You know what? I’m gonna talk about it anyway.

From my own personal experience as a trans man and from what I’ve seen others talk about, trans people have a unique relationship with childhood and sexuality. The vast majority of us didn’t experience puberty as our true gender. https://twitter.com/PlagueSquid/status/1249100548692774914

I began my transition at 21. All that normal ‘boy becomes a man’ stuff? Didn’t happen. I was busy trying to become a woman and failing. As a result, my self image is kinda muddled. I’ve joked before that I see myself as a prepubescent boy and it’s kinda true.

I feel like I never really grew up. This is further confused by the fact that I’m autistic and my social skills have always been a little below my age, but being trans is probably the main factor. I mean, I’m currently going through puberty at 22.

But no matter how I feel inside, I am an adult. I have adult desires, which in my case (being allo) includes sexual attraction. And I can’t divorce these two parts of myself. I’m both a little boy and an adult man. That’s part of what being trans means to me.

On top of everything else, I’m also a writer. I have a need to create art about my experience. And a good way to externalize and process my conflicting feelings is to write about underage characters, immature and powerless and in over their heads. Just like me.

I can’t speak for @stwawbwewymilk but I imagine she feels something similar. I’ve never experienced trauma myself, but it’s definitely not going to make things easier to process. Her art is uniquely trans because it confronts these issues and shows just how messy they can be.

So yes, this *is* a transphobia issue. It’s cis people not wanting to face trans sexuality because it can be uncomfortable and dark and messy. It’s trans people trying to look pure to earn crumbs of respectability. It’s backlash against art for challenging its audience.