A lot of people are rather interested in formulating some conception of what it is to be transgender, or something more specific, like transfeminine or transmasculine. These people spend a lot of their time trying to say something verbally or to reproduce this thing in some kind of artwork. The conclusion all of these people keep coming to is “being transgender is about being like me and my friends.” You sometimes see, for example, people try to articulate transfemininity in terms of a kind of online grunginess with associated retinue of kinks or, among others, as flowing in combination with a kind of fandomy poptimism. And it comes with claims that “trans people love such and such” or “trans people relate to so and so.” And I never see myself reflected in any of these things, because they’re talking about them and their friends. Maybe the way into understanding a rather varied social phenomenon isn’t just tirelessly probing your own subjectivity for another tired metaphor.