It's Really Nice To Have

Monday, June 11, 2012

It’s Really Nice To Have

lucypaw:

people who I feel comfortable being naked around in a not-sexy way. One of those things that I think cis people don’t think about much is how for many trans* people being naked can be a disturbing, upsetting state. Not only because of any body dysphoria but also because we’re told our bodies are wrong, ugly, and freakish. So, for some of us, being able to be naked in front of someone else is an act of courage, an act of defiance, as well as a statement to that other person that we are comfortable enough with you to literally expose ourselves to you.

Being naked in front of other trans* people can also be a bonding experience, an act of acceptance of ourselves and the people we are with. The nearest example I can think of for cis people is when the women’s movement did the thing of having cis women look at their own genitals in a group, allowing cis women to get a sense of how normal body variance is and how their genitals were not wrong and ugly. That moment seems to have passed for cis women, but I think for trans* people we are still in that moment, just starting to realise our body variances are not wrong, not ugly, but instead just part of how we are.

So, yeah, I may be making a lot of a group of trans people getting naked and just relaxing after going swimming and stripping off their swimwear (which is what inspired this post), but I don’t think so. I think it’s a radical act of self-acceptance and of acceptance of others.

I agree totally. <3

This is beautiful.