Most people would tell me that getting meta and self-referential on a first post is a death sentence. Happily (I suppose), my primary goal isn’t winning a popularity contest. My aim in starting this blog was to get some of my thoughts down on paper and hopefully, giving people a different perspective on American culture, and on gender and identity.

I can’t promise a balanced view on anything. I am a cisgender, heterosexual, white American male. By any objective standpoint, I have one of the most privileged viewpoints this oblate spheroid of a world has to offer. With that admission front and center, I’d like to talk about a lot of stuff on here, including topics such as:

-Toxic masculinity (What it is, what it isn’t, how men and women both can embody it)
-Sexism (What it is, what it isn’t…you get the point)
-Misogyny (Not going to belabor the parentheticals here)
-Homophobia/transphobia (An outsider’s take, at least)

At this point, it’s necessary to insert a number of disclaimers.

-Point 1: I’m not an expert on anything, except maybe wine. Anything I offer up here is very much my own opinion, formed out of my own experience. I don’t have any degrees in sociology or psychology or anything of that sort, so this really is intended as the amateur’s perspective.

-Point 2: I’m not trans, gay, or bi. I don’t, on a regular basis, experience the hatred, bigotry, or discrimination that anyone who identifies as any of those things does. I’ve never lied about who I am, and I’ve never tried to maximize my experience above anyone else who’s had it worse. I am incredibly lucky to live where I do, and to not feel physically threatened by being who I am. One of the main reasons I feel compelled to include this disclaimer is the sense that if I don’t, people are going to call me out for not truly sharing the trans experience. Fair point. Fully acknowledged. I have immense respect for all trans persons in places where identifying as such means putting your life on the line every day. I can’t imagine what that’s like and I won’t pretend to. My hope is that by writing about my own limited perspective, I can shed some light on larger things that are a cause of much greater suffering to other people.

-Point 3: In general, I like discussion and I like community. I want to encourage comments, and I don’t want people to feel like this whole thing is an echo chamber. That being said, I also really want to encourage people to be courteous. The First Amendment may not apply on the internet, but I’d like people to feel like they have room to speak up as long as they don’t view being incorrect as being the enemy.

Now that I’ve gotten those disclaimers out of the way—I’d like to have fun here. I’d like to post pictures of outfits I’ve come up with, or things I’ve seen, or conversations I’ve had, and generally make this a party.