Is It Safe to be Seen?: A poem

A poem about gender identity.

TW: Nudity, body parts, hints at violence against trans people

Is It Safe to Be Seen?

I dreamed last night that I was naked -Well nearly naked

Wearing nothing on top

And nothing but underwear- or maybe even a pull-up

On bottom,

Surrounded by cis men and women

In a steam room or sauna that was also a living room

Where conversation was happening,

And my body was markedly different from theirs.

There were other fat people there,

And other hairy people,

And other people with breasts,

But none that ticked all 3 categories.

None that were such an amalgamation of genders.

The things that give me gender euphoria in private

Made me feel--- slightly uncomfortable.

Just a little put on display.

And people looked.

People noticed the differences.

But then, I noticed their bodies, too

So this wasn’t entirely unusual,

And it stopped at noticing.

If it doesn’t progress to celebrating a hard-won battle,

Then may it always stop at noticing,

Because things could have gotten much worse.

Comments

Autism and Teaching English

In many ways, autism makes me a good teacher. I explain things clearly and systematically. I keep detailed notes on each student because I have to do so to remember. I have formulas for everything and provide data-based feedback on student progress after every lesson. It also makes me a good English as a Second Language teacher. I pinpoint specific, recurring issues in students' speaking (accent, pronunciation, and oral fluency) and take a structured approach to addressing these issues. I do the same with academic writing (structure, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, coherence and cohesion). However, it makes me a lousy literature teacher. I'm good at poetry, but stories are not my thing. I take them at face value. It's hard for me to see symbolism behind the words. A story about talking rabbits ( Watership Down ) is, to me, just about the talking rabbits, and I'm totally into the narrative of those rabbits. I also cannot empathize with character emotions unless I...

I Jiggle When I Dance: A Poem

TW: Fat (reclaimed), eating disorder recovery mention, obesity mention, body image issues mention I've been posting a lot of poetry lately because that's the content my brain has been able to produce, but I'm going to try to get some regular content to you soon. In the meantime, there is far to little fat positivity on this blog, as I grapple with my own eating disorder recovery, obesity, and body image issues. In that vein, I bring you my new fat positivity poem, "I Jiggle When I Dance". I Jiggle When I Dance When I dance My stomach wiggles side to side Even after I stop moving The movement of my breasts Is really obvious And I’m learning Not to try to hide it My feet on the floor Would make creaks and thumps Except If I move my lower half My joints scream in pain And I have to stop dancing So I dance with the top of me Jiggles and all And I’m learning to be free To love myself more freely To live ...

Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills Part 1

All posts in this series reflect working through DBT® Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition . All quotes come from this book unless otherwise noted. Deciding to Study Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills: According to the book, the reason for practicing interpersonal effectiveness skills is to "be skillful in getting what you want and need from others", "build relationships and end destructive ones", and "walk the middle path". There are some factors that can get in the way of interpersonal effectiveness: lacking the skills you need, not knowing what you want, being too emotional to be skillful, forgetting long-term goals because of what you want right now, "other people... getting in the way", and having thoughts and beliefs that get in the way. The thoughts and beliefs that were getting in the way of me practicing interpersonal effectiveness skills were: "If I ask for something or say no, I can't stand if so...

.Being.Us

Search This Blog