Link-dumping

[rydra_wong]

I seem to have accumulated a bunch of links on gender, trans-ness, embodiment and fitness/movement:

GFW Clothing: Overcoming Barriers to Trans and Queer fitness (brief promotional mention of GFW underwear, as the author's one of their models)

NY Times: Fitness for Bodies That Don’t Fit the Mainstream

My fight to be a man: the story of a life-changing boxing match: Thomas Page McBee on transitioning, sexuality and the fight that altered his life

Comments

[vass]

Thank you for the links.

"What I wasn’t prepared for, when I began injecting testosterone, was the way the filter of my body changed the meaning of the way I spoke, the way I dated, the way I touched and was touched."

Yup. I knew humans would respond differently to me as I started swinging from "mostly (incorrectly) read as female" to "mostly (incorrectly) read as male", but I hadn't braced myself for "animals who are scared of men will be scared of you". It helps a little that it's so very definitely not personal. I met a dog who had only been mistreated by people who smelled like I smelled.

Overturning female stereotypes, such as the idea that women enjoy cooking, had given the old McBee transgressive cred, but post-transition, those same things seemed like reflexive male behaviour.

And this. (I'm NOT a brony. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with guys liking MLP:FiM as such, just with the guys who invade little girl fannish spaces and ignore the little girls' boundaries/safety and whine that too much merchandise for this children's show is targeting children. But I like G1 MLP, and that's because those are the plastic horses I liked when I was a little girl and I still think they're cool now I'm a very large non-girl. See also: He-Man.) It's a great opportunity to examine whether I am liking things because I like them or to conform to or transgress against or avoid a stereotype, though.

McBee had grown up playing with a snot green He-Man and a Masters of the Universe castle, while his half-sister had a pink She-Ra castle

ahahahaha I read that after I mentioned He-Man in this comment. I didn't have the castle (the pony one or the He-Man one) but I had Masters of the Universe and Princess of Power dolls (I didn't have She-Ra herself) and liked both.

[rydra_wong]

Yeah, Daniel Ortberg was talking somewhere about how some things that are transgressive and fun to do as a woman are ... not, as a guy. And having to rethink his persona because of that.

[kore]

Ooh, these look good - thank you!

[chestnut_pod]

These are very interesting, thank you!