Because I don’t want to dismiss the underlying emotions that lead people to feel that suspicion, I’ve thought a lot about why this can be and why I feel differently about it.
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One explanation that stands out to me is that “transsexual-as-gender,” especially as something that’s positively embraced, seems to have much more of a history for heterosexual trans women. We are after all the historically “default trans woman” in all but recent cultural imagination.
aug 22, 2025, 8:35 pm • 33 0 • view
Idk if this is relevant to this at all but I was sorta down a Virginia Prince/Tri-Ess rabbithole and I think that she really set things back for trans lesbians (well, trans women in general but esp lesbians) and sorta contributed to transsexuality and lesbianism being seen as “incompatible”
aug 24, 2025, 1:50 am • 1 0 • view
Of course that makes me appreciate more why there can be sensitivity around this topic, but I also think it’s a positive thing for different kinds of trans people to mark out our own life and self stories, as parts of a population that are really very heterogenous.
aug 22, 2025, 8:37 pm • 28 0 • view
I also don’t like the argument that I’m “third-sexing myself,” as if it’s something coming from me that I imposed onto my life, rather than what it really is: being aware of something that’s already in my life, already part of who I am, and learning to embrace it.
aug 22, 2025, 8:41 pm • 32 1 • view
And what I find is that the more I embrace this, the less gender dysphoric I feel, the more I feel able to accept my life and my body, and the more I feel able to be compassionate with myself.
aug 22, 2025, 8:42 pm • 36 0 • view
the more i embrace and grow comfortable with it, often the more i end up relating with cis women about their own incongruently sexed bodies
aug 22, 2025, 8:48 pm • 10 0 • view
I feel a similar way. Transsexual and tranny are a strong identity for me.
aug 22, 2025, 9:16 pm • 1 0 • view
Over time I’ve become more comfortable listening to my intuition about this rather than worrying about how others will feel about this, and it’s been a necessary step in working with my mental illness and deciding who and what I’m happiest being.
aug 22, 2025, 8:45 pm • 29 0 • view
I also recognize that part of the charge here is that this “transsexual-as-gender” history is also a big component of the HSTS concept. But that’s also why I like exploring these things and finding less scary ways to talk about them. bsky.app/profile/godd...
aug 22, 2025, 8:52 pm • 18 0 • view
Trans women have different experiences of formativity and that’s okay. We have different paths into transness and womanhood and that’s okay.
aug 22, 2025, 8:55 pm • 15 0 • view