[–] 3 points 9 hours ago*

I know! At least we got an Antiviral Wipe during COVID!

It kills me how few (American) people know that Philomena Cunk came from those series, and it makes me sad that we never see anymore of Barry Shitpeas, her compatriot "man on the street" figure in the Wipe series.

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  • [–] 3 points 13 hours ago*

    ...and I think this attitude has been used to infantilize these women and absolve them of their own awful natures.

    half of the white women in America voted for Trump and treating them as brainwashed (which by extension implies innocence) treats them as though they don't take part in and enable ssid behavior themselves.

    I understand the dominance of the patriarchy influences this, but this is the modern era and all these women have a phone with the whole ass internet in their pocket. They have the tools to learn differently and walk away and they largely choose not to until the consequences come knocking for them specifically.

    So I am with OP on this one, she's quite likely an even bigger piece of shit than him.

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  • [–] 5 points 15 hours ago*

    Similar to this, I'm always saying that if people with kids are only concerned about their own children's future, then their own children's future will suffer. If they are worried about all children's futures, their own children will have brighter futures collectively.

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  • [–] 2 points 15 hours ago

    I always recommend this because I think it's fucking phenomenal.

    The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake . What I consider a perfect fantasy series.

    There is no magic, no monsters, nothing otherworldly. How is it fantastic then, you ask?

    The setting! It is set in a rotting, dying kingdom. An absolutely massive and ancient castle that used to house a bustling city of thousands now dwindled to a few hundred. Entire wings of the castle inaccessible due to dangerous wild animals having taken residence during human absence. Massive portions of the castle crumbling, Unmanaged trees growing through walls and ceilings. An intricate, massive, and fantastic world that has zero trappings of the standard fantasy novel fare.

    ALSO: Spoilers:

    The third book in the trilogy is actually a sci-fi where the main character runs away from his home in the castle and finds a world he doesn't understand with drones following him after he steals a automobile of sorts. His personal journey of self-discovery is sent into a tailspin when everyone tells him that his memories of where he is from must be false memories.

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  • [–] 4 points 15 hours ago

    I mean, we all kind of already knew this, and the right wing bot activity on X massively slowing down after Ukraine hit one of the Yandex data centers, which was pretty much the proof in the pudding.

    Twitter was bought with the express purpose of destroying the brand, which had a reputation for being a more liberal organization internally, and leveraging the bot armies to make Musk and his sycophants seem more important than they are.

    Finally, we all have known for a while that Musk uses his CEO-admin powers to do whatever the fuck he wants in the codebase and with burner accounts, and he's admitting in court filings that he made a false account pretending to be his young son where he posted... weird shit, frankly.

    So all the evidence has been there that this never reflected reality nor was it ever meant to.

    The entire Republican party mantra is "perception is reality." In fact, Turd Blossom, err, I mean Karl Rove might have said it best.

    The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.

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  • Day One: please be gentle (piefed.cdn.blahaj.zone)
     

    older woman who is colorblind checking in here. sorry if its all a color mismatch. this was the only Halloween wig I could afford because I am very bald. 😭 but I looked at myself in the mirror and couldn't stop smiling. 😁 i love all of you!!!

    i took my first dose of estradiol valerate and spironolactone this morning. i have unfortunately had a spike in blood pressure but i'm monitoring it.

     

    My oncologist, who I thought didn't like me, suddenly turned into a badass and got the ball rolling last Friday, and the doctor at Planned Parenthood called today to say it was prescribed and sent to my pharmacy. I basically rushed to the pharmacy while trying to pretend I wasn't. I was in such a rush I didn't even look and forgot to get consulted by a pharmacist when I got home.

    That's when I got the disappointing news. Even though I got 6 months of spironolactone the estradiol patches were missing. Turns out they were on hold because they are on as the rep set "on national backorder." This was at a chain pharmacy in a grocery store. So I am trying to find out how to get that transferred to another pharmacy (my usual pharmacy, which is more finnicky about prescriptions, but worth a shot) and seeing if it's not on backorder anywhere else. Part of me hopes it is so I can argue she needs to dispense with the patches and give me the injections lol.

    Anyone else hear about ESTRADIOL 0.1MG/24 DIS being on backorder this badly?

     

    I mean, I get the rational reasons for it, I do. Planned Parenthood is the only provider around here that actually knows anything about transitioning so I went to them. Then I got this spiel about how they help people who "aren't medically complex." I get it, I have cancer, it's already fucked up my life, so much so that I'm finally feeling brave enough for this... to get kicked to the curb and to go to a fucking endocrinologist that will take three fucking months to get in to? She has to ask her fucking director for permission since I basically begged to not just shuffle me off, but it sounds more like they'll just kick me back to endocrinology and I'll have to wait months for my referral to go through.

    Anyway, fuck everything about this. My stomach feels sick and empty at the same time. Why does every little thing have to be so fucking stupid and hard.

     

    I am finally here, I am finally giving in to the thing I've been ignoring and hiding from for two decades. Some of you may know me previously as @snotflickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone. Which is fine, I don't intend to completely erase my old life (and god, snot is like one of my favorite usernames ever, it's so fucking stupid).

    ...but when I was diagnosed with cancer, my life really fell apart, and I lost, well, pretty much anything and everything that was really important to me. I am stuck in a place I don't want to be, with family I don't want to be with.

    The thing is though, my issues with my family have almost nothing to do with my sexuality. My mother deeply regrets the things she did which stunted this part of me, and I'm not completely out to her yet (the talk is coming soon), she knows about my struggles with idea, we've talk about it extensively. I know I would have her support, even if she would probably struggle with gendering me correctly or remember my new name (she's 78, 5 months from 79, so I mean, I have to cut her some slack).

    So, what's holding me back anymore? Nothing, really. That's why I'm here, new account, trying to embrace this, trying to not feel like I'm not enough or I don't deserve it like I've felt with everything in my life (I struggle with chronic depression). Trying to feel like for once I'm really doing something for me, not because I want to do something so someone will love me. I want to love me. I want to look in the mirror and see a smiling face, not this man's face that makes me feel ugly, and yet the same face, presented as a woman does not make me feel ugly.

    I lost a lot of my close connections in the move to this hell-hole. So I really am starting over.

    So like...

    1. How do I make friends within this community. I've always had more lady friends than man friends, and it would really be nice to feel like I had "girlfriends." I was always jealous of the close connections women seemed to have, the warmth, the willingness to touch one another. Being a man is a touch starved experience, as it is hard to find other open men, and even with them the best you get is a hug greeting and a hug goodbye, not a snuggled on the couch eating ice cream crying at your favorite movie together.

    2. How do I disentangle my digital life from my former one? I've always been a bit of a digital nomad, never sticking with one online persona too long, despite never changing my "voice" in terms of writing. But how do I make that shift easier? Separate Firefox profiles? I don't know, some of it feels like a lot of work to separate it all, especially when I don't actually know what I want my name to be or how much I want to keep of my old life stored away just for my own memories. Just because I hate old photos of myself doesn't mean I hate photos of my friends and remember good times with them, you know? Especially friends who you know would accept you as who you are before and after, or have already proven that by doing so.

    3. I've hated my name my whole life, for reasons entirely unrelated to my gender. So why is it still all these years later a struggle to even begin to think about what I would choose to call myself? Any tips on feeling more comfortable in choosing a name? I honestly feel stupid for not having figured out something by now because I should have changed my name once by now already instead of living with the name of a fucking con-man (and eventually, one of the worst people alive, after he got famous).

    4. Does anyone else deal with or have advice dealing with like I don't know how to describe it other than "impostor syndrome." I say that because it's the same set of feelings I have when I am experiencing impostor syndrome when it comes to my skill set in the workplace. I guess I've always felt that way about this, and it's the hardest part to shake, which kills me because philosophically I know that gender isn't something you have a "skillset" for... and anyway if that was the case why did the first time I ever put on a pair of heels I just knew how to run in them, run up and down stairs in them, how to strut in them... so I shouldn't be feeling this anyway because some of this stuff does come naturally to me. Same with makeup, first time I did it, I just went for it, didn't follow a guide, and thankfully my skills in art helped pay off because it actually didn't look completely fucking terrible. (I'm skeptical of "guides" because I'm colorblind and I need a friend to really help me with that, so they can show me specifically what actually looks good outwardly based on my skin tone, etc. Like am I an "autumn?" fuck if I know!)

    5. I live in Washington state and the goal is to end up somewhere less shitty, with probable places being Bellingham, Everett, Tacoma, Olympia(Seattle's too big for me, nice to visit, would hate to live there). All places with pretty decently sized LGBTQ+ communities which would make it easier to make connections. But like... is there a "network" of trans women supporting each other? Like do we have our own "Black Panthers" working for and protecting our communities? (...and if they don't call themselves Pink Panthers they're missing golden opportunity). Like, are we building communities where we can support one another because we cannot count on the government to support us? I know there's websites and forums... but I mean like groups that are active away from their keyboards.


    And I want to end this with something that I've been thinking about in regards to the community, because things can be hard sometimes and so much is so invalidating. I read a post recently where someone said they felt like they were drowning in sorrow reading one of our communities, which is fair, but also makes me want to commit to adding positive messages for us.

    One thing that helps me feel more comfortable in my gender: Focus on your strengths, and draw other's focus to your strengths. Do you have killer legs and nice feet (like me, being conceited for once)? Draw attention to them, make people focus on your best assets, wear short skirts, stiletto heels, and anything that makes your legs look good. You have a crazy seductive voice? Become a motormouth, let everyone hear it, make sure you give yourself chances to sound extra sexy while actually not talking about anything sexy at all. Have amazing hair? Go crazy with it, get big hair, make your beautiful head of hair the focus (so jealous, I'm probably stuck wearing wigs until I die, already very bald), people like me would kill for hair like that. The thing is, we all have small advantages, things that instantly make us feminine, and it helps to draw our own focus to them as well as draw others focus to them.

    We all, whether we think we do or not, have assets, parts of us that we can and should feel good about, even though it can be hard. The thing is, we all have small advantages, things that instantly make us feminine, and it helps to draw our own focus to them as well as draw others focus to them. I'm six feet tall, I wear size 12.5 in women's but I fell in love with wearing heels instantly (I've walked on the balls of my feet since I was a child to be more quiet, so its like second nature anyway), and I'm not going to let my height get in the way of the fact that it makes me feel good and part of the reason it makes me feel good is because it's validating to have at least that one thing that makes me super feminine. I hope all you gals can find it in yourselves to find that one thing you can put your finger on that makes you feel feminine and cozy and comfortable in your own skin. For me at least, it's a massive help, and I hope that maybe it can be a help to some of you as well.

    Try to find something to smile about today dears. I'm smiling because I'm finally exploring being me, and it's enough to outweigh the other things that weigh on me. All I hope for all of you is you find a slice of joy for yourselves.

    Sorry for the fucking novel, sweethearts. If you made it this far, hugs and kisses! xoxoxoxo

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