Fashion Suggestions For The Newly Masculine-Presenting Person

So I impulsively decided to break my hiatus for the last time (probably) and write about masculinity.

This is going to be a birthday present to everyone here who is or wants to be masculine and isn't sure how to navigate fashion - yes, even though my and Mod Frey's birthdays are the ones that are close. For all the butches, tomcats, studs, stags, bois, trans men, nonbinary people, GNC women, tomboys, and anyone exploring their gender.

It includes butch, tomcat, and gender nonconforming trans women 100% and does not include TERFs or anyone else who doesn't believe all of the following:

• Trans women are women
• Nonbinary genders are real
• Trans men are men
• AFAB nonbinary woman-aligned people and AMAB nonbinary man-aligned people are still nonbinary, are oppressed under transphobia, and are not cis
• Butch is a lesbian-only term
• Tomcat is a bi/pan woman-only term
• Butches and tomcats are sapphic
• Sapphic trans women and achillean trans men are 5000% sapphic/achillean respectively
• Trans women are females
• Trans men are males
• Men can't be lesbians or sapphic
• Trans women are 5000% more important than all TERFS
• Monosexual, allosexual, alloromantic, and binary privilege aren't real
• Gender nonconforming women are not privileged for being gender nonconforming

Let's begin.

For hot weather:

• Muscle tank tops
• Black tank tops
• Cotton T-shirts from the men's section
• Plain black or gray sandals, especially flip-flops
• Canvas sneakers
• Snapbacks*
• Men's short-sleeve button-up shirts
• Denim cutoffs
• Black and silver jewelry
• Leather or faux-leather bracelets
• Bowties
• For swimming, board shorts and rash guards if you're not legally able to take your shirt off in public or feel dysphoric doing so
• Short hair is always a classic
• Denim vests
• khaki or cargo shorts
• If you wear ties, loosen your tie
• Sports bras if you don't want to bind or don't have a binder. Unless you're an A-cup, this will not make you look completely flat. But it might help with dysphoria.
• DO NOT BIND WITH TAPE OR BANDAGES

For cool and cold weather:

• Beanies*
• Plaid*
• Skinny jeans
• """Boyfriend""" jeans* *looks at straight women and cringes*
• Leather or faux-leather jackets
• Denim jackets
• Hoodies
• Anything Jake Short wears on Lab Rats: Elite Force honestly
• If butch/tomcat is the look you're going for, anything Zendaya wears on KC Undercover honestly (fun fact: Zendaya actually is bi in real life! As is her former co-star, Bella Thorne. The gays own Disney now and it's amazing.)
• Festive ties, if you're into that
• Big sweaters
• Sport coats
• Any of the accessory options from the hot weather list would work
• Canvas or leather backpacks and shoulder bags
• For straight women specifically (all straight women, whether cis, trans, or nonbinary; whether GNC or not): not calling your female friends your girlfriends and not rebranding stereotypically butch lesbian styles such as plaid, beanies, short hair, loose-fitting jeans, and Birkenstocks so they're more accessible to you
• Suspenders
• Bowties*
• Waistcoats
• See the thing about sports bras and binding above
• Here are some fashion tips for androgynous fat people
• While Everyday Feminism is generally an absolutely cringeworthy, lesbophobic website (believing in monosexual and allosexual privilege; believing that butches are privileged over femmes; allowing women to describe themselves as "bisexual/pansexual lesbians" in their photosets; allowing a straight man to publish an entire article calling butches and tomcats predatory and comparing us to straight men; generally having politics that are so uselessly liberal that they do virtually nothing for sapphic women, especially butch lesbians) that uses the Q slur way too much, and that for some godforsaken reason felt the need to publish an article encouraging people to stay friends/lovers with their rapists, they do have some cool photos that could be used as inspiration
• If you're AFAB, search the fashion tags (especially the ones labeled "masculine women" or "FTM" depending on what you're going for) on Tumblr and Pinterest
• If you're AFAB, look up "FTM passing tips"
• If you're a trans woman or AMAB nonbinary: haircuts with side bangs are generally androgynous looking on people with angular faces, so if you have a hard time passing they might help. If you have long hair, leave it down or find some kind of style that allows it to frame your face. Beyond that...I've only ever met two trans women in real life as far as I know, and the only trans woman celebrities I know of are Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, Kat Blaque, and Julia Serano - and out of those seven, three are dead. So I can't help much, sorry.

*Any items marked with an asterisk will make people mistake you for a cis butch lesbian and if you're an afab trans person who doesn't want that (because, while butches are awesome, they're also women and you don't want to look like a woman) be wary of these unless you've been on T long enough that you don't get mistaken for a woman anymore or unless you just naturally look androgynous enough (tall, narrow hips, small chest, angular face, broad shoulders, muscular arms...what I wish I looked like, basically) that you get "sirred" on a regular basis even without T.