It is not a term that I would freely use to describe myself because of all its negative connotations; however, if someone I trusted asked me if I was one, in honesty I would have to say, strictly speaking, yes.
Re: what does Eunuch mean to you as an identity term?
Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 4:38 am
by tugon (imported)
unencumbered (imported) wrote: Fri Aug 30, 2013 4:02 am
By definition, you are a eunuch, whether you want to admit it or not. It is not a term that I would freely use to describe myself because of all its negative connotations; however, if someone I trusted asked me if I was one, in honesty I would have to say, strictly speaking, yes.
This thread is about how we self identify. Definitions are a good beginning but many here are rewriting the definitions. One important thing the EA is doing is expanding on basic knowledge of what it means to live outside of the gender binaries. Dictionaries have yet to keep up.
Re: what does Eunuch mean to you as an identity term?
Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 9:49 am
by nullorchis (imported)
In thinking about how I identity with the term Eunuch,
after hearing others,
after researching the word in various on-line reference materials,
I have found that Eunuch is also spelled eunuch,
and that while in past times it traditionally was spelled as Eunuch and meant a male who was castrated,
eunuch can also used to define a male who has not been castrated (according to Wikipedia),
"Less commonly, in translations of ancient texts, "eunuch" may refer to a man who is not castrated but who is impotent, celibate or otherwise not inclined to marry and procreate. "
This does not mean that anybody should conform their self identity to the constraints of dictionaries, encyclopedias, ancient texts or Wikipedia.
Or expect that others agree with how we self identify
Or that we need to agree with others on how they self identify.
But having a positive self identity is, to me, necessary and important.
Not having even thought about self identity, having no self identity, or having a negative one, may not be beneficial.
To each their own; live and let live.
Re: what does Eunuch mean to you as an identity term?
Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 3:15 pm
by talula
I'm a talula! Woo hoo! Woot!
Re: what does Eunuch mean to you as an identity term?
Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 3:39 pm
by tugon (imported)
I'm a talula! Woo hoo! Woot!
And a good one at that!
Re: what does Eunuch mean to you as an identity term?
Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 1:21 pm
by devi (imported)
I came upon an old legal term from an old unabridged dictionary. It was the term "spado" which was used to designate those who were unable to produce children. This is a borrowing from the Latin of course which in turn was from the Greek "spadon". Obviously it is a term that was in useage in the past. So "spado" would therefore have had a certain amount of legallity jurisdiction with it. I'm not sure whether these were the ones at one time that could have married either sex or not but I think they were.
Re: what does Eunuch mean to you as an identity term?
Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2013 5:12 am
by butterflyjack (imported)
Hence the term Spayed, for cat female neutering, I guess...
Re: what does Eunuch mean to you as an identity term?
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 7:42 pm
by daifu-orchid (imported)
Hmmm... depends on the day. No testicles, scrotum, but currently on TRT, in varying amounts. I enjoy the freedom to choose just where I want to be on the spectrum from functional but nutless male to asexual critter who is still identified as somewhat male.
Re: what does Eunuch mean to you as an identity term?
Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2014 12:33 am
by gareth19 (imported)
If there is any connection, it is very remote. Lat. spado sterile male comes from Gk. σπάδων which is generally derived from the verb σπάω I pull. The technique of sterilization being the pulling or rupturing of the testicles in an intact scrotum; spaying is sterilization of a female by the removal of the ovaries through surgical means using a bladed instrument, in Old French, (e)spee; in modern French the word is épee sword. The source of that word was Gk. σπάθη sword. The two Greek words are distinct and different as far back as we can trace, the methods of sterilization are different, the one being blunt force trauma to a closed scrotum and the other surgical incision and removal of the ovaries.