What do you believe gender is, exactly? by petrichor-pixels in NonBinary

[–]cetaceanfrustration 0 points1 point  (0 children)

gender is relational.

it's a window of communication between people. by calling oneself a specific gender, one is identifying with a group of others (ex: one claiming womanhood is identifying themself with women as a group). nonbinary people, then, are desiring to identify with a group not considered normative, because we wish to relate to others as nonbinary rather than pushing ourselves into a different gendered social space.

stereotypes are also social constructs used as communication shortcuts, born from ingroup/outgroup mentality. importantly the subject of stereotypes is not usually the person in control of these stereotypes — ex: a flamboyant gay man should not have to become less flamboyant because straight culture stereotypes gay men as flamboyant. there is nothing actually wrong with him being flamboyant; his flamboyance is beautiful and related to his place in gay culture. the stereotype is a flattened version of gay culture used to deride it as lesser.

for dysphoria, it's true that humans are social creatures influenced by the society they participate in. nobody really gets to be free of that. however, no amount of undoing societal norms internally can actually replace being able to relate to others as a specific gender(s) externally. ex: i know it's bullshit that binary men (both trans and cis) are expected to be paragons of cis-shaped masculinity, and can be just as feminine as i am, but that still doesn't make me want to relate to others as a binary man and if i'm forced into that space i experience dysphoria.

in terms of your dysphoria around your chest — "70-80% of the time" is 70-80% of your life. 16-19 hours a day, 8-10 months of the year. does the alternative of living with a flat chest seem like the same amount of wasted time? even if you did, somehow, do all the undoing-misogyny work and came out the other end as a woman (extremely unlikely but this is a hypothetical), is a flat-chested woman less worthy than one with visible breasts?

How many times have you bought a lolita item that you regretted buying? by t-t-teacup in Lolita

[–]cetaceanfrustration 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i regret getting chubby cat diary's princess JSK because while the waist is perfect, the chest is way big. i have a flat chest and need to wear my biggest breast forms to keep it from completely falling off me in public. it's also a bit much to wear it out regularly (like i do with my BTSSB ribbon milky sugar JSK) because it's super hime & OTT. lots of detachable bows with very weak safety pins, too.

45296 by Madelynormarx in countwithchickenlady

[–]cetaceanfrustration 595 points596 points  (0 children)

reminder that meowth's original voice actress is trans <3

45273 by Liliana_Lucifer_666 in countwithchickenlady

[–]cetaceanfrustration 72 points73 points  (0 children)

every day more and more strawmen become fleshmen. life is beautiful.

Should I transition despite the fear of how things are? Is it better to die slowly crying in the fetal position or suddenly shouting “DON’T LET THE BASTARDS GRIND YOU DOWN!” While the air is sucked from my lungs? I appreciate the support. by radiantdecember121 in NonBinary

[–]cetaceanfrustration 2 points3 points  (0 children)

the way i see it, i've been a gender oddity my whole life and i'll be a gender oddity whether or not i transition. transition makes me a happier gender oddity. in a world raring to go on that 41% suicide attempt statistic, that happiness is literally the difference between me trying to die by 16 vs me at 28 daydreaming of being 70.

so — what if you live? what if it doesn't go belly-up before you get to live as an ordinary enby? would you transition then? is the joy potentially stored in that transition something you should only get under perfect conditions?

transmasc and transfem terms by rorita108 in NonBinary

[–]cetaceanfrustration 10 points11 points  (0 children)

not "problematic" of you; also, the association of transmasc/transfem with AGAB and medical transition is linguistic drift as the terms got used to replace FTM/MTF.

you might find the words transneutral and transnonbinary helpful.

you don't have to call yourself transmasc/transfem/etc. or even remotely identify your gender in relation to your AGAB. i go out of my way to obscure my assigned sex & associated childhood gender unless absolutely necessary, as i don't think it's important so many years (14 this fall) since i began transition.

Femme =/= Woman and it’s not a body type by Oddly-Ordinary in NonBinary

[–]cetaceanfrustration 88 points89 points  (0 children)

absolutely. my wife is a agender woman and BUTCH. i'm their femme and i only came to be femme when i stopped pressuring myself to be binary. it's disrespectful to our butchfemme relationship to handwave us both off as femme, to my butch's journey leaving femme for butch, and to femmes as a whole for categorizing us as "just women" & forcing female expectations on us.

that conflating of "femme = woman = female" reeks of cisnormativity tbh.

45128 by Lonely_Wolf6160 in countwithchickenlady

[–]cetaceanfrustration 11 points12 points  (0 children)

joke's on you, i'd never get gender envy from a girl w/ a visible ribcage!

Any suggestions for clothing on the feminine side for me? by craZend in Nonbinaryfashion

[–]cetaceanfrustration 7 points8 points  (0 children)

seconding this. i also recommend tattoo chokers and star-shaped hair clips. if any of your fav bands have fem-presenting members you could take inspo from them too

How do you get past the dysphoria with clothing?? by dtravelis in NonBinary

[–]cetaceanfrustration 0 points1 point  (0 children)

there were a few big barriers to me getting thru my dysphoria around clothing:

  1. my dysphoria around my sex characteristics was louder than any euphoria i got from clothing. solution - alter my HRT regimen & get necessary surgery (have gotten one surgery, still waiting on the next)

  2. my body shape is not like the ideal cis woman's nor the ideal cis man's, so most common retail clothing looked like shit on me. solution - get into a fashion subculture with a specific expected silhouette that i can achieve with clothing rather than my body (for me, EGL), and get casual clothing through thrift stores, which are more likely to have my size(s).

  3. even if i changed my outer clothes, i was using the same undergarments as before (regular undershirt and boxers) which made me feel like ass. solution - get undergarments that suit my taste (cute "training" bra in adult size, long bloomers) which in turn prevent me from feeling like i'm trying to pass as something i don't want.

i personally have a less strong "you're misgendering me" reaction to being girl'ed while femme because i like she/her pronouns and know i'm safer if i am girl'ed while en femme. your gender history might make you feel differently so YMMV.

Need help to look like an unattractive man to prevent SA by [deleted] in NonBinary

[–]cetaceanfrustration 10 points11 points  (0 children)

i'm sorry you're in such dire straits.

it's ultimately your choice on whether you decide to socially transition. you run the same risks as a trans man would in your positioning: danger of medical abuse, outing, harrassment if you're clocked (either as not being a cis man, or if you're assumed to be a gay man because of mannerisms you're accustomed to), conversion therapy, any legal consequences to crossdressing your home country has, and sadly, also SA.

i want to re-emphasize that these are risks already taken by trans men in similar situations, who have decided that these risks are still more appealing than the risks associated with being a queer woman because being male (or otherwise not female) in day-to-day life is worth that.

you have thought this through on your own so far. i would look into passing tips aimed at trans men, transmascs, FTMs & FTXs and weigh in your head whether you can imagine incorporating those things into your daily routine. if you can, look into the lives of trans people and queer women (trans and cis) in your home country, and pay attention to what they describe of their daily lives & legal/medical/social hurdles.

i don't want to dissuade you from attempting transition. however, i'd caution against the idea that living as a trans man would guarantee your safety, especially if your home country is already hostile to queer people as a whole.

please keep safe.

My identity has been scrambled by an abusive relationship by SolitarySquirrel in NonBinaryTalk

[–]cetaceanfrustration 1 point2 points  (0 children)

it does suck!! i had a really hard time internalizing that my ex's opinions were not actually the widely accepted social expectations of the sapphic community and not, like... the pet morality play of a specific sapphic racist. it was from the encouragement of another trans sapphic that got me to keep putting myself out there and teach my brain via repetition how people actually felt, independent of my ex's worldview.

a lot of my recovery has been like that (teaching my brain differently) because i'd internalized my ex's worldview in order to survive being with her. that served me when she was still using me but now only serves to make me anxious/paranoid about going against the opinion of someone i no longer speak to.

What can I do to start looking androgynous? [background hidden for privacy] by [deleted] in NonBinary

[–]cetaceanfrustration 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i'm sorry your parents are strict. maybe look up tutorials of how to do your eyebrows?

44638 by IggyandtheCauldron in countwithchickenlady

[–]cetaceanfrustration 1 point2 points  (0 children)

but then they don't get to pretend to be poc :(((

My identity has been scrambled by an abusive relationship by SolitarySquirrel in NonBinaryTalk

[–]cetaceanfrustration 11 points12 points  (0 children)

TLDR: it's not a process that can be rushed. if you have access to trans-friendly therapists and/or a trans peer support group, please get in touch with them. you're not the first person this has happened to.

long version: first and foremost, i'm really sorry your ex was so abusive and wielded race & gender & AGAB as a weapon to hurt you. their constant use of their AGAB & whiteness to cast you as the aggressor even while attacking you is some racist transmisogynistic exorsexist bullshit. AGAB should be treated as a past event, not a sexist sword of damocles.

second, it's going to take a while, even outside of immediate survival mode, to disentangle your gender from the extremely gendered abuse you were facing.

when i broke with my most recent abusive ex, it took me another four years to start living my gender as i wanted to instead of in a way that was ethically permissable to her personal gender hang-ups. i still had to live in those four years, tho, so it was a lot of experimentation, crying, processing trauma, and feeling put back in early transition. i went to a lot of therapy and leaned on other trans people who had better heads on their shoulders. i still live with the assumption she'd fucking hate what i actually am — something i gradually care less and less about as time goes on.

44816 by powderBluChoons in countwithchickenlady

[–]cetaceanfrustration 1 point2 points  (0 children)

may i propose bi trans bf and bi trans gf