Many feminists and anyone else who doesn’t like to depilate have major beef with Nair. It’s understandable, honestly, as it’s been used as a tool of oppression for years in order to pressure women into conforming to completely unrealistic beauty standards. Personally, as a nonbinary transfemme person, nothing brings me greater joy than feeling like a wet seal all over my body, but this isn’t about me. If you have some Nair lying around that you don’t know what to do with, here are some fun uses that will change your life.

1. Salad Dressing

Recently, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when I’ve had tons of time on my hands (for better or usually for worse), I’ve been thinking about how being trans messes up my perception of other people. Usually, the thoughts tend to focus on me and how I compare to other girls. Of course, this has to do a lot with beauty standards that are unrealistic for all girls, cis or trans. Regardless, when the only people you see are glamorous celebrities on Instagram, posing smooth and toned in luminous, glimmery spaces, you lose touch with what the average person looks like.

…

“Givers need to learn their limits, because takers have none.”

Usually these kinds of middle-aged Facebook mom-type posts on social media don’t provoke anything in me except an eye roll or reflexive scoff to myself when my mom sends them to me, as if I needed to laugh for her sake when she’s miles away.

This time though, I saw it on my Instagram feed, and it literally hit me like a ton of bricks. I’ve done my fair share of taking, but the majority of my life I’ve minimized myself for the sake of others, serving as their doormat…

I almost feel guilty writing this since I’m actually extremely lucky to be in the situation I’m in. My family (or at least everyone in it who matters) respects my pronouns and my medical/social transition. I’m not berated or discouraged when I wear or do things outside of what they’d expect of someone of my assigned gender. Like everyone else, though, they have their… moments. Usually, it’s just a pronoun slip-up, but sometimes it’s worse. For example, my mom was telling a story and used my old pronouns because “that’s what [I was] at the time.” …

I know that the answer is going to be “yes,” but if you’re trans and reading this, have you ever just looked back on your life and been like, “Ohhhh that thing I did makes way more sense now knowing that I’m trans.” For some of us, I know that the memories that made the most impact gender-wise can be traumatic and therefore closed off to the brain.

However, there are so many mundane events that made me think, “Why didn’t I realize this earlier??” I’ve seen plenty of people talk about this, but the consequences of it are much…

While scrolling on Twitter and TikTok, the number of comments I’ve seen that are hyping up trans people makes me incredibly happy. However, for all the lovely, overenthusiastic allies, there tends to be a trend of over-validation of trans people’s identities. That, or the infantilization of trans people under the guise of being positive and supportive. While this is way better than seeing hordes and scores of comments with a bunch of openly transphobic garbage, these types of comments can feel anywhere from awkward to alienating.

What is Over-validation?

What does this mean, anyway? Over-validation in these cases is the unnecessary inclusion of…

Dear Beard,

We’ve been through quite a lot together, haven’t we? And by that, I mean you put me through a lot, haven’t you? Quite the relentless bully you are, sticking to me and imposing your power onto me. I was lucky, too, and I didn’t even know it. You didn’t start coming around until I was about 20. I almost thought you’d never show up, and as a high school student that crushed me. Little did I know, me wanting leg hair and other body hair was just a coping mechanism, and I really wanted nothing more than to…