And what has Melusin been doing?

I have been writing a guest post, for Tiger Beatdown, in the Visions of Manliness series. It is on street harassment, and male privelege, and transition:

Some things, though, I do notice. For instance, the difference between going out in the exact same outfit (jeans, shirt, cord jacket) depending on whether or not I’ve bound my chest. When people read me as male, street harassment is much less of an issue. It tends to be limited to a) bolshy teens and pre-teens attempting to establish my gender, and b) comments on my more obvious hair and body modification choices. When I don’t bind, and am read as female, comments are made by strange men about almost everything, ranging from my gait (if I’m walking oddly owing to ill fitting shoes, I apparently resemble a pogo stick) to the cries of disgust if I’m eating in public (I’m fat) to the familiar assumption that being in public and in possession of breasts means that I must be waiting to have my attractiveness judged by a man.

More: here

New Blog

I have a new blog home, therefore I should probably reintroduce myself.

I’m Melusin. I’m a playwright, poet and writer of short stories who lives in a drafty and temperamental house in the English Midlands, with a Roland, who is a poet boy (my fiance), a lot of fake weapons (larper), a lot of books and some housemates.

In the past year I’ve started taking activism and feminism seriously, got engaged, decided to move city, started living polyamorously, moved city, got a job, come out as genderqueer, lost a job (because of depression), started writing and performing poetry, been very deeply depressed, been hypomanic, come out as trans, started social transition to male and had my first two professional productions as a playwright, one of which I co-directed and co-produced and failed to complete NaNoWriMo.

In case you haven’t gathered from that I’m poly, a genderqueer trans man and queer. And that, I think, is enough for tonight.