SPRAWLING IDIOT EFFIGY

I got the idea from cowcatchers old locomotives used to have.

Anyways, yesterday I uploaded the model to Thingiverse, and just hours after uploading it, the Community Relationship Manager of the whole website left a comment suggesting I enter the model into a competition that's currently being held on the site.

So I did... and now it's in third place not even a day later. First place is $500, but the competition still has a month to go.

Then the Community Manager contacted me again, telling me they want to feature my model in an upcoming design promotion.

Just, what is happening? I mostly made this thing for myself in, like, an hour, and now it's suddenly super popular? This is all a little bit overwhelming 😵‍💫

Other models I worked on for weeks didn't get nearly as popular. I swear, it's impossible to predict what people will like.

Anyways, if you want to print the wheel guards yourself, you can get the model here or here.

I also made a quiet version you can stick furniture felt pads on.

Here's some data from the 2022 United States Trans Survey Health & Wellbeing Report relevant to trans men & nonbinary people assigned female. This is the study's way of dividing the data, not mine. I included race & disability where they also provided that data. This is just the data relevant to transmascs that I found in a cursory look-through, I recommend people go to the actual report to see the data for themselves.

Trans men (32%) and nonbinary individuals assigned female at birth (AFAB) (24%) were the most likely to avoid care due to mistreatment concerns. American Indian/Alaska Native respondents (32%) and Middle Eastern/North African respondents (37%) reported the highest shares of avoiding care.

Nonbinary AFAB people and trans men reported the greatest proportions of negative experiences with healthcare providers (55% and 53%, respectively). Respondents with disabilities also had higher rates of negative experiences, compared to those without a disability (58% vs. 41%, respectively).

Among gender categories, trans men and AFAB nonbinary individuals showed the poorest self-reported health (64% and 58%, respectively).

Trans men and AFAB nonbinary people show the highest burden with 31% and 34%, respectively, reporting that they did not see a healthcare provider because of cost. Cost was disproportionately a prohibitive factor for Multiracial (34%), American Indians/Alaska Native (33%), and Latine respondents (32%).

In 2022, AFAB nonbinary respondents and trans men faced the highest shares of hormone therapy denials at 14% and 13%, respectively. Trans women (21%) and trans men (19%) reported the highest shares of transition-related surgery denials.

While transgender men and AFAB nonbinary individuals often seek similar forms of care, nonbinary individuals experience a larger gap between desiring a procedure and receiving it, possibly due to systemic barriers or variations in how medical providers approach nonbinary transition-related care.

Methodology:

There was one episode with a trans woman getting different gender-affirming operations, including breast implants. It showed the procedure, and (what I found so fascinating that it's stuck with me for decades), as soon as the doctor put the implant in, a censor blur popped up on the nipple.

And you just know there was a meeting between the TLC lawyers and the editors and producers of the show to discuss what the difference was between a "man nipple" (can be shown) and a "woman nipple" (no no must obscure, 'tis naughty). And they decided that as soon as the implant goes in and the nipple has more mass behind it, that's the moment when it becomes a woman's nipple and must be hidden to comply with TV rules.

But it's the same nipple. On the same person. I know what it looks like; I just saw it. But TV and obscenity rules are rules, and the rules say woman nipple = sexual and therefore explicit, but man nipple = neutral, just fine.