A couple of nights ago, National Geographic TV screened an hour long special on trans experience. Here’s the preview:
I haven’t found the full version online yet, but if you do, let me know.
Low T
There’s a testosterone shortage in effect which is being felt particularly in Canada but by some US men as well. That said, here’s a great post on testosterone shortages, including what you can do when they happen.
There’s also a recent update about different brands & their availability.
ATM Blog
Just discovered the blog American Trans Man, which, according to its description, is:
written by a FTM trans scientist who supplies information about different biological and genetic aspects of being transgender with a focus on the transmasculine.
I’m especially pleased there’s a focus on trans science.
Thai Tomboy
A new clothing store catering to tomboys and FTM spectrum people has opened in Bankgkok.
“At first people probably thought it was crazy,” said Supamas “Jean” Sirimoungkalavanit, owner of Tom Chic shop. “It was quite understandable to get such responses because tomswear was something new to them.”
“People often misperceive [sic] that we want to be like men,” she says. “We have a different taste, lifestyle and identity, and so tomboy clothing is different from what men wear.’’
Indeed what we categorize in the states more often as lesbian chic than tomswear does have a unique aesthetic it has quickly spread to tween boy idols and throughout the fashion world. And though Sirimoungkalavanit tries to make it clear that her shoppers do not necessarily want to be like men there is certainly an aspect to her line that many trans-identified people can relate to.
How cool is that?
One Parent’s Path
It’s rare to see an article by a parent about a child’s transition, much less one that openly struggles with the issues a religious faith brings into the mix.
Inwardly I wrestled with the changes in my child: shoulders broadening, cheek fuzz turning into beard, voice deepening. In a way it was fascinating: Who could imagine that a body would respond so dramatically to hormone treatment? And yet…where was my daughter? I couldn’t bear the thought of her disappearing before my eyes.
Outwardly, with the exception of my mother and one or two other people, I kept what was happening private. Talking about the situation felt too uncomfortable. I was embarrassed and ashamed that such a shande (shameful thing) could have happened in my family.
That year I met with a therapist several times. I also prayed. Psalm 118 was my daily focus: “I called on God from a narrow place; God answered from a wide expanse.” I hoped that God would help me open my heart in acceptance and love.
I thought of the story of the heartbroken father who came to the Baal Shem Tov for advice: “My son has turned his back on Judaism. What should I do?” The great Chasidic master replied, “Love him even more.”
I’m happy to add that I gave someone who knew this parent a few resources a couple of years ago when she was first struggling with her child’s transition. I hadn’t heard an update, & this one is about the best I could have hoped for.
More Trans in the NYT
Wow: Amos Mac and Original Plumbing magazine get a profile in the NYT. For those of you who think nothing has changed, and the media suck on trans issues, honestly: it’s just not true. These are huge changes, huge progress.
Book: Letters For My Brothers
Matt Kailey – whose Tranifesto blog is worth checking out – is one of the contributors to the book Letters For My Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect. < /em>Other contributors include Jamison Green, Raven Kaldera, Aaron Devor, Lou Sullivan, and Reid Vanderbergh.
I don’t have a copy yet, but I’m looking forward to getting my hands on one.
Amos Mac + Original Plumbing Magazine
How I miss Brooklyn and its hipsters, especially all the queerios and genderf***ers. (I know it’s fashionable to mock hipsters, but I was one before it was a pejorative.)
Either way, Amos Mac lives in Brooklyn now, and he publishes Original Plumbing – the term used by no-bottom-surgery FTM spectrum types to explain their bits – which is a new magazine for trans masculine folks. You can find OP on FB, too.
Mac doesn’t really see himself as a guy, but as a “transman,” someone who started out female and then shifted to the masculine side of the gender spectrum. And yet Mac also identifies as a “queer guy,” which means he often finds himself attracted to, and dating, gay men. He’s an exemplar for a new generation less concerned with gender boundaries. “When I was a woman or girl or whatever,” Mac says, “I very much identified as a fag. I was drawn to the community of gay men, and that’s how I embody myself.” And although he’s dated women, “I’m attracted to guys who have a bit of flair to them. They don’t have to be gay, but they can be queeny. I love an artistic queen.”
San Francisco 0
Brooklyn 1.
Not Just Amanda Simpson
From the “there goes the MTF end of things sucking all the air out of the room again” division: in fact there were two trans people appointed by the Obama administration in late November.
The difficulty arose because Simpson is a former NCTE Board member, & so they sent out a press release noting their former board member’s new job, which is what caused all the hullabaloo.
Trans Documentary Drinking Game
In light of the documentary about Chloe Prince that will air tomorrow night, I thought we should all be prepared for what looks like it’s going to be a doozy of a predictable documentary.
So, the rules, such as they are, for watching a trans documentary:
- Putting on makeup. Two drinks for reverse camera shot into mirror.
- Doing anything better done in jeans and sneakers in heels and a skirt. Examples: cleaning the house, shoveling the sidewalk, yard work, walking the dog.
- Before picture shown. Two drinks for picture in stereotypical male mode (sports team, facial hair, military, wedding tux)
- Camera shot putting on or taking off a bra.
- Photo of any wig, breast form, padding, etc.
- Surprise disclosure, when a trans woman is introduced and then partway through the piece, her secret is revealed.
- Camera focus on masculine body parts: hands, feet, Adam’s apple, height, etc.
- Any reference to genital surgery that refers to “becoming a woman” or “finally a woman”
- Minor chords played softly on a piano
- talk show host saying “you go girl”
- any discussion of plumbing or electricity
- black and white childhood shots, MTF with cap gun and cowboy hat, FTM as ballerina.
- Trans woman saying, “I am not a crossdresser. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
- Trans woman clutching large teddy bear in hospital bed.
- Birthday balloons after surgery.
- Trans woman with new boyfriend (after shot of tearful ex-wife).
- Trans woman sitting in chair in above-the-knee skirt, posed so you can see what great gams she has.
- Patient wheeled off to surgery …
- … lingering shot of the hospital bed with the teddy bear (or wife) left behind.
- Shot of protaganist sitting at the computer keyboard, looking at a trans support website or surgeon’s website….
- Any helping professional teaching deportment
- Camera in the operating room – just drink the whole bottle
- Any and all deployments of soft focus = 1 shot
- Close up of dotted lines in magic marker on pale fleshy body parts = 1 shot
- Earnest surgeon describes his motivation as “to help [girlname] become the woman she’s always really felt herself to be” = 3 shots
- Before picture with extreme facial hair – 1 shot
- Before picture in uniform – Military, Football, etc… – 2 shots
- Video from hair removal session : Laser – 1 shot, electrolysis – 2 shots
- Before picture – Last time she wore a dress (F2M) – 1 shots
- Breast binding – 2 shots
- Taking Hormones – Self-injecting -3 shots, orals – 1 shot
- Did anyone mention an arduous and lonely childhood?
- Meeting the school bully as “the new me” at the High School reunion?
- Looking at the old picture of self and saying something to the effect of “he was a nice guy….” or “Ken was a lot of fun, but his time is over. It’s Ginger’s turn now!”
- Trans woman claiming to have IS chromosomal pattern, an affinity for washing dishes, a sudden dislike of sports, etc.
Believe it or not, these are not the most snarky suggestions by some of our mHB board members. Also remember: there are quite a few people who hang out on our boards who have done this kind of media work, including me & Betty, of course, but also Jenny Boylan, amongst others. We need to laugh at ourselves as much as we laugh at the inanity of it all.
Twelve-Steppers should find their own version, of course. Maybe those ice cream poppers? But the point is to feel as physically ill by the end as the drinking crowd.
(Thanks and love to Gwen Smith who wrote her own version of this back in 2005 and to anyone else who has posted their version of this game.)