#historical trans man
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enbycrip Ā· 1 year ago
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ID: a black and white photo and caption from a newspaper showing a young white trans man with light hair wearing a tweed jacket and high collar smiling at a young white woman in a pale dress as he brushes her mid-length dark hair. She is smiling at him from the slightly complex angle as he brushes her hair. The photo is faded and not great quality but their faces are clear.
The headline over the photo is ā€œHereā€™s How I Used To Do It!ā€
The caption below reads ā€œAn expert at women's coiffures although not a hairdresser, Zdenek Koubek proves himself as he combs the locks of Cinda Glenn, New York night club beauty. Koubek knows all about coiffures from experience, since they were of concern to him when he was the foremost girl athlete of Czechoslovakia, prior to a sex-change.ā€
Zdenek Koubek was born in Paskov, Czechoslovakia (at the time) in December 1913, one of eight siblings, and competed as an athlete. With minimal formal training, he began running at age 17, decided to pursue it formally aged 19, and broke two world records at the 1934 world olympics.
Because queer and gender-diverse history is complex, Iā€™m genuinely unsure if Zdenek was intersex. He seems to have been pretty gender-nonconforming when read as a woman in his early life and seems to have retired from athletics because he was harassed by people wanting him to undergo invasive ā€œgender checksā€ after his gold medals at the 1934 Olympics.
Apparently the current obsession with ā€œdefining gender in sportā€ has roots back to the 1930s. Athletes competing in female athletics have been forced to undergo a variety of examinations for the purpose of declaring them ā€œfemale enoughā€. They seem to have never been pleasant, appropriate, or anything other than invasive and dehumanising, and they seem to have always focused on a) defining gender by physicality b) defined that physicality in fairly arbitrary ways that are actually incredibly difficult to relate to anything objective, despite a veneer of scientific objectivity.
I can entirely see why the threat of such harassment would have caused Zdenek to decide an athletic or adjacent career wasnā€™t worth undergoing it, whether he personally believed himself to be intersex or whether we would recognise him as such today. The term ā€œintersexā€ has many definitions, and is often challenged by medical professionals if it could potentially cover too many people - e.g. medical professionals have repeatedly challenged the term when used by AFAB people with PCOS, which can cause fertility issues, hirstutism etc, purely on the grounds of ā€œthat would make around 10% of women intersexā€. Zdenek simply publicly stated ā€œI was wrongly assigned as female at birthā€ without giving any other details - as he had *every* right to. Some historians have characterised him as intersex based on this, and others simply as trans; he appears, very reasonably, to have preferred to preserve his privacy on the details.
Zdenek went on a lecture tour of the US talking about his life and transitioned in 1936. At the time of this photo, he was pursuing a career in cabaret in the US. He seems to have been reasonably successful but never settled there, returning home and marrying a cis woman with whom he lived happily for the rest of his life, dying in Prague aged 72 in 1986.
He joined a local rugby team along with his brother Jaroslov after WWII and seems to have been an enthusiastic amateur player. I hope he got a lot of joy out of it, which he does seem to have.
Like so many queer and trans histories, Zdenekā€™s is somewhat obscured because so much of what has been written about him is always skewed by the writerā€™s own perspectives about gender and transness. Including the drive to impose a false binary on trans experience - which I as a nonbinary person know is certainly not universally present.
There are, of course, *absolutely* trans people who always have a strong feeling of gender equating to ā€œknowing they are a boy/girl from an early ageā€, and I in no way wish to erase them or their experiences, but it must also be noted and acknowledged there are plenty of us with different experiences. There are people like me who feel ā€œwrongā€ in our assigned gender from pretty early in life, all the way down to having quite strong dysphoria in puberty and afterwards, but donā€™t strongly ID as the ā€œoppositeā€ binary gender either. There are people who rub along fine in their assigned gender, or who have many issues with it but donā€™t know what they equate to, until they have some experience presenting otherwise and suddenly experience strong gender euphoria for the first time in their lives. There are people who never feel anything much at all about gender and only ever do any identifying purely as a matter of convenience because a very binary society requires it.
Cis people seem to find the ā€œalways knew/born in the wrong bodyā€ narrative the easiest to relate to, and I can only assume that is because it is the narrative that allows them to challenge our societyā€™s gender-essentialist, binarist worldview the *least*. It is considerably easier, and requires much less thought and critical attention, to say ā€œI guess sometimes the occasional person is just mistakenly assigned to the wrong categoryā€ than to question those categories, why they exist, what they actually are, how they are imposed, and whether they actually mean anything at all in an objective sense.
I have no idea where Zdenek fell on any of this, or if his experience was very different in another way.
I posted this to, as ever, note that we are not a new phenomenon. Trans people are part of human history. We have always existed. We have always contributed. The way the society we lived in perceived us *and* how the societies our stories have passed through perceived us affect how our stories are told today, and those things can make it complex to uncover the lived experience of the trans person behind all of that. Queer and trans history must always be about acknowledging those facts and uncertainties while doing our best to find out as much as possible about the actual lived experiences of our siblings in the past.
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kit-catrock Ā· 1 year ago
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I just discovered that there was a person who was afab and ended up joining the russian army by the name of Alexander Durov in 1806.
Born a woman, Nadezhda Durova (birth name) ran away from home and joined a light cavallery regiment dressed as a man.
After his identity was uncovered, the russian tsar summoned him to the palace atĀ St. Petersburg, where he impressed the tsar so much that he awarded Durov theĀ Cross of St. GeorgeĀ and promoted him toĀ lieutenantĀ in aĀ hussarĀ unit.
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He always referred to himself as a man and was upset when people called him a woman.
He signed letters with his male last name.
He expressed feelings of disgust towards his sex and how that worried him a lot.
He never married willingly and adopted many dogs and cats.
He only danced with women when attending a ball.
He asked to be buried under his male name Alexander Andreevich Alexandrov but the church did not agree to that.
I never saw him in "historical transmasculine people" compilations and only discovered his story coincidentally.
Unfortunately, historians still adress him with female pronouns, although he did not want that.
Let's remember him together. We won't allow him to be forgotten.
I'll probably add onto this post later or make a better one but you can read a lot on this wikipedia article:
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iliothermia Ā· 1 year ago
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Minoan trans man.. I'd like to think he's a saffron goddess who may have been playing tricks but made a realization in the process šŸ‚āž°
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yourdailyqueer Ā· 7 months ago
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Bill Edwards (deceased)
Gender: Transgender man
Sexuality: N/A
DOB: 19 March 1874Ā 
RIP: 22 March 1956
Ethnicity: White - Australian
Occupation: Barman, entrepreneur, writer
Note: Been described as "Australia's first transgender celebrity".
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transmunsons Ā· 1 year ago
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Steve traced Eddieā€™s scars, long since turned to white. He grazed his fingers over the ragged marks on Eddieā€™s stomach, the neat lines under his pecs. Light filtered lazily through their blinds and danced across Eddieā€™s skin in golden stripes.
Steve had woken up first. He loved moments like these where he could just look and touch, remind himself that heā€™s not alone. He got to see this every morning but the novelty had yet to wear off. Eddieā€™s face was relaxed, half smushed into a pillow and his hair tumbled wildly out his bun. Heā€™d found another gray hair the other day and made a fuss to Steve about it.
Steve pressed closer and wrapped an arm around Eddieā€™s thick waist, almost lying on top of him. He buried his face in the space between Eddieā€™s neck and shoulder and focused on how warm he was, the way his chest rose and fell. Still alive.
Eddie stirred and rumbled out a, ā€œMorninā€™ to you, too.ā€
ā€œI had that dream again,ā€ Steve murmured into Eddieā€™s neck. The one where Steve couldnā€™t save him.
Eddie dropped a kiss on his hair, wrapping him in an embrace. ā€œIā€™m not going anywhere, sweetheart.ā€
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seamsterslocal Ā· 1 year ago
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summer binder picture tutorial
this is the third binder ive made for myself recently and the first one iā€™m writing up. itā€™s designed to do a few things: 1) allow me to put it on by myself without dislocating my shoulders 2) allow me to breathe well enough to partake in normal activity 3) be cool enough to wear throughout a muggy 90-100F summer 4) not constrict my ribs in a way that aggravates my lack of connective tissue and causes intense pain.
this has become necessary even though i had top surgery many years ago, because when i had it i was extremely skinny and since then iā€™ve increased in size by about 50%. this has been really fucking good for my health in every single way* except that when my chest is squishy or moves at all itā€™s So Goddamn Triggering for me. but also since ive had top surgery ive developed and/or been made away of a plethora of chronic conditions that make every single commercially available binding option medically impossible. unbound, my chest is pretty much what youā€™d expect for a chubby cis guy but venturing out into the world in just a tshirt no longer works for me
*anyone who badmouths weight gain or fat bodies in the notes WILL be blocked
under the cut are a bunch of process pictures and explanations of what they all mean:
first iā€™ll give you a look at the pieces and measurements:
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most of the seams are sewn in this picture and one half is turned inside out, allowing you to see both the finished dimensions (right) and the placement of the fusible horsehair canvas that gives this lil scrap of linen any structure at all (left)
to get your chest measurement, youā€™re gonna have to do some math:
first measure above and below what you want to bind. average these numbers. mine are something like 32 and 34, which average to 33. subtract a few inches--this is to allow the air movement between the laces at center front and back, critical in the summertime. i deleted 3 inches bc i like that number but you can go bigger if you want. the more inches you subtract here, the more youll be able to ratchet all your chest material down later, but at the same time you need to leave enough fabric for a sturdy garment. letā€™s say a range of 2-6 inches/5-15cm. by taking your measurements this way, youā€™re essentially measuring the chest you would like to have. that + the horsehair canvas work together to compress any squishy tissue/force anything that doesnt compress up and to the outside (basically into the armpit/lower shoulder--the chest might stick out but it will give a very puffed chest captain america pectoral silhouette)
you can also see how ive clipped my curves and pre-drilled my lacing holes. i used the marlin spike on my knife to open up the holes on the interfacing side, mainly as a way of marking them. this worked well bc the interfacingā€™s glue kept the linen from raveling
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this is the same stage but looking at the non-interfaced grey linen/cotton blend (the black is some 100% linen from my cabbage stash). you can see ive broken the solar-plexus-to-back measurement up into a bunch of pieces to save on fabric but thatā€™s not necessary. my original pattern was just two pieces (front and back) and chopping the straps into thirds on both sides was aesthetic
in the following picture you can really see how this is really just overgrown regency stays:
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i thought about doing side lacing but didnā€™t think that would be comfortable for me. on the front, the side seam allowance was pressed inwards before turning to create a finished looking slot. on the back the side seam is left unfinished with an extra wide seam allowance, and is inserted into that slot.
hereā€™s a closeup on it pinned in place (you can adjust the angle of the side seam and the fit during this pinning stage):
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that side seam was just topstitched in place once i had the fit how i liked it, and the armhole was reinforced with more topstitching
alright, time for eyelets: first, you can see how well the marking worked:
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next, two rows of basted eyelets (left), one row of eyelets sewn with a doubled and waxed cotton thread (center right), and one row of eyelets opened and stainless steel rings placed (right).
next time iā€™m going to mark the eyelets same as i did above, but do this step differently--iā€™ll mark and baste the steel rings in place BEFORE widening the eyelets. this is bc i had a lot of problems keeping the eyelets on center
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eyelets half done on this one! on the left are eyelets sewn with doubled and waxed cotton thread and on the right eyelets sewn with quadrupled and waxed thread. the center is basting again. i was able to force the holes back in line while sewing the eyelets but it was kinda annoying. adding a second picture that doesnt have great focus but hopefully shows how that process worked and shows the spike clearly
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i ended up using this white cotton thread because itā€™s stronger than my black cotton thread (which the rest of it is sewn with). [eta: after this was first posted, i pressed the whole thing heavily, which effectively de-waxed the thread, and i dyed the whole thing a medium charcoal grey, the thread blends in perfectly on the lighter side and isnā€™t such a sore thumb on the darker side]
bonus: the piecing layout for that little piece of strap. the whole light gray half of the binder was made from 1/2 of one of the legs i cut off some linen suit pants to make slutty camping shorts last year and i really really didnā€™t want to break into any of the other three halves for this garment--i have Plans for it
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overall the fit of this is incredible. it DOESNT hurt my ribs which every zip-up garment ive been able to find (and it is difficult) does due to really thick elastic at the base. it doesnt aggravate my sensory issues with the synthetic fibers that every commercial option is made of. i can walk up a hill or stairs, or go to pt, without getting too out of breath. i can eat with it tight, or loosen the front easily and without taking it off to make eating easier and less nausea-inducing. it is reversible!
best of all the lacing at the back gives the garment enough movement for me to get it on without dislocating, and the interfacing and steel rings give it structure once itā€™s on. the shaping comes only from fusible horsehair linen canvas and stainless steel rings like youd use for chainmail, thereā€™s no boning at all, which makes it very quick to sew (except the eyelets, but metal grommets would be sturdy and quick provided theyre of good quality)
thereā€™s a small amount of gaping on the outside of the shoulder strap, which i plan on fixing with a tiny tiny dart in the armpit, i want to add pockets to tuck the laces into, and i need a better lace for the back, but itā€™s completely wearable in time for the 90 weather next week which is all i wanted. iā€™ll do a reblog when itā€™s perfectly finished with an update on the fit but for now it is done enoughĀ 
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the little ridge where it doesnt lay flat against the shoulder is most visible with just a single t shirt over it. with a flannel or a sweater, it disappears, and by itself, itā€™s hidden in movement
eta: after dyeing this, i relaced it a bit looser in the back and that gape mainly disappeared. ive decided to leave it in instead of smoothing it with a dart because the loose fabric gives space for my chest to expand when breathing and shapes my silhouette in a way that emphasizes my shoulders
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spitblaze Ā· 3 months ago
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"This historical figure who was born as a woman and lived the rest of her life as a man isnt transgender and shes not a man she was an oppressed woman who pretended to be a man in order to pursue her dreams under intense patriarchy" listen i understand what the line of logic here is and i know that applying modern labels to figures who lived and died before these words and concepts were invented or popularized is a dangerous game but if this dude not only lived his life as a man but insisted that he be referred to as a man and went off on people who misgendered him and had an entire love life where all of his lovers would also refer to him as a man and was adamant that his body not be examined postmortem as so not to be retroactively defined by his genitals and wished to still be recognized as a man after his death i feel like at the very least you could respect his wishes to be referred to and seen as a man and leave the 'born female' thing to be an interesting tidbit at most instead of the fact about him you parade around
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haveyoureadthistransbook Ā· 11 months ago
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The Companion by E.E. Ottoman
goodreads
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New York, 1949
After years of trying to break into New York City's literary scene, Madeline Slaughter is emotionally and physically exhausted. When a friend offers her a safe haven as the live-in companion to reclusive, bestselling novelist Victor Hallowell she jumps at the chance to escape the city.
Madeline expects to find rest and quiet in the forests of Upstate New York. Instead, she finds Victor, handsome and intensely passionate, and Audrey Coffin, Victor's mysterious and beautiful neighbor.
When Victor offers her a kiss and the promise of more Madeline allows herself to become entangled even as Audrey is also claiming her heart. The only problem is that Audrey and Victor are ex-lovers with plenty of baggage between them. As Madeline finds herself opening up and falling in love with both she starts to wonder, can there be a future for all three?
Mod opinion: I haven't read this one yet but it is on my tbr. t4t4t romance yippiiiieeeeeeee. Update: I've read and enjoyed it. t4t4t erotic romance.
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horsedisk Ā· 2 months ago
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There are good faith people who say things like ā€œthe meaning of the word ā€˜proshipā€™ is so muddledā€ and ā€œno one can decide what proship meansā€ but I need the internet to understand the word proship has only ever meant pro(for) ship(shipping).
Likeā€¦ā€œfor shipping.ā€ As in, ā€œin favor of shipping.ā€ As in, ā€œlet people ship whatever they like.ā€
Over time the definition of proship has expanded to ā€œlet people enjoy whatever fiction they likeā€ which means the same thing.
How much more clear cut can you get?
The anti campaign to rebrand pro(for) as pro(problematic), or to equate ā€œproshipā€ to ā€œpeople who ship illegal thingsā€ (???) and ā€œpeople who ship incest and pedophiliaā€ ā‰  the term ā€œproshipā€ is ā€œmuddledā€ or that proshippers canā€™t make up our minds. It just means antis have shoveled around enough horseshit to irradiate the term. How many of these ā€œno one can give you a consistent definitionā€ people actually mean ā€œI donā€™t want to use this term because it will mark me as a chronically online loser at best or a child predator at worst?ā€ Like, please realize thatā€™s not OUR fault as proshippers. Proshippers didnā€™t spread the misinformation. We werenā€™t the ones who turned a stance as normal as ā€œlet people ship whatever they likeā€ or ā€œlet people enjoy whatever fiction they likeā€ into a social death knell. Youā€™re allowed to not use the term of course, but like. Can you please not kick the people who do use the term while weā€™re down? Weā€™ve only ever wanted to play with our dolls and pay our taxes and mind our own business.
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sn0wbat Ā· 8 months ago
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more einarr!
i just wanted to draw some very stylized scars on him again. while also making the queerest drawing of him yet. thanks.
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uncanny-tranny Ā· 9 months ago
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For TST
I just finished listening to Elliot Page's book and I have to say it was an interesting piece of literature. I highly highly recommend it.
I have never read a book that is so closely aligned with myself as a trans man and my upbringing. I never thought I would read book that defines what it means to be a trans man in the public eye. I do not want to be as famous as him but I would like to make a change to the world as he has.
I am comfortable in who I am and who I love and how I choose to express my gender. Things really can and often do get better with time. And I hope that any person that sees this knows that they are not trapped in the shoes that society has put them in and they can actively choose a different pair.
I would love to read Pageboy soon; these memoirs and other art and literature are our history, part of our lifeblood as a community, and it's vital that we read each other's lives and understand that we truly are here in this worldšŸ’›
It's great to read such a glowing review from you, and I'm so happy that his words lit your soul like it has
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libraryofbaxobab Ā· 7 months ago
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April 5, 2024:
I... hesitate to call this horror. It's more like tense historical fiction that suddenly veers into fantasy territory. This certainly does not merit the title or cover art, which imply this should be about 17th-century witches, instead of a 1920s nurse fighting for the right to wear pants. I don't know. I liked it for sure, I just wouldn't say it evokes the feelings I associate with horror. Maybe that means I'm desensitized.
The conflict is mostly transphobes vs healthcare, and while that's horrifying in real life, it's also pretty mundane. This is for fans of Upright Women Wanted (Sarah Gailey) with an added power fantasy attached, and a main character who occupies the same gender-space as Alex Easton in the Sworn Soldier series (T. Kingfisher).
You could absolutely market this as a dark paranormal T4T romance. I liked seeing sexual tension between two trans men! I don't usually get that, and they switch who is bottom so that's cool. And the rumors are true: Monsterfucking.
7/10 #WhatsKenyaReading
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iliothermia Ā· 1 year ago
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yourdailyqueer Ā· 1 year ago
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Henry Berg-Brousseau (deceased)
Gender: Transgender man
Sexuality: N/A
DOB: 9 March 1998 Ā 
DOD: 16 December 2022
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
Nationality: American
Occupation: Activist
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this-should-do Ā· 29 days ago
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me when i meet with my colleges first out trans teacher who is like a celebrity with me after one of my teachers puts me in contact with her again (i had interviewed said trans teacher 4 years prior and hadnt met with her since) and she tells me tjat my teacher had so many positive things to say about me, about how i was one of her brightest most well spoken students and that she (within like 5 minutes of having been talking) immediately sees exactly what my professor had been talking about and so many super implied positives about me that i would never had known about and i dod everything in my power to avoid prying for more details but even what i heard was soso nicies
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#iwillspeakincessantly#god it felt so nice to meet with her again#talking woth someone whos been so influential at my school and the whole state as far as transgender and queer policy making and has#so many connections amd experience and is also trans and historically a teacher bfor she retired#genuinely makes me feel so much better about my life and where im going#and less worried about if ill ever be able to live a peaceful life as a trans twacher when she personally knows#multiple other transmen tbats shes taught who are now teaching IN MY STATE#safely and happily#ough#we said wed meet more in the future and she encouraged me to join the cities pride group that she had founded and is the head of#and maybe tjis time ill actjally go#she even gifted me a book that she had had that she thinks would give me solace and comfort in my life#tbat was also written by a trans man sinxe she thinks im easily intelligent enough to get the humor and referwnces in#god she said i was well spoken and articulated even tho i feel so stupid and inarticulate sometimes#since i ramble a lot and lose my thoughts and i feel like my speaking vocabulary is so lowbrow and cheap often#no matter how many times other peope say i always sound so intelligent when i speak#ARGH#been super steessed about a lot of things in my life and if ill make it out alive but just this short hour and a half convo over a food#has made me feel so mich better and happier and hopeful#argh argh ougj i love finding out that people talk immense amount of positive things about me#god#i was rlaking about how often i struggle woth socializing amd making friends and she aas like really? ive been having a wondefful time#walkimg with you youre so intelligent and well spoken and its like thank you my issues ckme from group settings#and unclear un familiar subjects and ettiqutes of my fellow youths#but it made me feel so good about myself#im gonna implode :333333 positive
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weed-cat Ā· 3 months ago
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#in the kindest way possible i think that some of your guys' queer microlabels are predicated on incorrect assumptions#about what is or is not typical of most people's gender and attraction.#you can call yourself whatever you want.#but just be aware that Straight and Gay and Transgender and Bisexual and Man and Woman and Nonbinary and other 'boring' labels#have always held capacity for more nuance and diversity than you've even thought to imagine#rigid definitions of queerness are a new and generally unhelpful development in the history of our community#and i promise that people before the internet era didn't just all have a simpler relationship with gender and sexuality than we do#again. you can call yourself whatever makes you most comfortable. that's the goal.#it just makes me feel weird when people demand or assign microlabels to historical figures or celebs who have not IDed themselves#or strangers on the internet/in their class.#apparently at my brother's very progressive middle school there is such a culture of everyone needing to neatly label themselves#that he just picked a sexuality to tell his friends even though he doesnt know#(which is pretty crazy because my middle school experience was only a decade off and a few miles#and there was definitely still homophobic bullying. but anyway)#i doubt that that's an uncommon story considering how you can log into tiktok#and find pages run by 11 year olds confidently stating a list of queer labels#people absolutely do figure out that they're queer/trans/gay at that age to be clear. kids been be queer and know it and that's incredible.#what makes me worried is kids feeling like they have to scramble to figure themselves out and clearly identify themselves to their peers#so they can be neatly categorized and as an expected virtue signal#<- is aware that this still isn't a problem in most parts of the world and that this is a much better problem to have#than homophobic bullying and internalized homophobia/transphobia#idk I'm rambling here
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