I'm a bit of a fag myself

That gives us some insight into what the Crooked Tower moment with Lune could've meant for her. Lune and Sciel found each other when their wounds were still fresh and open. Sciel doesn't need Lune to tell her something dark, melancholy and personal because they experienced a moment like that together.

They were strangers before that moment and ,sadly, they remained so after it. However, because of that night at the Crooked Tower, Sciel must feel like she knows Lune. She trusts her. They share a bond, even if it never got to bloom.

lune doing a task that doesn’t require sciel (sciel disagrees)

This is The Boy From Venus #4! Ty for reading. :D

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It all started with a deep cut v-neck, back in 1984. In a lighter shade of blue than the rest of the suit. We still see that basic form in the Nightwing suit today, whether it is the variant with a lighter colour (generally blue) in a v-shape over the chest, shoulder and back or as a stylized bird.

The v-shape started to take the shape of a bird on the Nightwing suit in 1997, in The New Batman Adventures (a continuation of Batman The Animated Series). 

(If you know of any model or facts that I’ve missed, don’t hesitate to let me know so I can update!)

The original suit, fondly nicknamed “discowing”. When Dick took it on for the first time, he had an inner monologue about how the name and the costume are based on Batman and Superman but also his parents and Kory/Starfire. Tales of the Teen Titans # 44. By Marv Wolfman, art George Pérez, Dick Giordano and Mike DeCarlo. (July 1984)

This is from an interview with Marv Wolfman, on 13thdimension.com, about why Dick became Nightwing: 

It was fairly simple, actually. I got a call that (DC) really would like Robin back in Batman, and they wanted Robin to be younger. Again, because Batman really needed a partner. The nice thing was that Teen Titans—which I was still on at the time—was way outselling Batman and I really wanted Dick Grayson and I really loved the character. We had aged him, we had made him a real leader, we had done a whole bunch of things with him, and I didn’t want to give up Dick Grayson. And it suddenly struck me — I don’t even know what happened because it was unprecedented in comics — I said, “Why don’t I keep Dick Grayson and you create a new Robin and make that a big to-do in Batman … while we have Nightwing.

After eight years, the “discowing” suit was replaced by one with less light blue and more yellow, not unlike the original but without the collar and deep neckline. It also had a bat-like emblem on the belt. The uniform was (in-universe) designed by Mirage impersonating Starfire/Kory, who also cut Dick’s hair to go with the 90′s, over his mild protests. (It’s been a long time since I read NTT from this era, so I can’t remember if the yellow between the arms actually functioned as glider wings.) New Titans vol 1 # 88. Written by Marv Wolfman and Lein Wein, art Tom Grummett, Al Vey, Ian Akin and John Statema. (July 1992) 

This model didn’t last long – Dick scrapped it in September 1995, in the first issue of the first Nightwing (mini) series. His decision to leave the hero business lasted about ten minutes, I guess. Nightwing vol 1 # 1. By Dennis O’Neil, art Greg Land and Mike Sellers. (1995)

Dick’s third model, the black and electric blue “fingerstripe” suit was, in-universe, designed by Harold Allnut who lived in the Batcave and worked as Batman’s all round mechanic and technical guy. Dick would stick with this design until he became Batman in 2009. Nightwing vol 1 # 2. By Dennis O’Neil, art Greg Land and Mike Sellers. (1995)

The actual designer was Brian Stelfreeze, who made this model sheet.

80s/90s Horror and Sci-Fi Adjacent Movies + Men in Glasses:

in the last pic and that’s what

makes it so funny

Hey artists, C. Spike Trotman, founder of Iron Circus Comics, just posted an invaluable thread on depicting different types of black hair. I’d do the thing where you screencap the whole thread and post it but it’s just too long (which is great because it’s a whole lot of useful information!) Give her a follow while you’re there.

(id in alt text)

new monthly post: my wife and i are disabled Black trans folks living in TX, both currently unemployed despite our best efforts, and we are at risk of being evicted and losing our home every month on top of not being able to afford any of our living expenses (like our utilities or the costs of managing our disabilities). as a result, we are reliant on mutual aid to stay afloat. reblogging this post (WITH NO TAGS UNLESS TO GIVE ACCESSIBILITY INFO) and donating helps the most. please, PLEASE help us not be on the streets and lose everything again.

$347.93/$1262.24 (12 days past due, $914.31 needed by 8/21 to avoid eviction)

$10/$277 for power bill (8 days past due, must be paid in full by 8/25 to avoid shutoff)

$0/$90 for groceries

made some progress, but we need people to CONTINUE TO DONATE CONSISTENTLY if i have any hope of keeping us housed. our power bill goal really hasnt moved, and i also need $90 to pick up a few things we need in the house. until my wife and i are able to get jobs, we have no other way of being able to survive without help. please consider chipping in.

— Physical, Sexual, and Intimate Partner Violence Among Transgender and Gender-Diverse Individuals

I would highly recommend you read the writing of the man who coined the term, if you haven't. This post provides a lot of crucial context. He is also a grown man, as are many people who use and discuss ATM using this term, and being condescendingly ageist helps no one.

LBQ+ people interviewed for this report repeatedly named gendered discrimination against masculine gender expressions in particular as the catalyst for a lifetime of economic marginalization, discrimination and harassment at work, psychological abuse, and physical and sexual violence. Their accounts point to the need for deeper research and analysis of how masculine gender expression by LBQ+ people increases their risk of exposure to various human rights violations and abuses. Some reports on violence against LBQ+ people (explored below) have treated gender expression as a signifier of sexual orientation or gender identity, limiting knowledge production on how presentations of masculinity are themselves policed and violated.

They even call for specifically including "gender expression" into anti-discrimination laws specifically so that violence done against to people for presenting as masculine can be more recognized and dealt with. & if "you can't use a word that implies that masculinity in any way is a part of your oppression!" isn't "limiting knowledge production on how presentations of masculinity are themselves policed and violated," what is?

That's the Human Rights Watch saying that, to remind you, not just "fucking kids" online.

Additionally, no one is saying we shouldn't use transphobia, and people who talk about transandrophobia frequently discuss oppositional sexism by name! I would even go as far as to say that we really love that concept, and it's extremely valuable in talking about how patriarchy (and transandrophobia) functions. In fact, I first heard of the term from people who talk about transandrophobia discussing Serano's work.

While this particular study was rather small, it is only adding to existing data. The U.S Transgender Survey—the largest survey of trans people in the United States—while not collecting data about IPV in general, did find that trans men had the second highest rates of sexual assault at 51%, behind nonbinary people with female on their birth certificate at 58%, with transgender women at 37%.

The USTS 2015 also found that:

Trans men experienced the highest lifetime suicide rate (45%)

Trans men experienced the highest rate of having a negative experience while seeking medical care (42%)

Trans men experienced the highest rate of avoiding seeing a doctor when needed due to fear of mistreatment (31%)

Trans men had the second highest rate (behind nonbinary people AFAB) of being denied coverage for hormones (32% and 36%)

Trans men experienced the highest rate of avoiding public bathrooms due to fear of problems or confrontations (75%)

Were the second most likely (behind nonbinary people, regardless of AGAB) to never or only sometimes be treated with respect when interacting with an officer who knew or thought they were transgender

And the 2022 report they published on Health & Well-being found that:

Trans men were the most likely to avoid care due to mistreatment concerns (32%)

Trans men had the second greatest proportions (behind nonbinary people AFAB) of negative experiences with healthcare providers (53% and 55%)

None of this is meant to imply that trans women are not profoundly oppressed, or that the forms of oppression are shared. The goal is not competition. This data illustrates that clearly, there are ways in which trans men are especially affected by things even amongst other trans people. And it makes sense to talk about what that means and how that looks in practice. And necessarily that conversation will involve manhood because it really makes no sense to try to separate transness from the particular expression it has in individual people. Trans men are trans because they are men, and men because they are trans.

I only ever emphasize trans men being more affected by an issue than trans women as a response to others constantly insisting that this never happens and that trans women are categorically more oppressed than trans men every meaningful way. Transandrophobia has always been intended as a response to oppression olympics, and I have consistently seen people who use the term actively try to avoid recreating that perspective. Not always successfully, but overwhelming there is a strongly held belief by people who discuss transandrophobia that all trans people are equally oppressed and that transphobia can only be combated through all of us having an equal voice. And people lie about this constantly, the arguments against the term look much weaker when they aren't fighting strawmen.

It's crucial to understand that there is a severe misunderstanding widespread on Tumblr about what exactly "transandrophobia truthers" believe, and it actually stems directly from oppositional sexism.

People believe that trans men are less oppressed than trans women, are a less acceptable target of transphobic & misogynistic violence than them, they believe that if trans women frequently experience a form of violence that means trans men can't, and even that trans men oppress trans women. And so they also think that, since transandrophobia is the "opposite" of transmisogyny, that people who discuss transandrophobia must think all those things about trans women. And while some people, generally out of pain and frustration (which trans women also experience, no one has to be the villain here), can lean into that, overwhelmingly that is a terribly inaccurate understanding of what is actually being discussed.

I'd also recommend to talk to some trans women involved in this discussion. Particularly shout out to @velvetvexations and @transfemme-shelterdog, both of whom have faced a lot of vile transmisogynistic harassment because they talk about transandrophobia. There is a lot to be said about how understanding queerphobic anti-masculinity helps broaden and deepen one's understanding of anti-transfeminine violence, but I will leave that conversation up to transfems assigned male for right now, as I think it is more persuasive to hear from them.

Funny enough, I quite literally just finished writing a paper on this topic (specifically anti-transmasculine violence as a global phenomenon) a few days ago. So you caught me at a great moment! And I didn't even get to cite the individual examples of anti-transmasculine violence I've collected in this archive, which you may also find compelling (it also includes further links to research & writing on the topic). I'll also tag this with my tags for collecting instances transandrophobia so you can scroll through those.