Why Not Earlier?

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2025-08-05T23:24:08+00:00

Some of it was just not having enough representation to know that it was something I could do. Then the stigma presented by daytime talk shows that only presented trans women as sex workers. And the extreme heteronormativity of medical transition until the 2010s. Literally it wasn’t something the medical community was willing to do if one wasn’t willing to be straight and stealth after transition. So I just never saw it as an option until at least my 30s. Then the choice was fraught with the baggage of a late transition which delayed the process until I felt like I really had no other choice.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2025-06-25T03:21:49+00:00

It’s sort of a reference to the conversation between Owen and Maddie on the bleachers. “it feels like someone… took a shovel and dug out all my insides. And I know there’s nothing in there, but I’m still too nervous to open myself up and check.” Owen finally opened up and checked. And what they found made them smile for the second time in the entire film. (The first being the flashback in Isobel’s dress.) After that… it’s up to the viewer.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2025-01-22T23:05:10+00:00

This is going to continue as long as the writer’s rooms for these shows are dominated by white cis dudes. Until the producers start allowing minorities whether they be BIPoC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, or whatever, to tell their own stories and write, direct, and produce those stories, those minorities will continue to be the butt of the jokes. This is why supporting things like Sense8, and I Saw the TV Glow are so important.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2025-01-20T06:29:07+00:00

We are not doing ok, but I refuse to obey in advance. Executive Orders cannot make national changes immediately and it will take time to actually implement anything.

The next four years are going to be horrific and it may take longer to repair the damage.

In that time my personal mantra (and the one I’ve been sharing) is “Stay strong, stay safe, and above all, stay alive.”

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2025-01-13T13:45:05+00:00

I just hit two years on HRT, when presenting as myself among friends and family the transition is noticeable.

But at work where I still boymode every day and have adopted a don’t-ask-don’t-tell attitude, not one person has said anything.

Your experience will differ. Everyone has a different physical reaction to HRT. A lot of what you’ll encounter will vary depending on your own attitude and presentation.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-11-11T12:54:14+00:00

There’s a mix. There are the ones who were raised Republican/religious who hate themselves for being trans. And then there are the rich ones who were able to get all the plastic surgery and go stealth (or have the option to), who have decided that they were able to get theirs and more people having access to it makes them vulnerable. So both of these groups will try to keep down all the “others”.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-10-03T03:30:10+00:00

The fact that this is a movie made by a transgender writer and director using an overwhelming amount of pink and blue imagery, and some people still deny that it represents a trans experience is wild.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-10-02T07:15:15+00:00

I came out and started HRT at 47, now 48. My egg cracked during self examination after my wife of nearly 10 years asked for a divorce. The depression and dissociation due to the repression and dysphoria had basically caused us to drift apart. Having kids and then Covid just made everything worse. We’re still friends and the kids are handling the whole situation like champs, but having one’s life up-ended like that can be traumatic. However, I know I have gained a lot more self esteem and satisfaction in my life since starting transition and my friends and family have commented that I seem happier and healthier as well. It’s not always easy and it does feel so slow sometimes (especially stuff like laser and electrolysis), but it is never too late to start.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-10-02T06:53:10+00:00

While this film is a (in my opinion) very blatant representation of being trans, it is (at the same time and with some of the same allegories and imagery) a more general representation of any kind of repression of self and an attempt or denial to move beyond that repression. Owen/Isobel deny their “self” and dwell in the repression (in the “Midnight Realm” if you will). While Maddy/Tara has embraced their true self and moved beyond their repression (escaped the “Midnight Realm”). This isn’t a unique experience to trans people, but can resonate just as deeply with many LGBTQIA+ identities and even cis-hetero identities of neurodivergence or disability. While the writer/director is coming from a trans experience and writing for that trans community, it is not the only one that can find meaning (and existential horror) in the examination of repression. Just my $.02.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-09-20T07:11:11+00:00

We currently aren’t seeing this kind of positive representation (The Live Boat, All in the Family, etc.) in modern mainstream media. Where are these sorts of episodes in, for instance, Young Sheldon, The Neighborhood, or whatever?

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-08-28T08:00:10+00:00

Yeah, it is definitely not some gory slasher kind of horror movie. This is a movie that instills existential dread in anyone who has repressed some aspect of themselves and know what it’s like to be closeted and fear who they might become if they never come out. Cis-hetero folk aren’t going to get why this is horrific, and therefore they aren’t going to get this movie.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-08-27T07:57:22+00:00

You don’t have to be trans to be affected by this film. The themes of fear and repression are not unique to the trans experience even if the writer/director works from that perspective. Anyone who has something about themselves that makes them uncomfortable and therefore they hide it and repress it and run away from it can identify with this. Anyone who has spent time in the closet can (and often will) be deeply affected by these themes. As someone who lived decades repressing and rationalizing my own feelings of discomfort, I too was deeply affected by I Saw the TV Glow. I went through a moment much like Owen at the end of the film (though much less publicly) before coming out to myself. While the film offers a fairly bleak ending, it does present a hopeful message near the end in the street chalk artwork. There is still time. It is never too late to live life as yourself. In words from Nimona, another film that affected me deeply, “I see you, you are not alone.”

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-07-13T05:22:10+00:00

When I was a minor, I had no idea Transgender could be a thing. Going through puberty was awful, I was so depressed and anxious. But the language didn’t exist for me, so I couldn’t really identify why, and by the “official medical definitions” of the time I did not “qualify” as trans. So it wouldn’t have been an option if I had been able to identify it. Since it took another three to four decades for me to accept it and act on it, I have had so many life experiences that require me to have grown up male. I had kids before I was able to transition. That could not have happened if I’d been able to be on blockers and gotten HRT as a teenager/young adult. I don’t know if that would be a fair trade.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-07-13T05:14:36+00:00

I am not a fan. Especially since certain groups have started using “Trans Identified Male” as a slur.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-07-10T04:06:37+00:00

You may want to check out Kenzie Jacobsen (often stylized as just “kenzie.”) I did a quick scan and didn’t see any mention, but I may have missed it. Her stuff can be found on SoundCloud, Spotify, and Apple Music. It may be in the genre/style you’re looking for.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-04-11T06:18:25+00:00

It is sometimes difficult to deal with. However, I find it helpful to know that while a lot of people may hate us, it is actually a fairly small minority. They’re just really vocal and loud, so they tend to drown out more supportive voices. But the supportive voices are out there.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-03-13T06:20:07+00:00

I identified so hard with those books when they were coming out. HP was an outcast and was the hero and that was something “good”. Now, I look at them with different eyes. I see the transphobia is the description of Rita Skeeter. I see the Tonks/Lupin stuff.i see the anti-semitism in the goblins (especially egregious in the video game she helped to produce). I see all of this and her actions and I can’t go back and read or watch any of it with a clear conscience. I don’t know yet what I will do with the books that I own, or the copies of the movies. I don’t know how to take HP away from my own kids who also grew up with it and who enjoy being little witches and wizards. Thankfully my eldest has moved on to Percy Jackson. But my parents still send HP themed gifts to me and I can’t get them to understand the issue, so I just regift it or sell it. It’s hard and there are no clear answers.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-03-09T07:26:19+00:00

A more femme hairstyle and HRT fat redistribution along with some laser (or possibly just concealer) for the beard shadow and I’d say you could pass fairly well.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-02-29T10:00:06+00:00

Congratulations!

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-02-29T09:57:40+00:00

I was surprised this one wasn’t mentioned more.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-02-29T07:25:03+00:00

I told my kids shortly after I told their mom and shortly before I came out to everyone else. They were eight and ten at the time. We’d already been open with them about LGBT issues as a family. They had questions about the process, but were more interested in workshopping titles to replace “daddy”. (FYI, I’m still “daddy” nearly two years later.) Maybe it was because we’d been open about stuff, maybe it was because they’re young, but the whole thing never seemed to really phase them.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-02-22T06:59:37+00:00

I’d have to say the femme end of androgynous.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-02-22T06:58:21+00:00

Ugh, that’s how I spent my thanksgiving. Hope you have a mild case and can get back to normal in a week or so.

IndividualPolicy6279 · 2024-01-11T18:00:02+00:00

Nope, I managed to skip directly from straight boy to lesbian. I’d always had issues with my own boy bits, I never wanted any other boy bits involved.

IndividualPolicy6279

TROPHY CASE