All the dang time. It’s great!
Accidental Allies and all. That is, in fact, a dude. A trans dude, but still a dude.
I’ve just read this (recommended by someone on another forum):
I’m really not much like anybody in the book in other ways, but some of what Maria was saying to James made me stop and think. (My first exposure to the idea that oh hey I might be trans or something 15-20 years ago was also the idea of “autogynephilia”. Because I didn’t have dysphoria, and (like James) wasn’t exactly a crossdresser either, but I had this image thing. And also at that same time I was reading arguments similar to Maria’s that “autogynephilia” was being used as a really shitty way to invalidate trans women, and that also made sense.
After putting the book down I had to question myself again: really nonbinary, or a would-be trans woman just afraid to transition? (Afraid of the process, of social stigma, of not getting results I wanted, etc.) I came to the same conclusion I always do: nah, I really am nonbinary. But that things are messy and complicated, and I haven’t been doing myself favors by glossing over some things when I reflect on them.
In some ways this novel was kind of more personally challenging than Trans/Rad/Fem, and I need to read some escapist fantasy stuff for a while and then maybe the rest of those Moomin books.
I’ve been slowly chugging through Trans/Rad/Fem, and it’s been… enlightening.
I will admit that last night and this morning I had my first bit of clothing dysphoria- I was going to run in full boymode today at the office because I was moving crap around in the warehouse, but I chickened out as I was dressing this morning and went with one of my more expendable set of slacks n shirts from the femme side of the wardrobe. (The discovery a few months ago that lady’s slacks fit me better than dockers on the masc side was utterly euphoric.)
I’m making an effort to read more books by trans people. I just got my physical copy of this book (I read it in ebook format previously) and it’s so good. A book about a feminizing torture basement has no right being this sweet! Highly recommended.
Up next, Nevada by Imogene Binnie.
That one’s on my list of books to buy when I have the extra money
FWIW, it’s on AO3, along with a bunch of as yet unpublished chapters. I’m still working my way through the newer stuff.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/35394595/chapters/88223581
I’ve randomly gotten gendered correctly twice in the past couple days. The first was at the home brew store and the second at the pharmacy today.
A couple days ago I was at the home brew store and an older foreign food app delivery person asked me if I knew how get to some restaurant. I didn’t and he got the information from someone else, but ended our interaction by saying “thank you ma’am”. Today was even better.
An elderly woman called me “miss” today when she was trying to get my attention to help her with something. She asked me if I could bring her a cart so she could walk to the building and avoid using her cane. I brought her a cart and we had a brief pleasant conversation.
Even after 3 years of transitioning, those unexpected euphoric moments still manage to have an impact.