Long story short I have PCOS apparently. That means high testosterone. Why am I sharing this? I just think it’s fucking shitty that I as an AFAB person can get feminizing hormone therapy after as little as a blood test, but if I was a trans woman or man, or if I wanted hormone therapy to affirm my being non-binary, I would most likely have to jump through all sorts of hoops.
Anyway maybe I’m just pissy because going to the doctor always reminds me that most people see me as a just a butch woman. Feeling shitty and dysphoric.
I think I know that feeling, but I’m torn. I don’t want to be seen as stronger than women by default, so losing strength is lowkey affirming. But I’ve also always liked being the strongest or one of the strongest in the room and that hasn’t gone away. Not in every way neccessarily, but I’ve always been proud of my legs and I’ve been wanting to get back into lifting to get them strong af again.
I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive, plenty of women at my gym that are femme as fuck and can rep 1.5-2x my maxes (
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Idk your maxes but I do want to deadlift 200kg+ again.
All this to say that I don’t think the estrogen is an inhibitor to strength development per se (flip side of that being that strength is a masculine trait which I reject, but seems to be societally ingrained), although it would affect body composition, the neural pathways are much more important. Like if you look at the powerlifting record holders for women many are very femme. There’s a Canadian 12 year old girl that just c+j 110 at a bodyweight of 60 lol
That’s amazing! Almost double body weight is insane for a c+j if I remember what my former strength coach said, and he was talking to college athletes! Not a 12 year old!
And yeah, more women are lifting heavy and I love it, we’re taking back our spot in the weight room which is great, but also the myth of male superiority in athletics is getting closer and closer to being busted. T does give a natural advantage but there also so many other natural and unnatural advantages to be had and taken advantage of. I’ve always been of the opinion that people should just play sports with those they enjoy playing with, whether because they’re all similar in ability, or of completely different abilities but just enjoy playing together and appreciating each others strengths and efforts. Maybe I’m biased because when I used to do a lot of sports, my favorite experiences were always when it was mixed instead of segregated by gender. When I was biking, and my club would just do mixed rides and we’d pick which group we’d be in based on target average speed: unlimited, 30km/h, 25km/h, and <20km/h (no drop, aka the average speed of the group is the speed the slowest rider wants to do) and it was a really wonderful experience. And among the top 5 fastest riders in the club I think 2 or 3 were women.
I’ve seen ladies repping 150 on squats, my max is closer to 100
Some people find that emasculating I think it’s sexy as hell
Repping 150 is already amazing! Hell repping 100 would be amazing! I have a lofty goal but that’s also cause I’m really tall with a sturdy build, so a healthy and happy body weight for me is anywhere between 100kg and 120kg.
It’s just badass. It’s only emasculating if being stronger than women is part of your identity, which I understand is what is pushed by society a lot on boys starting when they’re young but it’s still cringe. Be careful about who you engage with online about it being sexy though, there’s a lot of people who are only interested in strong women as far as they can fetishize us, they’re not true allies.
Love me some thunder thighs. Always been a bit proud of mine, too.
The jiggle makes me feel gender.