hm

not to be a downer during pride month, nor to look back on the past with rose colored glasses or anything, but it really is so devastating that we had, like, 6 years in the 2010s where people in the US started to be like “ok so what if we maybe DIDNT torture children and adults who say they’re a different gender, because that’s cruel and also doesn’t work, and we tried another thing instead, like supporting them and helping them gain access to what they need to feel comfortable”, and the mental health outcomes were looking overwhelmingly statistically positive, and then a bunch of people were like “ok but I, joe dick from ohio, think that’s insane and fucked up, and I believe that whatever seems the most obvious to me is the objective truth, so we should really go back to torturing trans children and adults instead”, and a ton of people said yeah and committed their whole lives to undoing any progress made in the past decade. I persist. but it is vile.

“bigots don’t care about trans men” “nobody’s coming for the transmascs” begging you all to look around!! yes it’s true that bathroom hysteria and sports bans overwhelmingly target trans femmes, sometimes to the point of explicitly not caring about transmascs, and these are some of the most visible anti-trans pushes that impact people on a day-to-day basis. but anti-transmasc sentiment is a MASSIVE part of the conversation around gender-affirming care. think of “irreversible damage”. think of jkr’s belittling of autistic transmascs. think of how excited conservatives & TERFs get about their token detransitioners, basically all of whom are afabs willing to parrot shit about having been “mutilated” and “ruined” to advocate for outlawing GAC. think of all the hand-wringing over “the mutilation of healthy female breasts”, and the idea of little “girls” in particular being made sterile. think of how mad cis men get when hot “women” “ruin” themselves by so much as cutting their hair. it’s fundamentally of the same stuff as all pro-choice issues. to conservatives, every transitioning transmasc means another “female” they can’t use; another “girl” removed from the potential sex/marriage/procreation pool; another “woman” they can’t force to give birth (and they would love to force transmascs, specifically, to give birth, and they are VERY violently explicit about this). every trans man is a stupid autistic girl who doesn’t know her place. I’m not saying it’s not true that trans women are bearing the brunt of anti-trans rhetoric but it is also simply not true that trans men do not figure in at all. we make them EXTREMELY furious and upset and they have made this very clear.

I like to read and write fantasy and I also am into worldbuilding which means I am constantly investigating words and idioms of which I do not know the origin. and there’s nothing more fun than when the explanation sounds fake. shrapnel is called that because it was named after a guy called henry shrapnel. this is like finding out pilates was just invented by a guy called joe pilates

in my professional circles, sometimes it becomes really discouragingly apparent that many cis gay men just. do not acknowledge queer experiences other than their own. not even in the sense that they’re being deliberately exclusionary. it feels like the same casual misogyny & cissexism which assumes that women (and people perceived/presenting as such) have less complex inner lives, less consequential struggles, fewer notable experiences, less to say, than cis men. it sucks!

getting top surgery is so fun and cool and sexy and I hope many more people are able to do it

cis women getting mopey about someone mistaking them for trans women is the most boring insecurity ever. ohhhh I’m so sorry do you feel like this implies you’re not a teeny tiny hairless anime mouse woman with shoulders smaller than your head? get a personality

cozy fantasy this cozy fantasy that. ooo you want to be Terry Pratchett so bad. you want to make another Discworld so bad. you want to do it so bad but you’ve failed to realize that comedy and parody must still be as well-considered and well-structured as anything else, and must revolve around something deeply authentic. otherwise you are at best just goofing around and there is nothing for anybody to get emotionally invested in. at worst you will make something cringe and tiresome and offensive.