#-don't have a significantly worse hand than the transmascs

[cepheusgalaxy]

look guys i very strongly disagree with the "trans men hold privilege over trans women" point of view and i'm finally able to articulate why:

I think trans men don't hold privilege over trans women, because privilege is kind of a consistent thing.

Like, bear with me: I'm an abled person. I have privilege in relation to disabled people. Because, if me and a disabled person are in a Situation where this distinction is relevant in some way...I'm literally never gonna come out with the worst hand. Never. No matter what the situation is. This is a consistent fact.

Now, when we talk about different transgender identities, I think this gets more shady, because the "who has privilege in relation to who" is a relative statement. One example I saw of people explaining why in their view trans man have privilege over trans women is kind of like this: Imagine there are two passing and stealth trans people, a trans man and a trans woman, in a workplace. Then, it comes a coworker, being blatanly misogynist. Regardless of their views on trans people, in this situation, the trans woman is gonna get the worst of it, in relation to the trans man, because he will be viewed as a man.

It makes sense, and I don't think this hypothetical situation is inaccurate or anything, but I'd also like to point out why it doesn't work as a good point to why transmascs have privilege over transfems. Imagine we change about any variable in this situation. Let's say the trans woman is closeted as a guy, and the trans man is openly transgender. The misogynist coworker then would very much target the trans man in their points, especially if they are particularly transphobic. Now imagine both of them are out and openly trans, with the bonus that now both the man and the woman are gnc. Depending on other specifics, the misoginyst coworker might be bigoted to just one or both of them.

Like, do you see? In different situations, the different trans people have the worst hand. So that doesn't mean that because of the first case, trans men have it generally better. Because there are many kinds of trans men, and simply not all of them have privilege over trans women. In some cases, they might even have it worse precisely because they are trans man. So the privilege the trans man in the first example has is not a consistent thing over trans man! Maybe it's common, I don't know, but when we compare it with someone who has real privilege, like me, an abled person, I ain't ever encounter myself in a situation where I'm having it worse because I am abled in comparison to someone who is disabled.

That's why I think trans woman and trans men simply don't hold privilege over one another, simply because it varies. It depends on who the trans men and women are, it depends in what situation they are in, it depends on the people around them, it depends of so much!!! So saying that trans men have privilege over trans women sounds simply surreal!

I think that, also, the different patterns of the situations in which trans woman have it worse are important to be discussed, and that's why we have the word Transmisoginy, to discuss these issues pertinent to the nuanced oppression trans woman face (and on a similar note, that's why it's also important to have fucking words like Transmisogynoir, because a black trans woman's Situations will be different from a white trans woman's Situations and it's important to to recognize that). THAT's why I also think that we need words like Exorsexism and Transandrophobia, to identify the patterns of situations where trans men have it bad precisely because they are trans men and not something else or because nonbinary people have it bad precisely because they are nonbinary.

SO, in short, my opinion on the "trans man have it generally better than trans woman and that's why they have privilege" debate is that trans man don't generally have it better than trans woman, but some trans man in specific situations have it significantly better than trans woman and that in other situations trans woman have it significantly better than trans man and that is basically a case-to-case scenario and that's also why we need the specific words for different shapes and faces of transphobia to better understand these cases and why x happens with y at z situation. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[nachosforfree]

you're correct!! it's Henry!!

this is. gonna require explaining Henry's weird ass family tree, so bear with me a minute.

to start off: Henry's biracial. he, effectively, has three dads - his birth father (died before he was born), his "dad" (Jen's father), and his stepdad (where he and Jen get the last name "Emily" from).

to give a brief rundown:

Henry's mom didn't like her husband (he sucked, trust me) and left him for Henry's bio dad.

Henry's bio dad, unfortunately, died a couple of months before he was born, leaving his mom without a lot of options but to return to her old husband.

Henry and Jen grow up around him for around twelve years before the guy gets arrested for almost killing someone in a bar fight.

enter their stepdad, and the rest is history.

Henry's mom and Jen both have red hair, and Jen has green eyes. both Jen and Henry have freckles.

now onto my attempt to describe Henry, or at least the parts that are relevant to this (i cannot describe appearances through words to save my life, so if something's worded weird, then that's why):

Henry skin is a lighter shade than Charlie or Sammy, but like. he's still Visibly a POC, if that makes sense.

Henry's hair is a really dark brown, but it has a very slight red tint to it that's practically unnoticeable unless the light hits it right.

as you can probably guess, He's Transmasc.

now, onto what happened:

Will and Henry slept together one night in mid-1974. i don't exactly know what William thought was going to happen, but maybe he was cocky enough to think "well, what are the odds anything's gonna happen? i'm sure it'll be fine"

fast forward a little while later and Surprise Surprise, Henry's Pregnant, And William's The Father.

after a little bit of panic and trying to figure out what to do, Henry comes up with a plan: whichever parent the baby visibly takes after more, that's who gets them.

Genetics Fucks Them Over - Elizabeth is born (Feb. 16th, 1975) and. she's white. there ain't no way in hell Henry could pass Liz off as his and Annabeth's child, no way in hell. so, who gets the baby? William.

Will just comes up with a story that oh, he just found her abandoned somewhere and took her in as his daughter. Claire, Henry, and Anna just help him keep up the lie (because it's that or Henry gets outed as a trans man, and guess what William's not gonna do). it hurt Henry, to some degree, to have to act like Liz wasn't also his baby, that he was just a family friend, but...well, he doesn't really have another Option that isn't significantly worse for him than this one.

now...why does William specifically say that Liz is adopted and not that she's his and Claire's biological child? two reasons! 1) Claire obviously hadn't been pregnant before this, so William couldn't have lied about that in the first place, and 2) Claire was a black woman. so in two different ways, William couldn't just say Liz was a child that he'd had with Claire; that lie would've fallen apart at the seams immediately.

and it works...for a few years. specifically, up until late 1979, when Liz is four.

Genetics Fucks Them Over 2: Electric Boogaloo - Liz gets older, and starts to Much More Obviously take after William. like, enough so to the point that William's "She's Adopted" lie starts to fall apart quick. William only has two real options: either out Henry, or keep his mouth shut and wait for things to blow over.

what he doesn't expect is someone coming in with the steel chair and giving him a secret third option.

enter Tammy Schmidt. she worked at the Diner, she had ginger hair, and her eyes were...more hazel than green, but it still worked. she even had some freckles! she claimed that she was Liz's mom, and...well, William just went with it. Henry was a lot less fine with having to go with it, for obvious reasons, but...well, he also didn't want to get outed. so his hands were kinda tied here.

so why'd she do this? well...there were some employees at the Diner who were Aware of things between Henry and Will, and some even knew Henry was trans, but they didn't really care enough to out either of them (and some really didn't want to, either). Tammy was one of them. she just told her bosses, after the wave of questions and backlash started coming to her, that they both owed her Big Time for this.

so yeah! it's...a long story, but there isn't really a Short way of explaining all that.

to summarize: Genetics Fucked William And Henry Over Really Bad, And It May Or May Not Have Been One Of The Plot Points That Would End Up Causing Things To Happen.

OHHHH VERY NEAT

I love when people have really fleshed out family trees and dynamics for the aftons and emilys❤️❤️

[spin-birdie]

kinktober day 23: body swapping

prompt list

word count: ~550

pairing: tav (oc)/astarion

rating: mature

additional tags: transmasc tav

"Everything's so…itchy. And oversensitive," Astarion gripes from the bed, where he lies dramatically splayed out. "How do you live like this?"

The sound of his voice is so uncanny. It's Thorn's own voice, after all, but with Astarion's distinct Upper City inflection. He's never heard himself sound so…foppish, for lack of a better word.

"I don't know, it's normal to me?" Thorn responds, and he immediately cringes at himself. It feels like he's misusing Astarion's voice. Disrespecting him somehow by using his all-over-the-place accent with it. Would it be better or worse if he imitated Astarion's normal tone? He dismisses the idea with a shake of his head.

"Besides," he continues, "I'm not oversensitive. You're just dead."

He looks in the mirror again, briefly, as he digs his nails into his upper arm. Where he would usually feel pain, he instead feels the mildest discomfort. He's heard about undead creatures being a little bit numb to sensation, but to actually experience it is bizarre. When he runs his fingers along his arms, he has to press quite firmly to get the feedback he's expecting. Probably doesn't help that Astarion has significantly less hair than him.

Hells. If this is how vampires usually feel, no wonder they're obsessed with blood. The dull sensations everywhere else just draw the hunger into even greater focus.

"If this is how you always feel, I see how I'm able to pleasure you so easily." Astarion's distinctive titter sounds even stranger in Thorn's voice.

Thorn turns back to look at him incredulously. "You what?"

Astarion throws his head back at that, releasing a short, sharp howl of a laugh. "You're sensitive everywhere, darling! I can feel my…your…"

He trails off with a playful gaze, and squeezes his legs together. When Thorn connects the dots, he brings a hand up to his forehead.

"Astarion, I know you didn't just say you're horny right now."

A lighter giggle emerges from him this time. He cocks his head to the side and smirks.

"Don't do that," Thorn grimaces, though his lips curl with incredulous mirth despite himself. "Wipe that flirty grin off my face. It's too weird to work."

"Come on," Astarion pouts, swaying his legs. "Aren't you the least bit curious? Haven't you ever wondered what I see when we're together?" His eyes flash with wicked amusement when he adds, "Or are you saying you wouldn't bed a clone of yourself?"

"Aren't clones pretty much always evil? No thanks," Thorn retorts.

Astarion sits up and kneels on the bed. "But who'd know how to fuck you better than yourself?"

That gives Thorn pause. He blinks. Then he cocks his head, seriously pondering the possibilities. The spell does only last for a few hours…probably.

When he looks back to Astarion, he smirks, raising an eyebrow. "You're really not letting this go, are you?"

"Are you going to give me a reason to?" Astarion asks.

They hold each other's gaze for a few moments, silently waiting for one of them to back out. But they don't.

As he slinks onto the bed, not breaking eye contact with Astarion, Thorn says, "I have always wondered how many orgasms my body can handle."

He glimpses an excited grin from Astarion before their lips meet and they tumble into the bed.