Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
I am drawing people with different features, which were requested to me, so people can see themselves in art and feel valid and seen. more art in #reqbodyposi hashtag
the 5th #reqbodyposi art compilation. there is much more! look in the tag.
Requests here are:
1. A larger woman with a hairy stomach and legs
2. A trans guy with a lumbar curvature who has not had top surgery
3. A woman with breast size difference
4. A genderqueer person with a couple facial moles
5. A white, chubby, autistic goth AFAB
6. A big hairy bear with stretch marks and dark spots on skin
7. A nonbinary femme person with morphea
8. A person recovering from anorexia with stretch marks
9. A trans male with beard in a dress
10. A person with a stoma
:
An interview with a trans man named Peter Alexander, taken from the British Pathé archives. The interview was filmed in 1937.
[Transcript:] As the years passed on, it became very evident that the male side, and the male personality, was becoming dominant. So, after seeking medical advice, I decided to cast aside women’s clothing for those of a male. Although I no longer use lipstick and powder, which would be rather ridiculous when one has to shave every day, I don’t blame the modern girl for using it. But seriously, I do not consider that woman is inferior to man, as she has huge responsibilities, and a definite purpose in life. I left New Zealand because of the publicity which followed me wherever I went. And I hope to go to London at a later date. And when I return to settle down and marry here, and continue with my musical career. And finally, I have one advantage over you other chappies, and that is, I know both sides to every little ordinary story. [End transcript.]
I love his interview because he takes the time to defend the inherent worth of women, and separates his gender identity from his feminist perspective.
I feel the same way as Mr Alexander did. My transition has nothing to do with politics, or my view of womanhood. I think womanhood is beautiful, nuanced, and precious. I did not choose to be transgender, or to be a man. I did not choose my gender dysphoria. I also won’t apologise for being a trans man!
I tried, for a very long time, to be my assigned gender. I wasn’t capable of it. It was destroying my mental health. But that doesn’t mean I have a low opinion of womanhood, or women, or girls.
I think being a woman is wonderful. If you are a woman. I was not. So it nearly killed me. But! I recognise that I am a statistical exception. I recognise that many women have layered, complex, and unique experiences of their femaleness, and they will never arrive at the same conclusion I did (that I am a man). And I think valuing gender non-conforming women, and butches, is essential in promoting LGBT+ equality.
I am proud to be a trans man, and I am also proud to have been assigned female at birth.
Anyways, while I’m on a weird “intersection of evobio and trans biology” kick, there’s a group I’ve been meaning to introduce for a while now because they do amazing work.
So I’m a biological anthropologist, and that means that I study and teach about the human skeleton. The human skeleton is an amazing thing, and a lot of people don’t know just how changeable it is. No matter what your chromosomal makeup is, human skeletons look pretty much the same until puberty. Then, when the sex hormones kick in, we get a bimodal distribution of traits. These aren’t inherent to your gender or your genitals or even your chromosomes, really. What the sexual characteristics in the human skeleton really represent is what your hormones are doing.
Basically, it works like this. All humans produce both testosterone and estrogen. Humans who make more testosterone are generally more robust, and their muscle development puts pressure on bones. The bones respond and they get bigger. Estrogen does the opposite. When we talk about sexing a skeleton, what we mean is “what did their hormones do, and where does this fit in the general bimodal distribution of morphological traits?”
Except… sometimes there are problems with this. For instance, postmenopausal skeletons, particularly the skulls, will often look more masculine because as estrogen production drops, the shape of the bones begins to change. The pelvis still looks as it did, but the bones of the face are highly responsive to these changes. (For many very complicated reasons, two being that they are smaller/thinner and also have highly active osteoblasts and osteoclasts!)
Another challenge comes from trans people going through hormone replacement therapy. We know that violence against trans people is a problem. But here’s the thing: these violent incidents and homicides are just the ones we KNOW about. There are thousands of unidentified bodies in the US alone that have the very real possibility of having an assessed sex that doesn’t align with a person’s lived experience. If your skeleton looks one way, but everybody who knew you in life understood you as another… even if you’re lucky enough to have a missing person report, your remains might never be matched to your identity. Also, many of these cases are primarily investigated by… look, do I have to explain how the police see trans people and what they do to perpetuate harmful stereotypes of the kinds of lives trans people live?
So anyways, this group that I wanted to talk about, the Trans Doe Task Force, is working to fill the gaps that poor investigation, poor understandings of gender versus sex and how the two interact, and a general lack of knowledge about the complexities of skeletal development have left.
One of the coolest things- and most helpful things- this group does, in addition to forensic DNA testing and case reevaluation, is they go back to recreations/composite sketches of cases they identify as trans/gnc and create new images that are more reflective of peoples’ gender.
Something that’s really important about the remains of unidentified trans people is that unfortunately, due to prejudice, family members might not acknowledge how their relative has changed in both outward appearance and… uh, inward appearance, I guess. Skeletal changes. On the flip side of that coin, people who knew the trans person as they were before their disappearance might not be aware of how they looked in the past. The TDTF has also helped create forensic images of various stages of transition to show relatives/friends/loved ones.
It’s really important that we in the anthropological community talk about skeletal changes that happen throughout life. There’s a persistent myth that by looking at the skull alone, you can neatly fit it into categories of male/female or racial categories. But you can’t… really… do that. Not without knowing your references. (If you’re interested in the race thing, I’ve talked about that at length here.) The fact is, human biology is MESSY and while we do have a bimodal distribution for our morphology, not everybody fits into categories neatly… and many people fit more than one identifying category. For sex/gender, when you’re looking at ancient populations, you can only make estimations. But when you’re looking at modern populations- when you’re trying to fit a specific identity to a set of remains- it’s extremely important that you consider the role of things like HRT in your potential identification. This is extra important when you’re looking at a vulnerable population whose disappearance might not get immediately reported or whose disappearance might not be of top priority to law enforcement.
So go check out the Trans Doe Task Force. The work they do is important.
