Things I've learned from dating a trans-catgirl, by Tom Rutley:
1. There is a very good reason why the Senshi don't help you biomod your way out of Gender Identity Disorder without easing you into living as a girl first.
2. There is a difference between genderqueer and genderfluid, but if you ask your girlfriend's trans* support to explain precisely what it is the ensuing argument will take most of the rest of the evening and fail to reach a conclusion. (And don't even ask about agender.)
3. Yes, you will get hairballs, but the purring makes it all worthwhile. (No, I am not explaining in more detail.)
4. Your mum will take it better than you might expect.
5. A collar with a bell on as a gag gift is only funny once. (Even if I have to admit she looked really, really cute in it.)
6. Crude jokes about "eating pussy" aren't even funny the first time.
7. Buy shares in Dyno-Rod.
8. PMS and claws? Bad combination.
Things I've learned from dating Tom, by Barbara White:
1. The English really are that obsessed with tea.
2. Your cousin will fail to grasp the idea that being vaguely brown does not automatically make someone Mexican, and try to impress your boyfriend with authentic Mexican cuisine because she "thought you might like a taste of home". (It would have been a lot more awkward if Tom hadn't nearly peed himself laughing.)
3. Yes, he's half-Indian. As in the country India. Two borders away from the place we lost the huge-ass war in. (Have I mentioned I really, really hated growing up in rural Iowa?)
4. The NHS is fucking awesome. Seriously.
5. There are more English regions than London and the North, and people from those regions get cranky if repeatedly confronted by people who don't know this.
6. Just because you were in the RAF, it doesn't mean you can pull off a moustache.
7. The Elite fen really need a better faction name.
8. English people, and Europeans in general, are under the impression that "redneck" is a deadly insult. I don't know which country this says more about.
1. There is a very good reason why the Senshi don't help you biomod your way out of Gender Identity Disorder without easing you into living as a girl first.
2. There is a difference between genderqueer and genderfluid, but if you ask your girlfriend's trans* support to explain precisely what it is the ensuing argument will take most of the rest of the evening and fail to reach a conclusion. (And don't even ask about agender.)
3. Yes, you will get hairballs, but the purring makes it all worthwhile. (No, I am not explaining in more detail.)
4. Your mum will take it better than you might expect.
5. A collar with a bell on as a gag gift is only funny once. (Even if I have to admit she looked really, really cute in it.)
6. Crude jokes about "eating pussy" aren't even funny the first time.
7. Buy shares in Dyno-Rod.
8. PMS and claws? Bad combination.
Things I've learned from dating Tom, by Barbara White:
1. The English really are that obsessed with tea.
2. Your cousin will fail to grasp the idea that being vaguely brown does not automatically make someone Mexican, and try to impress your boyfriend with authentic Mexican cuisine because she "thought you might like a taste of home". (It would have been a lot more awkward if Tom hadn't nearly peed himself laughing.)
3. Yes, he's half-Indian. As in the country India. Two borders away from the place we lost the huge-ass war in. (Have I mentioned I really, really hated growing up in rural Iowa?)
4. The NHS is fucking awesome. Seriously.
5. There are more English regions than London and the North, and people from those regions get cranky if repeatedly confronted by people who don't know this.
6. Just because you were in the RAF, it doesn't mean you can pull off a moustache.
7. The Elite fen really need a better faction name.
8. English people, and Europeans in general, are under the impression that "redneck" is a deadly insult. I don't know which country this says more about.