PLEASE BUY MY BOOK | Gail/Daniel, 26, they/he | Jewish | really into a lot of shit | "a Jason Todd and Deadpool lovebot blog" - @thefortysecond | almost everything is queued, but nothing is tagged as such | JustGail on ao3 | sideblogs: queerastronauts, jewishswiftie, hebrish | linktree!
i find it really funny that im a girl now but whenever im into a guy i still think “fuuuuuuuuuck dude im fucking gayyyyyyyyyyyy” internally. like actually that’s the completely expected response. not gay at all. or so i thought. as it turns out its still gay as fuck to be into dudes as a transgender woman
some people on twitter are saying this is internalized transmisogyny and i assure you, its not, haha! i was a bisexual dude once, I’m a bisexual woman now. When i was a bisexual dude, I explored my sexuality with men. It felt like “gay” attraction. When i transitioned, that feeling never left! But I don’t think it’s bad that I kept that feeling; far from it! I’m glad that I still perceive my relationships with men in the same way I perceive relationships with women now. Just going off internal vibes, personally, I never felt like the trappings of the standard “straight” perception of attraction ever aligned with how I felt. I feel much, MUCH more comfortable with realizing that my attraction to others is queer to the core. Much love for the trans people out there who identify as straight in some way now, but I just find more comfort in referring to my attraction as gay now! nothing wrong with that, im just having fun :)
i hope this is okay to add, but i’m a pansexual trans man and i feel very similarly about my attraction to women! i’ve joked with my friends before “i’m a man, except for the .5% of me that is a butch lesbian.”
i’m not sure how else to explain it, but when i experience attraction to a woman i just know it’s Inherently queer and that it’s coming from something feminine in myself? (not saying that’s the same for everyone who has feelings like this, just that’s how i understand it for myself!)
the fact that gender and sexuality intertwine in a lot of ways for a lot of people, and the way those connections affect the way we feel and express both of those facets of ourselves, is so fascinating to me!!
totally okay to add!! im glad you did, its cool seeing other people relate so much to this post, haha. I think internally a lot of queer attraction just feels different from how straight attraction is pushed. I mean, look at how the straight male gaze tends to sexualize women compared to when lesbians talk about their attraction to women. It’s got a very different vibe to it!
When I think about my attraction to men, it’s not really in the way I think cis straight women do. I like them in the “gay” way, as in, my attraction to men heavily aligns with what the larger gay community sees male attraction as. I like twinks and bears and all the stuff a really gay dude would be into when it comes to men, and that feels more “me” than any sort of “straight” attraction. Straightness isn’t actually defined this way, and this is by no means meant to be a broad, sweeping claim, but for me personally the way i feel love doesn’t really mesh with my internal idea of being straight, even if my attraction is “expected”. its cool! I like being queer! it makes my love all the stronger when it doesn’t come with expectations I’ve been fighting against all my life.
I feel like I’m not alone in this; “straight” to me doesn’t just mean man + woman. It carries the implicit history of heteronormativity with it. It’s a privileged position even today. Straight means you’ve always been allowed to marry, you’ve never been judged for it, you’ve had it easy. I could never imagine a straight crush and I picking a tiny bride and groom sculpture off an oversized wedding cake in front of unjudgemental conservatives. I just don’t get to leave the undercity that easily.
I’m a bi trans woman, but it never feels “straight” for me to be attracted to people of any gender. Not from some internalised hatred, not even exactly me feeling attraction in a different way, though I do. Calling myself straight for an opposite-sex attraction feels like it’s ignoring a whole lot of hardship that came with being “not normal”. It feels like it’s erasing the queerness that’s been such a part of my life; the good and the bad.
Btw, it would be great if we could normalize this attitude for cis bi people as well, because truly the idea that bisexual attraction to someone of the opposite sex can’t be gay is 99.99% just plain ol’ biphobia.
A cis bi man and a cis bi woman in a relationship can be gay, and they can be gay for each other – seriously, and for real, and it matters. A lot of the experiences that two bisexual people in an opposite sex relationship have are instantly recognizable as inherently queer experiences to anyone who has actually lived them. Recloseting yourself as soon as your relationship status and your partner “pass” for straight isn’t a privilege, and it is massively fucked up that it is ever expected, especially by other queer people who should know better.
I’d say there is a Halachic argument for Hatafat Dam Brit as a rite for transmasc Jews… Especially after HRT growth or after phalloplasty.
ALT
From a 2017 report by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly on Transgender Jews and Halakha:
1. Trans men who have not undergone genital surgery will obviously never have undergone circumcision nor will they have a foreskin, so neither circumcision nor HDB are required. 2. Trans men who have undergone genital surgery will usually have been treated by either metoidioplasty or phalloplasty. Neither technique creates a foreskin or anything resembling or analogous to it. Therefore they are like someone nolad mahul, born circumcised, except that there would be no doubt whatsoever of a suppressed or hidden foreskin. Like group 1, these men will never have undergone circumcision nor will they have a foreskin, so neither circumcision nor HDB are required.
However,
Some trans men may desire HDB as a spiritual component of their conversion even though there is no halakhic requirement for this procedure. There is also the possibility that some trans men who are born Jewish may desire HDB and/or immersion as part of their transition process. There is no berakhah associated with HDB, neither for a cis man nor for a trans man, or whether it is done for the purpose of conversion or for someone born Jewish whose circumcision was not a brit milah. Nevertheless, some rabbis/mohalim will offer a blessing without shem u-malkhut, without mention of God’s name or sovereignty, to add a spiritual dimension to the ritual.
You joke, but there was a famous trans American jazz musician named Billy Tipton who had 5 wives, and he successfully hid the fact that he was trans from 4 of them by claiming that he lost his dick in a car accident. He was only outed when he died in 1989 at age 74.
as an aroace person with limited sexual experience, no interest in watching porn, and poor sex ed as a teen, there IS something simultaneously funny and vaguely tragic about being 28 adult years old and realising how extremely tiny your frame of reference is for genitalia and deciding you should expand this to better understand bodies (yours and others). and then you’re just there like “okay so what the fuck do I even google right now, anyway”
why wouldn’t it be thank you? you expressed interest in sexual education materials related to genital body diversity, and i keep these resources on hand for exactly that purpose.
it’s natural to be curious about bodies–yours and others. the presence or lack of sexual intent motivating that curiosity is irrelevant. they’re just body parts
sorry, my gratitude was real, my uncertainty was @ me (“am i sure i actually want to spend my evening looking at genitals or was i using the difficulty of knowing what to google as an excuse not to learn things”) lol
do you have any resources for trans bodies, especially transmasc bodies? i am interested in better understanding what changes i might expect as someone on testosterone, but though i found references to photo projects re: bottom growth in a few places, all the links were dead
i think that r/GrowYourTDick is the best repository of images of specifically trans masculine bottom growth. I can’t comment on the culture of the forum, but there is absolutely a lot of images of transmasculine genitalia and extensive discussion of physical changes.
For (relatively*) trustworthy information, Hudson’s FTM Resource Guide contains a lot of information about medical side effects and Things To Generally Be Aware Of, like increased risk for yeast infections and tips for managing locker rooms/swimming. *I can’t verify that this information is up to date
I’m not directly connected to any trans masc transition support networks, but i know that discord is a thriving space for transition support and information sharing. i think it would be relatively easy to find positive community there. they often compile resources and information for members as well as provide topical discussion spaces. here’s the disboard listings for public trans masc oriented servers
and this is just a really beautiful series of portraits of trans masculine people.
that about taps me out on resources!
no, I lied, I’m not done. I spent way too long looking for this photography archive documenting trans nude portraits specifically. lost to the ether. found other stuff though:
Archive of Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits by Loren Cameron, which includes images of genitalia in its “Genital Reconstruction” section, page 46. Portraits of clothed trans masculine people other than the author begin on page 34 in the “New Man Series.”
thanks! sharing for the sake of anyone else interested too
yeah there’s so many dead links out there it’s tragic. sometimes you even get as far as the artist’s website and they’ll have a page for the project but then the project is gone and you just get a 404. i’m guessing the increasing hostility of internet providers and stuff towards nudity/nsfw content and also the general atmosphere for trans people has an impact on the safety and practicalities of continuing to host stuff like that :(
I’m reposting this with a link to some sources from the OP, btw; I’m sorry for not tagging them, but Tumblr won’t let me and I’m guessing it’s a privacy settings thing.
I am sick and fucking tired of the fandomsphere’s obsession with explicit canon. A character can be coded to hell and back and people will still refuse to acknowledge it unless the character looks directly into the camera and says “I’m [marginalized identity].”
The Spider-Verse movies made Peter B Parker Jewish and made Gwen Stacy trans. I don’t give a shit if it’s never said outright. It’s canon. Peter B Parker has a Jewish wedding on-screen and shows off Hannukah bling in promotional material. He’s Jewish. Gwen has a trans flag in her room and a trans-coded coming-out story that peaks with being cast in clear and intentional trans flag lighting. She’s trans. Good on Spider-Verse for giving us solid representation without sacrificing time that should be spent on the characters’ stories to bring explicit attention to their identities! The consequence is that you can’t say he’s Jewish or say she’s trans in a public forum without having to pull out screenshots to prove your case.
Those are just two irksome examples from the same franchise, but this happens all the time across all fandom media. If you refuse to accept evidence and coding as proof, then you’re perpetuating the idea that privileged identities are more normal and default than marginalized ones. Gwen shouldn’t need to say “I’m trans” and Peter B shouldn’t need to say “I’m Jewish” on-screen. No character should ever have to do that, because we never expect a character to reveal that they’re canonically cisgender or goyishe.
I guess there’s no convenient way to “prove” I made this since it’s not watermarked, but here’s where I originally posted it on twitter (after being a patreon exclusive for a while) https://twitter.com/beanytuesday/status/1532030298568925185
It’s unfortunate that drawings and writing are customarily owed accreditation online, but the moment you combine the two it inexplicably becomes a “meme” and is therefore assumed to have just spawned from the aether. Please credit me when you repost my work, guys
reserchers for the fucking american journal of surgery: hey so after reviewing and piling the data of 55 studies on surgery, about 1% of people have regrets and most people are overall satisfied with their top surgery, whether thats body contouring or a double mastectomy or a breast augmentation. until there’s a serious spike in statistical regrets we don’t see a problem.
gender criticals:
ALT
like there are some problems with data like that and its difficult to collect but at the end of the day reviews like this take every study that they find without those major flaws and give us fantastic insight into trans people’s medical results. it sucks that neither side reeeeeally knows the statistics, but at least trans people don’t shy away from them
this study is new btw. it was published this april like last week.
I love being a tranny. i love gnc trans people and I love the trans people who feel comfort in gender roles now that they’re in the right one I love the 14 year old trans girl who’s known since she was 6 and is on puberty blockers I love the 48 year old trans man coming out to his kids
I love the it/its genderqueer transsexual with dyed hair and transflag buttons I love the fully transitioned man of trans experience who hasn’t thought about being trans other than his t shot in years I love the trans people who are out and proud I love the trans people who are in the closet or don’t even realize they’re trans yet i love the trans people who want to pass I love the trans people who don’t care about passing I love transhets I love trans gays and trans bis and trans aros and trans aces and trans everything
In conclusion trans people are amazing and we fucking rock
These two pictures are of a peahen (top photo from April 2019, and bird on the left in the bottom is the same bird in November 2019) that is currently going through a transformation from traditional hen plumage to cock plumage- which I suppose makes him a peacock now! The bird is 17 years old and while this sort of transformation is not unheard of (called “henopause” because it usually happens to older hens), it’s not usually such a stark difference. This bird went all out though!
Another bird, this one only 2 years old, was posted yesterday. The owner had this bird genetically tested after she noticed a lack of displaying among other typical “peacock” behavior. The result came back as a hen, which means most likely this bird’s working ovary (birds only develop one, the left one) has been compromised or failed to develop normally, resulting in male plumage at a very young age.
Because this transition only occurs when the hen’s working ovary (they only have 1, the left one) stops working (or fails to start), thus ceasing production of the hormones which suppress male plumage, they are not fertile. They also do not change sex organs, just their plumage.
It’s Pride again, so please enjoy my collection of trans peafowl!
There have been several people in the notes expressing that these are intersex peafowl and while I certainly won’t take that away from anyone (welcome, enjoy!), I feel that you should all know that there are regular intersex peafowl as well.
These peafowl grow in and retain sex characteristics of both hens and cocks, for their entire lives. They do not lay eggs or court, the way the other sexes do. Unlike a hen in henopause, they do not transition into or out of this state- they are born to it and remain in it their entire lives.
In reality, gender isn’t really a thing for peafowl (or birds in general) at all and sex is pretty much a grey area. We assign them sexes (yes, sexes, I’m getting there) based on human concepts of it, but they don’t even have x and y sex chromosomes. They have Z and w, and it’s flipped from how humans are; the bird with the 2-same chromosomes is a male (ZZ) and the bird with one of each is a female (Zw) and we only assigned the sexes like we did because the hens lay eggs. Don’t even get me started on the bird species that aren’t peafowl that have more than 2 sexes. But they have no concept of gender or sex. If they did, maybe they would argue their males are the ones that lay the eggs. There’s no way to know; they are just animals we’re projecting human concepts on. Biological sex really does fall apart if you look at it sideways, and gender was a mistake.
In any case, at least in one sense, the initial birds in this post are maybe not transgender, exactly, but they have made a transition from one state to another that heavily involves looking like a standard female and then looking like a standard male, and some people have found comfort and joy in relating to that. That end state is not really one sex or another, if you look under the hood so to speak, and hopefully other people will find joy and comfort in that as well. Yet other Peafowl have not ever transitioned and yet have the characteristics of multiple sexes their entire lives the same way, and I hope that this extra knowledge can bring joy and comfort to even more people.
ALT
ALT
Anonymous
ALT
