"Right- of course, please allow me to try and do a better job of explaining this time around, wot?"
Ossie clears his throat, placing his hands neatly in his lap.
"Earth, generally, broadly, has... some hangups about men and women, shall we say. There's some rather narrow views of what a man or a woman... is. How one acts, how one dresses. Now- an awful lot of people don't especially adhere to those narrow categories very well, and there's a robust culture of saying 'er, beg pardon, but I've brought my own from home and I shouldn't like to partake in yours'. Some people do this by pointing out how silly the whole institution is, but others... well, they listen to their hearts and their desires, and they act how they want to. In whatever way makes them happy. Some of us, that means living as a gender that's different to the one they were born as. Others pick and choose what parts they'd like to keep and toss out the rest, or pick up some parts that please them. This could be wearing dresses, for instance, or make-up, or... well, to be frank, fashion is the easiest part of it for me to understand, I never felt I'd really grasped the rest of the issue, wot? My eyes sort of glazed over whenever people back home explained the rest of it."
He moves his hands to lace loosely on his chest.
"I myself have often felt more like... do you have flowers that imitate insects in your world? We've a species of orchid that resembles a bee back home. I often feel that way about myself and other men. Love them, adore them, I drink in their masculinity, but I only barely resemble them myself."
no subject
Ossie clears his throat, placing his hands neatly in his lap.
"Earth, generally, broadly, has... some hangups about men and women, shall we say. There's some rather narrow views of what a man or a woman... is. How one acts, how one dresses. Now- an awful lot of people don't especially adhere to those narrow categories very well, and there's a robust culture of saying 'er, beg pardon, but I've brought my own from home and I shouldn't like to partake in yours'. Some people do this by pointing out how silly the whole institution is, but others... well, they listen to their hearts and their desires, and they act how they want to. In whatever way makes them happy. Some of us, that means living as a gender that's different to the one they were born as. Others pick and choose what parts they'd like to keep and toss out the rest, or pick up some parts that please them. This could be wearing dresses, for instance, or make-up, or... well, to be frank, fashion is the easiest part of it for me to understand, I never felt I'd really grasped the rest of the issue, wot? My eyes sort of glazed over whenever people back home explained the rest of it."
He moves his hands to lace loosely on his chest.
"I myself have often felt more like... do you have flowers that imitate insects in your world? We've a species of orchid that resembles a bee back home. I often feel that way about myself and other men. Love them, adore them, I drink in their masculinity, but I only barely resemble them myself."