*taptap* REBOOT!

 Alright amigos, let’s try this again.  It’s a time of transitions, I’m in a new place and kind of ready to reinvent myself career wise.  But on a smaller scale I’m restarting this thing because my dear friend The Bageler got me into BLAUGUST so maybe I can express some things in a short blog post between childcare shenanigans.  So!

• Tell us about some community that you are part of and why it interests you or how it impacts you?

At present there is just one community/fandom I’m in.  It’s a discord server about a book series called The Sisters of Dorley Hall.  They’re a very nice bunch of people with enough folks around my age to catch my decade-old references pretty well. There are also some younger folks and people new to the topics of discussion, so it’s easy to ask for advice and give it in turn.  Also it’s a small enough group that you can get a feel for the community without being overwhelmed by the number of posts.

What topics you ask?  Mostly gender and the varying interpretations thereof.  Because honestly, what is gender?  One might ask the same about birds:

What are birds?  We just don’t know. 

So let me shovel up this lede I’ve buried and explain a little about Sisters of Dorley.  It’s written by a trans author, as 1) a critique of the difficulties she’s had with the NHS and 2) a deconstruction of the “forced feminization” fetish genre.  In short, the eponymous Dorley Hall is a former hospital that’s been turned into a private dorm on the edge of a small college in the UK.  It’s known for supporting female college students in need.  What’s not commonly known is that the basement is a secret facility for turning young self-destructive men into happier, decently functional young women.

The writing is super well done, and it jumps between perspectives of the current group of boys in the basement and their “sponsors”, who are all women who have gone through the same gauntlet and found a supportive community among their aforementioned Sisters.  The setup is further complicated by our protagonist Stef, who has put together enough clues to seek transition help there, but accidentally made himself a danger to the residents.  A pair of dueling conspiracies ensue, as Stef and the girl who captured him try to make him seem like one of the usual “bad boys” long enough to get the free treatment he needs from the Feminizing Torture Basement.

I’m using “He” a lot because Stef’s gender dysphoria is a huge part of the character and a compelling part of the story.  Personally I found a lot of the dysphoria familiar from earlier in life, and after reading this book there are some lingering questions of “gender dysphoria or just regular kind?” Connecting with that extremely personal type of experience is a rare thing in my experience.  Which leads back around to the discord fan community!  Good folks with a wide variety of gender experiences and goals and honestly, they’re awesome.  I’m amazed by the amount of growth and joy they make for themselves and I’m glad there are more possibilities than I ever knew.