Trans Questioning Podcast

So many people engaged in their civic duty! THIS WEEK: Discussing the lunacy of "identifying" as a younger person; a crisis of mental health among trans people; good news from Massachusetts and Colorado; discussing the truly historic turnout of the 2018 midterms and how people disappointed by the "blue wave" aren't looking close enough; perhaps fascism can be stopped before it causes truly irreparable harm? ALSO: Reader questions about the distinction between nonbinary people and transgender people, and the challenges of discovering your transness much later in life; plus some updates about future projects from your Very Productive Girl!

----

SOURCES:

Historic Midterm Turnout: http://time.com/5452258/midterm-elections-turnout/

Implications of Blue Wave: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/midterms-blue-wave-statistics-data-analysis.html

You Can Still Be Transgender If You Don't Feel Dysphoria: https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/05/transgender-without-dysphoria/

6 Affirmations for People Who Don't Feel Trans Enough: https://everydayfeminism.com/2017/03/trans-folk-dont-feel-trans-enough/

Reddit Thread - Realizing You're Trans At Later Age: https://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/3twom2/who_else_on_here_didnt_know_they_were_trans_until/

Trauma and Transness: https://letsqueerthingsup.com/2016/01/16/trauma-and-transness-why-i-didnt-always-know-i-was-transgender/

What It's Like to Transition at 70: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gender-affirmation-surgery_us_5bb3a27be4b0d1ebe0e568f0

----

If you are in crisis or just need a shoulder to cry on, please contact the Trans Lifeline for support at Translifeline.org.

Do you have questions, stories, or other gender-related gripes you want to share?
Email me at[email protected]
OR: Send an anonymous message to curiouscat.me/hmsnofun

INTRO AND OUTRO MUSIC is the Mii Channel Theme JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

COVER ART is by the wonderful Emilee Bumgarner.

Support me monthly on PATREON at Patreon.com/LTAS or with a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/sarahz
Follow me on TWITTER @TransQPodcast and @hmsnofun
and on MASTODON @hmsnofun

You're not garbage, okay? THIS WEEK: A conversation with transgender musician & political theorist Molly.Noise! We discuss the subtle ways language assumes maleness, the insidious ways we destroy ourselves to fit in, how we systematically devalue our art and our work in order to seem humble, the ways we apologize for existing, the ways we situate ourselves as closeted trans people in sex and relationships, the mirror phase of development in relation to gender performance, and so much more. What a conversation this was!

----

Molly's Stuff!

Bandcamp:mollynoise.bandcamp.com
Twitter: @ImPureNoise
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/user-224272569

----

Do you have questions, stories, or other gender-related gripes you want to share?
Email me at[email protected]
OR: Send an anonymous message to curiouscat.me/hmsnofun

INTRO AND OUTRO MUSIC is the Mii Channel Theme JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

COVER ART is by the wonderful Emilee Bumgarner.

Support me monthly on PATREON at Patreon.com/LTAS or with a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/sarahz
Follow me on TWITTER @TransQPodcast and @hmsnofun
and on MASTODON @hmsnofun

I have finally embraced the inevitable evolution of this podcast into a self-help advice show. THIS WEEK: The fear of coming out and transitioning even when support is likely; the gravity of secrets and the allure of questions left unanswered; the complications of being a transgender man and the child of immigrants; how to con your ungrateful parents out of money and live your best life; why your ungrateful parents are trash and how you don't owe them a dang thing; reiterating the fact that it is okay to come out as trans but to desist later. Seriously! Coming out as trans is not a fact you've carved out in stone. Identity is weird and it's all a subjective nightmare. Stop stressing and just experiment!

ALSO: Vote! Vote in the dang midterms!! Vote vote vote VOTE VOTE

----

Do you have questions, stories, or other gender-related gripes you want to share?
Email me at[email protected]
OR: Send an anonymous message to curiouscat.me/hmsnofun

INTRO AND OUTRO MUSIC is the Mii Channel Theme JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

COVER ART is by the wonderful Emilee Bumgarner.

Support me monthly on PATREON at Patreon.com/LTAS or with a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/sarahz
Follow me on TWITTER @TransQPodcast and @hmsnofun
and on MASTODON @hmsnofun

As this week comes to a close, it's hard not to feel like the US government is openly loading the gun they'll soon use for our execution. It's hard not to feel like you're going crazy as everyone else gaslights you by insisting that it's just a distraction from whatever the real problem is. Violence against transgender people is all too present already, but now we face the prospect of a mob of emboldened, bigoted blackshirts (or, in this case, redhats) taking their frustrations out on us without the fear of legal ramification. It's overwhelming, it's painful, it is traumatic.

This episode is not a solution. I don't know what the solution could possibly be. I just know we need to feel entitled to our emotions if we want to survive the years to come.

----

Support me monthly on PATREON at Patreon.com/LTAS or with a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/sarahz
Follow me on TWITTER @TransQPodcast and @hmsnofun
and on MASTODON @hmsnofun

be safe out there.

That's right, you've been reading this podcast all along! THIS WEEK: Is it time to panic yet? Are we allowed to panic? Is it time to finally start saying, hey, maybe the States are in a bit of a pickle vis-a-vis fascism and blackshirt violence? Is the alarm only valid when it's rung by a straight cis able-bodied white guy? Am I being sensationalist by earnestly googling how to gtfo of the country? Am I losing my mind right now? Because it feels like I'm losing my mind right now. ALSO: Coming out to family, how to dress in gender-affirming clothes without outing yourself to the world, and a disappointing aside about western RPGs.

----

Do you have questions, stories, or other gender-related gripes you want to share?
Email me at[email protected]
OR: Send an anonymous message to curiouscat.me/hmsnofun

INTERSTITIAL MUSIC is the Mirror Temple JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

INTRO AND OUTRO MUSIC is the Mii Channel Theme JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

COVER ART is by the wonderful Emilee Bumgarner.

Support me monthly on PATREON at Patreon.com/LTAS or with a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/sarahz
Follow me on TWITTER @TransQPodcast and @hmsnofun
and on MASTODON @hmsnofun

Sometimes, things are okay. THIS WEEK: Discussing the sudden quintupling of my audience following the release of a video about Natalie Wynn of ContraPoints; answering listener questions about nonbinary identity, internal transgender repression, and the need for identifying one's birth gender within the discourse; the nasty insinuations of the healthy that one needs only to just "do it" to get healthy, and how difficult it truly is for someone with a mood disorder to live a healthy lifestyle.

----

Do you have questions, stories, or other gender-related gripes you want to share?
Email me at[email protected]
OR: Send an anonymous message to curiouscat.me/hmsnofun

INTRO AND OUTRO MUSIC is the Mii Channel Theme JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

COVER ART is by the wonderful Emilee Bumgarner.

Support me on PATREON at Patreon.com/LTAS
Follow me on TWITTER @TransQPodcast and @hmsnofun
and on MASTODON @hmsnofun

It's the thirtieth episode, and a full year after recording episode one! THIS WEEK: Answering more spam mail, answering an actual listener question about whether one can be too well off to call themselves trans and begin transitition; discussing what has changed in the year since I came out, including the recent revelation that I am genderqueer; talking about the recent Contrapoints video "The Aesthetic" and some criticisms of it (I ended up making a video about this, which you can find right here), including the nature of unfulfilling and cynical art, and the lessons one might take from Nineteen Eighty-Four. Identity! What the h*ck is it?

----

Do you have questions, stories, or other gender-related gripes you want to share? Email me at [email protected]

INTRO, OUTRO, and INTERSTITIAL MUSIC is the Mii Channel Theme JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

COVER ART is by the wonderful Emilee Bumgarner.

Support me on PATREON at Patreon.com/LTAS
Follow me on TWITTER @TransQPodcast and @hmsnofun
and on MASTODON @hmsnofun

When you come out as transgender, the freedom of Halloween is every single day. THIS WEEK: I talk to video essayist and host of youtube show Nyx Fears, May Leitz! We discuss the hell that is life in the DFW metroplex, what it's like coming out as trans to an existing fanbase, how she figured out her transness, how she navigates dysphoria, the ambiguities of identity and the challenges of articulation, where she got her name, what the heck a "woman" looks like, and how Halloween is basically Transgender Christmas. ALSO: A lengthy discussion about vulnerability and earnestness in online media criticism, particularly on youtube, and our problems with the over-valuation of "objective" criticism.

----

Please watch May's coming out video "The Truth" right here, and follow the links below to all her other stuff.

YOUTUBE MAIN:Nyx Fears
YOUTUBE VLOG:May Leitz
TWITTER:@nyxfears
PATREON:Nyx Fears

----

Do you have questions, stories, or other gender-related gripes you want to share? Email me at [email protected]

INTRO/OUTRO MUSIC is the Mii Channel Theme JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

INTERSTITIAL MUSIC is Rosalina's Comet Theme JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

COVER ART is by the wonderful Emilee Bumgarner.

Support me on PATREON at Patreon.com/LTAS
Follow me on TWITTER @TransQPodcast and @hmsnofun
and on MASTODON @hmsnofun

#ihaveagramophone. Make it trend, or I walk. THIS WEEK: Melancholy in the Sarah's world; the loneliness of Italy without friends at home to talk to; revisiting your journal is ALWAYS a bad idea; reflections on my conversation with Shannon Strucci in the previous episode; fear of asking friends and colleagues to respect your new name and chosen pronouns; the stress of being a stealth transgender person in college; good reactions from friends and family; how cis people can help trans people.

Do you have questions, stories, or other gender-related gripes you want to share? Email me at [email protected]

INTRO MUSIC is the Mii Channel Theme JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

INTERSTITIAL MUSIC is the Mirror Temple JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

OUTRO MUSIC is the Mor Adain - Roaming the Wastes JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

COVER ART is by the wonderful Emilee Bumgarner.

Support me on PATREON at Patreon.com/LTAS
Follow me on TWITTER @TransQPodcast and @hmsnofun
and on MASTODON @hmsnofun

It's time to dish about the creeps that make life miserable for women on the internet. THIS WEEK: I talk to youtuber Shannon Strucci, hot off the release of her feature-length video essay about parasocial relationships. We discuss how death in the family (especially parents) can other you from friends and colleagues, the gross and creepy harassment a successful woman gets, how gender affects one's success on a public media platform, the weird real life fanfic written about Jacksepticeye and Markiplier, what it's like being a woman on a film set, and much more!

----

Check out Shannon Strucci's incredible series about parasocial relationships, Fake Friends:
Episode One
Episode Two

You can follow and support Shannon on the following platforms:
TWITTER: @plentyofalcoves
YOUTUBE: StrucciMovies
CURIOUSCAT: plentyofalcoves
PATREON: patreon.com/StrucciMovies

----

Do you have questions, stories, or other gender-related gripes you want to share? Email me at [email protected]

INTRO MUSIC is the Mii Channel Theme JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

INTERSTITIAL and OUTRO MUSIC is the Ice Cap Zone JAZZ COVER by insaneintherainmusic.

COVER ART is by the wonderful Emilee Bumgarner.

Support me on PATREON at Patreon.com/LTAS ($5 patrons get 10 whole minutes of conversation that were cut from this episode!)
Follow me on TWITTER @TransQPodcast and @hmsnofun
and on MASTODON @hmsnofun