for whoever needs to hear this:
starting HRT doesn't have to be a huge momentous all-or-nothing decision. you can just try it like you would an antidepressant you've been informed of the risks of.
there won't be any immediate irreversible changes overnight. you can always stop, change your dose, change your delivery system, decide it's not the right time. you can even microdose if you want to.
you don't have to tell anyone. you don't have to announce it if you don't want to.
stop waiting for a perfect time in your life because it won't come.
stop waiting to reach a mythical level of certainty that never comes to anyone, for anything.
you've been thinking about it long enough. if you have the opportunity, just give it a shot. you're worth the courage it takes to make a change in your life.
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Some nonbinary people don't have a gender.
Some nonbinary people are a third gender.
Some nonbinary people are both a man and a woman.
Some nonbinary people are between man and woman.
Some nonbinary people are a few genders at once.
Some nonbinary people change their gender periodically.
Some nonbinary people have different amounts of gender.
Some nonbinary people have a little bit of a certain gender.
Some nonbinary people don't understand their gender.
They are all nonbinary.
(I'm sure I missed some, and for some more than one may resonate. Add in your own!)
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What are "transmasc" and "genderqueer"?
I just woke up so bear with me, but like
Western society has invented this idea of "man" and "woman", right? And we SAY it's actually real, and based on tangible things like sex characteristics- primary, like dicks n' hoo-has- and secondary, like tiddies an facial hair an cellulite.
Well, it turns out that those things ain't divided "correctly" into the man and woman categories all the time.
People with dicks sometimes get tiddies, people without dicks sometimes grow beards and chest hair, beauty standards like "woman thin and hairless and short with small nose and tiny feet" and "man tall and muscular with a beard and broad shoulders" aren't appearing in nature the way we say they should.
(These gendered standards also change over time, but that's a different post.)
What's more, some people have multiple primary characteristics, and it's not even super rare! (Again, worth a different post, and not one I'm really in a position to make.)
So, we say that we didn't just "invent" two exclusive boxes to sort a wide variety and spectrum of characteristics into by pure brute force, but evidence says otherwise. So do we change the rules of our society to fit that evidence?
No, we pick something else to support our beliefs.
Learning about genes and DNA and chromosomes came much later in the game, so most people's grasp of it is this: Men have XY chromosomes, women have XX chromosomes, and no matter what your body is shaped like, that determines which box you go in. Whatever you look like should be padded or amputated or shaved away until you fit in your box.
Except.... we now know that people who outwardly appear to be the perfect ideal poster children of "man" and "woman" are living full, natural, healthy and unbothered lives totally unaware that they have the "wrong" chromosomes. No visibly "mixed" characteristics at all. So there goes that idea out the window.
Unless we say that no, our invention which is fact still holds up- there's just a few mutants and freaks and dysfunctional anomalies that just sort of happen sometimes, like factory flaws that wouldn't exist if things were running as they should.
So what do we do with factory flaws? We "fix" them. Or pressure them to fix themselves. Or, if they can "pass" one way or another, shove them into that box and tell them to shut up about it. Don't fit into either? Then pick one, and make yourself fit.
But... then, if we can pick... if hairy women with flat chests and small hips can shave themselves down and throw on some padding and powder her face to be accepted.... why can't anyone else?
Or, if that same "woman" went, fuck it, cut his hair short and embraced all the "man" characteristics, went by different pronouns and stepped into the "man" box... wouldn't that be okay, too?
And, he'll, what if they changed nothing about themselves and decided to opt out? We've proven that these "universal facts" don't *actually* exist and exceptions are everywhere, so fuck it, right? "Man" and "woman" don't really mean anything tangible anyways, so why not do what makes you happy?
And since, again, evidence shows that "man" and "women" aren't perfect binary boxes with perfect binary traits- why bother living up to those traits at all? Why can't someone assigned to the "woman" box live in the "man" box with long hair and heels on? If I makes him happy, what's the harm?
We don't like this, though, because when you build two boxes that contain the whole world, and people start escaping, or slipping out to live in the one they like more, or switching, or building their own, people begin to wonder why they're living in boxes at all. If we even need boxes.
And the people who maintain the boxes tell us, it's because the boxes are safe, and the boxes are natural, and the boxes have been here exactly as they are since the beginning of time anyways, and NO, they aren't just terrified of life outside the shelter of the box, you're the weird one.
Meanwhile, if we really looked into it, I imagine we'd find more people who don't fit their box criteria, or don't even like their box, at least as often as we find people who do.
Transgender means "someone who isn't in their assigned box".
Genderqueer means, "someone who isn't in their assigned box", but in a the same broad way that "transgender" is- Maybe a him, maybe a her, maybe both, maybe a they, perhaps a xey, and sometimes some of us move around.
I say I'm genderqueer, 'cause that fits me, but "Transmasc" to me personally means, "I know I'm not a woman, and I'm closer to the "man" box, but I'm happier wandering outside the "man" box than I am stepping fully inside. (Dysphoria is part of that, but again, in my opinion it's not vital to the experience.)
And I'm not one for destroying those two boxes entirely- they bring joy to a lot of people.
Just, you know. Maybe making more, different boxes. And maybe little camps out between them. And not treating people who roam the wilderness instead like rabid animals. Is the thing.
Long answer
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hi, i saw your recent ask and i was wondering. how do you build an androgynous/femme outfit? especially for AMAB people who tend to have a more rectangular body shape.
thanks in advance!!
I think being able to separate clothing from gender is an important part of being able to present how you want to present.
Of course, there is a lot of cultural pressure around certain pieces of clothing being associated with certain gender presentations. However, I find that clothing is not the main thing that helps me with androgyneity. For me, that would be shapewear in the form of hip pads, butt pads (these are basically boxer shorts with inserts for specifically shaped pads), and breast forms.
Here is how I present most days I go out compared with a more masc look:
The main differences between these are the makeup and the shapewear for the femme look. Otherwise, the cargo pants are the same, and the vneck t-shirts are the same brand.
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