getting gayer by the minute

Minnesota dykes, this one’s for you!

Created by @tajawillxo and @knighttime on Instagram, DYKEdown brings local dykes together for live S&m demos, indie erotic film screening, local burlesque, customized cocktails, and community joy.

it turns out the uploader is in fact the woman in the photo (she's uploaded a few other pictures of herself to other articles) and she ran an extremely web 1.0 site on the topic of bondage

this was apparently a long-standing fantasy of hers and she in fact did an entire video plus accompanying photoshoot about it, which was run in a bondage magazine in the 90s and did in fact take place on an abandoned train track. they committed to the bit hard enough that there's even a shot of the sinister villain looming over her with a big document labeled DEED and a pen

the best part is that according to this page, there were two "villains" involved (the woman's two partners, apparently), and the other one was dressed as a gorilla. sadly there are no images of the gorilla kidnapper because that sounds like. even funnier.

throughout my adolescence, me and my brother were always put in opposition to each other. he was always treated as the boy brother and i was the girl brother, so to speak. he was a wannabe man who liked working out and hanging out with the Boys, and i was an obvious effeminate faggot whose stepdad always danced around questioning my sexuality or perceived maleness, he would always say things about "being a man" to me but never my brother, like he knew i was failing it.

anyways, within the household, there was an obvious gender dynamic applied between me and my brother. fundamentally, i got treated as the girl, but without any of the allowance to actually Be the girl. and, to be marxist about it, this was in a large part consistently reproduced through household labor. i was the one expected to do the "inside chores" while he did the "outside chores," and at a certain point in my teen years, my stepdad stopped even bothering asking me to work outside at all, fully making my expected workload to be the cooking and cleaning. and if i did not clean, i was reprimanded in the way of a bad woman, and if my brother didnt mow that week or something it was brushed aside because he was a mans man and the favored sibling as such.

the point is, both in and outside the household, i was not experiencing life being "socially male" and in fact the dynamics within my household specifically were reproducing gendered dynamics where i would be maintained as the woman through feminized domestic labor. because, guess fucking what, as trans women, even before were out, people can notice things about us and act accordingly and we genuinely truly get socially classed as women, and i think my particular experience was starkly important as it raises questions about the labor and domestic processes and the family and how these forces are literally foundational to the maintenance of gender class and its reproduction and how these forces position themselves to transfeminity. these questions which i mull over constantly.

like what do terfs and tme people who dont understand the transfem upbringing want me to fucking say? i got raised within the social class and expectation of woman, and this fundamentally affects my transfeminine experience and the way i move within any given dynamic now. like the expectations of the woman are embedded in me, both in labor and looks.

yes!!!! I had a similar upbringing, marked as the more feminine child in comparison to my other siblings, including my sister. I was treated as a workhorse of domestic labor, one of my main chores being doing all of the laundry (washing, drying (on the clotheslines during warmer months, even though we had a dryer) and sorting and folding for our 6-person household

Hello, gays! I'll spend what is saved in July on my mother's eyes (after 2 surgeries she'll need a third). I need to continue my anemia treatment. My back pain has become worse and more often. We both have chronic health issues and living on benefits means bills keep happening cause emergencies keep happening. We weren't prepared for this right now, as most of us disabled and financially struggling people aren't.

Today we paid rent, food + utensils, thanks to benefits + help, and we'll need it again. If you can support us in any way, any dono is appreciated.

Kofi / p@ypal/wise is: [email protected]

$0/300

I know lots of us struggle, so if you can't/prefer not to help, I get it. Thank you regardless, and special thanks to people who reach out with kindness. More info under the cut.

EDIT JULY 11: Sadly I'll have to go back on the goal cause not only we need everything above, I fell sick with the flu, body pain, nose congestion, sore throat etc. while caring for mom, which has been a lot, and I continue to need more meds... please help. Any help is good help. Bless you!