Tal Lavin's Avatar

Tal Lavin

@swordsjew

journalist, author, reads too much. haggard and unblest. trans guy, he/him. newsletter: buttondown.email/theswordandthesandwich book!! https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/talia-lavin/wild-faith/9780306829192/ contact: talialavinwrites@gmail.com

167,362
Followers
4,014
Following
19,284
Posts
28.04.2023
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by Tal Lavin @swordsjew

John le Carré: “my man, your whip is rather clapped-out”

Me: “really don’t you say that a lot, though?”

05.03.2026 03:29 👍 29 🔁 4 💬 2 📌 0

Most people also won’t finish your 500-word article. So write at whatever length is appropriate for the subject.

06.03.2026 21:27 👍 576 🔁 70 💬 19 📌 6

alamaraine!

06.03.2026 11:40 👍 17 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

AND INTRODUCING

JOHN HURT

AS

THE WAR QUEER

06.03.2026 08:52 👍 468 🔁 108 💬 15 📌 1

yesssssss

06.03.2026 05:27 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

im just happy i did it at all given the inertia i was feeling!

06.03.2026 05:23 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

*emphatic nod*

06.03.2026 05:21 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

god yes i cant wait to toss these bad orbs away

06.03.2026 05:21 👍 15 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

i mean i also had that haha

06.03.2026 05:20 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
a trans guy lifts dumbbells

a trans guy lifts dumbbells

lets not forget weights katie

06.03.2026 05:20 👍 43 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

sometimes it do be like that

06.03.2026 05:05 👍 9 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

i saw someone ask this for trans women so ... trans men/transmascs only: what's the moment you broke your egg? what's the moment you realized that actually all these thoughts/feelings/desires meant... you were trans?

06.03.2026 04:55 👍 115 🔁 14 💬 22 📌 3

im waiting for a year+ on T to do the classic before/after pic but like, im There in my own eyes in pictures now

so if youre waiting for it to be the right time and there's any possibility of you doing this safely.... YOLO and the absence of dysphoria is a different way of being

06.03.2026 04:52 👍 157 🔁 2 💬 3 📌 0

im also writing for anyone who might be scared and dreaming! it Is worth it

06.03.2026 04:43 👍 10 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Hieroglyphics with translation texts below them that reads

I made my body evolve through my own effectiveness.

I am the one who made me. I built myself as I wished, according to my heart.

Hieroglyphics with translation texts below them that reads I made my body evolve through my own effectiveness. I am the one who made me. I built myself as I wished, according to my heart.

Just reminded myself how hard the ending of Coffin Text Spell 714 goes

07.03.2025 10:06 👍 6300 🔁 2364 💬 43 📌 98

of course then you have to face up to all the problems that piled up while you existed at a remove from yourself & the world but like. im alive in a way i just wasnt a year ago

06.03.2026 04:30 👍 215 🔁 0 💬 7 📌 0
The Gender Dysphoria Bible • English (EN) -
• A sense of detachment or estrangement from your own thoughts, feelings, or body: "I know I have feelings but I don't feel them"
• Feeling split into two parts, with one going through the motions of participating in the world and one observing quietly: "There is this body that walks around and somebody else just watches
• Feeling as if you have an "unreal" or absent self: "| have no self"
• Experiencing the world as distant, dreamlike, foggy, lifeless, colorless, artificial, like a picture with no depth, or less than real
• Being absorbed in yourself and experiencing a compulsive self-scrutiny or extreme rumination
• Having an ongoing and coherent dialog with yourself
• Feeling like a veil or glass wall separates you from the world
• Emotional or physical numbness, such as a feeling of having a head filled with cotton
• Lacking a sense of agency - feeling flat, robotic, dead, or like a "zombie"
• Inability to imagine things
• Being able to think clearly, but feeling as if some essential quality is lacking from your thoughts or experience of the world
• A sense of disconnectedness from life, impeding you from creative and open involvement with the world

The Gender Dysphoria Bible • English (EN) - • A sense of detachment or estrangement from your own thoughts, feelings, or body: "I know I have feelings but I don't feel them" • Feeling split into two parts, with one going through the motions of participating in the world and one observing quietly: "There is this body that walks around and somebody else just watches • Feeling as if you have an "unreal" or absent self: "| have no self" • Experiencing the world as distant, dreamlike, foggy, lifeless, colorless, artificial, like a picture with no depth, or less than real • Being absorbed in yourself and experiencing a compulsive self-scrutiny or extreme rumination • Having an ongoing and coherent dialog with yourself • Feeling like a veil or glass wall separates you from the world • Emotional or physical numbness, such as a feeling of having a head filled with cotton • Lacking a sense of agency - feeling flat, robotic, dead, or like a "zombie" • Inability to imagine things • Being able to think clearly, but feeling as if some essential quality is lacking from your thoughts or experience of the world • A sense of disconnectedness from life, impeding you from creative and open involvement with the world

i checked out the gender dysphoria bible at genderdysphoria.fyi and was like

wait i thought these feelings were just. being a person? maybe being a writer?

turns out a lot of it uhhh goes away

06.03.2026 04:29 👍 114 🔁 9 💬 2 📌 1

my ass & boypussy in agony after 30min

06.03.2026 04:27 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

ill tell you what helps with this tho, since starting transitioning ive actually started living in and inhabiting my body, caring how it looks, if it lives (and if i do). i want to shape it and feed it and water it well and no longer feel like a brain in a shitty jar i hate. being transmasc rocks

06.03.2026 04:27 👍 882 🔁 39 💬 16 📌 2

i just feel existentially tired

06.03.2026 04:12 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

ugh sorry alt text: tiny spinbike with visible pants clad thigh shows 22 min of exercising

06.03.2026 04:12 👍 40 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
Post image

this bitch dont lie. (my aim rn is cardio 3x a week, 20 to 45 min on bike depending on what im up for, weights the other two days, weights & cardio if i feel incredible, which is rare)

06.03.2026 04:11 👍 102 🔁 0 💬 4 📌 0

sometimes its so HARD jerry

06.03.2026 04:09 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

sometimes forcing yourself to do 20 minutes of cardio feels like lifting a pyramid of giza (other times its totally fine). anyway i did it i did 20 odd minutes on my tiny spinbike pls clap

06.03.2026 04:09 👍 513 🔁 0 💬 27 📌 1
Post image

And that’s just his immediate family.

06.03.2026 02:36 👍 1774 🔁 240 💬 36 📌 7

the new york times just absolutely stole scrabble?

06.03.2026 02:12 👍 89 🔁 0 💬 11 📌 1
05.03.2026 21:35 👍 2073 🔁 478 💬 33 📌 14

It implies that we are visitors in someone else’s country.

05.03.2026 23:24 👍 3375 🔁 679 💬 144 📌 12

markwayne

05.03.2026 23:32 👍 197 🔁 2 💬 35 📌 6