Hello dear reader,
Welcome dear autumn, with your bright mornings, fleece jumpers, and cosy boots. Goodbye shorts and sandals, may you enjoy the long rest in the cupboard. So good to see you again painted toes and smooth pins: it’s been too long. I’m glad you’re back.
Colouring in
I spotted this lovely bit of news earlier. It’s a story in which a group of cartoonists have come together to create a colouring book for children new to this country.
How awesome is that? 💜 It’s full of old school Beano-esq monochrome, where a kid can spend some time enjoying one of life’s simple pleasures, art.
If you have a few quid, you can donate to the cause, buying a book and pencils for someone.
Books
Firstly I’m going to apologise to the kind author who sent me a copy of their book. It’s taken my a while to read it, but that’s by no means an indication of their writing. More my lack of time and other life stuff.
Before we get in, I’m not receiving any money for this, nor is the Amazon link got any payback to me.
Transcultural is written by Minou Bahrami, who’s parent of a trans person, and Minou is British Iranian. The book covers this and a joint journey in understanding and accepting, their new daughter. Later, they meet other trans people at a clinic overseas.
While we’ve a new son and Child 2.0 is younger than Minou’s daughter, there’s a number of occasions, where the stories are similar. Likewise, Minou’s observations on culture are truly interesting. Well worth a read, IMO, as we don’t often get to hear such a positive and supportive view without the dreaded nonsense of ‘just for balance, here’s someone who disagrees’.
You can find the book and others by Minou here (Amazon).
Hair
This month’s hyperfocus has been my hair. Or more accurately, my wig, given the -ahem- blessing of going more and more bald. Still, I save on time, shampoo, and haircut! 😁 Plus, even when I had long hair (in my 20s), I wasn’t in a place where I could’ve styled it. That and I didn’t have the skills or confidence. I’ve made my peace with losing my hair and sometimes, that’s the best you can do.
Talking of making the best of things 🙂, after Steph’s curling magic gently faded, I was wondering what my options might be about getting the curls back in. Cue a few happy hours reading up on hair blogs and YouTube tuts.
After watching a vlogger do a ‘wet & set’ using cold water and foam curlers, I thought I’d give that a go. I mean, if it doesn’t quite come off, I can always wash my wig and run the straighteners through it.
So, Thursday lunchtime I sat down with a water spray bottle and a dozen & a half foam rollers. After a gentle combing and spritz with the water, I did my best to follow the faded curls, gently rolling the hair up, and clipping the roller into place.
As per the tutorial, I left the rollers in overnight – okay, two nights – and took them out this morning. Such beautiful curls! Okay, different from the hot curling approach but I’ve read that a cold curl is more gentle on the hair. I guess we’ll see what things are like by Thursday night! Happy days indeed.
Tests
I stumbled on this online test recently and through a series of questions, it tries to find where you might be under the transgender umbrella.
Here’s Yours Truly.
I’m not wholly sure how I can be 16% intersex. Maybe there’s some secret genetic test done through my phone? 😉 More likely, there’s some questions I answered that nudged things that way, but to the best of my knowledge, I’m physically male. Okay, mentally, who can say. 😁 But, hey, who’s had a genetic test to say otherwise? Maybe a handful of athletes?
I’m surprised that genderfluid is third in the percentages. If you pressed me for a certain label to stand by under the trans umbrella, that’s probably the story that makes the most sense for me. Mostly thinking of myself somewhere in the middle between male and female. But, in terms of how I need to look and my preference? That does change. Oddly, I rarely see the proverbial needle swing towards the more male aspects.
The genderqueer marker? I might underdress for warmth or feeling valid, but I’m not really a mix and match person. I mean, other than some rare moments and two Thursdays a month, I’m in Richard garb nearly all of the time. As to what’s going on in my head and heart, though, that’s quite different.
So, what, if anything can we take from such tests? Honestly, I think they might be useful as a talking point and maybe in a just-for-fun kinda thing. I wouldn’t get hung up on them or take them too seriously.
But, I think I’m fairly settled on how I identify, even if that unsettles me from time to time. See what I did there? 😉
Do take a look if you want, but it won’t define you. Certainly no more than the political compass or other such things.
L x
16,83,66 or 73 percent of what exactly? I accept that these categories are not supposed to add up to 100% as a relative measure of the components of your own psyche (unless you are a football manager, in which case everything is always more than 100%) – and , as we’ve observed more than once, many of these – like non binary or gender-fluid transness – are not mutually exclusive categories.
But I’m not really sure what this chart if measuring or trying to show, and as such, it seems a prime candidate for junkcharts.com. It also seems to conflate sexual identity and sexual orientation. (I’ve always considered asexuality to be as much a measure of orientation as of identity, but opinions may differ on this one.)
As you say, how can you be 16% intersex (or even come up with a number based on a questionnaire in the absence of a medical diagnosis). Like you, I’m surprised at the high score for genderqueer, unless that’s being heavily weighted by the bigender, gender fluid scores.
You don’t give a link for the test. I might try googling 7 identities to see what comes up.
I will also see if a copy of Transcultural comes up in the library sometime. Sounds interesting, and maybe particularly as a look at the issues of having a trans child from an Iranian parent’s perspective, and compare it to Amrou’s experience of being a trans/gender queer child in ‘My Life as a Unicorn’.
Yeah, numbers aren’t a strong suit for me, and those percentages: are they overlaps? I did it to see what came out, rather than act indication of accuracy or belief in the outcome. I mean, it’s 30ish questions for a very complex subject. That and one that’s evolving as we learn more.
I think there’s a link in the text…. unless I fluffed adding it. Entirely possible at the mo 😁
I think the book is ebook only at the mo, but you never know!
I hate colder weather but I acknowledge the benefit of getting out the smarter clothes, the fashionable boots and the cute toenail polish. Have fun!
The UK’s current cruel and inhumane immigration policies have been condemned by many states and organisations around the world. That some Brits are pushing against government malice is a testament to the fact that the UK has actually had a leading role in promoting human rights over the centuries and most British people are not brutish like the current ruling class and its vicious supporters. So I hope this little book will bring some comfort to refugees and other people who need help.
And thanks for the info on the trans biography. These books are always fascinating. Very similar in many regards, yet they all have their own individual take.
I won’t comment on the trans test as one person’s definition of transgender or queer or genderfluid or what have you can be wildly different from another’s. Personally, I think everyone is transgender to some degree, though some way more obviously than others.
Sue x
Cool weather, yes please. Cold? Only in small amounts and when I wrap up. Contrary? Moi? 😉
As to the UK’s current policies, as things lurch increasingly (IMO) to the toxic side of things, it seems to chime less and less with the public. A recent survey showed tolerance for difference is significantly higher than 40 years ago. However, the constant negativity and antitrans nonsense has seen a reduction in tolerance towards us.
Culturally, the Brits seem to love the story of the underdog, and a triumph against the odds. I wonder if that is helping us be accepting. I hope so. That and the colouring book brings joy to children and their carers. 💜
Yes, the test is mainly from a something of interest, rather than factual or ‘look at my high score’ nonsense. I’m not one for competition. I’m sharing it out of interest and as a talking point. As Susie points out, the maths looks a bit off, and I’m with you on definitions. Again, I’m more interested in loose communities, rather than hard rules. The latter seem to have many exceptions.
I’m with you on the comment about gender. In an outreach session I did years ago, I ran folk through the Genderbread Person exercise. Given most folk their would’ve said they where straight and cis, it helped show the nuances around how they saw themselves, felt within, and how they looked. That’s before you get into the nebulous nature of sexuality.
The test is a little bit of fun. Intersex came out 56% and Agender a whopping 93%. Now I’m certainly not intersexed but do suffer a little from secondary hypogonadism and to some degree my identities entwined with that. So the weightings make tenuous sense if only in a fun and inaccurate way.
Thanks Sally. Interesting results. I wonder if your medical history has shaped those results. It would seem to make sense, even if not accurate.
Cisgender 16%, Gender Fluid 60%, Non-Binary 76%, Transgender 76%, Genderqueer 63%, Intersex 0%, Agender 56%
The only one I’d question there is Transgender. I don’t feel as trans as that. But I guess it all depends how you define it.
Interesting scores. For trans, I generally take it as an umbrella term for all the other identities, but who knows with this quiz! 🙂
The way it is worded and how you answer will throw up these anomalies.The highest percentage is probably a guide to the strongest label for you. Mine was 100% Trans and I needn’t take a test to know that but it was interesting anyway.
Yes, I’m not putting too much belief into it 🙂 As a bit of fun or possibly as an icebreaker, maybe. But it’s just a set of questions and a formula. Who knows what gubbins lurks in the code! 😁