this is why men who take care of their appearance in unique ways are often labeled things such as “effeminate” or “sensitive”, especially if they defy gender norms.

this discourse has really got me evaluating my relationship with the label transsexual. starting to really lean on it rn

but this sort of excludes the pre-transition transgender experience, imho.

i was transgender *before* i started HRT as well, despite passing as my AGAB, and including the period of time post-HRT where i still passed as my AGAB.

my nit with this is exactly the power structure in *who or what decides when someone is defying gender norms enough*?

i’d certainly welcome more people in the umbrella than creating invisible structures of power.

that isn’t to say i don’t agree with you.

(i also reserve the right to revoke this opinion upon further thought, inb4 someone tries to crucify me for this)

i’m less inclined to agree that being trans requires some well-defined (esp medical) experience of gender dysphoria, but rather prefer the idea that being trans requires transgressing cissexual privilege.

but just rudimentary thoughts, idk if this makes sense.

one of my fave comfort films.

the scene with the dentist over jimi hendrix is legendary.

i even posted ass and no one cared about this thread. so if you read this far, have some ass

thus, their marketing was actually a juxtaposed invitation for the viewer: think differently.

great art evokes more than it provokes.

apple's clever marketing juxtaposed ordinary people to iconic figures, such as Ghandi, MLK, or Muhammed Ali.

however, they did so exceptionally discretely -- they juxtaposed the viewer to these iconic figures. this masterfully evoked the feeling that the viewer could be iconic.

as such, if you have a complicated idea to express to people, consider how juxtaposition might be helpful to express it.

consider Apple's famous Think Differently campaign:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sMB...

in art, juxtaposition offers a tool to show us the complexity in feelings or ideas between extremes.

in DBT, the offer is the same: finding balance in between complex, strong emotions; often between emotion and reason.

juxtaposition is such an innate human experience that there's an entire highly successful type of therapy based on it called Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) which helps the user balance opposite truths, or dialectics.

for the viewer, it's both an invitation and a rejection to participate with the subject.

how much do we really know one another? even in intimate moments, we can't really fully know what the other is thinking.

hence juxtaposition to evoke the dialectic of intimacy and isolation

the viewer, being in a separate, darker room, is separated from the subject in a well lit room.

the doorway literally acts as both a bridge and a barrier between the viewer and the subject. the subject is seemingly entirely within reach, yet the viewer is left to only observe.

thus why juxtaposition is such a powerful tool.

to demonstrate this further, i'll show off one of my favorite photographs i've taken:

the best art evokes more than it provokes.

by provoking the dialectic of isolation and intimacy, Magritte cleverly evokes the viewer to think deeply about their own experiences with isolation and intimacy.

this piece generates more complex feelings than it directly says.

juxtaposition is such a clever medium for this.

Magritte takes two highly relatable concepts - intimacy and isolation - and conveys them in such a powerful manner that any viewer can relate to it.