Gender is a prison and I'm digging my way out

Petition to make newts the official mascot of transneutral people.

Anyway, today’s comic is another result of me messing around with words and getting an amusing result. And attempting to draw something I don’t usually draw (newts).

Petition to make newts the official mascot of transneutral people.

Anyway, today’s comic is another result of me messing around with words and getting an amusing result. And attempting to draw something I don’t usually draw (newts).

Today’s comic was inspired by this post, and is the first one not to feature my little avatar. I kind of miss them. I’ll make sure they appear in the next one!

My neurodivergence (more specifically, autism) is also there blending in, but I wanted to keep this comic LGBTQ+ focussed.

Anyway, however you experience your gender and orientation is valid! (If you want to add your own metaphor/simile in the tags, that’d be really interesting to see…)

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Today’s comic was inspired by this post, and is the first one not to feature my little avatar. I kind of miss them. I’ll make sure they appear in the next one!

My neurodivergence (more specifically, autism) is also there blending in, but I wanted to keep this comic LGBTQ+ focussed.

Anyway, however you experience your gender and orientation is valid! (If you want to add your own metaphor/simile in the tags, that’d be really interesting to see…)

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Sometimes it’s hard to find a gender-neutral word for something. We’ve got sibling, parent, child, but other family words are more difficult to navigate. I know some neutral aunt/uncle variants exist, but they aren’t well-known. However, this can also be an opportunity for Funny!

Partly inspired by a comic of Lake Fama’s (which I unfortunately can’t find) where they tried to think of a gender-neutral word for ‘bride’ or ‘groom’ and ended up with ‘broom’. And another scenario where someone spliced ‘master’ and ‘mistress’ into ‘mattress’.

Also if I never have to draw a foot again, it’ll be too soon.

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Sometimes it’s hard to find a gender-neutral word for something. We’ve got sibling, parent, child, but other family words are more difficult to navigate. I know some neutral aunt/uncle variants exist, but they aren’t well-known. However, this can also be an opportunity for Funny!

Partly inspired by a comic of Lake Fama’s (which I unfortunately can’t find) where they tried to think of a gender-neutral word for ‘bride’ or ‘groom’ and ended up with ‘broom’. And another scenario where someone spliced ‘master’ and ‘mistress’ into ‘mattress’.

Also if I never have to draw a foot again, it’ll be too soon.

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It’s always a pain when a form doesn’t offer a generic gender-neutral title, but it’s even more annoying when it bothers to include a load of obscure religious, military, and aristocratic titles but still no ‘Mx’. What’s more, sometimes you don’t even get the option to leave it blank.

Honestly, I don’t get why titles are required in so many places. I get that it’s meant to be polite, but if I’m ordering, say, a package from a stationery store, I’m not going to be offended if the envelope just says ‘Rae (last name)’.

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It’s always a pain when a form doesn’t offer a generic gender-neutral title, but it’s even more annoying when it bothers to include a load of obscure religious, military, and aristocratic titles but still no ‘Mx’. What’s more, sometimes you don’t even get the option to leave it blank.

Honestly, I don’t get why titles are required in so many places. I get that it’s meant to be polite, but if I’m ordering, say, a package from a stationery store, I’m not going to be offended if the envelope just says ‘Rae (last name)’.

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Phone calls suck in general, but sometimes gender gets involved and makes it worse. Rather than get into an explanation of nonbinary gender with a total stranger calling from the NHS, I decided to Obi-Wan my way out of it with a technical truth.

I didn’t include my given name in this comic, but I do still use it in some places, so that part didn’t bother me.

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Phone calls suck in general, but sometimes gender gets involved and makes it worse. Rather than get into an explanation of nonbinary gender with a total stranger calling from the NHS, I decided to Obi-Wan my way out of it with a technical truth.

I didn’t include my given name in this comic, but I do still use it in some places, so that part didn’t bother me.

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So today is my birthday, and while I’m grateful for the amount of cards I got (thought nowhere near as many as the pile in the picture), it was still a little disheartening that so many had come in the post with the wrong title. It’s to be expected when you’re mostly closeted, but it doesn’t feel any less wrong. However, the one or two cards that got things right made up for everything. Doing something affirming for a trans friend or family member, even something small, can mean a lot.

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Rae (they/them)

So today is my birthday, and while I’m grateful for the amount of cards I got (thought nowhere near as many as the pile in the picture), it was still a little disheartening that so many had come in the post with the wrong title. It’s to be expected when you’re mostly closeted, but it doesn’t feel any less wrong. However, the one or two cards that got things right made up for everything. Doing something affirming for a trans friend or family member, even something small, can mean a lot.

_________________________

Rae (they/them)