Thoughts on this? Reading this it feels almost like seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. For years I projected a lot of this discourse onto myself, possibly as a way to mask over my own gender identity issues.
I held back every response I could think of because I didn't feel like I could convince someone I was bringing it forward in good faith. But if we bring up our trans comrades in the context of this dialogue I feel like we could really be taken seriously. Like it opens up so many opportunities for solidarity.
What am I missing here? What do you folks think?
Wow, that's pretty stunning to hear. Thankfully I started to slowly raise my self esteem, especially thanks to therapy, but coming to terms with my gender definitely feels like the final puzzle piece I needed to put myself out there and date other women with confidence.
I will say though, as a guy I have had one sexual experience with a woman (this was post-therapy) and I was able to ask for consent to touch her, etc. without feeling any shame! Somehow I was able to turn around my negative feelings into positive ones. Like it's totally normal to feel attracted to someone, and it's obviously a good thing to ask for consent (communication, yay). Plus, asking for consent puts me back in control too: it doesn't feel like I'm giving in to some kind of objectifying urge if I'm literally showing restraint by asking first. Maybe that's a useful perspective? Idk.
Yeah haha I get exactly what you mean, asking for consent (even at the worst times) helps me feel comfortable and lets me just have fun, but it's still a weird brain worm I have generally.