Ask Lofty Dreams

Dreamer || 37 || She/Her

[the-intersex-connection]

The intersex elephant that needs to be addressed.

Intersex people are often times not spoken about in the LGBTQIA+ community, despite the fact that we’re the sixth letter in it. The reason? I have no idea, especially when intersex people are arguably one of the best arguments when defending the rest of the community; The concept of gender truly does mean nothing, and consulting your genes does not secure the binary.

You’d think we’d be happy for any representation. So why are so many intersex characters considered “problematic” to us?

Here’s the honest truth; The old term no longer used for intersex people is “hermaphrodite”, which was used to describe someone born between sexes, specifically when they had mixed genitalia. This term has since been deemed problematic and is no longer used.

But why?

The truth is, being intersex, or existing between sexes, is a massive spectrum. Will some people have mixed genitalia? Yes. Will some of them appear as androgynous? Yes. Will some of them have had an invasive surgery to make their genitals appear non-mixed? Unfortunately, yes. That is a thing that some of us experience. But for many others, intersex means naturally mixed hormones, chromosomes, or secondary sex characteristics (outwardly identifiable gender features such as: beard, breasts, fat distribution, etc.). For some people, you would never know they’re intersex just by looking at them. Intersex does not have a look, and it goes far beyond genitals.

And yet, every intersex character is the same; Mixed genitals, possible traumatic backstory of a forced surgery, and/or used as a fetish means to make a woman get someone pregnant, or for a man to get pregnant or have a menstrual cycle.

Even and sometimes especially within the LGBTQIA+ community, we’re still reduced to a fetish. We’re talked about like some proverbial possibility. A mythical creature that can technically happen, but that you probably won’t meet in real life. Just as an example, the tag “weird biology” is almost always included in fan fictions that feature intersex characters, and we’re never included unless it’s in a story that includes smut or discusses reproduction.

Everyone can understand that reducing a trans person to their genitals isn’t okay, but that thought suddenly goes out the window with intersex people.

And then there’s also the matter of character trauma. When we aren’t reduced to sexual objects, we’re reduced to genital trauma. It’s a tale as old as time (or at least as old as AO3); A character who thought they were genetically binary finds out they’re intersex, and then finds out a surgery was done without their knowledge as a child. This then massively drives a rift between them and their parents, leaving them to cope with their bodily trauma as they stumble through their identity. Does this happen? Yes. Is it every intersex person? No. So why is it every character?

Time and time again, when I’ve addressed creators on why they want to give their intersex characters this backstory, the response is almost always the same: “I want to explore trauma with them. It feels pretty central to their character, so this route of the intersex experience feels right.” But what I want to know is: Who told them this is the only trauma an intersex person can experience?

Intersex people without mixed genitalia will be told their hormones are off and forced onto medicine that alters them physically and emotionally. Intersex teenagers will go through puberties they were not told to expect, such as AFAB voices cracking and lowering or AMAB bodies developing breast tissue, both of which can cause bullying from peers. Reproductive disorders caused by mixed hormones can lead to infertility and painful or embarrassing doctor visits.

Why don’t we see these stories in fiction? Because they aren’t told in fiction. When you never see anything other than one specific existence portrayed, people become convinced that’s all there is. As a result, that’s all they know of being intersex, which affects how much will be known and accepted by them and their peers. An uninformed populace also makes it easier for intersex people themselves to go uninformed, causing shame and confusion in many cases.

There is more than one way to be intersex, and we deserve to not be reduced to trauma, sex, and genitals.

[artist-refs]

Just want to add... Sometimes people don't find out they are IS until much, MUCH later in life, and it's not because they weren't told, but because it wasn't known. At all. By anyone. How they find out is often associated with reproduction issues, but it's not always the case.

I know of at least one historical figure who never knew in life; they weren't discovered to be IS until an autopsy was preformed. (I don't remember who they were, unfortunately; it was quite a while ago.)

And sometimes, finding out isn't a big deal. It's not always a terrible dramatic event. Sometimes it's just a mundane little bit of trivia one finds out about themself. It can even be something to celebrate for some people, in a self love/body positive way.

My point is, being IS does not have to come with inherent misery. IS characters don't have to be victims.

EDIT: Yes, people with PCOS/PMOS are largely accepted by the intersex community.

I suspect that part of the reason it's not recognized by the medical field as a DSD is because PCOS/PMOS is somewhat common. You wouldn't want to disrupt the status quo by saying such a large portion of the population doesn't fit neatly into one of the two boxes we've manufactured, would you?!

... Also, TERFS love to pit IS people against trans people, but they don't actually care about us. I know this because when it is suggested that PCOS/PMOS is intersex, they're all "no, I'm a (real) woman!!!1111" implying IS women are fake. Never seen any comments about IS men, NBs, or IS trans people (i'm sure there are such comments) , but I'm not about to let it go... Sorry, this kind of thing really ticks me off.

[an0neemouse]

Two things absolutely changed my life as a writer. You ready?

One- Your characters can be bad people, they can do bad things. There doesn't have to be a reason or a moral. You can make them bad if you want to. No other reason needed.

Two- it doesn't have to be good, it just needs to be written. On my last book i literally wrote the words "dumbest version" on the top of the page because I had seen some advice to do that. It changed everything. I stopped trying to make it perfect, I just tried to make it. Period. Full stop. You can edit bad writing. You can't edit a blank page.

And honestly? Defiance is the best writing I've ever done. All because I let my characters be bad and I gave myself the freedom to write it badly.

[bookmania]

Seven years after, I see you again 😚

[ikaros-unearthed]

reblog to give both of us bigger tits

[hibiscus-sweetie]

Trans people have always been here.

Enheduanna’s writings (2285-2250 B.C.E)

Some of the oldest written records of trans people come from ancient Sumer. Enthduanna is known for being the oldest-known author attached to a name in history. While Enheduanna herself isn’t confirmed trans, her writings explicitly document trans and third-gender priests.

Scythian Enarees (700-300 B.C.E)

Greek historian Herodotus described the Enarees as Scythian shamans assigned male at birth who lived as women and were considered sacred. Their gender variance was seen as spiritual rather than deviant, showing early recognition of transfeminine identities.

Emperor Elagabalus (203-222 C.E)

Roman sources record that Elagabalus requested feminine titles, wore women’s clothing, and sought bodily alteration to be anatomically female. While Roman historians were hostile, their writings clearly document a ruler expressing a transfeminine identity centuries before modern terminology. She was assassinated in her mother's arms at just 18 years old.

Eleanor Rykener (~1394~)

Medieval English court records describe Eleanor Rykener as someone assigned male at birth who lived and worked as a woman. The legal documents refer to her feminine clothing, name, and social role, making her one of the clearest early European records of a trans woman.

Thomas(ine) Hall (born 1603)

Thomas(ine) Hall was an intersex and gender-diverse person. Assigned female at birth, They later lived as a man and served in the military, then alternated between male and female presentation. Colonial court records from 1629 show authorities struggling to categorize Hall, ultimately ordering a mixed mode of dress. This case is one of the clearest early modern records of nonbinary and trans experience in the English-speaking world.

Markus Stauder (1650-1690’s)

Markus Stauder was assigned female at birth but lived as a man, taking on male work, clothing, and social roles. Court and church records document Stauder’s life and death in male identity, making this one of the earliest well-recorded cases of a trans man in central Europe during the late 17th century. They were accepted by their community despite living in the Holy Roman Empire.

James Barry (1795-1865)

James Barry was a military surgeon who performed one of the first successful C-sections in which both the birthing parent and child survived. Barry also pushed for improved sanitation, clean water systems, and humane medical treatment in military hospitals, helping reduce mortality rates long before germ theory was widely accepted.

Alan L. Hart (1890-1962)

Alan L. Hart was a physician, radiologist, and public health researcher. He helped pioneer the use of X-rays for the purpose of tuberculosis detection. His work contributed to public health strategies that saved countless lives during a time when tuberculosis was a leading cause of death. He lived openly as a man after transitioning in 1917 and wrote novels that subtly explored themes of identity, alienation, and social responsibility. His medical work saved lives; his literary work preserved trans history when it was otherwise erased.

Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886-1954)

Lucy Hicks Anderson was a successful business owner and respected community figure in Oxnard, California, whose life provides early, well-documented evidence of transgender people living openly in U.S. civic and economic life. She received medical support and was one of the earliest documented cases of Hormone Replacement Therapy. She ran boarding houses, owned businesses that were major players to the local economy, and was socially accepted as a woman for many years. In the 1940s, she was prosecuted as state authorities began policing gender more aggressively, despite her long-standing recognition in the community. Locals later noted that this shift coincided with broader wartime moral panic and the spread of fascist and Nazi-influenced propaganda emphasizing rigid gender roles, which contributed to increased scrutiny and intolerance. After her release from prison, the Oxnard police chief barred her from returning to the community, threatening further prosecution. Despite locals protesting, the police forced her and her husband, Reuben Anderson, to relocate to Los Angeles, where they lived quietly until her death in 1954 at age 68

Wendy Carlos (born in 1939)

Wendy Carlos is a composer and electronic music pioneer whose work helped bring synthesizers into mainstream music. Her album Switched-On Bach demonstrated that electronic instruments could produce complex, expressive compositions, helping legitimize electronic music as an art form. Her sound design influenced film scoring and popular music for decades, shaping how electronic sound is used across media. You might know her from media like ‘Tron’ or ‘A Clockwork Orange’

Ben Barres (1954 - 2017)

Ben Barres was a neuroscientist who transformed how scientists understand the brain. His research demonstrated that glial cells, once thought to merely support neurons, play an active and essential role in brain function. This discovery reshaped neuroscience and has implications for understanding neurodegenerative diseases, brain injury, and mental health conditions. Barres was also outspoken about gender bias in science, providing rare firsthand insight into sexism in academia.

Mary Ann Horton (born in 1955)

Mary Ann Horton is a computer scientist who played a key role in the early development of the internet. She contributed to Usenet, one of the first large-scale distributed discussion systems, which influenced how online communities and digital communication function today. Her work helped establish foundational practices for global, networked conversation long before modern social media platforms existed.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (born in 1982)

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a theoretical physicist whose research focuses on particle physics, cosmology, and dark matter. She has contributed to advancing scientific understanding of the universe while also shaping conversations about ethics, equity, and inclusion in science. Her work bridges cutting-edge physics with critical analysis of who gets to participate in knowledge production. She has written extensively about equity in STEM and authored The Disordered Cosmos, Her work challenges the idea that science exists outside culture or politics.

Sophie Wilson (born in 1957)

Sophie Wilson is a British computer scientist who played a central role in designing the ARM (Acorn RISC Machine) architecture in the 1980s. ARM processors prioritize efficiency, simplicity, and low power usage, which is why they dominate mobile and embedded computing today. Over 90% of smartphones rely on ARM-based chips. Wilson also helped design the BBC Micro, which shaped computer education in the UK for decades.

Elliot Page (born in 1987)

Elliot Page is from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He's an actor and producer known for his versatility and compelling performances. He began acting at a young age, appearing in Canadian television including Trailer Park Boys, before gaining international recognition in 2005. He is celebrated not only for his talent but also for his courage and dedication to social justice.

(I'm from the same region, he really changed things for trans-masculine folks around here.)

Notable film and television roles:

Trailer Park Boys (2002)

Hard Candy (2005)

Juno (2007)

Inception (2010)

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

The Umbrella Academy (2019 onwards)

[animentality]

[artist-refs]

This is so true.

I'm often a little sad when I finish a drawing because the drawing process was the fun part. And watching people draw is so relaxing and inspiring. It doesn't matter what their skill level is, either; just seeing someone having fun while they create something is just the best thing.

[departmentq]

This is the world capitalists want to return to.

Instagram

[snakefiishes]

Things will get better

[mias-back-from-the-dead]

tbh i think the funniest phenomena that's been happening in the last couple years is "youtuber, having gone too deep into the research hole, has been made an investigative journalist against their will"

[aces-and-anime]

Shout out to the guy who wanted to do some fun & silly little reviews but uncovered an illegal gambling operation

(Review 2)

[json-derulo]

this guy started out poking fun at australian politicians and ended up investigating the firebombing of his own home, during which he uncovered connections between the same politician he was making fun of + major organized crime

[wedding-funeral-waitress]

JasperDasper started out just curious why everything had suddenly become about trans people and questioning some of the sources used in a book. He came out of it, 4 years later, with a 5 hour long video that connects all transphobia to less than 60 people. (I'm not joking. literally every single transphobic rhetoric and bill passed is because of these 50 or so people.)

If you wanna watch it I cannot recommend it enough; I just warn that it covers a LOT.

[fiberartsash]

Every time I give in to despair I read a Pratchett book. Well, when one is available near me.

Because those books are full of anger at the world and the state it's in. Real, actual, barely-concealed beneath clever puns anger. It's a rage, not the pretty "i'm mad" calligraphied in the page in white ink. It's something like "I'm angry and you should be, too" scribbled in red ink over the pages.

But these books are so kind. So hopeful. And it's not mindless kindness, either. It's not "I'm kind until it's not easy or convenient to be anymore". It's actual kindness from people who are angry but turn that into fierce, deliberate, stubborn kindness. And of course you can despair but you can also turn it into anger and then the kind of fierce kindness that you can change the world with.

These books were so important for me growing up, still are. I literally wouldn't be the same person without them. And I reread Night Watch today, as one does, and the terrible fairness of Sam Vimes struck me. The world is a terrible, unfair place, he said, and I'm not participating in that. I'm not adding misery to it. I'm gonna be fair and I'm gonna be good if it kills me. (the same goes, of course, with Granny. It's about choosing to be good. It's about being good if it kills you. It's about desperately hoping and never letting go)

Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably-Priced Love and a Hard-Boiled Egg. And by gods if we aren't going to fight to get it.

[bucketofdeltav]

So my beta reader for the Big Fics is an astrophysicist, right. Who is currently also writing a hard sci-fi novel about the exploration of Phobos (more power to them, I cannot with the physics required for that, best I can do is soft sci-fi/fantasy and that reminds me I should finish that story).

Anyway I was bitching about how hard it is to come up with feasible planets in Star Wars because sometimes you need a new planet from scratch and sometimes you need to know more about a planet than the 'has jungles, is probably a moon technically' than Wookieepedia will give you, and they're like 'oh yeah I can do something about that'.

So they've written (in Matlab but they swear it will run as a .exe as well and I may be conscripted to embed it as a web tool at some point) a star system generator.

You input what you know about the planet (ecosystem, population, sun colour, does it have liquid water, does it have a moon or moons, is it a moon or moons, temperature averages, atmosphere, you get me) and it will give you the... everything else about the star system, in obedience to real-universe physics. And if you input nothing you get a randomly generated star system.

And I’m like oh I know people who will be into this with a vengeance, and they're not on Tumblr, so this is me seeing who exactly would be keen on, and I cannot stress this enough, a real-physics comprehensive star system generator.

It's still in the debugging phase (last error fixed: every planet wants to have a population of exactly 5000 regardless of other factors, turned out to be a missing equals sign somewhere), but I'm psyched for this and trying to gauge interest for how high a priority 'make this an accessible web tool' needs to be.

[melyzard]

[elodieunderglass]

@bucketofdeltav says the URL is here: http://tumblr.com/star-system-generator

okay it has its own blog now (@star-system-generator) on Tumblr

Follow @star-system-generator and get more of the good stuff by joining Tumblr today. Dive in!

[homoquartz]

i’ve warmed up significantly towards the concept of small talk ever since i learned that its sole purpose is to make friendly noises.

as long as you smile and nod, people are satisfied. it’s just to show that you are nice and there with good intentions. we’re small in a big world and have to rely on other people to be decent to us. so we do our little human dance to each other to say, “i’m not here to hurt you. here’s something we have in common, like the weather or sports or itchy sweaters, so we both know we’re on the same team. we both agree on a basic fact, like that it is rainy or that being itchy is uncomfortable, and this proves we can get along. i’m being light-hearted and non-threatening right now.”

small talk isn’t to get to know a person. it’s just a greeting to affirm you’re buddies in the universe.

i am motivated by wanting the other person to know i am friendly, so i have gotten pretty decent at small talk when i used to hate it.

[piratedgender]

[themisally]

[anyboli]

This page from one of my history books looks like a lesbian utopia.

Source: Reclaiming Lost Ground by Neale McGoldrick & Margaret Crocco

[anyboli]

Very similar vibes - this 1899 illustration from Puck of butchy (for the time) lesbians looking like the coolest, hottest women to ever walk the earth

[depsidase]

[magicalgirlari]

She has been in her mech uninterrupted for exactly 6 years 7 months 12 days 3 hours and 54 seconds.

Her handler is 10 steps away from the sealed hatch and is approaching.

She has not eaten or drank anything in the entire time period she has been intertwined with the machine. Her metal body handled all that was needed for her meat one. It pumps her blood, injects a nutrient slurry directly into her body, it stimulates the muscles with electric shocks to keep them from degrading significantly.

But today she would leave.

The war ended a week ago and only now has her handler deemed it not a deception. Without the constant missions of the war her handler does not have the desire to keep the hound permanently in the machine and spend valuable money in running the mech 24/7 when she could just turn it off when not in use.

So here she was with mech docked as her handler was walking to the hatch. She was waiting for her handler to give her the command. To release her from her cage of iron and into her cage of flesh.

Her handler is 8 steps away now.

She is her handler's last hound. In the early days there were a dozen under the handler. But they have slowly been whittled away by the conflict.

They were replaced in the beginning but none but her survived all that long and at some point her handler must have gotten tired of the constant loss and stopped replacing them all together. It was hard after all. Relying on another and learning all their little quirks, such as how 6 always favored entering melee combat as soon as she could or that 2 would crouch deeply before jumping into the air, only to watch them all die.

She still misses them. She is pretty sure Handler misses them too.

Handler is 6 steps away.

She knows Handler never really wanted the job. It was a family business apparently. One that she never had any interest in going into but no option to refuse when the war started and the draft began. Handler, from what she overheard, wanted to work as a musician.

She never said anything directly but the way talked about music Handler must still wish to do so. She would always have music playing in the background when she was working and on rare, special occasions would even sing pieces she made to the hounds over the coms. Those were the hounds favorite memories. A break from the killing and dying to hear something beautiful.

Handler sang less and less as her hounds died. Handler almost never sings now. The last time she heard it was after a week straight of fighting and the hound finally managed to complete the mission.

It had been pouring rain for a month and she was surrounded by the metal corpses of enemy hounds and pilots alike all sinking into the blood and oil stained mud. As the sound of combat finally tapered off the rain stopped and colors lit up the sky as the sun broke through the clouds. Handler looking through the cameras on mech sang a haunting tune that the hound could never forget. It was the first and last time she had cried after all.

Handler is 4 steps away.

She loved to fight at the beginning. She supposes she still loves it. It was exhilarating. A dance of towering hulk of metal crashing into each other and dodging attacks by a hair's breath. The bursts of pleasure pushing throughout her body as she landed a killing blow, a combination of the satisfaction of success, orgasmic ecstasy from the implants, and bliss of her handlers pride.

But at some point it got a bit dull. The pleasure of the implants is still amazing and hearing her handler's compliments would never not send a rush through her entire being but what once felt like dancing on a knife's edge began to feel like standing on solid ground as she improved until none she met could quite match her. She reacted too fast and efficiently. She knew every inch of her body. How the hydraulics shifted. How fast the reactor heated up and how it cooled based on the environment and atmosphere. Where exactly her shots would land and how far away she could jump into melee combat. She was a master of her body. Well her metal one.

She wondered how it would feel to be out of it.

Handler is 2 steps away.

She does not remember being out of the mech very well. Only little flashes. Walking down a corridor after her handler, wrestling with another hound, eating in a sterile white room, rutting against another hound quietly at night.

But that is the extent of what she remembers. For other than that all she has known is living as a metal beast of war. She does not understand how she lived seeing with only 2 eyes confined to such an insignificant section of the light spectrum when her mech has 6 that can go from radio all the way to gamma. She does not understand how she once lived with legs that bent forward rather than back. She doesn't understand how she could live only standing at an insignificant 6 feet tall rather than her mech's 50.

She doesn't know if she will be able to leave her mech when it is almost all she knows. She doesn't know if she wants to.

Handler is at the hatch.

She is scared.

She doesn't know why. This was supposed to be triumphant right? An end to the war and return to peace. But she has never known peace and will there even be a place for a war hound in it?

What will she do when she does not have enemies to kill and a handler to make proud? What can she do? She has never had a choice in anything other than how to kill.

The hatch is open now and the neural connection is disengaging as the various tubes and wires connected to her implants are being disconnected.

She feels like less.

Her mind is thinking just as fast but as she struggles to push her body up it's like there is a disconnect between her and her body. Like there is a lag between her input and its response.

It hurts.

Everything hurts.

It's cold. She forgot what cold felt like. She hates it.

She feels something wrap around her.

It's warm.

It's safe.

She relaxes not realizing how tense her body was.

For the first time in more than half a decade she opens her eyes.

Her vision is blurry and the light gives her a headache but what she sees is worth it.

Handler is looking at her and holding her in her arms

Her hair is a brown color with streaks of gold dispersed throughout it.

Her wide lips are hung open as if she is gazing at a treasure found where she least expected it.

Her eyes are a light green at the edges darkening as it approaches the pupils.

Her handler is crying.

She is not sure what is wrong but she needs to make it better.

With slow jerky movement the hound pulls her arms up and embraces her handler as her handler buries her head into her shoulder.

As she revels in the heat of her handler and she feels her shoulder grow wet from her tears she hears her handler's muffled voice.

“It's finally over. I won't lose you too.”

Her handler pulls her head back, eyes puffy and red and cups the hounds face with one hand.

She pushes her head into her handler's hand and her handler laughs and cries.

Her handler pulls her to her unstable feet and guides her out of the cockpit and into their future.

[elierlick]

Yet another new study debunked the basis for the anti-trans sports bans. It was never about sports but for creating legal avenues for exclusion and abjection. This is one of the largest analyses ever conducted, involving 52 studies and 6,485 trans people. Read the study here.

[lucieslucidity]

post so nice had to reblog it twice and force it down everyone's throats

[fleshengine]

At minimum about 4.5 thousand people liked this without reblogging it.

We gotta fix that.

[heedra]

not to oversimplify an extremely complex discipline but if i had to pick one tip to give people on how to have more productive interactions with children, especially in an instructive sense, its that teaching a kid well is a lot more like improv than it is like error correction and you should always work on minimizing the amount of ‘no, wrong’ and maximizing the amount of ‘yes, and?’ for example: we have a species of fish at the aquarium that looks a lot like a tiny pufferfish. children are constantly either asking us if that’s what they are, or confidently telling us that’s what they are. if you rush to correct them, you risk completely severing their interest in the situation, because 1. kids don’t like to engage with adults who make them feel bad and 2. they were excited because pufferfish are interesting, and you have not given them any reason to be invested in non-pufferfish. Instead, if you say something like “It looks a LOT like a tiny pufferfish, you’re right. But these guys are even funnier. Wanna know what they’re called?” you have primed them perfectly for the delightful truth of the Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker

[akiragatr]

I was in martial arts for years, and in particular I kinda specialized in working with the younger kids.

The two Big Rules when instructing younger students was- 1. Compliment before Critique 2. Don’t say ‘but’, say ‘now’

Praise kids on what they get right first, especially if they are struggling. Like OP said, kids don’t like to engage with people who make them feel bad. They need encouragement when learning new things.

Number two boils down to this. If you tell a kid a compliment, then say “but you need to fix this”, that ‘but’ completely negates your compliment. It’s gone. It was canceled out like adding a negative to a positive. Using “hey, that punch is looking great, now let’s focus on your stance” doesn’t verbally cancel out the progress they’ve made. It’s like they’ve checked off something on their list of stuff to work on.

Wording can absolutely make or break a child’s motivation and interest.

[problemedic]

Rebloggling as it’s relevant in a Medical Education context

[lizziedoesvetpath]

Honestly I use all of these to teach vet students too. I think people in general respond better to positivity in teaching. Not coddling, but acknowledging when a student got part way to the right answer, or had a good thought process, is something I’ve found keeps students engaged and builds confidence, which encourages them to keep going instead of shutting down and just “getting through” a lab or a rotation