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I realised, talking to a long time but never super close friend on instagram today, that there are whole reams of... notable (hilarious) stuff that I have turned into oft-retold anecdotes, but either only put on Twitter or never told social media at all.
Today, a day when I am wearing two pairs of socks (outside temperature, 18 degrees c; inside temperature same), I shall tell you about the Trans Student Who Told Me The Truth.
Let us call this student Felix (carefully chosen because it is a name of a transmasc YA protagonist, but not the one he actually has). He had spoken in class, but not stated his pronouns; I had clocked him as some kind of trans by his fashion sense and name choice. After class, he comes up to me.
Felix: Um, I don't mean to be a pain, but are you going to keep the windows open every class all spring?
Me: Uh, I was hoping to. I'm also hoping it'll warm up soon, but... this is Switzerland.
Felix: Riiight. Because even with my gloves on (*shows a pair of thermal fingerless gloves*) I can't really feel my fingers.
Me: But you were sitting right in the drafty spot. Hmm. I tell you what, can you try sitting in the middle of the room? I do a lot of groupwork tasks where I personally mix people up and move them around, and I can make sure I put your group in the middle of the room. Damn, even the gloves don't help? I thought my circulation was bad.
Felix: *pauses for a moment, looking up at me from his very short stature* Even going on T didn't help.
Me: *sorting this information, and the fact he deems me chill enough to off-handedly disclose to*
Felix: *pauses while I sort this information*
Me: Damn. My boyfriend told me he went on T and never got cold feet again.
Felix: People said that to me, too, and it hasn't turned out that way.
Me: ... Thank you, Felix, for telling me the truth the Trans Lobby just don't want me to know.
He then went on to tell me about how going on t had made his adhd symptoms worse (and we compared this to people we both knew who found that their adhd management got easier, because of the overall improvement in mental health), and thank me for pro-actively providing links to free audio versions of most of our texts.
LATER I found out that he was good friends with the transmasc student who had already disclosed to me via email (because their efforts to change their name in the student IT system had not yet borne fruit), and that a) the already-disclosed student had chosen my seminar because they looked at my departmental webpage and thought "definitely queer" and so b) the majority of the queer students in the first year were in my class and c) my intro email and the vibe they were getting from my manner of introducing myself and my pronouns was such that several of them read the "I'm your teacher, Amy, she/her" and thought "yeah, right let's lay bets on how long those pronouns last".
The circulation in my fingers has somewhat improved - I didn't need to wear gloves at all last Australian winter, and I noted in Swiss spring 2023 that I could be outside in as low as 4 degrees without gloves, and 0 in fingerless gloves only. But my toesies are a lost cause. I was, in fact, extremely called out by this McSweeney's "What Your Favourite Classic Rock Band Says About You" list: I read through thinking 'I bet they don't have AC/DC' and then I found the entry for ACDC.
Today, a day when I am wearing two pairs of socks (outside temperature, 18 degrees c; inside temperature same), I shall tell you about the Trans Student Who Told Me The Truth.
Let us call this student Felix (carefully chosen because it is a name of a transmasc YA protagonist, but not the one he actually has). He had spoken in class, but not stated his pronouns; I had clocked him as some kind of trans by his fashion sense and name choice. After class, he comes up to me.
Felix: Um, I don't mean to be a pain, but are you going to keep the windows open every class all spring?
Me: Uh, I was hoping to. I'm also hoping it'll warm up soon, but... this is Switzerland.
Felix: Riiight. Because even with my gloves on (*shows a pair of thermal fingerless gloves*) I can't really feel my fingers.
Me: But you were sitting right in the drafty spot. Hmm. I tell you what, can you try sitting in the middle of the room? I do a lot of groupwork tasks where I personally mix people up and move them around, and I can make sure I put your group in the middle of the room. Damn, even the gloves don't help? I thought my circulation was bad.
Felix: *pauses for a moment, looking up at me from his very short stature* Even going on T didn't help.
Me: *sorting this information, and the fact he deems me chill enough to off-handedly disclose to*
Felix: *pauses while I sort this information*
Me: Damn. My boyfriend told me he went on T and never got cold feet again.
Felix: People said that to me, too, and it hasn't turned out that way.
Me: ... Thank you, Felix, for telling me the truth the Trans Lobby just don't want me to know.
He then went on to tell me about how going on t had made his adhd symptoms worse (and we compared this to people we both knew who found that their adhd management got easier, because of the overall improvement in mental health), and thank me for pro-actively providing links to free audio versions of most of our texts.
LATER I found out that he was good friends with the transmasc student who had already disclosed to me via email (because their efforts to change their name in the student IT system had not yet borne fruit), and that a) the already-disclosed student had chosen my seminar because they looked at my departmental webpage and thought "definitely queer" and so b) the majority of the queer students in the first year were in my class and c) my intro email and the vibe they were getting from my manner of introducing myself and my pronouns was such that several of them read the "I'm your teacher, Amy, she/her" and thought "yeah, right let's lay bets on how long those pronouns last".
The circulation in my fingers has somewhat improved - I didn't need to wear gloves at all last Australian winter, and I noted in Swiss spring 2023 that I could be outside in as low as 4 degrees without gloves, and 0 in fingerless gloves only. But my toesies are a lost cause. I was, in fact, extremely called out by this McSweeney's "What Your Favourite Classic Rock Band Says About You" list: I read through thinking 'I bet they don't have AC/DC' and then I found the entry for ACDC.