I love how perfect your name is for that joke

But we’re not talking about “making fun of people” - which also isn’t the same as the active demonisation, villanisation and sometimes even dehumanisation of trans people, especially from the media and in politics, rather the topic is about laws actively being made against an entire demographic of people.

And freedom of speech is protection against being arrested for your speech. It’s not relevant since no one here has suggested anyone be arrested for it.

It’s a shame it’s not open source, but I’ve found Affinity to be a great alternative to Photoshop + Illustrator. Especially with them recently going free. I’ve always felt GIMP has been a little… Lacking. I hope one day it has that large burst of development and catches up, like how Blender did so long ago… As I’ll always prefer open source.

I’m sadly stuck with Adobe for stuff like Substance Painter + Designer for now :/

The issue with this argument is HRT in trans women after 2 years reduces muscle and bone density down to the levels within the average ranges of cis women… Removing the “biological advantage”. This is widely studied and recognised in science, and it’s not even new science…

It’s the constant intake of the higher testosterone levels that causes the increased baseline strength which lowers as the hormone does. HRT for Trans Women includes both Androgen blockers (blocks testosterone) and estrogen to fill its place. Hence “hormone replacement therapy”

I’d say it’s less “being honest” and more than most people are ignorant (accidentally or maliciously) to just how much HRT affects the body and how it affects the body… Just like how trans men significantly gain baseline strength over 1-2 years into HRT

Which is exactly why sports organisations like the Olympics (before Trump pressured them to drop trans people) required a set amount of time of HRT medical history and blood tests to check hormone levels are in average cis women ranges to allow trans people to take part.

But if you believe the people on the right demanding the erasure of trans people, you’d assume it’s just “men with the biological advantages dunking on women” while ignoring all effects the body undergoes. Which then allows the constant attacking of trans people for simply existing (even though majority trans people aren’t even trying to get into professional sports… But that doesn’t make for a “good” news story or political point scoring when fighting to demonise trans people…)

You could be some flavour of Non-Binary (enby) if you’re not feeling necessarily aligned to man/woman which would still fall under the trans umbrella :p

A lot of people sometimes wrongly assume being enby always means not aligning with any gender, but that’s just one of a good few different types: Agender, Bi-Gender (both), Genderfluid (flow back and forth between 2 or more genders over time) etc too name a few. It could be worth researching them and seeing if they align better with how you feel. Enbys can still tilt one way or another while still feeling not fully rooted in any specific box.

But regardless on if binary or enby, sometimes we can find ourselves suppressing how we feel ourselves growing up only to not be able suppress it any longer later in life as cracks start forming in the walls we put up. Funnily for me, looking back I had too many signs to count as a kid but with so much what I had to deal with and worry about, it was easy to suppress. But with a better environment in my late teens and early 20s, and finally dealing with my at the time undiagnosed ADHD, my head was a lot clearer to be able to confront how and who I am. For me, I had never really felt comfortable being seen or described as a man, never felt comfortable having the social expectations out on me for it, never liked my name, always felt off about my body (hated the body hair, devastated when my voice dropped, always felt something was missing from my body even though I learned to just tolerate it with everything else going on - though I’m lucky my body still had a bit more of a feminine frame to it so I can appear more in the middle despite the issues). I when I was younger thought I was “comfortable”, but over time realised I wasn’t. The “comfort” wasn’t really that, but now a sense of apathy towards myself, feeling as though my body had gone in the wrong direction but feeling no way to stop it so just giving up, especially with everything else I was dealing with. That took a while to unpack and confront. Enbys can still go HRT too which is widely accepted and helped by gender healthcare, or you may choose not to

But with all that, I still feel like I don’t really fit 100% in either box, (though for me I’d say I’m 75% in the feminine box and 25% out of both). I currently go with genderfluid (between Woman and Agender), describing myself as a transfem enby as I lean heavily towards fem, though I am still in the process of figuring that out, and figuring out if the “agender” part is really just my apathy “given up” state that I’ve been slowly rejecting as I accepted and presented more fem…

I say all of this about my journey, more as an example. Maybe it’s something you can relate to in ways, maybe not at all. We all have our own journeys and our own questions to answer. But my point is that there isn’t one designated path to being trans, we’re all still unique in our experiences and who we are, and that journey can sometimes take a while :)

Don’t worry too much about not being able to pin exactly what and who you are so soon, sometimes this journey takes a while. It’s a sense of personal introspection that most people don’t even consider doing and everyone is kinda taught not to for so long in our lives that it’s obviously going to take a bit of time when you do.

Maybe in your journey, you figure out you are trans, and maybe that’s binary, or maybe it’s non-binary. Maybe you ultimately figure out you’re cis but just happy to really embrace your feminine side, ultimately that’s a question only you can answer, but you don’t need to answer it immediately. Take your time, look into the different trans identifies, see if any speak to you more. You could also try with identifying with one for a few weeks, or try with different pronouns (like online or with friends, trialing they/them, she/her etc, see how it feels, if it sticks or feels off. And of course, as you’ve done with this post, ask questions with other trans people, we’ve all gone through this or similar paths before and can hopefully help!

Good luck in your own journey though! Even if it feels you’re unsure where you are at now, you will figure it out in time, whatever the answer ends up being for you :)

Idk if it depends on my hair type but I’ve found with mine, that if I leave my hair to airdry fully, it becomes very stringy (as in, hair strands clump together and the hair becomes flatter with way less volume)

If anyone has the same issue, a middle ground approach works well for me. Pat down the hair with a towel to remove any excess dripping water, leave to air-dry for about 10 mins, then blowdry (I just use the cool temperature) for a min or so. At least for me it retains the volume in my hair, makes it a bit more fluffier and keeps some of the natural waviness. If I need to brush it, I’ll just lightly use a detangle brush

Another way is to put your hair in a ponytail while it dries. I seem to retain a lot of my waviness one I let it down afterwards, at the risk of a little less volume

Extra/edit note: My hair does have some natural waviness that is very noticeable when wet. So I’m not saying this will work for everyone ^ But if your hair has any natural waves in it, it might do. (Way of knowing is to see how your hair looks when wet, if it straight, you’ve got straight hair. If it is wavy or curly, that’s your natural waviness). Over-brushing or blow-drying it too much or too soon, with high heat can accidently get rid of that waviness for me

Considering they hired the lead developer behind the Aether 1 and 2 mods in 2020, it amazes me that we’re only seeing a new dimension now tbh. But I think he was involved in the Nether updates

I miss Aether, I might need to check in on the progress of Aether 2 as last time I checked the rest of the team had a break before picking it back up again but that was packed with way more interesting stuff than the Nether ever was imo