Puberty at 33?

[lionheart]

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/gyrles-womanhood-photographs-puberty-trans_n_5b16ecace4b0734a99385612?ri18n=true

'“Gyrle” is largely the story of Erisis’ experience with womanhood. But the series, collected over the course of four years, is also an exploration of the similarities between Loeber’s own coming-of-age story and Erisis’ mid-life coming-of-age ― of how both women came to understand and perform femininity in their separate but intertwining lives.'

I think there ought to be a warning that the linked article features full frontal male nudity

Laughable

There is a warning before you read.

For those wondering whether to click or not it's a pic of a two people without any clothes on next to each other, not sexualised. Inoffensive to my eye but everyone's different so that's what it is if that helps!

It's long so read the start and skimmed the end.

This is interesting as we're constantly told this sort of thing is nothing to do with it.

'This ritual ― of imagining womanhood and attempting to perform it ― is familiar to many cis girls and trans women, though there’s no one universal experience.

By fixating on different manifestations of femininity, borrowed from a mother or a teacher or a celebrity, we can try different ideas of womanhood on for size. The way we construct our gender identity thereafter is carefully informed by a variety of these influences and ideas, a self-conscious collaging of gestures, verbal mannerisms, fashion and beauty ideals accrued over the years. '

And it feels to me that the person transitioning has a fixation on the woman discussed through the piece.

@StillFemale

I think there ought to be a warning that the linked article features full frontal male nudity

Heavily obscured.

There's a bloke in a dress, I could see that well enough.

I don't think I've had my puberty
I have never cried at commercials or had teen girl tantrums. Am I even a woman?

Full nudity further down the article. Standing with his mother, both nude

@NiceGerbil

There is a warning before you read.

For those wondering whether to click or not it's a pic of a two people without any clothes on next to each other, not sexualised. Inoffensive to my eye but everyone's different so that's what it is if that helps!

I still wasn’t quite expecting to see someone with their dick out

(And I really fucking resent that I can’t correctly identify the sex of the person with a dick)

There was too much steam on the glass to see it properly. I doubt we've missed much.

Sorry, yes. I did think of posting a warning but decided against since it was there in the text.

A lot in this article goes against what we are told.

The paragraph about the clothes and performing femininity.

The full frontal pic, we've been told over and over than trans people are painfully shy about getting undressed in front of others etc etc

Jaysus.

I’m just so so tired of seeing dicks I didn’t ask to see on my screen

And the article reads like self indulgent twaddle

"This ritual ― of imagining womanhood and attempting to perform it ― is familiar to many cis girls and trans women, though there’s no one universal experience.
By fixating on different manifestations of femininity, borrowed from a mother or a teacher or a celebrity, we can try different ideas of womanhood on for size. The way we construct our gender identity thereafter is carefully informed by a variety of these influences and ideas, a self-conscious collaging of gestures, verbal mannerisms, fashion and beauty ideals accrued over the years."

God. This pisses me off so much. As a teen and young woman I never fixated on different manifestations of any femininity. I ADMIRED WOMEN who did things I wanted to do. One woman was my older, rather sloppy, slightly hunched teacher who retired into the Peace Corps and left her husband for a year to do it. It wasn't her mannerisms or fashion that inspired me...it was her confidence and freedom.

Another was an older cousin who threw off her small-town strictures and lived life on her terms.

I look and dress nothing like these 2, but they inspired me to DO things the world told my sex I shouldn't.

I'm cool if this is one person's authentic experience and I'm happy if they are happy but the writer can FUCK OFF saying this is some universal shit for womanhood.

This ritual ― of imagining womanhood and attempting to perform it ― is familiar to many cis girls and trans women, though there’s no one universal experience

Only males perform womanhood based on sex role stereotypes.

Females don't need to perform womanhood. It's their lived reality based on their biology.

@NiceGerbil

A lot in this article goes against what we are told.

The paragraph about the clothes and performing femininity.

The full frontal pic, we've been told over and over than trans people are painfully shy about getting undressed in front of others etc etc

I wondered about that too:

'The natural-born performer agreed right away. “I didn’t feel especially comfortable in my body, but I always felt comfortable in front of the camera,” Erisis said.'

I have no idea what that last photograph with the mother is about.

"By fixating on different manifestations of femininity, borrowed from a mother or a teacher or a celebrity, we can try different ideas of womanhood on for size. The way we construct our gender identity thereafter is carefully informed by a variety of these influences and ideas, a self-conscious collaging of gestures, verbal mannerisms, fashion and beauty ideals accrued over the years."

No. This is not my experience and this is not how it works.

The way we construct our gender identity thereafter is carefully informed by a variety of these influences and ideas, a self-conscious collaging of gestures, verbal mannerisms, fashion and beauty ideals accrued over the years.

Women are still fighting to be able to express ourselves as autonomous humans, sharing our creativity, leadership, individuality, independence, knowledge and wisdom. Yet some self-described progressives think femaleness is about wasting our precious time "collaging... fashion and beauty ideals" in order to conform to some male fantasy of femininity.

Again there is the fetishisation of girlhood with the juxtaposition of photos of a child and the subject performing similar poses to the child. I'm not going to say anymore about what I think about that.

Well, that was strange.

Nope, nothing like my teenagerhood either. I never cried at a commercial or knew anyone who did, never had the slightest inclination to pose naked next to my mother, also naked (what the hell was that about??!) and never attempted to 'construct an image of femininity', whatever that is. I thought about adult female role models in terms of their confidence, their career success etc - but the idea that I would ever actually try to copy their physical mannerisms etc seems weirdly creepy.

Whole project seemed weird. NO WAY would I be getting back in touch with the guy who had apparently based his whole image transitioning on my teenage self, that he'd thought about all those years. Far less follow him round with a camera and photograph him naked.

But I guess it takes all sorts, eh?

So fed up of all this attention seeking.
Some people have Too Much Time.

As PP says, we've pointed out this cruel fetishisation of our biology and our oppression before and been told we are so wrong. We are most likely transphobic for our misunderstanding. But when a transwomen describes this exact thing, in plain sight, do trans activists and the media rush to condemn it as painting trans people in a very poor light?

It seems not. Much like the Guardian review of "Detransition Baby" which sees the fetishisation of breastfeeding, abortion, domestic violence (gender affirming!) and miscarriage and declares it as a book speaking to the universal experience of womanhood.

I don't care that this stuff is written. I believe in free speech, artistic expression etc. I care very much when transwomen write about a subject women aren't allowed to name, which dehumanises us, and in doing so are held up as examples of the female experience we can all relate to.

I cannot imagine anything like this happening to any other protected group.

I certainly never self-conciously copied mannerisms or ways of speaking, i can only think of a few unusual situations where people would do that, I don't think it's "normal".
I can remember few specific things that I saw and thought "i want to do that when I'm a grown up woman", the strongest was seeing my Auntie Mary breastfeeding her youngest child. I must have been about 6 or 7.
I would sometimes vaguely covet things other girls had, ponies or long pigtails sporting to mind but i mostly just did my own thing without copying others much, im not a method actor!