“I still believed I could will my body to become what my mind knew it should be: free and strong as a coil of brass wire. My chest and belly felt swollen and full, and every movement reminded me of how wrong I felt. I moved slower. A chasm had opened between me and my skin, as though I were fumbling around in a too-big pair of gloves. The only words I had back then were for what I knew I wasn't—a girl. But how to explain this feeling that my body was a tracing of something else, and not all the lines matched up?” GenderTransDysphoriaTransmasc Book:The Thirty Names of Night Source: The Thirty Names of Night
“When I was a kid, I never wanted to leave the pool. I used to throw tantrums at the end of open swim. I told you it was because I loved swimming, because I wanted to feel like a dolphin, because I wanted to pretend for another five minutes to be a mermaid. Looking back, it wasn't that I wanted my body to feel magical; I wanted it to feel transparent.” Dysphoria Book:The Thirty Names of Night Source: The Thirty Names of Night