louder than a lion

Robin | he/him | Swede | transman | teacher | fanfic addict | cat dad | runs a lot | husband of @SirMatti

[zocher]

forget me not in the setting sunlight 

[sammyloomis]

The Appendix: Transmasculine Joy in a Transphobic Culture - Liam Konemann

[girderednerve]

[Transcript: I reject the oft-spouted idea from anti-trans voices that transmasculine bodies are mutilated. I dreamt of this body, and I celebrate it, even if it hasn’t turned out exactly to my specifications. Trans bodies are often portrayed as sites of horror, trauma and dysphoria, or as examples of medical and scientific overreach. I prefer to think of trans bodies as sources of love and desire. We have partners, we date, we are intimate. I still feel gender euphoria when I place my palm flat in the centre of my chest, or when I catch the angle of my jaw in the mirror. There remains a femininity to my physicality that I wouldn’t trade, and I have been called both slinky and sprite-like by other men. This body feels ethereal. I had to pass through another realm to get it.]

[grandfloridians]

white women are always like “more strong kickass female leads!” and when i say i want to see a black female love interest who is allowed to be girly and fall in love they give me weird looks and say that i’m supporting gender stereotypes and heteronormativity but what a lot of white women don’t get is that black women we’ve had hundreds of years of having our femininity ripped from us, of being deemed unworthy of male (especially non-black male) attention. black women in media are never allowed to be the “cute” ones or the love interest, we’ve always been the “strong kickass street smart woman” trope that white women want so badly. so basically if a black girl says she wants to see another black girl fulfill the role of “love interest” there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that and it isn’t a hindrance to feminism

[the-ghost-king]

ocean vuong talking about how he/him pronouns make him feel and how his gender is... literally so fucking true shout out to that guy he gets it

[the-ghost-king]

this from the paris review + his poem "beautiful short loser"

[rockbutchblues]

[Image ID: two screenshots of the linked paris review article titled "Reimagining Masculinity":

Years later, in another life, before giving a reading, the organizer asked me for my preferred pronouns. I never knew I had a choice. “He/him” I said, after a pause, suddenly unsure. But I felt a door had opened—if only slightly—and through it I had glimpsed a path I had not known existed. There was a way out.

But what if I don’t want to leave this room yet, but just make it bigger? Pronouns like they/them are, to my trans friends and family, a refuge—a destination secured through flight and self-agency. They/them pronouns allow an interface where one can quickly code oneself as nonnormative, in the hopes of bypassing the pain and awkwardness of explanation or the labor of legibility when simply existing can be exhausting. Would I, by changing pronouns, appropriate myself into a space others need in order to survive?

As a war refugee, I know how vital a foothold as small as a word can be. And since as a cis-presenting male, I don’t need to flee he-ness in order to be seen as myself, I will stay here. Can the walls of masculinity, set up so long ago through decrees of death and conquest, be breached, broken, recast—even healed? I am, in other words, invested in troubling he-ness. I want to complicate, expand, and change it by being inside it. And I am here for the very reasons why I feel, on bad days, I should leave it altogether: that I don’t recognize myself within its dominant ranks—but I believe it can grow to hold me better. Perhaps one day, masculinity might become so myriad, so malleable, it no longer needs a fixed border to recognize itself. It might not need to be itself at all. I wonder if that, too, is the queering of a space? I wonder if boys can ever bandage each other’s feet, in friendship, without a password...

End ID.]

[thingsworthsaving]

The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love — whether we call it friendship or family or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view, but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another.

-James Baldwin

[syekick-powers]

yeah yeah everyone's fine drawing a guy with visible top surgery scars but when's it going to be popular to draw visibly masculine people with boobs. i mean drawing a guy with a full beard and bear levels of body hair and just massive honkers. top surgery scars are nice and all but i just want to see more men with huge boobs that aren't just pecs. give me the be-titted men you cowards

[autumn-mabon]

[mitten]

[myqueerass]

Tag yourself I’m “The Skier”.

[renamok]

[noromodragon-deactivated2019082]

This really hit home, and there are many types of families in the world. It would be great if more people could realize that. 

[sepulchritude]

one thing I don’t think people realize is that in arguments about human rights, it’s not about trying to persuade the other party. it’s not about them at all. they’ve already made up their mind.

it’s about persuading the audience.

if I call out my teacher on being homophobic I’m not trying to change his opinion. I’m trying to convince any closeted kids in the room that they’re not the monsters he’s made them out to be.

if I argue with my aunt about how racist she’s being it’s not because I expect to change her mind. it’s because I’m hoping to god my cousin’s kids hear and learn that maybe skin color doesn’t mean what she says it means.

people will try to hush you and say “they’re not going to change their minds, don’t bother” but it’s not about them. it was never about them.

[etrangerici]

REBLOGGED SO HARD!!!!!!!

[softzies]

[crapuccinos]

[ireth-alcarin]

Good morning!

[born-to-grow]

[twinfools]

I think it’s a testament to the resilience and resourcefulness of trans people that we often come out and make our way in and through spaces that are not built to support us. We build the bridge as we cross the river, so to speak. And I also think it’s fucked up that we have to be the ones to build that bridge in the first place.

Years ago I supported a transition plan for a brave kid who was coming out at his school. The school had no idea what to do— he was their first (out) trans kid. So I spoke with the kid, we made a plan as to how he wanted things to go down and we completed that plan through education and administrative changes. The school was really on board and it went really well.

The next year they called me again and said “you’ll never believe it… we’ve had 6 kids come out and want to transition at school”. And duh of course I believed it. Why? Because that kid had built that bridge for the school and now people who had been there the whole time were using it. It’s amazing that first kid came out and forged a path… but he shouldn’t have had to have been amazing to be himself.

Don’t wait for your first out trans person to build that bridge. Take the initiative and build that bridge for us before we show up cause we’re all very tired of being the brave and amazing ones.

[myqueerass]

Small booty = silent fart privilege.