divine-object-221

[divine-object-221]

when it comes to my like lesbianism i think i have a lot of i guess internalized transphobia about it cause, when i feel good i'm a women making relationship with other women cause they're like the best people i've ever met, i know some dudes who are ok but i don't really like them like i do the women in my life, but when I'm i guess in the dumps i feel like or at least feel the specter of the misogynistic men i've met through my life and that it'll end up like them and hurt all the girls i know and they deserve better than that.

i understand where you're coming from. this is something that many, many trans women struggle with, especially when they're younger or have recently come out.

now, i need you to pay very close attention to what I'm about to say, because it's essential knowledge if you want to be happy as a transgender woman. ready?

THAT SHIT IS POISON!!!!!! IT WILL KILL YOU!!!!!!

you are not a man. you are not responsible for anything any man in your life — in all of history! — has ever done. anyone who tries to make you think or feel otherwise is not someone who has your best interests at heart. they are greatly misguided at best, and actively dangerous at worst.

everyone is capable of harm. the problem with men is not that they have an inherently greater capacity for harm. the problem is that society is structured so that they can get away with the harm they do.

you are a trans woman. society is not structured so that you can get away with anything. you do not move through society as a man. not even if you are closeted. your subjectivity is a woman's subjectivity, and the mechanisms that regulate your movement through society are those of misogyny. the doubt and self-hatred you feel, the idea that you're somehow unclean, undeserving, that your existence needs to be justified, that you are inherently dangerous: that's internalized transmisogyny.

does this mean that you can do no wrong? no. as i said, everyone has the capacity for harm. what it does mean is that if you ever hurt someone, you will be a woman who has hurt someone. not a man.

which brings us to my final point. why is it so dangerous for you to believe that you are more capable of harm than other women, that you must somehow "prove" your innocence?

because it makes you easy to manipulate.

if other people (particularly cis women and transmascs) realize that you are eager to demonstrate your status as a "true", "safe" woman, they will walk all over you — because if you push back, they can simply accuse you of acting like a man. after all, women are supposed to be gentle and demure, right? and if that doesn't put you in your place, they will start talking behind your back, saying you're scary, entitled, clearly not a real woman after all. and people will turn their backs on you. it happened to me, it happened to a million other girls.

i don't mean to scare you. there's plenty of good people out there, but you gotta know the rules of the game. also, check out the concept of transfeminized debt, and read whipping girl by julia serano if you want. I love you!

[divine-object-221]

it’s interesting how many people say the term “nonbinary” as short for an identity with the assumption that this is separate and contradictory with a transfem identity, ppl so used to and centered around transmascs that they forget there’s other nonbinary people. like once you realize how many people implicitly see nonbinary gender as transmasculine by default it’s impossible to stop noticing it

[divine-object-221]

Gotham City Sirens: Unfit For Orbit #1 (2025)

written by Leah Williams art by Haining & Ivan Plascencia

[divine-object-221]

[divine-object-221]

Rule 0 *is* to use the rules as guidelines, so you're literally allowed to do this you know.

The rulebooks explicitly state that there are not hard and fast rules to play true VtM.

I love VTM but I think my least favorite thing about the way they do the embrace is that the banes and all the bad things are supposed to take hold immediately. These are vampires. Theyre immortal. Let it take time, and it will be so much more horrifying.

Let the new Nosferatu scratch their head two nights in and a chunk of hair falls out. They look in the mirror three nights later and realize how much thinner their skin has gotten, and they touch their jaw carefully, and a strip of skin peels away to reveal the jaw underneath.

Let the new Malkavian be so so so paranoid because they KNOW whats coming, but by a month in, nothing seems to have happened. And theyre so worried, but theyre hoping against the universe that please, maybe they'll be the exception. Maybe they wont fall to the voices. And then they get home and talk to their friend about their worries, and after a little while, they feel relieved. The friend helps, so they keep talking to them. A few months go by and they are happy that they were worried over nothing, and they never even realize theyve been talking to the walls this whole time.

Let the new Ventrue have to figure out their blood limitation themselves. Their first few nights or weeks, they can drink whatever, but slowly the curse sets in. They drink some blood and immediately puke it up. They drink another type and break out in hives. Another sends them into torpor. But they HAVE to keep going. They have to find what they CAN drink, because until they do, they'll feel nothing but hunger and pain and rage and suffering. And the longer it takes to find it, the worse the wrong ones will be

Let the banes take time to take hold! I think thats significantly more interesting than everything just happening all at once all in one night, especially since these are immortal beings we're talking about. The horror of the vampire is supposed to be that all of the suffering is eternal. Let this take some time too.

[divine-object-221]

[divine-object-221]

A few weeks ago, I had a dream that my wife had an identical twin I was unaware of, and she was tricking me into dating both of them unknowingly.

[divine-object-221]

[divine-object-221]

[divine-object-221]

"I was unhappy with my service, and I will not be coming back!"

Cool. Don't

[divine-object-221]

Magic isn’t real. 

There is no book that can teach you to shoot jets of flame from your hands, no meditative practice that will allow you to levitate, no secret bloodline of psychically superpowered humans with an express connection to the divine. The stars determine nothing, dreams are only dreams. And yet here we are, at the beginning of a book about real people, who did real things, in the real world, which are called magic. What –dear reader– gives?

Magic is tricky to define because it changes. Magic to you and I means something different than it does to a Roman centurion, or a Victorian magistrate, or a Qing emperor. But there is enticing overlap, just enough similarity to draw connections where there might be none. It seems so tantalizingly possible. Many scholars have tried, but there is no agreement as to a one-size-fits-all definition of magic.

Maybe one day, a very smart person will come up with a perfect scholarly definition of magic. When that day comes, we can congratulate ourselves on a job well done and ride off into the scholarly sunset together. Until then, we need an effective way to talk about magic. Even if magic cannot be defined, it can certainly be described.

Towards a definition of magic, today on patreon

[divine-object-221]

[divine-object-221]

framing the transmisogyny/transandrophobia situation as some kind of discourse between 2 parties on equal footing participating in pointless bloodsports over particulars is in itself transmisogynistic erasure. every transfem in this discussion is in it against their will. your calls for unity mean nothing if they aren't addressed to the people creating the division with their own behavior

[divine-object-221]

framing the transmisogyny/transandrophobia situation as some kind of discourse between 2 parties on equal footing participating in pointless bloodsports over particulars is in itself transmisogynistic erasure. every transfem in this discussion is in it against their will. your calls for unity mean nothing if they aren't addressed to the people creating the division with their own behavior

[divine-object-221]

“what’s it like being disabled in the USA?” I once told someone my mom died of Covid and they replied “can we not talk about politics right now?”

[divine-object-221]

Can't wait to get back to somewhere that's warm enough to wear this

[divine-object-221]