I’m a cis-gender man which basically means that, when I was born, the doctor went “It’s a boy!” and when I was old enough to understand I agreed with him.
The thing is, I don’t know why I feel like a man. I was teased and bullied for it a lot when I was little. I’ve never had stereotypically American male interests. I never cared about sports or cars or guns. I was more interested in music and cooking and the arts. I’ve always been emotionally in tune and sensitive, even when I did my best to suppress my emotions to survive a childhood of abuse from other children.
It’s not physical either. I don’t feel like a man because I have a penis or a beard. If you put my brain in a robot body or any other body, my essence would still feel male (I assume). I literally can’t imagine what being any other gender would feel like, since I feel so acutely male.
I think that’s why the concept of being transgender always made sense to me. I’m a man. I don’t have any bloody clue why I feel like a man, but I don’t feel that it’s tied to my body or my interests or the way that I’ve been treated. I feel like a man because of something beyond that. Something ephemeral. So, why couldn’t others feel the same? Why couldn’t a person who’s been misidentified as a girl feel like a boy for the exact same nebulous reasons that I do?
And, since gender really doesn’t make any sense to me anyway, why couldn’t there also be people who feel as if they don’t have one? Or who flow across genders like a ship on a map?
Are there people out there whose sense of their own gender is inseparable from their physical form? If you put those people into robot bodies or, simply, other physically different bodies, would their gender identity also swap? If so, why? Are they actually more lost in their gender identity than I am and they need to hone in on the physical in order to anchor themselves?
Why do people feel like they are the gender that they are?
This is very soul filling to read. Thank you
My grandfather, who had a difficult time coming to terms with it when I came out, has been working very hard to understand me and my experience. About 5 weeks ago, he asked me, almost offhand, “why are you so sure that you’re a man?”
And I replied, “well, I could ask you the same thing.” And I moved on, continued, tried to explain why I feel the way that I do, but I don’t think he heard any of those things that I said afterward.
Because six days later, we talked about it again, and this is what he told me:
“I couldn’t stop thinking about what you said last week. Because all my life I identified it as ‘these are the parts that I have, and so I am a man’. But you’re living proof that gender is not limited to what is attached to your body, so I asked myself, why am I a man? And all I can say is ‘because I have no idea what it feels like to be anything else’. I cannot imagine what it’s like to be a woman. Or neither, or both, or any other gender. I have always been a man.”
And I replied, “that’s exactly what it feels like for me.”
So, shoutout to my cisgender grandfather, for stumbling upon the essence of being trans accidentally, with very little help from me. I love you, grandpa.
watching cis folks suddenly and comprehensively grasp the inessential nature of gender is always a joy
The Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoacán said the statues glorified the brutal exploitation of their ancestors, who continued to resist the Spanish after the rival Aztec empire to the east fell to the conquistadores in 1521.
We will be like ‘Don’t give transphobes your fucking money ever’ and some ppl will still be like ‘Ok, but what if I give them a little money? :-)’ unbelievable
I basically dislike any adult who is still heavily invested in Harry Potter in 2021. You don’t have to burn the books outside or anything but like you can very much just find something else to obsess about.
This franchise is harming trans people because a significant part of it’s profits are directly funding a transphobic movement. You’re participating into that by giving them money or giving them free advertising buzz by constantly talking abt it online. And i think that’s gross
so i’m seeing this post go around quite a bit uncritically with links to straight up donate to ukrainian neo-nazi groups so i’ll break it down, here’s the post you’ll probably see:
here’s the contents of one link, calling themselves “freikorps” and using what looks to be an azov battalion insignia as an avatar:
and here’s what the azov battalion is if you don’t know:
so please don’t donate to this shit, the situation isn’t just some simple little good guy vs big bad guy thing, if you see someone sharing that post, try sharing this with them bcus they probably don’t know
Sorry to be an ugly fun-killer but in light of the recent Invasion I urge you all to be mindful of the things you reblog and the memes that you repost. Please remember that behind every “world war 3 lmao” post there is a reality where real people are going to be displaced from their homes and are going to lose their lives.
Before you laugh at that tweet that talks about the draft or whatever ask yourself: are you laughing because it’s funny? or are you laughing because you’re safe and comfortable in the West and it’s not a direct problem for you?
honestly the reality that there are full grown goyische adults who participate in the south park fandom really wigs me the fuck out
i feel like i really can’t explain to gentiles the extent to which south park specifically introduced my peers to antisemitism as children, which they then directed at me, a fellow child
like, in a very specific and particular way, south park did a lot of damage to me as a jewish child
“but we make trans headcanons about the characters!”
make trans headcanons about something else
south park was directly responsible for me discovering, as a child, that gentiles i liked and trusted would target me for being jewish
and south park was directly responsible for me feeling like i had to laugh and accept it when they did
this was an extraordinarily negative thing for me as a person
i love this post bc it really upsets specifically the most annoying gentiles alive
i love this post bc the notes are almost entirely either “jewish people sharing how south park led to them experiencing antisemitism” and “goyim getting really upset about that”
His age was estimated at the time he was found in 1882. This species matures at around 50 years old and he was past that age, so he might be older than 189 but we will never know.
He lives on a South Atlantic island, Saint Helena (aka the place Napoleon Bonaparte lived until his death in 1815) where he’s well taken care of by the governor of the island. According to his vet, he likes listening to tennis.
The average lifespan for his species is 150, but he’s super healthy aside from cataracts in both eyes and possible loss of smell.
Jonathan has a mate, Fred, who until recently was thought to be female. Fred is male.
His species (which is a subspecies of Aldabra giant Tortoise) are on the endangered list with only about 80 recorded worldwide. However, many giant Tortoises currently hold the record for longest living land animals with a few others’ ages ranging between 175-250 years. So Jonathan still has a while to go!
Here’s Jonathan (on the left) in 1882 upon his arrival to the island:
(photo courtesy of Guinness World Records)
Jonathan has lived through both world wars, the Russian Revolution, 39 U.S. presidents, 7 British monarchs, the creation of the typewriter, the completion of the Eiffel Tower, the coronation of Queen Victoria, the release of the first postage stamp, the building of the first skyscraper, the first photograph of a person, the first lightbulb, and the first powered flight.
