Category: Personal Essays & Thinkpieces
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As a Trans Man, Why Do Doctors Always Want to Get Me Pregnant?
I’m so tired of fielding questions about my “lost” fertility Photo by Pixabay via Pexels. I can’t tell you how often I am asked this question by any medical professional. I mention that I’m on testosterone, have been on T for years. This script goes forward even with my endocrinologists. DOCTOR, with a pinched look on…
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A Grindr Hook-Up
Sex and intimacy on demand. Photo by Ketut Subiyanto via Pexels. “Hi.” “Hi.” “Find the place okay?” “Yeah.” “Come upstairs. This way.” It’s always funny, the first moment a hook-up crosses the threshold into my bedroom, the way he looks around, takes in the place — the flags and posters, the LEGO I have on display, my computer set-up,…
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Passing Privilege: Through My Eyes, as a Trans Man Who Passes
Second puberty and the waves we send through the spaces around us. Originally published in Prism & Pen in June, 2023. I came out as trans at about fifteen or sixteen, changed my name, and I’ve lived as a man since. As a young man doing my A-Levels, going to university, and working afterwards, I was…
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Uncling Duties
A selection of conversations with my friends’ cats. It’s spring, and before returning home to Galway, I’m staying with some very good friends, L & T, for a few days. This means time with their cats, too. Day #0 L, excitedly, blue eyes sparkling: Would you like to see the children? ME: Absolutely, yes, please, right…
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The Precarity of Subscription-Based Income
We’re basically busking online. No wonder we have anxiety about it. So let’s start out by saying that in the scheme of things, I am doing okay. I am not starving, I am not at risk of losing my home, and most months I can afford all the medications and medical care I am prescribed without…
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Why We Need To Write Essays
And more importantly, why they should be fun. Photo by the Pineapple Supply Co. via Unsplash. A thing I’ve become frustrated with in recent years is the increasingly prevailing idea that an essay is a piece of writing produced exclusively within the bounds of academia and/or on the pages of a broadsheet newspaper. An essay, at…
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I Want To Fuck The Monster
Event: Monstrous May, Kink: Pregnancy & Breeding, Theme: Body Horror & Transformation, Theme: Chronic Illness, Theme: Chronic Pain, Theme: Disability, Theme: Gender Exploration & Nonconformity, Theme: Identity & Personality, Theme: Monsters & Monsterfucking, Theme: Sex & Sexuality, Theme: Transgenderism, Theme: TransmasculinityMonsterfuckery from a trans and disabled perspective. Content warnings in this post for discussions of gender dysphoria, especially body horror and pregnancy, and some chronic illness talk such as descriptions of an asthma attack. I don’t have the tweet and I categorically refuse to look it up, but when The Shape of Water was being…
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Transgender Diaries: Hormone Therapy Day #28
Documented my changes and progress having been on testosterone as a transgender man for 28 days today. Warnings in this for discussion of (positively discussed) weight gain, chest-centred dysphoria, and then some mentions of sex drive and bottom growth. A month ago, I wrote an article on Day #1 of my testosterone journey, where I…