Host Dunc_FmExec:
Welcome to a chat with Melanie! You
will need two windows open to participate. This room is READ ONLY. Go to
Melanies Chatroom (go word MELANIE) and you can ask questions there as
well as talk to the other members. We will open this chatroom at the end
for all to participate in!
Host Dunc_FmExec:
Hi Melanie and WELCOME to the
Sexuality Forum! Haven't talked face to face with you in a couple of
years and it's our pleasure for you to be here tonight!
Melaniexx:
Thanks, Dunc! It's great to be here!
Host Dunc_FmExec:
Tell us a little about yourself and
what you're up to now! <G>
Melaniexx:
Well, let's see....
First of all, I am the co-creator of
the a new theory of story, the theory of Mental Relativity, I'm married
with two kids, I publish the web magazine, The Subversive, and I had sex
change surgery a little over four years ago.
How's that for a start?
Host Dunc_FmExec:
It's a start for sure! <G>
Host Dunc_FmExec:
Mental Relativity... what is it?
Melaniexx:
Mental Relativity is a new theory of
mind. The major concepts are that the minds of men and women are
different, due to the way they handle space and time. This grows from a
hormone wash that occurs before birth. We've built a math model of the
process.
Which areas interest you the most?
Host Dunc_FmExec:
To me, the biggest point is the
differences in the sexes.
Melaniexx:
Let me cover a little bit about how
that happens... In the twelfth to fourteenth week of pregnancy, the
brain of the developing fetus recieves a wash of testosterone or
estrogen. Testosterone enhances the production of the neurotransmitter,
Seratonin, which makes the neurology more powerful, compared to the
biochemistry. Girl babies get a wash of estrogen, which inhibits the
neurology, making the biochemistry more powerful by comparison.
After two weeks, the wash goes away,
but it has had an effect on the cells in the brain that make
neurotransmitters... Boy babies will ALWAYS be biased toward the
Seratonin, and hence the linear, spatial neurology, whereas girl babies
will ALWAYS be biased toward Dopamine, which favors the holistic,
temporal (time based) biochemistry.
Biochemistry is like a big hologram.
It contains interference patterns that hold much more information than
the neural networks of the mind. It is where our emotion, intuition, and
creativity come from, whereas our ability to reason comes from the
neurology (the neurons and ganglia, which are neural networks. All your
experiences in life, can shift the bias a little, but you can never
change it from linear to holistic or vice versa.
>melanie takes a breath!<
Host Dunc_FmExec:
Even hurt my fingers! <G>
Melaniexx:
Stubs!
Host Dunc_FmExec:
What is this story theory?
Melaniexx:
It sees every complete story as an
analogy to a single human mind, trying to deal with an inequity. In
fact, the notion of a male mental sex or female mental sex main
character, is essential to working out the mechanism of a story.
The Theory was implemented as
software, which has now sold over 15,000 copies world wide in only two
years. Writers all over are using it to "predict" what is
needed to complete their stories.
It is the model of Mental Relativity
that drives the Story Engine in the software.
Host Dunc_FmExec:
That's interesting!
Melaniexx:
It took fifteen years to develop at a
cost of over one million dollars. We've lectured at MIT, and I'll be
teaching an eight week course in the theory at UCLA next January. Best
of all, it makes writing HARDER, so the stories come out better.
Host Dunc_FmExec:
Big stuff! It has it's own WWW page
too doesn't it?
Melaniexx:
Yes, while I was working there
developing the theory and software, I set up a WWW site for them. This,
of course, was after I cut my teeth setting up my own web site.
Host Dunc_FmExec:
Your web stuff is some of the best
out there! Great job! What is the URL so everyone can find it?
Melaniexx:
You can reach the web site at http://www.well.com/user/dramatic,
by the way.
My page is at http://www.well.com/user/melanie/
Lot's of good stuff - embedded video, audio, real audio, pictures,
articles, The Subversive, my personal diary, tons of stuff! I have about
16 meg up there right now, all state of the art, cutting edge stuff.
Host Dunc_FmExec:
Very good stuff I might add. :)
Melaniexx:
I get about 400 visitors a day right
now, with about 20,000 accesses per day to my files.
Host Dunc_FmExec:
I'm usually one of those! <G>
Melaniexx:
I think you account for half of them!
Host Dunc_FmExec:
Not quite half I don't think! :D
Melaniexx:
Well, it's a fun site, with something
for everyone,
Host Dunc_FmExec:
We have a few member questions for ya...
Melaniexx:
even a few bikini pictures of moi.
Host Dunc_FmExec:
Yes it is!
Melaniexx:
Shoot!
Host Dunc_FmExec:
Saw that too! <G>
Host NeuroDom:
Dragon-Rdr would like to know:
i'd like an overview of the math
model. How did you arrive at this theory?
Melaniexx:
Well, since it took fifteen years to
develop, this answer is going to be a little less than complete! But,
here goes... As it turns out, our big inspiration was that a story
represented one, single mind.
Because of that, characters, plot,
theme, and genre, were all just different families of consideration the
Story Mind makes, when trying to solve a problem.
In short, it is a model of our own
psychology. Underneath all the storytelling is a deep structure. The
deep structure represents the way all of our minds work the same way.
The storytelling is like our
individual personalities. When you strip away the storytelling and look
at the deep structure, it looks a lot like a Rubik's cube, crossed with
a periodic table of story elements.
We had to model this using non-linear
equations, fractals, relativistic equations, and even a new kind of
realm we had to coin a term for, because we invented the concept, called
"frictals" (for friction and fraction).
In the end, we built a model of the
way the mind moves from one consideration to the next, in the attempt to
balance something that is unbalanced, and we also discovered the concept
of mental sex along the way.
Hope that answers it in brief.
Next?
Host NeuroDom:
gardengal:
How has the period of time been
narrowed down to a finite 2 weeks?
Melaniexx:
Actually, that research was not done
by us, but is an accepted period of time, based on actual testing before
birth. A lot of new information about hormones, sexuality, and the womb
is coming out, and the pre-birth hormone wash is well documented.
It comes and goes like a wave on the
sand, leaves its mark and then recedes, so there is no remaining trace
in the brain, but the minds of men and women forever remain different.
Next?
Host LordandLadyDom_Asst:
and a question from dashing-frisky:
So the hormone wash is an actual
physiological event?
Melaniexx:
Yes, it occurs in all of us. Then, at
puberty, we get a second wash that continues through our adult lives...
As children, we need only a little bias to the space or time side, but
if we are two biased, we end up not being very good at survival, because
we don't see the other side very well at all.
So, at puberty, reproductive age, we
get a bias that moves us completely to one side or the other, and at the
same time generates secondary sexual characteristics, that attract us to
a "bonded pair" with the opposite mentality, so that we end up
seeing more deeply into our side than the other sex, but have a second
half to watch our backs, because they see more clearly right into our
blind side, and us into theirs. This makes a much more viable survival
pair than a single, balanced individual.
Host LordandLadyDom_Asst:
5. Dragon-Rdr:
and, more importantly, how sexuality
determines thinking styles
Melaniexx:
Well, that's a big question, but
here's the short version... Because of the hormone wash before birth,
followed by the hormones at puberty, men see the spatial, linear, binary
world more clearly, but are kinda fuzzy on the whole
time/emotion/spectrum/holistic thing.
Women, of course, are the reverse,
seeing much better, and more clearly the emotional side, the holistic
side, and not being intrinsically as clear on the binary.
This is why women do poorly at higher
math, not because they can't do the math, but the whole language of math
is binary, built by men, and by the time you get to higher math, you are
right in a woman's backyard of thinking, but she has to come at it the
long way around from the binary men's side. We need a second language of
math, science, culture, religion, even language itself, to compliment
the way a woman thinks.
So, men are good at parallel parking,
and women are better at relationships, though that is only about one
fourth of what drives a mind, the rest is training, cultural
indrocrination, and conscious choice.
Host NeuroDom:
gardengal would like to know:
when did you realize that you were
different and was that what began your search?
Melaniexx:
I first realized I was
"different" when I started kindergarten. I just couldn't
relate to the "other boys". I didn't think like that at all. I
had to try and learn how they acted by watching them, but it never came
naturally for me. I used to honestly think my parents didn't love me,
because there was something about being a boy they were supposed to
teach me, and they didn't.
I had fantasies of being a girl all
my life. But I thought they were just fantasies. So, after puberty, I
put them aside and got married and had kids and a career. None of that
brought me the fulfillment I was looking for. So, after about 14 years
of marriage, I decided to explore my fantasy, and it turned out it was
reality.
Next ?
Host MikeH_Asst:
tasdev: do you think that with the
power sharing and equality of the sexes that this is bringing male and
female sexuality closer and the differences are receding
Melaniexx:
Since I believe the differences are
biologic,
<short delay>
I got boffed off the system!
Host Dunc_FmExec:
The moof monster! <G>
Melaniexx:
Okay, as I was saying....
What's happening today is, that
society set up roles that were great for truly binary sexual minds. But,
when we stopped being a survival society, we ended up having more people
born with less of a biochemical bias, this happens naturally.
Originally, only the binary pairs of
men and women could survive best in the wild because they each saw
deeper into the spatial side or temporal side - the way things are or
where they are headed, but as we drifted from survival, more people born
in the middle survived, straightening out the inverse bell curve, making
us have a larger population of men who are more toward the temporal, and
women who are more toward the spatial, but men will never cross that
line, nor women either, they will just meet in the middle through
natural selection. Even now, the testosterone level of men is dropping
at 25% per generation, and women are getting an inch taller per
generation.
The problem is, as more of the
population gets toward the middle, there are fewer people who are
satisfied with the rigid roles. But society is a STRUCTURE, which means
it cannot change, but must be dismantled and rebuilt. That takes time,
but the changes in our biologic population are going much faster.
So, those men more toward the
temporal, become cross dressers, because they think more like women
insofar as they are attracted by the role, and women more toward the
middle become feminists, because they think more in the binary, and want
the same benefits and opportunities. In fact, some women and men fit at
the ends of the spectrum in the traditional roles and others belong on
the other side.
Next ?
Host NeuroDom:
Dragon-Rdr asks:
how does this theory affect issues of
homosexuality?
Melaniexx:
Homosexuality is not simply one
thing. Part of it is hormonal, and part of it is experience. In fact, my
partner in creating the theory is gay. As you know, the Corpus Collosum
(the connective band of neurons between the lobes of the brain, is
larger in women and homosexuals, than in straight men. But I have a
theory, that it starts out the same size in both men and women, but
grows to accommodate the kind of thinking an individual does. If it is
more holistic, the two sides need to talk more, if it is more binary,
one side talks, then the other.
So, for gays, I suspect their hormone
wash puts them closer to the middle, so regardless if they learn to be
macho or fey, their intrinsic manner of thinking will cause slow brain
changes to make the band of neurons more holistic.
But, remember, the hormone wash does
NOT determine masculine or feminine, Gay or Straight, or even male or
female, but only linear or holistic.
Next ?
Host LordandLadyDom_Asst:
8. Dragon_rdr: how does this theory
affect issues of homosexuality?
Melaniexx:
Well, I think I pretty much covered
that, but socially, politically? Well, it means that the tendency toward
homosexuality is inborn, but the practice comes from life experience,
cultural indoctrination, etc.
The real question is, if someone has
a very real tendency they can't do anything about, is if fair to ask
them to live miserably, never being true to themselves, or is better to
let them follow their inner yearnings?
In survival societies, you have to
kill people like that to protect the structure, In today's society, you
have to let them go their own way to keep society alive.
Next?
Host MikeH_Asst:
Dragon-Rdr:
what a depressing thought (that we
will meet in he middle) some of us have a great appreciation for
polarity
Melaniexx:
Actually, I sympathize, you see I am
WAY over to the female, feminine side myself. But the way I see it, we
aren't going to be from being bi-polar to all the same, but rather, we
will become a complete spectrum with just as many people at any point
along the spectrum as there are at both ends. A rainbow, if you will.
Next?
Host NeuroDom:
dashing-frisky inquires:
Do they know what triggers the
hormone wash?
Melaniexx:
No they don't, but we have a hunch in
our theory... Today, DNA is looked at as a structure only, (a typically
male-science point of view) In fact, we believe that is only HALF what
it is, the other half being DYNAMICS.
It is the Dynamics that
"trigger" all aspects of growth, aging, and even the hormone
wash. So, the trick will be to create a Quad helix, instead of a Double
helix, and look at the intangible temporal processes of DNA as part of
the whole model. Then, you can pinpoint when something will happen, and
with the first two spirals, you can tell where.
For transsexuals, however, it is
thought that certain chemicals, can have an impact on when and how long
the wash occurs.
Next?
Host LordandLadyDom_Asst:
13. sweetlayde:
what is the difference between being
gay and being a TS?
Melaniexx:
Sometimes no difference at all.
Sometimes a complete difference. Being transsexual, means being born
with a mind that works like a MAC in the body that is supposed to be
IBM. That has nothing to do with the kind of programs you want to run,
only the operating system. We call the male system, the SBOS for Spatial
Brain Operating System And female is TBOS Temporal Brain Operating
System.
When you are born, you think like a
boy or a girl but as you grow up, you learn to like one sex more than
the other physically.
The four aspects of human sexuality
are:
Gender Identity (masculine or
feminine)
Sexual preference (Straight, Gay, Bi,
or Neither - self)
Mental Sex (male or female)
And anatomical sex (male or female)
Any combination goes. So, a TS might
have surgery and want to be with men, women, both, or neither-self.
Next ?
Host NeuroDom:
_tkjanes wants to know:
do hormones cause marital problems
later in life?
Melaniexx:
Well, it's kinda hard to get it up
these days... ;) Actually, Mary and I are still married. It has been
four and a half years since surgery, but we have become close friends
instead of lovers. I date for more intimate relationships. My kids rate
my boyfriends. Mary and I sleep in separate rooms, but share the house
and the duties.
Next?
Host NeuroDom:
ZZ_THE_CRAB:
Is Melanie talking about ostracism?
Melaniexx:
Osctacism in regard to? Probably an
earlier topic....
Host NeuroDom:
Yes, it was an earlier comment,
melanie...
Host Dunc_FmExec:
Yes mam! <G>
Melaniexx:
Perhaps when I mentioned that a
survival society had to kill gays, but a modern society had to elevate
them. Well, no, I mean it actually had to kill them in those days for
its own good. There were so few resources to go around, that they
couldn't be wasted on non-reproductive members. That is why they left
the old out to die.
But, I'm not saying that is a
wonderful thing. I'm simply saying that is the way a binary, structured
society works...
It carries over into all kinds of
remnant prejudices that are not at all necessary and actually
counterproductive to the growth of society today, so in effect, these
kinds of things cut society's own throat in this day and age.
Next?
Host NeuroDom:
furry asks:
so what's a typical male point of
view please qualify statement
Melaniexx:
Well, remember that any human being
is 25% hormone wash,
25% cultural indoctrination
(sub-conscious)
25% education (memory)
and 25% free will (conscious choice)
So, the Mental Relativity theory can
only predict what a typical hormone wash response is, So that
statistically you can see these trends in the population, but for any
individual, the other 75% may move them completely to the other side in
response,
But typically, a male tends to think
logistically,
tends to see things in black and
white,
tends to divide a job into steps,
tends to set goals
tends to put off immediate pleasures
for achievements
tends to not notice bad working
conditions if motivated toward a goal
tends to have little patience for
anything he cannot see as being important to himself.
And so on.
But those, of course, are just
underlying tendencies.
Next?
Host LordandLadyDom_Asst:
dashing-frisky asks :
With the changing of society, are we
progressing or regressing?
Host MikeH_Asst:
So is what Melanie is saying is that
a post op TS may be gay AFTER operation? i.e. male before op, female
after op but lesbian?
Melaniexx:
Ah, two questions, one stone...
Host Dunc_FmExec:
hehe
Melaniexx:
As society changes, it opens more
options for all of us so that no matter where we fall in the spectrum or
how we change our outward appearance we can still enjoy relationships of
any kind that attract us.
In fact, most people are not
Straight, Gay, Bi or neither all the time, Just as you wear one kind of
clothes to the office and another to the beach, we drift in and out of
how much we are attracted to which sex.
If we see a particular kind of
person, we may be attracted a lot one day, a little the next, or even
repelled. And, even the context in which we meet them we may change our
feelings because of the atmosphere. Look at prison!
Next?
Host LordandLadyDom_Asst:
dashing-frisky:
With the changing of society, are we
progressing or regressing?
Melaniexx:
Well, we're just changing. There is
no progressing or regressing except from a determined point of view.
Each of us needs to make a value judgment on that from where we stand.
But one thing is for sure,
Host Dunc_FmExec:
This is the last question. We will be
opening the room up for general discussion shortly! :)
Melaniexx:
change will continue or the whole
wonderful game will come to an end.
Was that the last, or is the next the
last
(or the last the next?)
Host Dunc_FmExec:
That was the last. :)
Melaniexx:
Dude!
Host NeuroDom:
*|\|euroDom applauds Melanie...
thanks for coming!
Dragon-Rdr:
wow
sweetlayde:
mmmm much better
Melaniexx:
Throw the speaker to the lions!
Host NeuroDom:
Thanks for coming, Melanie!
Host Dunc_FmExec:
Floor is open! <G>
dashing-frisky:
that was different
Melaniexx:
My pleasure!
TWO1287:
Oh that feels good now
Dragon-Rdr:
so can you characterize feminine
thinking as you did masculine?
Melaniexx:
Sure (and you can get a lot more on
my web site at http://www.well.com/user/melanie/
Women look toward the over view,
they see things in shades of gray,
they tend to think in feelings
they have a less refined sense of the
linear,
putting contentment on hold to
achieve a goal requires a justification.
Women see time as flexible or
"subjective time"
dashing-frisky:
I like your theory adds a lot of
logic to relationships
Melaniexx:
Women select directions rather than
steps.
dashing-frisky:
and sexuality
Melaniexx:
Well, it's fun to ponder, anyway.
dashing-frisky:
The physiological connection makes
sense to me
Host Dunc_FmExec:
I think it's all very interesting
Melanie!
Dragon-Rdr:
i love your theory
Melaniexx:
It's interested me for quite some
time. Now, if I could only get a life!
dashing-frisky:
lol
Host Dunc_FmExec:
I now know a little more about why I
like watching a woman walk down the street anyway, I THINK! <G>
Melaniexx:
Thanks, Dragon. That was a true
blessing to work on.
Dragon-Rdr:
i study theology and it has a lot of
implications in biblical interpretation. i have to give this a lot of
thought
Melaniexx:
I'd rather the theories made people
think than made them converts.
The more consideration it stirs up,
the more others will discover about themselves, and that's the best it
can do.
Dragon-Rdr:
that is all you can ever hope to do
Melaniexx:
Actually, I hope for a Ferrari.
dashing-frisky:
I must go, thanks Melanie. Could I
have your Web Site address again?
Dragon-Rdr:
naw, definitely a lexus <g>
Melaniexx:
Sure:
http://www.well.com/user/melanie/
There are links to everything from
there.
Okay, I'm hitting the pavement. Thank
y'all for your time.
Host Dunc_FmExec:
We have a link to her web sight on
the top level of the forum. I'll also place on in the links folder too!
Great sights she has! :)
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