Thanks for sharing! Can't quite recall if I've ever met a butch lesbian trans woman before, but that's probably just lack of exposure on my part. Your description of "masculine woman" is definitely a vivid one though, and it makes sense to me.

I don't really know how I'd rate myself on a "Masculine-feminine" spectrum.

Great news! Staying true to the definition or existence of a masculine-feminine spectrum was never the point of this post, and you managed to satisfy my curiosity without even answering this question. So yeah, fuck the spectrum, it doesn't exist. 😇

The other thing that has piqued my interest is your preference for socializing with women. Have you given any thought to the reason behind that, or does it just play out that way? As with everyone else I've asked a follow-up question, don't feel obligated to answer if you feel I'm prying too much.

Oh god, what have you done?! My impulse control is definitely being tested here! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)

The stuff probably contains phenolphtalein pH indicator, which turns pink in alkaline conditions. Our saliva varies between a pH of 6.3 to about 7.9 with 7 being considered neutral. Not sure if 7.9 is alkaline enough for the color change to dramatic enough, so it might contain something else that works at a different range. Principle is the same though: Magic colour changing chemical meets pH that isn't quite neutral and turns itself pink.

And thank you! Not only for your kind words, but for being the kind of person who makes this kind of platform available and welcoming. It's a lovely encouragement to engage with this community and gives a beautiful outlet and inlet for ideas and conversation.

Aww thanks for your kind words! I actually joined here not too long after lurking for a while because it seemed like a safe place to try and express a side of myself that I don't really share with the public yet. Figured this would be a good place to experiment interacting with people that have a chance of understanding what I'm finding out about myself. The goal was always a mix of shitposting, celebrating differences, discussing interesting things, providing others with a laugh and leaving wholesome messages. Your feedback counts as a big compliment and tells me I'm probably doing well at the wholesome part.

Hi Cait, thank you for taking the time to share!

If we took fear out of the equation somehow, do you feel it's useful to have a distinction between your personal identity and what you're comfortable with presenting to the outside world? I know anxiety about how my surroundings would react is definitely keeping me from experimenting with my appearance more than I do. But until I do, there's probably no way to know for sure if there would still be some sort of disconnect between internal indentity and presenting identity.

I'm Attracted to feminity in general, but basically anyone with boobs can do, depending on the Person

Hey we're similar on that front! From your wording I take it that you also prefer boobs over butts? There's just something about them... [slips into daydream]

With both ADHD and autism, communication with most ppl is very challengen and exhausting for me, so I just like to hang around ppl who can actually get behind what I'm saying, regardless of their gender

From my experience in interacting with autistic people (kind of a given with a tech background), I've always found that most people simply don't understand what autism is like and as a result most interactions are missing the communicative parts crucial to someone with autism. As the HSP idiot I usually end up being the one to translate and explain to them what's causing all the friction (which is self-interest, since friction affects me).

I've witnessed multiple times that people can't stand the autistic person until I explain to them what's really going on, and it usually changes their demeanor towards them drastically.

I feel like you might gravitate towards people who can instinctively notice your needs and will at the very least not strike out against them.

Wow, thanks so much for sharing this! Truly beautiful and inspiring to read.

I think I get the whole fuckable friends part, even though it doesn't quite work that way for me. You already share a certain bond of friendship, trust or intimacy to a certain degree. So I see how that could open up the door for things to progress beyond platonic.

Alignment of kinks is probably more important for a healthy sex life than most people realise, and at least from my experience compromise never works out in the long term.

Your story on confidence, self-esteem and becoming more outgoing definitely hits home, as I imagine it will for many here. I used to be pretty outgoing as a kid, but high school and a combination of factors changed that dramatically. Reaching emotional maturity earlier than my peers, HSP and witnessing the sheer evil early teens are capable of all around me turned me into the quiet kid that somehow managed to stand out. Kinda hard to be outgoing when you don't quite trust or like anyone around you. New environments and fresh starts definitely help out though, and studying was definitely the tipping point. I've been clawing my way back to my childhood self-esteem ever since. And I'm proud to say I'm getting there.

All in all happy to hear you managed a way to stop denying yourself the attention you deserve, as this post proves you're worth listening to. Definitely going to take some inspiration from your story.

Oh and now I need this magic PH lipstick, where can I get some?

Thanks for your reply! I love your take on finding beauty in both sides, seems like letting go of a need to be one or the other might feel freeing in a way.

Would you say that sexuality and romantic preferences are more connected for you specifically, or are there still differences? For me there's a clear difference between sexual and romantic attraction. And it would make sense that there is some difference for pansexual or panromantic people as well. To put it bluntly, would the answer to "Fuck and Marry" be the same person, or would they be different? (We don't kill people here).

And does your intention to put yourself out there more as an introverted person stem from something more? For me, there was a clear goal of combating shyness and improving self-esteem that made me put myself into more social situations. And I felt like I deserve to reap the benefits of having more developed social skills every once in a while.

If you feel any of these things are too sensitive, or personal to talk about, just know that catgirls are naturally curious and will not hold it against you if you draw the line somwhere.

Oh I like that one better!

Yes, definitely need more of these! I'll try make some if inspiration hits.

Seems like a definitive answer requires more research with higher sample size.

I've also noticed a difference in online exposure, and the difference in subscriber counts between FtM and MtF communities on Blåhaj Lemmy also suggest it's real thing.

But there's also the possibility that people don't want to identify with the "trans" label. Since modern models of gender identity require it to be treated as a high-dimensional vector, the spectrum representation probably doesn't cut it for a larger amount of people than we might be aware of.

Probably should use something like StrawPoll for more dynamic results. Then again, if this is just for giggles it doesn't really matter and going by comments on a post is fine too.

Fair enough. Guess the moral of the story is don't piss off the creative mass murderer.

For the memez I'm going to say "of course", but I'm actually partial to wood or charcoal myself.

There's just something about the authentic smokey flavour that makes your food taste amazing.

Guess I'm an old fashioned guy/girl (not quite sure about either yet).

That's what mirrors are for. Though I agree, it might be a bit tricky. (Definitely haven't just mimicked it to see if it would work...)