#gender explorers

[ech0ech0ech0]

IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY TO SURVIVE AND YOU WERE FULL OF JOY

Jenny Holzer, Truisms // Bears In Trees, Evergreen // I Hope You Heal, illustrated by @Redgoldsparks, text by @prettypositivity, @i-don’t-believe-in-perfect, & @lilbutch // Juno Roche, Gender Explorers // art by @inkipri // Clementine von Radics, In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive (The Last Poem)

[isaacbookclub]

Gender Explorers: Our Stories of Growing Up Trans and Changing the World by Juno Roche

Season 1 Episode 8

[bookwatching]

Heartstopper - every book Isaac reads in season 1

Episode 03 - Kiss

Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum, Leonard Susskind e Art Friedman

Episode 04 - Secret

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson

Proud: My Autobiography, Gareth Thomas

Episode 05 - Friend

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Radio Silence, Alice Oseman

(Fun fact: Alice Oseman is the author of Heartstopper on which the show is based)

Episode 08 - Boyfriend

Gender Explorers - Juno Roche

There is no planet B - Mike Berners-Lee

[theeretblr]

I feel like I am getting better at achieving ✨️ Gender ✨️

[unlimitedbutchworks]

it’s kind of crazy how common the transfem experience of being othered from a queer space due to features like facial hair or deeper voice or otherwise likening them to the evil specter of invasive cis men, meanwhile the transmascs gaining the same stubble and voices are chillin if they aren’t the ones “concerned about your maleness”. really tells you a lot about how acceptable transmisogyny is to many and how pervasive transandrocentricism is

[probablyday]

millennial nerd bertie wooster for some reason

[zan0tix]

My fav agents of the transsexual empire 🫶😁🏳️‍⚧️

I think personally we should draw them as adults getting to fully indulge in their teen fashion aspirations. (see second image) Callies outfit was inspired by paint splotches and embroidery as if she made her outfit herself :) A true artist!

Third is my updated readings. I say "readings" because i believe theres textual evidence for these and its how i interpreted them from my read throughs. (Only jake has the autism symbol because hes the most explicitly disabled coded in text but all of them to me are neurodivergent)

The gender labels are used loosely bc i think each of them has an incredibly unique journey/relationship with their gender that cant be encapsulated in a small set of words, and i do not think any of them would actually fully use labels either.

I am just using these to simplify down my thoughts into something easily digestible LOL MY THOUGHTS ON THEM AND THEIR PARALLELS + MIRRORS + INVERSIONS ARE SUPER COMPLEX i think about them Genuinely Literally Every Day of my Life. theyd have to be saved for a different time </3 but ya alpha kids trans 4EVER howd hussie cram THIS AMOUNT of queerness into these guys.. will never know

[bunnieswithknives]

Fop redesigns for funsies but also bcs I saw some star heel boots and had to put Dale in them immediately.

[tahopo]

we truly regressed when people started buying into the genderbending is inherently transphobic thing. yeah that twelve year old being inquisitive and having fun on deviantart was your enemy all along.

[queer-reader-07]

i think one of my spiciest takes is that i think cis people should be cis on purpose and not because it’s the “default”

ok hear me out before you go into the notes, i have reasons.

the main idea is that i think EVERYONE should explore and interrogate their gender identity and what their gender truly means to them. because 1) i don’t think any harm will ever come from wanting to understand yourself and your existence on a deeper level and 2) if everyone, including cis people, explored their gender it would be more generally accepted. thus, trans people or people questioning their transness wouldn’t be as othered when they start questioning and exploring their gender.

because here’s the deal. every trans person i know can tell you what their gender means. they can tell you what it means to be a man or a woman or neither or both or some other nebulous concept. they can describe it to you and explain it to you. they can tell you what their manhood or womanhood or neitherhood means to them, what it represents, how they knew that’s who they were.

every trans person i know (including myself) can articulate what their gender is in more words than “well i’m *insert gender* because i’m *insert gender*” (yes i know i’m always saying i can’t be bothered with gender but i do actually have a lot of feelings and words on my own)

i’ve talked to a lot of cis people about gender and they just simply can’t explain to me what womanhood or manhood is to them. so often it’s “well i’m a man cuz i’m a man. i look like a man i act like a man etc etc.” but what does a man look like? what does a man act like? and it’s usually people who consider themselves trans allies saying these things!

people should explore their gender. they should understand it more deeply. i don’t say “explore your gender” as a way to try and force anyone into a realization of transness, i say it because i want people to understand their gender. whether that be cis or trans or whatever.

to understand yourself more deeply is to understand your place in the world more accurately. learning more about who you are, and why you are, and how you are never hurts in the long run.

so yeah. be cis on purpose, be cis because you know deeply that you are cis, because you understand what that means to you.

and be trans on purpose. use the labels you like deliberately. dress in the way that brings you euphoria and mitigates dysphoria because you deserve that.

simply be on purpose. walk through life with deliberate steps, with solidified intent. because without doing so, how can we find our purpose on this earth and in this life?

[livinginadumpster]

The way Dead Boy Detectives handles queerness and labeling of sexuality is honestly so refreshing. The way it's handled makes is very obvious that it's not the kind of media in which characters are assumed straight until proven otherwise; the characters' sexualities are left undefined because the focus isn't on specific labels, it's on the relationships between characters.

As the show goes on, it becomes abundantly clear that the characters' sexualities are a non-factor. Sure, Jenny dates women, but a label is never put on that. Same with Edwin - he is clearly interested in men, but not once in the show is he labeled as gay. It's not necessary in either case; labeling these characters wouldn't add anything to their stories or character arcs. The show is completely relaxed about labels because they're almost never a part of or even relevant to the plot.

And so, in a show that is so utterly unconcerned with labels, it would also be exceeding strange to impose the label of "straight" on any character. Characters like Charles and Crystal, who clearly demonstrate attraction to the opposite gender, don't come across as strictly heterosexual, they come across as people experiencing human emotions. And a character like Niko, who never expresses romantic attraction to anyone, really can't be assumed heterosexual either, because it simply wouldn't be in line with what we know about her.

Heterosexuality never comes across as the default in this universe. It never seemed as if the writers automatically assumed any character, no matter how background, to be straight. Queerness is explored not as a defiance of the norm but as just another way of loving someone. In a world where being queer is always viewed as alternate or deviant, and where coming out is a lifelong process that begins again every time you meet someone new because you're always assumed cishet, this kind of complete abolishment of heteronormativity is a breath of fresh air. Seeing queerness handled in such a casual way onscreen honestly feels a little bit revolutionary.

[driftingballoons]

Female treecko hero thought process

Bonus:

[lulu-draws-stuff]

My sort of future au designs (traced/edited their psychonauts 2 renders for this) :] they are like 13 here

[rosesoma]

transfem laios having the worst time of her life growing out her hair bc there's inevitably that period where she HAS to look like her dad bc she doesn't want to cut her hair short again but she also can't force it to grow out faster either

[ao3-crack]

(x)

[grandwretch]

modern au; nonbinary steve

dustin bullies steve into playing their favorite MMO with them. to Dustin's disgust, Steve's favorite part is collecting all the different cosmetic items and making cool fantasy outfits for his avatar. unbeknownst to the party, steve creates an alt account where he can collect the female outfits and wigs, because there's a bigger selection and they're much prettier.

as Steve interacts w people on his new account, he realizes he likes it better-- for one, people pay attention to women in a way he isn't used to. not all of it is good attention, but steve relishes in it. also, he likes that people see him as a woman. he likes that they don't even think about it. quickly he joins a guild and actually starts playing the game in earnest, just so that he has these relationships with people who view and treat him as a woman.

he meets Eddie there. Eddie is charming and flirtatious with everyone, men and women, but it's clear that Steve is his favorite. Very carefully, Steve becomes closer and closer to Eddie-- close enough that Steve is full of guilt.

He feels like he's lying to Eddie about who he is, even though he's told the truth about everything but his gender. Even worse is the realization that he doesn't ever want Eddie to think of him as man-- which is confusing, because steve isn't exactly comfortable with someone he's falling in love with thinking of him as a woman.

Things get even worse when, after Steve drunk texts Eddie after a night out with Robin, they start sexting. Its fun, casual flirtation, nothing too serious, but Strve realizes he likes the idea of sex better as his alternate self. He likes pretending to have tits, he likes imagining what it would be like to have a cunt, he likes talking about wearing lingerie and being Eddie's good girl.

He thinks he can't come clean without losing the best thing he's ever had, so Steve pushes his guilt down and pretends he's not in love.

Of course he gets caught out, eventually. Dustin and Eddie become friends in real life and Eddie isn't an idiot. Steve is mortified and distraught, but once Eddie is sure that this wasn't all a cruel prank, he's quick to assure Steve that nothing has to change-- Knowing that in real life Steve has broad shoulders and a square jaw doesn't make him any more of a "man" than his online avatar makes him a "woman". Not if that's not what Steve wants.

So Steve doesn't have to give anything up. He gets to keep his amazing, supportive boyfriend. He gets to keep his pretty clothes and avatar. He gets to keep experimenting in the bedroom, finding out what makes him happy instead of what he thinks he should be doing.

And he gets more, things Steve never even dreamed of having: He gets to start buying pretty clothes in real life, too, and they hang next to his polos like they belong. He gets to grow out his hair. He gets to slowly find out what he likes, how he wants people to think of him, how he wants to think of himself.