Manual Trans-Mission

"Illustrated blog" about being transgender, in a customer-facing retail nightmare - search #mtmcomic for comic strips only.

[lucht88]

Click here to support Help making my orchidectomy possible MTF organized by Michel Lopez

Hello :) My name is Michel and I'm a transgender woman and this is my situation. So unfortunately it has become rather complicated for me to

Hey followers, if anyone can help out my friend, they are a very sweet girl who is struggling tk afford the costs associated with an orchidectomy right now. If you could donate or signal boost this, I know she would deeply appreciate it!

[lucht88]

Hey thought I’d share this here too! She is a binary trans woman, but I thought some followers here might way to help!

-mod Cora

[manual-trans-mission]

To be a woman, just be a woman.

CW for seriously problematic language. I had to stand and listen while this older trans woman told me everything I needed to change about myself in order to be taken seriously as a woman. I didn’t ask for this.

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being a trans woman on the internet be like

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They were polite.

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Other places I’m at, in order of preference. Twitter: http://twitter.com/mtmcomic

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mtmcomic

Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/mtmcomic

deviantART: http://mtmcomic.deviantart.com

Tumblr: http://mtmcomic.tumblr.com

[manual-trans-mission]

If not being funny was being funny, I’d be hilarious.

Art by @nyx1st1x and featuring a Patreon supporter <3 

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You're more beautiful than you think you are.

What if I were the most beautiful person ever, but no-one, at all, anywhere, ever, could see it, and absolutely everyone thought I was ugly?

[manual-trans-mission]

I don’t feel comfortable in feminine clothes, or pretty clothes, or expensive clothes, or even smart work clothes - it’s not because I don’t want to, but because I’m so covered in disgusting details that nice clothes just highlight how revolting I look by comparison.

[meangirlnurse]

identifying as “queer” stopped being empowering once it became an expectation instead of a deliberate statement

[tinyleaves]

what the fuck does this mean

[meangirlnurse]

that i do not find that word to be empowering as i am expected to identify with that word, called that word coercively, and belittled for not wanting to be called by that word, as opposed to when reclaiming that slur was a personal and deliberate political statement 

[manual-trans-mission]

The “queer community” apply this label to me. Having spent decades having this label applied to me by the kinds of people who would spit mucus into my hair, attack my pets, and physically assault me, among other things, while applying this label, it is not one I myself will identify with, or wish to. I deleted a blog I wrote where, being new to the community, I referred to it as “q-slur” and got online vitriol from queer people, saying I had to use it, because it was reclaimed, because others were using it, because it was my label, because it’s what they wanted to call me.

Putting aside the connotations of the word that can be “othering” or exclusionary by marking an individual as queer, it’s simply not empowering to me to reluctantly accept a label that has deep-rooted negativity in me personally. Similarly, it’s not okay to force a person of colour to use a certain word, just because the community has, to some extent, reclaimed that word. Sure, you can write me off as old and out-of-touch with modern terminology. I probably am. But, I’m perfectly capable of self-empowerment, and that doesn’t come from some arbitrary label that has origins of derision and prejudice.

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Seen in a hardware store.

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I'm supposed to wash my breast forms with ...what?!

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As ever, based on true events. Art by guest artist @nyx1st1x

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Transgender: Kawaii or Kowai

Recently a photo went viral of a transgender youth, holding a sign that said "I'm the scary transgender person the media warned you about" and I'm honestly not convinced that they are.

Of course, when bathroom bills and discrimination is put in place, we all suffer (cis people too) - but the target of conservative and/or anti-trans media is often an archetype overweight, middle-aged, generally unattractive "man in a dress" trans woman character. Someone who is good for fearmongering. They're the ones specifically that you get the scary warnings about.

The target is me. I am the fat, old, ugly, not-passing trans woman archetype.

I understand the trans community wants to showcase the best and the brightest of us, and I know I'm right at the back of the queue when it comes to looks and intelligence. I understand the community would rather I didn't exist. I've even been verbally attacked and spat at by trans people, told "you don't represent us! People will think we're all disgusting like you" for the way I look. I openly admit, I'm ugly. I have a medical condition (Cushing's) that causes me to stack on weight, get a big droopy face, and be effectively immune to HRT.

But, in a way, I want the community to have the guts to champion this side as well. Why?

Because while I may not be one of the pretty ones, while I may be the exact description that the anti-trans media is going right for, and I'm the example that's being held up against trans people, I'M STILL NOT GOING TO DO ANYTHING GROSS IN PUBLIC TOILETS and that message is, I feel, very important.

Even the gross ones aren't gross.

*

Additional: I'm the only ugly trans person I have ever met. Trans is beautiful. Except on me.

[manual-trans-mission]

I want to help artists that are struggling financially.

- Amy K

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Making a New Friend

This was a Patreon-supporters-only version of Making a New Friend, with a few changes and a couple of extra panels. Most of the things that are Patreon exclusives will end up here eventually, but supporters see the full-versions first.