Transcending Anatomy

Short Film About Safe Sex For Trans Guys

transqueery:

Avec Toi, J’en Mets Pas is a short film directed by bruce for the French LGBT site, Yagg, about safe sex for trans guys who have sex with cis men. The film is in French, with English sub titles by M’hamed Rahli. Avec Toi, J’en Mets Pas was created for Yagg’s Tu Sais Quoi? campaign promoting condom use to protect against HIV, STIs and hepatitis. This video contains mature scenes.

Copy & Paste the link for a Preview: http://transguys.com/videos/safe-sex-trans-guys

(via radicalsexeducation)

seagasm asked: I work at an AIDS Service Organization as a Community Educator. I conduct trainings on HIV as well as topics closely relating to HIV. I recently did a training on STIs. I have been using inclusive language in my trainings and thought I was on the right track until I got some negative feedback from my STI training. The area I am struggling to find language for is when I talk about symptoms of STIs. Rather than saying symptoms in females or males, what can I say that is inclusive?

[heads-up: this response contains anatomical terms and discussion of STI symptoms]

This is a tricky issue. Until recently I did STI-related trainings for an organization that uses a male/female binary format to discuss STI symptoms, and we struggled to find language that’s both inclusive and clear.

One strategy is to talk about individual symptoms as they affect body parts and bodily functions, rather than people. I discussed this a bit in an ask from a while back: Ask: Trans-inclusive language in a menstrual health blog. Instead of saying that, e.g., “untreated chlamydia may lead to infertility in women,” you can say that “some people with untreated chlamydia lose the ability to become pregnant.” While this avoids conflating femaleness/maleness with a prescribed set of body parts, it is important to be aware that some trans people are not comfortable using conventional anatomical terms for certain parts of our bodies, and may feel alienated by that language.

This way of describing symptoms also neglects the fact that everything we know about STI symptoms is how they affect cis people. There’s a huge lack of research about how STIs manifest in trans people – particularly about how different medical interventions affect susceptibility to infection and display of symptoms. So, describing a certain type of vaginal discharge as symptomatic of a certain STI may not actually be true for a trans woman who’s had lower surgery. It’s important to acknowledge that cis women are more likely than cis men to be asymptomatic for many STIs, but it’s unclear what that means for people who are transitioning or transitioned. It’s important to acknowledge those ambiguities and uncertainties in addition to describing the textbook symptoms.

So, another way of approaching the issue would be to acknowledge it head-on during your training by saying something like: ”The medical research that’s been done on these STIs is almost entirely about cis people. Because of that, I’m going to describe how they appear in cis men and women. Trans people may experience some symptoms differently, so it’s important to understand the range of ways that an STI can manifest, know what’s normal for your own body, and try to find a health care provider that you trust if you suspect you’ve been exposed to an STI.” A disclaimer like this acknowledges that you are trying to be inclusive, but are also aware that there are limits to the information that you can provide, especially in the context of a short training for a general audience.

Hope this helps… I’d be interested to hear what you end up doing. Followers, have you experienced any particularly good examples of inclusive language around STI symptoms? What would you like to hear in a training?

amydentata asked: Thanks for the mention! There was a video in the works by a friend of mine, but I'm not sure that it's gone anywhere yet. It will happen though! I work slowly, but I get stuff done eventually :D

Awesome — please keep us posted! And no rush :)

Anonymous asked: Are you still making a video for the different masturbation technique?

This post (contains nsfw image) about an alternate masturbation technique for trans women was a submission from Amy Dentata. As far as I know a video hasn’t been made yet, but if it happens I’d be happy to post it here with her permission.

As a side note for folks who haven’t encountered Amy Dentata before, her website has some amazing work, including a chapbook of stories and poetry — you can view, hear, and support her art at amydentata.com…

Hello? Anyone home?

Things have been quiet around here for a while but people are still submitting, asking, and reblogging, so in case anyone was getting concerned, this Tumblr isn’t dead!

Over the past few months I’ve been finishing my thesis and job-hunting; I graduated from college in May and will be starting a job (doing HIV/AIDS outreach!) in the fall. It’s been really exciting, but has also kept me from putting time into this Tumblr.

New posts will start to trickle out soon as the chaos in my life dies down. In the meantime, if you have an ask or a submission in the backlog, know that it hasn’t been lost or forgotten. And thanks for your patience!

Tobi needs your support!

amydentata:

Doing it Again: In Depth is a documentary about the sex lives of trans women, from the mouths of trans women themselves. Tobi Hill-Meyer needs your support to make this happen! She was the director for Doing it Ourselves, a groundbreaking film that won the Emerging Filmmaker Award at the 2010 Feminist Porn Awards.

By supporting this project, you help combat the negative representation of trans women in the media and the erasure of our sexualities. You will also get to see an insightful and erotic documentary once it’s completed! It’s a win-win.

Any amount helps. If you can’t show your support with money, that’s ok. Spread the word to your friends!