“10 easy ways to cultivate Trans joy in 2025”, aka, how I managed to pop a euphoria boner whilst not challenging the crumbling of society and rising horrors everywhere I look.
I think the criticism of trans discourse/terminology not reflecting the lived experience and needs of many trans people is a valid (lol) and a welcome one. It seems to me this is part of a wider liberal co-opting of social justice movements which steer them away from material interests to vaguely 'affirming' different identity groups. That said I don't necessarily see a problem with blahaj or Amazon skirts. It's not for me but I don't see how the existence of that subculture really effects me.
Equally I think that without acknowledging the existence of the anti trans movement you're left with a lopsided account for why we're dealing with bathroom bans and the like. The implication is that transphobia is powered by activists using the wrong language, or recently out trans people being cringe online. In my view saying “sex reassignment” rather than “gender affirming care” would have done little to placate those dead set against our existence one way or the other.
I see it like this: If the word wasn't tainted by cis pathologisation and a misogynistic history of making us trans women fuckable for men - I would say I'm a transsexual. I medically transitioned, I got "the surgery", I pass most of the time. And this puts me in a *privileged* position compared to lots of non-binary folks and trans people who have a harder time with medical transition or who might never reach their goals. That's why we need the activism that fights the binary and bot just a "well, if you change your sex, we'll accept you" rhetoric that OP is suggesting here. Yes, what we have gone through is suoer hard. Medical transition is super hard... And still we have to recognise our privilege?! Yes, we do. Else we are no better than the cis women who think being AFAB is the epitome of suffering that defines being a woman. Trans joy is about representation and defying cisnormativity. If people transition into cisnormativity that's ok - but it's also a privilege to be able to.
This is a super important conversation. It’s difficult to discuss because of all the transmedicalist accusations and inability for so many to listen when it means any sort of division of “the community,” or an inability to understand what it means when someone says “fuck trans joy.” So many fail to realize is that we’ve all been further marginalized by the focus on transgender rhetoric and not leaving space for transsexual conversations. I see myself as both transgender and transsexual — but the transgender part is merely a circumstance of my environment and nurture having forced my gender to develop unnaturally into a pseudo-masculine creature. And that was easy to fix — I let go of the expectations put on me, let my hair grow, changed my wardrobe and started wearing makeup. Amongst a few other things. But overall, it was a transition I was able to make in an incredibly short amount of time, and I perform my gender extremely well. The transsexual part is what brings me daily distress, and that’s because so many things about my body still aren’t right. My hormones still aren’t where they should be — I’m always fatigued and my head still isn’t as clear as I imagine it should be if I had enough estrogen in my system. I wasn’t capped at 1-2mg/day for years, but my providers have been reticent to adjust my dosage because “your body is feminizing just fine.” BUT WHAT ABOUT MY MENTAL HEALTH?! I’m seeking surgery — I have dates for FFS & sexual reassignment, and hopefully those will lower some of the dysphoria I face on a daily basis. But no matter what I do, no matter how right I get with myself, this world will always see me as something I am not — a man who plays the part of a woman. They will always assign us the trans adjective before the woman adjective, even though hierarchically it should be the other way around. And that will always trigger both my gender and sexual dysphoria. Gender because why am I not accepted when I do feminine gender better than most cis women?? And sexual because my body wasn’t built right in the womb, and no matter how I change it, people still want to claim it’s a male body. We talk so much about the “gender spectrum” but what about the sexual spectrum?? To claim that sex is immutable and only exists on one extreme or another disregards the existence of intersex people and sexual transition at the same time. Ugh, it’s all so frustrating. I don’t even know where I’m going with this, or if there is a point I’m trying to make other than it doesn’t matter what we do or how we act, society doesn’t want to see us as anything but strange, radical creatures who claim to be something we are not. They fail to recognize that their own sex and gender is something that they can (and do) modify, and that we are all fundamentally the same. They can’t face the reality of human existence, and we pay the price for their ignorance.
A queen in full drag regalia at a gay bar once proclaimed to me (back in the 80’s): “I’m twice the woman you are! And more a man than you will ever be!” Whatever, dude! Oh, & clown fish 🐠 🤡! And murder rates? Debunked if you care to research it.
I suppose there’s no way to discuss with a man who insists he’s [some kind of] woman. But saying you’re a trans woman says that already, doesn’t it? Peace & love.
"back in the 80's at a bar" lol why are terfs always senile hags? Do yall truly have nothing better to do in your few remaining years of post-menopausal existence? must be lonely
As much as I try to listen to trans-identifying people, the arguments are just mind-blowing to me: your gender developed “unnaturally into a pseudo-masculine creature” … “I do feminine gender better than most cis women … my body wasn't built right in the womb”
Is there no “truth” to biological sex? You hint ‘yes’ but throw it out, arguing that these mental ‘identifications’ (feelings?) are more or as real as nature and development “in the womb.” Nothing wrong with saying you’re a man who tries to emulate high femme fashion? It’ll get harder as you become old, since high femme is based on the young, thin, & beautiful.
I’m assuming good faith on your part, even though that’s not what the vibes are giving. That being said: what truth would I find in the biological sex I was assigned at birth if I can change most of it (and quite easily with hormones)? Look into the physiological changes that happen just from modifying one’s hormones and it may help you understand. Also, look into all the animals in nature that are able to change their sex — there are numerous examples.
The belief that some things are “natural” while others are “unnatural” is that of an underdeveloped mind. It’s an extremely limiting fallacy that has been used to control populations for far too long. Try to challenge that belief and I think you’ll find a new level of freedom.
And why would I want to say I am a man? Masculine and feminine gender archetypes exist all around the world, but how those genders manifest can be completely different, especially over the span of time. I am a woman, anyone who knows me would attest to that, even if it makes you uncomfortable. Lastly, I accepted a long time ago that I’d rather die a frumpy old lady than a frumpy old man. You’ve probably just not seen many examples of trans people dying of old age because so many of us are slaughtered violently and systematically.
I think the criticism of trans discourse/terminology not reflecting the lived experience and needs of many trans people is a valid (lol) and a welcome one. It seems to me this is part of a wider liberal co-opting of social justice movements which steer them away from material interests to vaguely 'affirming' different identity groups. That said I don't necessarily see a problem with blahaj or Amazon skirts. It's not for me but I don't see how the existence of that subculture really effects me.
Equally I think that without acknowledging the existence of the anti trans movement you're left with a lopsided account for why we're dealing with bathroom bans and the like. The implication is that transphobia is powered by activists using the wrong language, or recently out trans people being cringe online. In my view saying “sex reassignment” rather than “gender affirming care” would have done little to placate those dead set against our existence one way or the other.
THIS
I see it like this: If the word wasn't tainted by cis pathologisation and a misogynistic history of making us trans women fuckable for men - I would say I'm a transsexual. I medically transitioned, I got "the surgery", I pass most of the time. And this puts me in a *privileged* position compared to lots of non-binary folks and trans people who have a harder time with medical transition or who might never reach their goals. That's why we need the activism that fights the binary and bot just a "well, if you change your sex, we'll accept you" rhetoric that OP is suggesting here. Yes, what we have gone through is suoer hard. Medical transition is super hard... And still we have to recognise our privilege?! Yes, we do. Else we are no better than the cis women who think being AFAB is the epitome of suffering that defines being a woman. Trans joy is about representation and defying cisnormativity. If people transition into cisnormativity that's ok - but it's also a privilege to be able to.
This is a super important conversation. It’s difficult to discuss because of all the transmedicalist accusations and inability for so many to listen when it means any sort of division of “the community,” or an inability to understand what it means when someone says “fuck trans joy.” So many fail to realize is that we’ve all been further marginalized by the focus on transgender rhetoric and not leaving space for transsexual conversations. I see myself as both transgender and transsexual — but the transgender part is merely a circumstance of my environment and nurture having forced my gender to develop unnaturally into a pseudo-masculine creature. And that was easy to fix — I let go of the expectations put on me, let my hair grow, changed my wardrobe and started wearing makeup. Amongst a few other things. But overall, it was a transition I was able to make in an incredibly short amount of time, and I perform my gender extremely well. The transsexual part is what brings me daily distress, and that’s because so many things about my body still aren’t right. My hormones still aren’t where they should be — I’m always fatigued and my head still isn’t as clear as I imagine it should be if I had enough estrogen in my system. I wasn’t capped at 1-2mg/day for years, but my providers have been reticent to adjust my dosage because “your body is feminizing just fine.” BUT WHAT ABOUT MY MENTAL HEALTH?! I’m seeking surgery — I have dates for FFS & sexual reassignment, and hopefully those will lower some of the dysphoria I face on a daily basis. But no matter what I do, no matter how right I get with myself, this world will always see me as something I am not — a man who plays the part of a woman. They will always assign us the trans adjective before the woman adjective, even though hierarchically it should be the other way around. And that will always trigger both my gender and sexual dysphoria. Gender because why am I not accepted when I do feminine gender better than most cis women?? And sexual because my body wasn’t built right in the womb, and no matter how I change it, people still want to claim it’s a male body. We talk so much about the “gender spectrum” but what about the sexual spectrum?? To claim that sex is immutable and only exists on one extreme or another disregards the existence of intersex people and sexual transition at the same time. Ugh, it’s all so frustrating. I don’t even know where I’m going with this, or if there is a point I’m trying to make other than it doesn’t matter what we do or how we act, society doesn’t want to see us as anything but strange, radical creatures who claim to be something we are not. They fail to recognize that their own sex and gender is something that they can (and do) modify, and that we are all fundamentally the same. They can’t face the reality of human existence, and we pay the price for their ignorance.
A queen in full drag regalia at a gay bar once proclaimed to me (back in the 80’s): “I’m twice the woman you are! And more a man than you will ever be!” Whatever, dude! Oh, & clown fish 🐠 🤡! And murder rates? Debunked if you care to research it.
I suppose there’s no way to discuss with a man who insists he’s [some kind of] woman. But saying you’re a trans woman says that already, doesn’t it? Peace & love.
"back in the 80's at a bar" lol why are terfs always senile hags? Do yall truly have nothing better to do in your few remaining years of post-menopausal existence? must be lonely
Pathetic.
As much as I try to listen to trans-identifying people, the arguments are just mind-blowing to me: your gender developed “unnaturally into a pseudo-masculine creature” … “I do feminine gender better than most cis women … my body wasn't built right in the womb”
Is there no “truth” to biological sex? You hint ‘yes’ but throw it out, arguing that these mental ‘identifications’ (feelings?) are more or as real as nature and development “in the womb.” Nothing wrong with saying you’re a man who tries to emulate high femme fashion? It’ll get harder as you become old, since high femme is based on the young, thin, & beautiful.
I’m assuming good faith on your part, even though that’s not what the vibes are giving. That being said: what truth would I find in the biological sex I was assigned at birth if I can change most of it (and quite easily with hormones)? Look into the physiological changes that happen just from modifying one’s hormones and it may help you understand. Also, look into all the animals in nature that are able to change their sex — there are numerous examples.
The belief that some things are “natural” while others are “unnatural” is that of an underdeveloped mind. It’s an extremely limiting fallacy that has been used to control populations for far too long. Try to challenge that belief and I think you’ll find a new level of freedom.
And why would I want to say I am a man? Masculine and feminine gender archetypes exist all around the world, but how those genders manifest can be completely different, especially over the span of time. I am a woman, anyone who knows me would attest to that, even if it makes you uncomfortable. Lastly, I accepted a long time ago that I’d rather die a frumpy old lady than a frumpy old man. You’ve probably just not seen many examples of trans people dying of old age because so many of us are slaughtered violently and systematically.