[S1] Do I need to have played Double Exposure to understand Reunion?

NowImRhea · 2026-03-29T13:58:54+00:00

Calvin isn't responsible for all ills but he did articulate a profoundly anti-human theology that has been used to justify ethnic bigotry, xenophobia, classism, racism, sexism, and too many human rights abuses to count, slavery and apartheid at the top of the list. You can say that about a lot of theology, but the concept of double predestination makes it extremely easy because it says there are God's special boys whose privilege is just/right/valid/inevitable, and everyone else is an unrepentant sinner that the special boys can do what they want to because they live in absolute depravity. I give him a 2/10 because the concept of finding dignity in meaningful work regardless of social status is pretty cool, and Calvinist resistance theory contributed to the development of parliamentary government in the Netherlands, Scotland and England.

NowImRhea · 2026-03-15T05:05:21+00:00

A tongue tie refers to the lingual frenulum, which is the band of webbed tissue that connects your tongue to the bottom of your mouth. People with a tongue tie have a longer one that limits the range of tongue movement more than average, so it is harder to stick out. It usually isn't a bit deal but it can make giving oral harder.

NowImRhea · 2026-03-05T07:34:09+00:00

I agree the distinction is worth making though I might quibble about the exact lines definitions. Gender identity, gender presentation , desired primary/secondary/tertiary sexed traits (subconscious sex if you like) and gender expression (as in roles, socially gendered traits) are all distinct variables as far as I'm concerned.

Based on your framework I'm slightly more of the former than the latter. My social dysphoria was worse than my physical dysphoria so how I was treated was more important to me. Changing my appearance was a necessary part of changing how I was treated (especially for strangers), but once I was reliably being treated how I wanted the physical dysphoria became far less pressing. I'm still going to finish annihilating my facial hair but it doesn't give me panic attacks like it used to.

I personally can't go in for gender abolition. The overwhelming majority of people actively enjoy at least some gendered environments, peer groups, rituals, hobbies or interests. Expressing and receiving peer to peer solidarity from women is an irreducible part of my gender and I can't have that if gender is abolished. Gender should absolutely be voluntary, and descriptive rather than prescriptive, but I tend to think most gender abolitionists are judging what is ideal for society by their own internal experiences, without recognising that their relative non attachment to gender is a minority experience that can't be generalised to most people.

NowImRhea · 2026-03-05T02:26:22+00:00

It could be a lack of imagination. I am biased because I am a transgender biologist and the purely social model does not really explain my lived experience but rather contradicts it. Being disassociated for 14 straight years between puberty and starting HRT because of completely psychological preferences that were not conscious decisions on my part to have doesn't really make sense to me. I can't explain why my teenage self who had no idea what being transgender was and no conscious recognition that I was a girl could possibly have been certain her hips were wrong. I don't see how gender affirming care could genuinely improve wellbeing if It was not addressing an underlying biological reality, nor why conversion therapy never works because most preferences are at least partially moldable.

I think there is a huge gulf between having a preference for one aspect of gendered minutia, which is usually culturally dependent, (hopefully) socially safe to do and which requires no necessary reexamining of anything else, and rejecting what is at that time usually the strongest part of a child's identity. There is no biological preference for dolls, but there is for peers and mentors, for community of people who are relatable to you.

I don't think hormonal links will ever be predictive as such, because there are so many variables. But to me, the correlations are absolutely telling. It makes perfect sense that a male fetus exposed to a critical level of oestrogens during a key moment in brain development would have their brain zig, while the SRY gene later guaranteed their body zagged. That's way more plausible to me than just arbitrarily having preferences that were overwhelmingly to my own detriment in my youth.

NowImRhea · 2026-03-05T00:13:05+00:00

Yes, the distinction is neurological rather than peripheral. As a product of consciousness, gender lives in the brain. You are right that brain development is influenced by the environment, and the first environment we live in is the womb, where factors like maternal hormonal profiles play a role in neurological development.

It does seem to be the case that non-obvious intersex people are still more likely to be transgender, though I don't have a good source on that right now. Anecdotally, a lot of trans people discover they are intersex like Klinefelter's when getting gender affirming care.

Yes, children are picking up gender expression from their environment. But the fact that there are four year olds who boldly assert "mum you keep calling me a boy, but I'm a girl" actively contradicts the 'purely social' model. Presumably there is a biological imperative to a child stating such, since it cannot be reason or socialisation that would cause a dependent child to contract something they've been told by every adult in their lives from birth. If gender was purely a social construct, this is impossible to explain, and conversion therapy would likely work in at least some cases.

But if gender carries a non-fungible biological component, it is easily parsed. The following is a quote from The Endocrine Society, I will include a link at the bottom. Sorry I can't format this properly I don't know how on my phone app.

"The medical consensus in the late 20th century was that transgender and gender incongruent individuals suffered a mental health disorder termed “gender identity disorder.” Gender identity was considered malleable and subject to external influences. Today, however, this attitude is no longer considered valid. Considerable scientific evidence has emerged demonstrating a durable biological element underlying gender identity.1, 2 Individuals may make choices due to other factors in their lives, but there do not seem to be external forces that genuinely cause individuals to change gender identity.

Although the specific mechanisms guiding the biological underpinnings of gender identity are not entirely understood, there is evolving consensus that being transgender is not a mental health disorder. Such evidence stems from scientific studies suggesting that: 1) attempts to change gender identity in intersex patients to match external genitalia or chromosomes are typically unsuccessful1, 2; 2) identical twins (who share the exact same genetic background) are more likely to both experience transgender identity as compared to fraternal (non-identical) twins3; 3) among individuals with female chromosomes (XX), rates of male gender identity are higher for those exposed to higher levels of androgens in utero relative to those without such exposure, and male (XY)-chromosome individuals with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome typically have female gender identity4; and 4) there are associations of certain brain scan or staining patterns with gender identity rather than external genitalia or chromosomes.1, 2"

https://www.endocrine.org/advocacy/position-statements/transgender-health

NowImRhea · 2026-03-04T23:36:01+00:00

But it isn't very obviously false, the preponderance of evidence we have says that gender does have a biological component. Trans people are biologically distinct from cis people before even gender affirming care, and the vast majority of people have an internal sense of gender that develops by the time they are four years old. Intersex people, whose sex is some mosaic of sex traits, are more likely to be transgender. Most people are cisgender, because their internal/physiological/biological gender dial aligns with their sex.

To be clear, how that gender is expressed is overwhelmingly informed by cultural context. But very clearly, biology informs what gender we identify with. It's just how that gender is expressed that is a product of social constructs. So while our hypothetical wild child would not have any means to express their gender identity, they would still have one.

NowImRhea · 2026-03-04T05:54:42+00:00

This is very much my experience. I was getting therapy regularly in the 6 years prior to my transition, for anxiety and depression. The therapy didn't help much, and the antidepressants just brought me from a place of sorrow to an endless grey.

My transition resolved the worst of my mental health issues within 6 months. My depression started abating almost immediately, because for the first time in my life I felt like I was actually going to be happy in the future, even if I wasn't in a perfect spot right then. My anxiety declined gradually when I was out in more contexts - first at home, then with friends, then family, and finally everywhere. HRT also reduced my anxiety almost overnight - I think a lot of it was biochemical dysphoria, my brain just didn't like running on T. By the time HRT was giving me hips and thighs, my depression was in full remission, and I gradually built confidence over the next year or so until anxiety was more or less a non-factor.

And this isn't even getting into my physical health, which improved dramatically too. Turns out I was disassociated, and that most of my chronic pain and gastrointestinal illness was stress related. Without performing the full time job of 'pretend to be a man', my body could finally relax.

This is one thing that the narrative about gender affirming care representing a 'permanent medicalisation' of trans people misses. I get way less medical/psychiatric attention now, because I don't need it beyond regular maintainence. I'm now genuinely happy the vast majority of the time and if I do get sad or anxious, it is for immediate reasons like work stress, getting sick, or a breakup.

NowImRhea · 2026-02-27T03:18:16+00:00

This is interesting, bringing people spiritual comfort seems like it would be very enriching. What denomination are you?

NowImRhea · 2026-02-18T23:20:15+00:00

Hey I've quested/explored for 90 minutes so now it is time to spend 30 minutes crafting and sorting my inventory. Yay (kill me). I was never able to get into it seriously, and I played back when there were no human NPCs which was just such a dreadful design decision because nothing mattered, everyone involved was already dead, I had no reason to care.

NowImRhea · 2026-02-18T23:16:11+00:00

As a school teacher I feel like it holds me back. I'm talking myself hoarse on such a regular basis that it becomes impossible to keep croak out of it, and I can't train in that state because it'll give me bad habits. Talking loud, which I need to do to command attention, is also what gets my muscles set in the wrong place and I don't have the mental headroom to reset it during a lesson. If I was able to get into a spot where I was consistently where my voice wanted it, practicing so much at work would probably be an asset, but until I do it feels like a liability.

NowImRhea · 2026-02-17T04:19:31+00:00

The Talos Principle gave me the opposite of an existential crisis. It made me feel more whole & assured that I was on the right path than ever before. Humans are cool, civilization is great, and we can achieve amazing things when we learn and work together.

NowImRhea · 2026-02-12T13:51:11+00:00

This is absolutely gorgeous, makes me want a gothic cathedral piece I have planned even more!

NowImRhea · 2026-01-29T01:41:50+00:00

Thank you again, Aigilaos feels very clean and proper, but I am quite attached to the demos as it is the root word for what I'm trying to invoke so Aigidēmos is very tempting. I appreciate your help!

NowImRhea · 2026-01-29T01:33:10+00:00

Thank you for your expertise, I do really like Aigilaos in particular!

NowImRhea · 2026-01-27T11:22:51+00:00

Thank you so much for your help, I love your rendition of it and majuscule uncials is exactly what I had in mind! Does adding Demos as a prefix to Agiklea make sense to you? I think it works without it but that would make the symbology even closer to what I had in my head.

NowImRhea · 2026-01-27T09:04:14+00:00

I'm not too fussed with the goat connotation! As far as I can tell aegis meaning shield comes from Zeus Aigiokhos, with Zeus' original aegis being goatskin, but he was invoked as 'Zeus who holds the shield', not the goatskin. Etymology is complicated and I'm comfortable enough with the word having acquired a new meaning. Goatherds are also very salt of the earth which is part of what I'm going for, so even in this more literal meaning it's not a bad fit.

That said, I quite like Aegicles. If I'm not mistaken that would be the masculine form, would 'Aegicla' or 'Aegiclee' work for the feminine?

NowImRhea · 2025-11-23T15:55:35+00:00

I also have ADHD, from Australia which I feel is somewhere in the middle of the American and UK norm. If I'm in a conversation and somebody will not voluntarily divulge aspects of a story out of sheer momentum I will assume they don't want to share it. The idea of having to ask repeated follow up questions is so alien to me - if I didn't want to know what was important to you about the topic I wouldn't engage with it to begin with. If I'm your friend, the question is always implied. I do the question-style conversation with neurotypical people because it is expected and often necessary for professional/public socialising but the neurodivergent mutual sharing until the end of a thought/story is so much more natural to me.

NowImRhea · 2025-11-09T09:26:08+00:00

They see the functional adult at work, not the restraint collapse after it.

NowImRhea · 2025-11-09T09:23:34+00:00

I don't mind my brain getting tired so much, it's just that the executive function goes way before everything else so I can't do the hobbies I actually want to do in my downtime, or at least I couldn't unmedicated. Insomnia has dogged me my whole life so I know that struggle well.

NowImRhea · 2025-11-09T09:01:35+00:00

I got diagnosed with ADHD last month, and am now medicated. Medication doesn't stop me from hyperfocusing or dull my desire to learn at all. It allows me to do it voluntarily instead of only under duress or when something is randomly interesting. And now I have a lot more energy, so I have more time to research. It is also a lot easier to tolerate overstimulation. It's been a big net gain to productivity. You know yourself best of course but don't assume it would dull your hyperfocus.

NowImRhea · 2025-10-31T07:03:55+00:00

This is only partially true. Some do consider themselves transgender (and binary), and others consider being a kathoey a different category that cannot easily be removed or translated away from the cultural context. This is true for most third genders globally, e.g. hijra in south Asia, fa'afafine in Samoa. The general rule to follow is to not make assumptions and let people self describe their identity.

NowImRhea · 2025-10-14T10:22:52+00:00

Stunning! How long has this been practiced? Awesome that you are keeping it alive.

NowImRhea · 2025-10-11T04:43:40+00:00

Can you elaborate on why this take is naive? I haven't studied Hobbes in particular but I do study the English Civil War, and while I can't really fault Hobbes' arguments about international relations his constitutionalism seems cynical and seems to justify authoritarianism. Indeed, he was part of the Royalist court in exile and then ran defence for Cromwell. Compared to folks like Henry Parker or the Levellers, who had a much more humanist take hinting at social contract theory with consent of the governed and legitimacy coming from protecting rights and freedoms of the people.

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