Frame 1: “Hello everypony, as Im sure you know I have been helping Snails lately. As such I will be answering the most frequent and sensitive question you all have sent him.”
Frame 2: “There are two spells that change a ponies gender. The first being the traditional swapper”. It takes what you are and makes you what you are not.”
“This change naturally corrects itself between 3 to 72 hours depending on the caster. Starswirls lasted 40 hours.”
Frame 3: “When cast on ponies with gender-dysphoria there are two possible outcomes. The first being the spell recognizing the pony as already not who they are meant to be. And thus fails.”
“This is the most common result.”
Frame 4: “The second being the spell does not recognize their discrepancy and changes them anyway. The problem being the spell does not change the dysphoria. This is almost always traumatic to already confused individuals.”
“This only happens when the caster is inexperienced.”
Frame 5: “The second spell is actually two separate spells. One for each transition. These spells involve a long process of rituals and hormone therapy. The process takes years, and the change is irreversible.”
“Because of this the screening process is rigorous. Snails is also too young to begin hormone therapy.”
Frame 6: “That is of course assuming Snails is even transgender. If I recall he has not decided what he identifies as yet. Dont be so quick to define him just yet.”
“The poor darling is only fourteen after all.”
“I hope this answered all of your gender-bending” questions.”
Did I read that right? TEXAS?
Well, it’s less of a matter of being smarter, and more of just having more than a few lines (okay so I did sorta skirt the village idiot thing the show does).
I like to pretend that snails apparent utter stupidity in the show is more a combination of him being bad with words and not really paying much attention to the current situation.
In Glitterverse he’s still not the sharpest bulb in the crayon box, but he’s still social and functional. As you saw in the spa arc he’s very bad at thinking things through.
Also no need to apologize, I live for discussions and quite honestly have fun with them. I do sometimes play hardball though, so sorry if I played a bit rough.
Don’t worry, you really didn’t seem unreasonable and you’ve got nothing to apologise for.
I may have come across as a bit harsh with that last post. Sorry. I can get kind of emotional about this sort of thing.
I had an unrelated question about glitter though. Why does she seem so much smarter than snails from the show?
Listen krypt, I’ve had all the emotional support in the world, and that has done almost NOTHING to alleviate my feelings of depression and suicide. Having to put off transition is the source of 99% of these feelings, so you don’t know what you’re talking about, at least in cases like mine. All of those potential side effects can be extremely minimized and avoided by taking things slowly, therefore all of these concerns aren’t as large as you make them out to be.
Whether or not HRT is initiated at least partially depends on the urgency of the situation. If being forced to stay as the sex they were born as is worse for their health than hormones would be, than you’d better believe I’d want at least attempt to start on blockers.
The “risk” I’m talking about is the literal rainbow of potential medical conditions that can arise from mucking about with a persons hormone pool. Here’s just a few things throwing hormones in reverse can cause:
Violent mood swings, permanently damaged immune system, weakened or irregularly grown bones (growth spurts are managed via hormones), testicular/ovarian cancer, stunted or accelerated growth, adrenal gland inflammation, depression, hyperactivity, insomnia, diabetes, infertility, hair loss, rapid weight gain or loss. The list goes on but I’ll stop here.
Here’s the clincher, aside from issues with the adrenal glands, cancer (hopefully) and hair loss… ALL of those things are pretty goddamn common among pubescent individuals.
If you have a child who turns out to be transgender, you’re more than welcome to risk their health by throwing their already volatile bucket of chemicals off kilter in the exact opposite way they were already going… but me? I’ll be fine supporting them till their body chemistry is a little less EXPLOSIVE before letting doctors put them through puberty 2.0.
Yes depression, self-loathing, and suicide are hyper-prevalent in the trans population. But it’s not due to them having to wait to transition. It’s due to a lack of emotional support from friends and family (and often abuse from those people).
@Background Pony
I’m done with you.
I don’t even understand what you’re trying to argue any more, and I’m not sure you do either.
I’m going to have to at least partially agree with you. I know I sure knew what I was then. The “risk” that krypt and others have spoken of is often tiny compared to the risk of severe depression, self-loathing, and suicide.
That’s completely retarded. I’m pretty sure you knew what gender you were by age 14. You can ask This is the subtle form of transphobia where we would never second guess a 14 year old who said “I’m a boy.” if they had a penis, but they’re somehow too young to say “I’m a girl” and they need to wait for sex hormones to keep hitting their body before we believe their gender identity.
;_;
Ah, well I guess we learn something every day.
Glitter is 14, and still yet to define himself by a gender. Honestly I still think that’s still a little young to start messing with body chemistry.
The point of this update was to tell everyone “No I’m never doing a gender swap of any kind with Glitter ever. Stop asking. Stop.”
I took the liberty of doing a bit of world building in the process. Fantasy and all that nonsense.
I was 16.
How old were you when you started, if you don’t mind my asking?
I’ve been on hormones a couple months now, and I much better than before. Merely starting with small doses would be mostly safe for someone like glitter, and the “danger” really isn’t there for the most part, especially if your default hormones are out of your system. Starting on anti-androgens would be a very good idea for glitter/snails.
Because Tumblr has taught people that if they throw around enough buzzwords people will eventually be convinced that they’re right.
I’m a little confused here, why are you talking about cisgendered individuals so much? I’m talking about the biological issues that arise from prepubescent and pubescent individuals undergoing hormonal therapy.
Are you kidding? Nearly everyone on HRT says it was worth it or they stop before things get serious. Even cisgender women that take it during menopause are generally happier than they would have been letting their body function naturally.
Even without insurance, you’re not looking at more than $50/month for hormones so “hellatiously expensive” is obviously not the right descriptor of hormone therapy. I’ll admit transition is a life-altering process and cannot be chosen on a whim, but I think the process will naturally sort the boys from the women, so to speak. That’s why
I think the current process of several months of therapy to even get referred for treatment is bullshit. 90% of cisgender people never even consider that they might be transgender. Of that 10%, 90% don’t go any further than “It might be okay, but I’m not bothered enough to really go through with it.”. Of that, 90% either talk to a therapist and figure out they’re going to be okay where they are. Of that, about .1% of cisgender people, 90% take steps to transition, including trying hormones, but realize it’s not for them and revert back to their old selves.
So yes, 1 in 10,000 or so cisgender people might accidentally transition, but they had to have wanted it quite a lot to persevere for the amount of time it takes to see any noticeable change and not reconsider. It would still help way more actually trans* people if it weren’t so repressed.
It’s not a matter of seeing changes and freaking out, hormone therapy is dangerous for pubescent and prepubescent individuals. (Hell, it wreaks havoc on post-pubescent folks too.)
Hormones slowly enact permanent changes in the body over a long period of time. The entire process of BEING A TEENAGER is that very process, and I dunno how many teenagers you’ve talked to, but they’re kinda nutso on the reg.
Introducing NEW hormonal changes designed to DIRECTLY COUNTER the bodies natural progression during this stage can have some pretty catastrophic side effects.
If you don’t believe me on the suckage of hormone therapy, just ask someone who’s post-op or in the process of transition how much the therapy sucked. I’ve spoken with a few people mid-transition, and I’ve got two artist friends with minor hormone imbalances that have caused them a huge spectrum of health issues they need to constantly take medication for. It is NOT fun.
The endocrine system don’t play around, homes. The ‘Gatekeeping’ is very much needed, and gives people more time to come to a more decisive conclusion on their gender identity. Considering transition is a non-reversible treatment, long, and hellatiousely expensive treatment… you gotta be absolutely sure. There ARE people out there who would do it on a whim if they could.
Seriously, does anyone think a cis person would get all the way to taking hormones and seeing changes and not freak out, let alone even consider changing their gender?
It’s really doctors trying to discourage trans* people from transitioning. If you want hormones and understand the medical risks, I say you should be allowed to have them upon request.
@PonyPon
@LV-04
Twilight’s spell has literally nothing to do with it, that was just the gender-spell ask I picked at random from the 40+ I had.
This is basically me saying “Yes gender swap magic is a thing in Glitterverse. No I’m never doing it.”
Yes. yes it was.