Ah, that sounds like a weird translation then. Looking at the manga (I think the line in the anime was similar), Makoto says:

僕は僕のままで生きたい
男の子だけど女の子みたいなものが好きで

That is, “I want to live as me. I’m a boy but I like girly things.”

OTOH, as you say the reaction to being perceived as a girl (and trying to pass as one at school) is pretty telling. But egg prime directive, and all that.

Sorry, maybe it was a bit too obscure! It’s a meme about feminizing voice training.

First panel is Frieren; she has a fairly deep voice (for anime at least) but obviously feminine. Should be achievable, and I’d be really happy if I could sound anywhere close to that (although maybe a bit less breathy).

Second panel is Makoto from Sempai is an Otokonoko - the scene where he’s(*) standing in front of a blackboard after being outed. His voice is quite soft and high, but sounds like a boy (in-universe he can pass) – which is kind of where I’m at most of the time.

I’m talking about the Japanese voice acting, btw. I assume the dubs use similar voices.

(*) There’s apparently some debate over this, but since Makoto rejects wanting to be a girl and explicitly says “I’m a guy”, I’m going to assume femboy rather than trans girl.

Oh, and prosody, vocab, going slower, and being more empathetic. Talking like a girl is hard.

A thought I often come back to is that we all (trans or otherwise) have far more in common with our friends and acquaintances now than our past selves of 10, 20 or more years ago. I’m a very different person now than that bitterly unhappy kid facing down year after year of hell at school. But yeah, I didn’t suddenly become somebody else when my egg cracked.

On the other hand, throwing away everything I thought I knew about myself was absolutely necessary. Maybe I am trans… maybe I do want to wear women’s clothes and makeup… maybe I can wear a dress in public (OK, still working on that one). It kind of feels like (I imagine) winning the lottery: I beat the odds, somehow; I still don’t quite believe it; and my life is about to change massively.

https://www.reallifecomics.com/comic-mobile.php?comic=june-29-2020 (and subsequent pages)

In other news, flagging down a store attendant and asking (in my best girl voice) if they had any stock left was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done.

That’s cool; you do you!

Here you go!

That’s a very good way to put it; I know exactly what you mean. (There should be PSAs on TV for this kind of thing: hey, kids! If you experience this, you’re probably trans!)

I’ve always (until very recently, of course) really hated buying clothes. One of the factors leading up to my egg-crack was my wife (justifiably) nagging me that my clothes were all falling apart and I really needed to get some new ones. She even very kindly offered to order some for me online. But I just… couldn’t. The idea of buying and wearing this stuff wasn’t something I could recognize in myself. And, at last, I realized that there might be something bigger going on.

That’s genius! Just watched a tutorial, and I’m going to destroy some T-shirts!

I wonder if it would look good over a tank top? Still haven’t quite figured out the “layers” thing.

Girls are the best <3

Still haven’t quite figured myself out yet, and I don’t see myself turning away from girls post-transition, but… maybe bi? I kind of get all blushy thinking about it though.

I’ve sharpened mine maybe once or twice using a wetstone? (Should probably do it more often) Stropping usually seems enough to keep it working well. Technique is actually pretty simple: once you figure out how to hold it, it’s just like any other razor (stroke it over the skin, and never sideways). Although by changing the angle you can get really fine control in tight spots.

Hehe, I was forgetting I still have T skin…