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Question:
You mentioned a little bit about your sexuality...I was wondering how the different genders of your "personalities" affected you and your treatment. It would be interesting to me to know more about this. When male personalities were present were there stereotypic actions of males? Also, the same question for when female personalities were present. Thanks a lot for talking to the class a few weeks ago. It really personalizes what we are learning about. |
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| Angel's response: First of all, you have to remember that all parts are children. Child parts caught in the age of traumatic event, regardless of how old the body is or even what they might say. Having said that… Gender is not so important to children. And when gender was expressed, I would say that it reflected a parental or caretaker role as opposed to male or female. Male - strong/protector. Female - mother/nurturer. Parts, male and female, whose role it was to play out sexuality played out sexuality. That was their job. So, the rest of the parts did not really deal with sexual issues because that was somebody else’s job. There were times, however, when a male part was out and would get perturbed that HE was not being respected and I, also, recall, a time when I had visited a male friend in the hospital with my youngest son. The nurse said that my friend was getting his bath but that it would be fine for us MEN to enter the room. Fortunately, this was a co-conscious part that kindly declined and no embarrassment ensued. The boys did prefer jeans and t-shirts. The girls wore dresses. They
used gender specific names often. Debbie/Tommy. Getting parts to be present
in the body was more difficult than gender. The gender either was understood
or didn’t matter until they were made to be present in and with
the body. Gender is non-issue if you really don’t live in the body.
I still struggle with being in my body. Much more can be accomplished
if you are not encumbered by a body. |