"Yeah, I think I know the one," Jules says dryly, rolling her eyes, though it's not directed at him and her tone is still good-natured. It's not like he's the one going around saying shit like that, after all, and she's more than a little used to it — both the slur itself and the shitty mindset behind it. Maybe he didn't feel the way he did, but that doesn't mean there isn't still plenty there to deal with.
"And that's exactly what I mean, sort of. No matter how you feel, it's fucked. People have all these ideas about what a man is supposed to look like, or a woman, when... why should it matter? If a guy wants to have long hair —" She gestures toward him with one hand. "Or, I don't know, wear a skirt or nail polish or whatever, it doesn't make them any less who they are. Trying to fit into those tiny boxes is stifling."
Even for her, even since she transitioned, that's been the case. It's something she's still trying to work on, sorting through what femininity means for her rather than what she thinks it's supposed to mean, expressing it in her own way rather than trying to contort herself into some male-idealized version of womanhood.
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"And that's exactly what I mean, sort of. No matter how you feel, it's fucked. People have all these ideas about what a man is supposed to look like, or a woman, when... why should it matter? If a guy wants to have long hair —" She gestures toward him with one hand. "Or, I don't know, wear a skirt or nail polish or whatever, it doesn't make them any less who they are. Trying to fit into those tiny boxes is stifling."
Even for her, even since she transitioned, that's been the case. It's something she's still trying to work on, sorting through what femininity means for her rather than what she thinks it's supposed to mean, expressing it in her own way rather than trying to contort herself into some male-idealized version of womanhood.