to preface: as much as the title sounds like a critique, it’s not. it’s just a realization i had while thinking about baldur’s gate 3, and it’s good they provided the options they did, for me to have this realization in the first place
i’m a transgender man, and i’ve been on hrt for several years, i haven’t had bottom surgery, and i’m intimately familiar with the effects testosterone has on a vulva. i’ve also been in trans femme circles long enough to know how estrogen affects a penis (if you are unfamiliar, you can read about each at https://genderdysphoria.fyi/en/second-puberty-masc#genital-changes and https://genderdysphoria.fyi/en/second-puberty-fem#genital-changes)
and it’s really weird to realize that most people cannot visualize what i have going on in my pants. a cis woman’s vulva is fundamentally not accurate (which is basically what’s presented as your option). for me, obviously; for some trans masc people, it is accurate
i don’t know how trans femme people feel, but i could see the argument for them going either way. i’d like to hear what you think, if you feel represented by feminine body shapes with a penis selected as your genitals
and also, it would be interesting to see bottom surgery options represented. even if that’s just the same models but with the “is this from surgery” option ticked or something
finally. my concluding thoughts are that i’d really like to see how big a half-orc’s tdick gets (presuming that half-orcs are subject to the same sex hormones humans are and/or that they can substitute their hormones similarly. i mean that’s it’s own can of worms there)
i know i’m not ending off on any kind of a question but i wanted to share my feelings about this with people and hear how this made others feel, as well
it doesn’t touch on transition or related things, afaik, aside from allowing you to freely select both your appearance and your genitals (afaik). so it’s hard to say what it has or doesn’t have available
that said, i feel like… you lose something with “perfect” transition. for example, in a world where you could remove breast tissue without scarring, i might still have a double mastectomy, because my transness is part of who i am. obviously, there are people who would love to have that, and that’s great for them and they’re not less trans for it. but i think there’s a beauty in “imperfect” transition
i feel odd about feeling this way, though. almost certainly, medicine and technology will progress to the point where trans people will be indistinguishable from cis people. and i’m sure, at that point, these ideas will be considered backwards or coping or whatever…
anyways. i guess this is a long winded way to say, pathfinder/2e may have the nicer and more expedient options, but they’re also maybe not as interesting
That’s an interesting perspective, regarding the question of not just “where you are”, but also “how you got there” being something that can factor into what you see as part of your identity.
Closest thing I have is with weight gain and loss. When I get back down to my target weight, I’ll still have stretch marks that’ll show that I at one point was much larger. If I could just “be” my target weight without the physical evidence of the past, I’d opt for that path, so it’s interesting to me to consider that someone might take a different view. :)