My Gala return from the Time-out Box

[Danielle La Belle]

May 26, 2005……

I am back! Returning from an extended engagement in the forum’s “time-out box.” You remember the “time-out box” or the “penalty box” from the ice game, “Hockey.” Remembering the wonderful game with child-like admiration, I spent a few hours in the “time-out box,” while the numbness in my toes made my feet feel like lead. Not that those maroon and brown heavy duty short bladed ice skates had anything to do with it ha ha LOL.

So, I am back. Unchanged. Perhaps more aware of the rules that currently define the “forum” structure. After all, life is a game with rules. We can either conform to those rules supporting the majority or we can trespass knowing that there is the “time-out box” waiting with a warm seat just for the offender. It seems pretty harsh on one hand, on the other, it is the rule of the day.

Make no mistake, these are just words and without the appropriate inflection from my body movements, hands, face etc, one can easily apply their own severity to this entry. I am neither mad (only dogs get mad), nor am I unhappy. Rules are rules.

So, if anything, you will perhaps notice my “creativity in future writings,” one may need a good dictionary at their side at times to decipher my entries. All the better. Nothing like reading a dictionary to upgrade our understanding of the English language, or any language understanding that you choose to upgrade.

I may not always run with the pack girlfriends. I may run outside the circle that has been defined as the appropriate place to run. After all, just how much can be said about “the various shades of lipstick” as another forum member so eloquently put it. There is life after lipstick. I hope to talk about that in the near future. I think that this forum will shape itself well into the future. With no one particular opinion or personality to dominate the issues, there will be much to talk about and share among those that willingly participate in the various threads.



Hugs

Danielle Marie

[Danielle La Belle]

I calculate that around 80 members respond on a regular basis, another 50 are occasional. That leaves around 650 that are pretty much readers only. So, I would like to hear from you. How else can we have a more active forum without your input and thoughts! Everyone has an opinion. We need to hear it.

Hugs

Danielle Marie

[DonnaT]

Welcome back Danielle.

[Celia]

Wb, Danielle.

-Celia

[Jamie Ann]

May 26, 2005……

I may not always run with the pack girlfriends. I may run outside the circle that has been defined as the appropriate place to run. After all, just how much can be said about “the various shades of lipstick” as another forum member so eloquently put it. There is life after lipstick. I hope to talk about that in the near future. I think that this forum will shape itself well into the future. With no one particular opinion or personality to dominate the issues, there will be much to talk about and share among those that willingly participate in the various threads.

Hugs,
Danielle Marie

     I am glad to see you back, Danielle! I hope that you are right about this forum having a bright future, but I am undecided about that. Competition is the name of the game, in CD forums as in business, and those forums that meet needs or have the greatest appeal will win out.

     Talking about significant issues here, for the most part, is restricted to the “Hot Topics” usergroup. Most participants here do not even know that this area exists, and even the Site Administrator has only the foggiest idea of what that area is and why it is important. Consequently, it is hidden from view, which means that few people go there. As Sharon(SO) said in a recent response to a user of this forum, “ ‘Hot Topics’ is a private, hidden usergroup and can only be viewed by members whose names are in that group. It is an area that can get really heated, so if you don’t like debates, heated discussions, talking about politics and CD related issues, etc., you would probably not like the usergroup. But if you want to be added to the group, that is fine. The only qualification is that you have to have been a posting member of our forum for at least a month.”

     This point of view, which emphasizes secrecy and hiddenness, greatly reduces discussion of the issues that most CD’s and most SO’s are most concerned about. In a thread below, for instance, Darlene raised the issue of conservative Evangelical Christians seeing crossdressers who go out in public as deceitful persons whose motivations are fraudulent. (Darlene had to sugar-coat this observation, but my statement of it is accurate.) This would be an important topic to discuss. But we are very restricted in discussing it — unless we want to see our responses moved to the hidden area. So the original question was reformulated by those who responded so as to become the question of whether CD’s are deceiving or pretending. That may be in interesting question, but it is not the question of why conservative Evangelical Christians insist of seeing a man who wears a blouse as evil — or of what we as a community might do to change that perception.

[Lorna]

Welcome back, Danielle!

I may not have agreed with 100% of what you may have posted in the past, but I will say that I have always found your posts to be very insightful as well as thought provoking. Good to have you back!