I LOVE YOU SO ❖

I think the terminology I used is typically used for disabilities, so I'm sorry if there is confusion with that, though something similar is used in linguistics through style guides. That's where we get the idea of 'people of color', it follows the same convention. I wish I could think of the term I mean at the moment but my brain fog from fibro is making it hard. When speaking about a character of color, you might use what I just did, character of color. When you're writing a character whose skin tone is dark, and you make reference to them being black, you may say something like "a woman of black complexion/skin tone".

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you can't make rules on what people can do with content that you don't own. I understand the ideas behind it but if we're talking things like gifs made out of copyrighted material, imposing rules for usage is impossible. Not to mention companies like Disney don't care what the reasoning is, they care that people are profiting off their IP.

If people strictly sold resources they made from scratch that'd be one thing but using Imgflip to crop down a show and then slap a PSD on that baddie isn't transformative enough to avoid copyright infringement. I've unfortunately seen the outcome for creators on other sites and it has taken financial and emotional tolls on them.

I feel like if people started using Patreon or asking for donations and giving people the option to pay instead of requiring it, it would solve a lot of the problem, and it would also prevent people from being prosecuted for selling content that doesn't belong to them.

I'm working on a full guide to this, but in bullet points I want to give critique on some of the depictions of trans femmes I've seen here in the Tumblr roleplay community.

Tucking when you're putting on tight clothing is a commonplace thing for trans femmes, but don't be afraid to normalize not having your character do this at all. Right now there's controversy as to whether or not a girl needs to tuck to pass, but I stand by the idea that people should be allowed to not do something that makes them uncomfortable. This is comparable to a trans masc who might not bind his breasts.

You don't have to give your trans femmes she/her pronouns strictly. A lot of us are she/her exclusively, but I know many dear trans femmes in my life who go by she/they, or fae/faer, and other sets. A trans femme may even still choose to go by he/him, especially if they aren't out to everyone. It is fine to explore the closet in roleplay, just make sure you don't equate the pronouns with gender. A he/him trans femme is just as much of a woman as he wants to be, and having pronouns that are traditionally associated with masculinity does not invalidate that.

Sexual acts between trans femmes don't always involve her being a penetrative top. When you're writing smut with a trans femme character, remember that many of us are shy about being tops. You might try writing a trans femme who is a bottom, or enjoys muffing, or maybe who doesn't enjoy being touched but instead being the one to touch (sometimes called stone). Try to avoid the 'step on me' tropes, unless you're writing a character whose personality and life story matches up with that dominatrix vibe.

It is fine for trans femme characters to want to get surgery or look the way a traditional woman might, but not everyone is going to feel that way. I have a dear friend who wears lipstick and dresses but she keeps her full beard and doesn't shave her body hair. Experiment with trans femme characters who don't 100% fit a traditionally feminine mold, but who still identify as women or feminine nevertheless.

It is fine for your trans femme character to like women. Trans lesbians aren't any more predatory than anyone else. I know the temptation for a lot of writers who aren't trans women is make your trans femme character be into men, but try experimenting with having a bisexual or lesbian trans femme character. But for the love of the goddesses, have tact. Write her like you would write a cis lesbian or bisexual woman in this way, not like a creep or a femcel, as this is bad and potentially harmful representation.

Lastly, please be cautious when choosing a face claim for your trans femme character. There is no way to 'look' trans femme, but you might want to shy away from using cis males for a non-closeted role. For non-binary trans femmes, this is a looser idea, as non-binary people don't have to look any specific way. However, if you play a trans femme with a face claim, ideally you'd want the face claim to also be trans femme, or a cis woman. I'm not one of those people who say you can't use a cis man because I know trans women who present as men for convenience or because that's the way they want to look. But again, use your best judgement. You know your character.