Ravi Teixeira dreamed of what their new muscle-bound, masculine body would look like once they started testosterone, but it had some surprises in store for them. Can they really be a man when they look like this? Ravi opens up and shares in today’s lovely comic.
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Ravi Teixeira illustrates with a black textured pencil line in a stylized, animated, geometric way with a color palette of pinks, purples, and blues. They are a fat trans-misogyny exempt person and person of color with facial and body hair and glasses.
Page 1
Narration: When I first started my transition ten years ago...
Ravi walks with a doctor's note in their hand and pure bliss on their face.
Captions with arrows pointing at them: 18 year old baby just moved away from home.
Narration: I was so sure of who I wanted to be.
In a daydream, a super chiseled version of Ravi flexes their muscly arms, showing off their top surgery pectoral scars and ripped abs in their heart-covered boxers. They have a sleekly styled beard and mustache with a sweet swoop in their pompadour hair.
"Yeah!" The Ideal Ravi grunts while dancing around to the song "Macho Man" by The Village People.
Narration: But testosterone made some changes I didn't expect...
Page 2
Narration: Now, where I never had them before...
Ravi floats across the length of the page, demurely displaying their full, plump, nude body. Their long curly black hair pillows around their head with their eyes shut and the bottom half of their face covered in short, patchy hair as their legs are. Stretch marks curve down their hips to their thighs.
Narration: I had BOOBS! And an ASS!!! And a TUMMY!
Panels float around Ravi, showing close-ups of each of those features.
Narration: All this SELF I didn't know what to do with. Could this body really be ME?
Clothed Ravi gestures over their shoulder with their thumb at their floating nude form, asking, "And can I really be a MAN if I look like this?
Page 3
Narration: And then I thought...
Standing in the spotlight in the center of a stage, Ravi throws their arms in the air wailing, "AM I EVEN A MAN?!! in the first place?"
Now looking the reader in the eyes, they ask, "What does 'MAN' even mean?", while making the quotation finger marks. Now gesturing to a generic man eating a sandwich in the background, Ravi continues to ask, "Why have I decided which bodies count as MAN?"
Narration: And why am I so concerned with an idea of what a MAN looks like, when I could be interested in what I look like?
Page 4
Looking at peace, they tell the reader, "There was nothing I could do about my new fatness. But there was a WHOLE LOT I could do about my PERCEPTION of it!"
Ravi reaches out their hand to touch the hand of their reflection in the mirror, explaining, "FAT isn't a bad word and it certainly isn't a bad thing to be! It's just a part of me- like my hair or my glasses or my transness! And, like every other piece of me, it doesn't make me any less ME- It's GOOD!"
Page 5
"And it helped me realize that being trans is a good thing, too!" Ravi continues. "I am ME!! Not some hypothetical idea of what a man should be! Passing as your average man was never the end goal of my transition."
Joining hands with a row of other people, Ravi exclaims, "I'm not average! I'm REAL!! and AMAZING!! And I have within me the joy and privilege of creation that comes with being trans!! and ALL I have to be is MYSELF!"
Transcribed by Erika Moen, April 3, 2026
