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Mutiny of a MistressA clip from a classical painting, cropped to show the cleavage of a with pale white skin. She's wearing an elegant mahogany dress with a low square-cut neckline, a red shawl over her arms, and a pearl necklace with a carnelian pendant. Text reads MUTINY OF A MISTRESS, size kink and historical fiction by Elle Largesse. Original painting is Portrait of Madame Aymon, La belle Zélie by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1806.

Mutiny of a Mistress

Published by mightytinygiant on April 27, 2024

Hello, my lovely readers! I am back from a long and much-needed hiatus with a new story. Perfect for fans of Jane Austen and Bridgerton, this 4000-word erotica is my kinky idea of what a lady in the Regency Era might do with shrinking powers, if she were horny and fed up with the patriarchy. (Honestly, mood.)

Skip to the story content section if you want to jump right in. Mind the content tags!

This is the second in a series of historical erotica set in different time periods. The first was Anne and the King’s Miniaturist, a size kink scene between a Duchess and an artist with a secret, set quite literally against one of the most notorious paintings of King Henry VIII’s reign. I have plans for at least two more stories, so stay tuned.

And because I can’t help myself—dear reader, you know how I get off to essays about kink—here’s some background on why this story took me two years to publish, and thoughts about embracing the transgressive and monstrous fantasies of femmes.

 

When Darkness Lights Your Fire

I wrote this 4000-word story in December of 2022 after reading (and then immediately re-reading) the incredibly sexy queer historical romance A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall. I’d also been watching Bridgerton, featuring more than one plot about women scheming their way through the Regency Era social ladder. I found myself fantasizing about a woman using size kink magic in a role reversal, a moment of dominance in which she would fight for a better situation in a patriarchal world. My story felt dark and sexy and it turned me on, so I had no trouble putting words on the page.

Then, for various (internalized kink-shaming) reasons, I decided I should try to challenge myself to write a gentle version to release alongside it. After all, the book that put me in this mindset was full of sweet, earnest lovemaking. Surely I could do justice to a version of this story that followed a similar tone? I have so many friends who prefer gentle content, it seemed like a lovely option to offer.

I put in a couple months of work trying to figure out how to rework the characters’ motivations and get to some kind of angle that felt sexy. After all, I’m not heartless. I have two loving partners and enjoy sex with feelings all the time. I read plenty of romance novels—well, queer ones, anyway. So, why did I stall out 2000 words into the new draft? Why was I unable to make progress on it for an entire year?

I thought I could get myself interested again by watching all six hours of the 1995 BBC Pride & Prejudice with some lovely size writer friends on a Discord server. We even followed it up with the 2005 version that gave my younger self such a bisexual crisis with that sexy rain-drenched scene. I enjoyed the films and the company and the nerdy literary analysis. But in the back of my mind I kept asking myself why immersing myself in Regency Era romance for eight hours didn’t do the trick. I couldn’t even bring myself to open the document, let alone write a satisfactory gentle sexy scene. Why?

I have some theories. My therapist probably does, too.

And if you’re a fan of my work, you may have read my previous essays on the way nonconsensual fantasies turn me on in fantasy and horrify me in real life, and all the energy I have put into navigating that as consensually as possible. So, yeah. I have theories of why it was hard for me to wave the magic writing wand and produce a softer, safer, and more socially acceptable version of this story.

But honestly? It doesn’t really matter why the gentle fantasy isn’t exciting me. It’s not “lighting my fire,” as my partner pseudo put it so poetically.

The dark version excited me. A lot. It felt really fucking good to write it. It feels good to re-read it.

And after co-facilitating the Size Ladies and WLW socials at the wonderful SizeCon Micro last weekend, I had more than one excellent conversation with other women in this community who have similar struggles. How hard it can be to embrace our fantasies as they are, when we’re aware how much they deviate from socially acceptable scripts of womanhood. How frustrating it is that many men in the community want us to deliver a very specific version of a giantess “empowerment” fantasy on a silver platter that prioritizes their gaze and consumption. How it’s hard, sometimes, to even admit what really turns us on. Even to ourselves. How lonely that can get.

Many of us talked about how much it meant to us to discover other femmes making art and writing stories in the size kink world. Especially the creations that are unabashedly true to our own turn-ons, not just what we think we should want to write or draw.

It’s okay that I’m struggling with this. I’m writing about it here in this introduction for any other femme writer or artist out there who’s not sure if it’s okay to have these fantasies, if it’s okay to struggle with your own identity because of it. Well, it is okay. It’s okay to want something dark in your fantasy that turns you on, lights your goddamned fire. It’s okay to want something else entirely in real life. It’s okay to pleasure yourself to something dark and then cuddle lovingly with your partner.

It’s okay that I’m afraid you’ll think I’m a monster because I get off to something monstrous.

It reminds me of a scene in Ocean Vuong’s devastatingly good book On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. (I do recommend this story, especially as an audiobook, but if you pick it up, mind the extensive content tags.)

“‘You’re not a monster,’ I said. But I lied. What I really wanted to say was that a monster is not such a terrible thing to be. From the Latin root monstrum, a divine messenger of catastrophe, then adapted by the Old French to mean an animal of myriad origins: centaur, griffin, satyr. To be a monster is to be a hybrid signal, a lighthouse: both shelter and warning at once.”

It reminds me of what my therapist taught me about anger, when I discovered how thoroughly angry I was all the time, and how I had been raised to stifle, numb, and ignore that emotion to appear more ladylike. “Anger is often a protection or a protest. Sometimes both. Who or what is your anger protecting? Who or what are you protesting?” I think of that often when I feel overwhelmed by fury and size and feel like a Giantess because of it. Shelter and warning at once.

A page later, Vuong writes, “Possessing a heartbeat is never as simple as the heart’s task of saying yes yes yes to the body.”

What else is a fantasy, but the mind’s way of saying yes to the pleasure of our bodies? Why is that so hard to admit to ourselves and to the world? How many fantasies become buried under the most ladylike word I know—“should”?

It’s never quite as simple to say yes to our bodies, and yes to our hearts at the same time. To trust that there will still be a place for us in our social circles if we are open about the things that turn us on. Sometimes safety comes before coming out. That’s just as true with “small” secrets like specific turn-ons as it is with sharing marginalized identities.

In these times especially, it feels vitally important to look our own darknesses in the eye, to own that we can be many things all at once. To really, truly own it. To understand that any one of us can be both shelter and warning, loving and monstrous, light and dark and all the points in-between.

 

Disclaimer & resources

Beyond the realm of fantasy, I do not condone sex acts without consent. Erotic fantasy play between two individuals in reality in person and online should always include negotiation, fully informed consent, and protections such as content tags, safewords, aftercare, and emergency planning.

If you or anyone you know has experienced sexual harassment, trauma, abuse, or assault, I strongly suggest seeking advice and counseling from trained professionals. These are usually free and confidential. Some organizations that offer free resources are: RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) hotline at 800-656-HOPE; National Sexual Violence Resource Center to search for local help; Trans Lifeline Crisis Hotline by and for the transgender community at 877-565-8860; National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233 or TTY 1−800−787−3224.

 

Artwork

The photo I used in the banner is from Portrait of Madame Aymon, La belle Zélie by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1806.

 

Support the author

Money is tight right now. I have multiple works of fiction in progress, ranging from wholesome to kinky as fuck. I’d like to continue releasing them here for free.

If you enjoy this story and want to see/hear more like it, the best way to do that is to support me financially. The few donations I get usually go right into commissioning art and paying beta readers. (The second best way is to boost the signal on my stories and encourage your friends to support me, too.) Thanks, y’all!

 

Story synopsis

Lillete has taken a lord for a lover, but he won’t consider marrying her and she’s fed up with the limits of her social station. In this darkly kinky role reversal and revenge story, watch her plan unfold to claim the life she always wanted. A story of shrinking and domination, set in Regency Era England.

 

Story content

Tagging is the only way I know for people online to be able to opt in or out of a sexual experience with fully informed consent. I welcome help in tagging—please let me know when I have missed anything important.

Tags for this story include:

Content tags: F/m, shrinking to doll-sized, noncon, coercion, magic potion, teasing, domination, classism, misogyny, role reversal, revenge, punishment, mild fearplay, humiliation, tickling, masturbation, exhibitionism, cunnilingus, fellatio, insertion, entrapment, fucking the patriarchy

 

Read the story

TEXT VERSION: Read the text version of the story behind the cut.

AUDIO VERSION: I might record audio for this story. If I get enough requests, I will move it up on my priority list.

 

Continue readingMutiny of a Mistress
Congrats on September Kinky ScribblesA sketch of a hand holding a pencil drawing abstract shapes. Text reads September #KinkyScribble, A Kinky Scribble is a flash-fiction writing/drawing exercise to help kinky creatives produce content in a short amount of time.

Congrats on September Kinky Scribbles

Published by mightytinygiant on October 1, 2023

Congratulations to all the participants of my September Kinky Scribbles Challenge! I’m so proud of all the writers in our community who gave this event a try. The goal of the event was to help people write and release stories quickly to help build confidence and have fun seeing what we could create.

Together, twelve participants worked for a cumulative 24.5 hours to write 15 different stories, growing our total collective output to a massive 28,487 words!

 

Participants

Please join me in celebrating and supporting these writers by reading their work and sharing it to your friends! If you’re able, please consider following them on social media and sending a tip or subscribing to their Patreons.

In alphabetical order by author:

Don’t see your story listed here? Check that you followed my parameters, like including content tags and posting it someplace public where I could find the hashtag. You can message me on social media or email me if you think I missed it.

Reminder: this is not a contest and I have some hard limits due to past trauma, so I will not be reading all the stories. I will only include links to public stories, and stories that offer content tags. For accessibility and consent, if your stories include themes from the Top 15 Content Tags and you do not tag them, I will not share those until you add tags at the start of the story. I reserve the right to not feature a story for any reason.

 

Some compassion & calibrating expectations

I know there are folks out there who may have wanted to start or finish a story and were not able to, because of life or health or the need to rest, or simply not knowing what or how to write the kind of stories you want to see. I am sending you so much love. There have been so many days when I can’t write, either. This event was harder than I thought it would be, because reasons, and I seriously considered bowing out. Controversial opinion here—it would have been okay if I had.

Sometimes these things move in cycles. Sometimes creativity stays out of reach for a long time, and that’s especially true for writing erotica with that added dimension of sexuality. If you’ve never heard of the Dual Control Model of sexuality (I have a short thread on it here) I’d also suggest there’s a similar model for creativity. Sometimes no matter how much we want to be creative, there’s a lot of stuff weighing down our minds and bodies, and we have to take care of those things—and ourselves—before we’re able to explore and go the speed we’d prefer.

pseudo_size and I were talking yesterday about the differences between writing a novel or long story, and writing something like a Kinky Scribble. She pointed out that a scribble actually raises stakes by demanding you write a scene or whole story in 24 hours. Which is true! Some people might find the time frame raises the stakes in a way that doesn’t work for their brain or current situation.

For me, the deadline helps me overcome my desire for perfection because the ridiculous time frame forces me to give up my desire to make it The Best Story I Can Write. I put up with high stakes in timing so that I can benefit from the low stakes of quality.

On the other hand, writing something with a long (or nonexistent) deadline allows for flexibility that’s super important to folks with mental or physical health issues, people caring for kids or older family members, or those with demanding jobs or other responsibilities. There is tremendous freedom in being able to say “Welp, I wrote four words today, but that’s four words that I didn’t have yesterday. If I have more energy/mental clarity/time/quiet tomorrow, I can try again.” Flexibility like this, low stakes in timing, is something that has been vital for pseudo as they write and edit their erotic novel, Eve’s Boutique. 

I know I relied on it too, for my longer projects like Dare You Not to Grow, which came to 14,000 words in six chapters. I wrote the first draft in March of 2022, gave myself eight months to edit the story and seek a beta read, published the first chapter in November of 2022, then promptly took a mental health hiatus that meant the final chapter didn’t see the light of day until February 2023. That’s eleven months. Nearly a year of flexibility, grace, and self-compassion for a single story, because I cared a lot about it and wanted it to be as high quality as I could make it. In these situations, low stakes in timing made it possible for pseudo and I to put high stakes into quality.

In reality, most creative endeavors are probably going to be a balance of these factors. I don’t want people to think I’m advocating for all stories to always be written this way.

Sometimes you want a NaNoWriMo mad dash to the finish line, just to have words on a page you can edit later. Sometimes you want to take a year or more to craft a story with care, making art you are deeply, enduringly proud of. Sometimes you just want to write a story and take your time, but not too much time, and have a balance of time and quality. Different creative projects require different tools. Use whatever feels best for you and your story!

One of my favorite moments this month was when someone told me that this Kinky Scribble Challenge helped them improve as a writer because they participated. I feel the same way. Thank you all for joining me on this wild ride. I’m so proud of us all! Wonderful work, everyone!

2022 Recap on Creativity & RestElle leaning forward to show off her cleavage with D-cup breasts in black lingerie.

2022 Recap on Creativity & Rest

Published by mightytinygiant on January 1, 2023

(Content tags: this article contains discussion of sex, masturbation, mental health diagnoses, C-PTSD, size dysmorphia and AiWS, dissociation, burnout, panic attacks, grief, and shame, balanced with a variety of positive emotions like gratitude, hope, and determination.)

 

Instructions for Living A Life:

Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

—Mary Oliver

 

Achievements in context

This has been a difficult year for so many. As I see the 2022 retrospectives roll past on the timeline, I feel a mix of pride in myself and my own accomplishments, and a wish that I could put some of it in context for anyone else out there who also feels inadequate. If you feel like you haven’t done enough, or if you’re afraid to take a break because you won’t be productive, this is for you.

This year I wrote more fiction than I ever have in my life, more than 120,000 words. That’s clocking in at 2.4 NaNoWriMos! I published 80,000 words to this blog. I recorded and edited six author-read audio tracks. I also wrote a significant amount of nonfiction, including three free community resources, one of which I presented at SizeCon.

Fiction, poetry, and audio:

Nonfiction:

A horizontal graph showing word counts from 2021 compared to 2022. In 2021, Elle published 21,000 words of fiction compared to 60,000 in 2022. In 2021, she wrote 34,000 words in total and in 2022 she wrote 120,000 total. Please contact her if you'd like a full list of figures to compare.
Such a long bar graph you have, there. Is that a personal best wordcount in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

I’m very proud of this achievement. And a lot of it has only been possible because my life happened to fall apart in a very specific way. There’s some socioeconomic privilege at work here, and other factors I won’t share for privacy reasons.

My life was in upheaval this year. I experienced two traumatic losses, one of which was to due to COVID in spite of vaccines and boosters. When the living situation at our last place became untenable, my polycule moved again for the second year in a row. I burned out completely on my entire nonprofit career, had two full breakdowns, and took five hiatuses from Twitter/writing that amounted to at least six months of “unproductive” rest and healing.

Continue reading2022 Recap on Creativity & Rest
Size Erotica: If You Could Be a Sex ToyA person in a black leather miniskirt holds a purple dildo. Text reads If You Could Be A Sex Toy, a size kink transformation fantasy by Elle Largesse. Credit to Dainis Graveris.

Size Erotica: If You Could Be a Sex Toy

Published by mightytinygiant on October 2, 2022

I’m celebrating the start of spooky season by releasing a size kink transformation fantasy! Skip to the story content section if you want to jump right in.

I’m a witch all year round, but I like leaning into it during this time of year. Witches in kinky erotica combine some of my favorite tropes: power exchange, feminine domination, and changes like growth or shrinking without need for explanation. It also opens the door to darker elements, depending on my mood.

I wrote this while on hiatus, intending to release it without edits as a kinky scribble. I kept coming back to it, though, as one of the few things that turned me on during my month-long break. At 5560 words, with three rounds of edits, and five separate orgasms, I have to admit this thing is no longer a scribble. It’s a happy, sexy mess, and it’s time for me to let it go.

I suspect I’ve been hanging onto it out of a vague sense of embarrassment. This “living dildo” kink is one of my classic go-to erotic fantasies, but I don’t see it represented often. I almost used it for Cocktober back in 2019, but was too shy and ended up writing Trick, Treat instead. This kink also tied to one of my early mistakes in the size kink community, so there’s part of me that wants to tuck it in a drawer and pretend I never get off to this, never wrote 5,000 words about how hot I find it, and definitely never made questionable choices because of it. But, as I wrote in the Twitter thread linked above, “BDSM is a skillset, a culture, a language. We need space for people to learn safely AND a place for people to make mistakes to learn.” Hiding this kink because I made a mistake that mortified me doesn’t help anyone. Sharing a whole story instead is one way for me to fight shame and give myself the same grace and acceptance I know we all deserve.

Anyway, I don’t know how much of my size kink audience will be here for a transformation scene like this, but sometimes writing kinky stories is just about having a fantasy that turns you on and leaning into it, just because it feels good. This is what felt good to me. If it’s the kind of thing that feels good to you, too, then I hope you enjoy it!

(If not, well, stick around. I have some more mainstream stories coming soon!)

Oh, and one more note. The “prose poetry orgasms” at the end were a total experiment. Sometimes when I spend a lot of time with mind control kinks, I start thinking more in kinky poetry and less in prose. If it helps, know that I wrote most of that part one-handed~

 

Support the author

Money is tight right now. I have multiple works of fiction in progress, ranging from wholesome to kinky as fuck. I’d like to continue releasing them here for free.

If you enjoy this story and want to see/hear more like it, the best way to do that is to support me financially. The few donations I get usually go right into commissioning art and paying beta readers. (The second best way is to boost the signal on my stories and encourage your friends to support me, too.) Thanks, y’all!

 

Story synopsis

Kim convinces her friends to join her at a sex toy party hosted by the richest woman in town, hoping they’ll forget their troubles for one magical night. But as they all find out the hard way, the real magic is the sex toys they become along the way.

 

Story content

Tagging is the only way I know for people online to be able to opt in or out of a sexual experience with fully informed consent. I welcome help in tagging—please let me know when I have missed anything important.

Tags for this story include:

Content tags: F/f, shrinking, growing, noncon, mind control, mild bimbofication, mention of spanking, objectification, transformation, genital transformation, lady with a cock, growth of cock and balls, disproportionate growth, living dildo, mild humiliation, helplessness, worship, and prose poetry orgasms

 

Read the story

TEXT VERSION: Read the text version of the story behind the cut.

AUDIO VERSION: I do not currently have plans to record audio for this story. If I get enough requests, however, I will reconsider.

Continue readingSize Erotica: If You Could Be a Sex Toy
Hiatus How To: When, how & why to take a break from NSFW TwitterA close-up photo of a dandelion with most of its seeds missing, and a tiny person sitting on top in a tired posture. These are silhouetted in front of a pink sunset or sunrise.

Hiatus How To: When, how & why to take a break from NSFW Twitter

Published by mightytinygiant on September 18, 2022

(CW for discussion of mental health, depression, addiction, abuse, trauma, and anxiety.)

Topics in this article

 

To go on hiatus is to take a break, or to pause something that has been ongoing.

The first time I went on hiatus in an online kink community, I had a full-on hot mess breakdown. I didn’t know what “hiatus” even meant. I was terrified it would be forever, and I didn’t even know how to reassure myself, let alone the people around me. It was 2016 and I was still new to size kink as a shared experience instead of a shameful secret. I’ve come a long way. I’ve made mistakes and learned a lot. That seems worth sharing.

What this won’t be:

This won’t be an official guide. It won’t be an argument for or against leaving a community temporarily or forever, because only you can know what you need. I won’t talk about what it’s like to go on hiatus when you depend on NSFW Twitter to make money from art, writing, or sex work, because I don’t have personal experience with that yet. (If anyone does, and wants to share some advice, I’ll gladly consider quoting you!)

I also won’t pretend to understand you, your situation, or how you feel about your body or mental health. Some of my advice will be a good fit for you, and some of it you can leave. I’m not a mental health professional, and strongly recommend you consider talking with a counselor or therapist if you even halfway think you might want to try that. (Jump to the end for a list of kink-friendly therapy databases where you can look for sliding-scale and low-cost options.)

What this will be:

Hopefully, this will be a useful collection of my thoughts on my own hiatus process that I’ve developed after years of trial and error and watching friends go through the same. Some come back to the community and some don’t. Some hiatuses are scary. Some are a huge relief.

I’m writing this to you, and to the person I was during my first panicked hiatus. And to the less-than-supportive friend I have been to others going on hiatus. I’ll draw from examples in the size kink / #SizeTwitter community, but I think much of this will be relevant to NSFW Twitter or other online kink spaces in general.

I’m writing to share some questions that you might not have considered, and to point you towards some resources, and to just show that it’s okay to need a break—even from something you love.

Continue readingHiatus How To: When, how & why to take a break from NSFW Twitter
Embracing My Inner Size SlutA blurry photo of a woman licking a lollipop in a sexual way, with a jacket sliding off her shoulder. She has long pink hair.

Embracing My Inner Size Slut

Published by mightytinygiant on July 9, 2022

I wrote this while releasing my story “Woman, in Ecstasy,” and it was so fascinating to explore that I realized it needed its own space to grow. Updated in January 2023 with more research.

(This blog post contains discussion of agency, bodily autonomy; nonconsensual themes in size play, hypnosis, mind control and bimbofication; discussion of research on sexual fantasies around forced sex; mentions of trauma and resources for survivors of sexual assault.)

Why am I writing a story about a woman losing her agency? Why am I releasing it right now, as American women are grieving the overturn of Roe v. Wade?

The short answer is that I began writing this back in April, and it’s done, and I want to share it.

The long answer? My body responds to fantasies about giving up control, especially when I’m stressed. I’m far from alone in this. Many people have fantasies about someone forcing them to do the sexy things they find most arousing. My first kink-informed therapist told me that she believed “it’s a way to give ourselves permission to explore pleasures that society tells us are taboo.”

Continue readingEmbracing My Inner Size Slut
Sexual Brakes, Trauma, & Kink in the Burning 20’sTwo hands in red and blue light forming a fist together.

Sexual Brakes, Trauma, & Kink in the Burning 20’s

Published by mightytinygiant on July 12, 2020

 

Tl;Dr: It’s okay if your brain and body want sex when you are stressed. It’s okay if they want it less. Both are normal—even during a pandemic and an uprising. There’s science to prove it. Research also shows that big feelings (like fear of getting sick, or anger at injustice) can be processed and released before they do lasting harm to you or your life. I share excerpts from Emily Nagoski’s book Come As You Are and two others to show how we might be able to use kink to do the same thing. 

This article is around 11200 words. If you’re not interested in the neuroscience of sexual brakes and accelerators or why we don’t have sex drives, you can skip to “How to stop stopping: taking your foot (and everything else) off the brake” to learn about using emotions to release stress. If you’re very low on energy and just want help, jump to “Completing the cycle while (ahem) laying in bed” for my recipe on how to use size kink to achieve that catharsis.

(Content tags: This article contains mentions of the pandemic, police brutality, racism, violence, murder, assault, AIDS, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and trauma responses. It also covers topics ranging from BDSM and impact play, to polyamory, to microphilia/macrophilia, and covers size dysmorphia and kink-related fantasies. I welcome help in tagging—please let me know when I have missed anything important.)

Sections in this article

Introduction

I didn’t expect that it would take a pandemic and a racial justice uprising for me to finally sit down and write a review about a phenomenal book on sex research for my kink blog. Here’s the reason I hope you’ll read this. People are having huge emotional responses that they don’t have the space or tools to fully process; they are also judging others/feeling ashamed for not wanting sex right now, while others are having the same response to those who do want sex right now. Research shows sex desire can decrease for some and increase for others during times of great stress, and that both are normal and healthy. Sex-positive spaces like #SizeTwitter should make space for both responses, and might already be able to provide tools to help process big emotions.

Continue readingSexual Brakes, Trauma, & Kink in the Burning 20’s

Taking Up Space

Published by mightytinygiant on September 8, 2019
Portrait of Elle Largesse by DTV_art
Portrait of Elle Largesse by the talented DTV_art, https://twitter.com/dtv_art

Last weekend I reached 700 followers as @mightytinygiant on Twitter, and have decided to celebrate by sharing two things that are important to me. After nearly half a year on hiatus to heal from depression, it’s good to be back. I’m grateful for all the support I’ve received and the messages urging me to take care of myself. The writer is worth more than what they write.

The first thing I’m thrilled to share is this gorgeous portrait of me by the talented and friendly DTV_art. I have admired her work for years, since I first laid eyes on her Tumblr treasure trove of lovely queer Giantess girlfriends and sizeshifter boyfriends and so many gorgeous Giant/tiny moments. Trust me, she is so incredibly skilled and talented and awesome and her work is queer-friendly and romantic AF. I am humbled by the way she took my photograph and translated me into my most femme-tastic witchy woman sizeshifter self. As of this writing, she is still open for commissions!

The second celebratory tidbit I’m sharing with you lovely folks today is one of my favorite pieces of writing, first shared on Tumblr, January 12, 2016. I was struggling then with depression and size dysmorphia, just like I have been this year. I have made huge strides this summer with therapy—thank the Gods for sex-positive, kink-positive, polyam-friendly therapy—and for insurance to help me afford it. More people should have access to that kind of healing.

That support has given me the hope I needed to delve into my feelings about my body and my writing. I’ve been revisiting what I love most about what I’ve written. I’ve been working on befriending my body and accepting that the way she feels large or small may actually be healthy for me, even if it’s not a thing people commonly feel. Commissioning a portrait of myself as a new avatar is part of that work, and I’m grateful for DTV working with me to get it right.

It’s okay to feel small. It’s okay to feel large. It’s okay to take up whatever space you need to take up, in this world. I need this reminder now, as much as I ever have. Maybe you do, too.

 

TAKING UP SPACE

(Content tags: growth out of clothes, constriction, mention of choking, nudity, empowerment.)

Sometimes when you grow, you’re scared of ruining your clothes or destroying your favorite pair of shoes. Sometimes you’re just scared of how they constrict you, how a necklace could choke you or a beloved coat could trap you like a straight-jacket. But not always.

Sometimes when you grow, shredding through your layers of fabric and fashion feels better than breaking a chain with your bare hands. You’re no longer made for the world of thrift shop jeans or business casual blouses. You can stop worrying if it looks wrong. It belongs to the person you used to be when you still apologized for taking up space.

Small wonder, then, when you stretch your shoulders just to feel the seams tear. When you breathe deeply so the hooks on your bra unbend themselves, unable to hold the glory of your breasts as they grow in size, weight, and consequence. You roll your hips and savor the shredding sound of that pencil skirt you used to love, which has been too small for far too long. It slips to the ground like a memory, followed quickly by the remains of your panties. The lace surrendered by unknitting itself. It wasn’t up to the task of containing the beauty of your other massive assets.

Tearing through the leather on your high heels seems almost obscene, but deep down you offer it like a sacrifice. Your bare feet fill the ground with presence. The crown of your head lifts above the crowd where you walked alone in your smallness.

You feel your own beauty as you never have before. With awe and gratitude and no regrets. You see the world differently and know yourself fully as you grow in all directions, pushing outward, but especially upward.

You have every right to stand tall no matter your size. Breathe deeply in the body that bears your heart, and never apologize again.

Size Dysmorphia: A Sizeshifter Origin Story

Published by mightytinygiant on December 28, 2018

A small, pale human figure is shown reclining in a red and pink anatomical depiction of a heart. Veins, arteries, and capillaries twine around the tiny person's arms and legs like tree roots. Artwork credit to Shelia Liu.

Heart, by Shelia Liu. [Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution, NonCommercial, NoDerivatives 4.0 License.]

Content warnings: some NSFW artwork and language, discussion of body dysmorphic disorder, gender dysphoria, grief, gun violence, depression, neurodivergence, kink, microphilia, macrophilia, and shame

See my Size Dysmorphia / Size Euphoria page for a shorter introduction to these concepts and updated information after my 2021 diagnosis of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.

 

Introduction: arguments with my body

It won’t surprise you that I’m sitting at a table in a chair with my feet on the ground, while my hands type comfortably on a laptop. You—and most of the people who know and love me—might be intrigued to know that my senses also tell me I can lift my hand and touch the ceiling with no trouble, because it’s dangerously close to brushing my head.

Would you like me to open the front door, fifteen feet away? It’s within easy reach. Or, at least, that’s the argument my body makes.

My senses agree I’m sitting at the table in the usual way, but they also feed me contradictory information about the walls seeming to close in around me, about how there’s no space for my knees and legs between the table and the wall, no way this chair should be able to support my weight, and no way that my fingers could possibly type on a laptop that feels like a toy for a doll.

If I close my eyes, the sensation intensifies and logic takes a backseat to a kinesthetic awareness of overwhelming size. Some days I feel overwhelming smallness instead, as if everything is huge and heavy and beyond my isolated reach.

Luckily for me, if I open my eyes again, I’m able to use the visual information to combat the strange, contradictory physical information. I concentrate on the evidence of my eyes and wage a war against my kinesthetic senses—the same kind of battle I’ve been fighting quietly since childhood.

In some circles, this experience is known as size dysmorphia: a sense that your body’s size feels larger or smaller than you know it to be.

I know that I stand five feet, two inches tall. I know that my body does not change in size. And yet, it’s as if some ancient part of my brain and body refuse to completely accept this data.

Sometimes it happens without warning, like a radio shifting channels and offering music and static from two different stations. Sometimes I go for days without noticing anything unusual, my broadcast uninterrupted on a steady playlist of “five-foot-two” with no interruptions.

When I feel a sizeshift coming on, sometimes I groan inwardly and grit my teeth. Other times, I try to induce the feeling myself, just for the sheer joy and arousal and exhilaration of it. Few sensations are as empowering as a sense that you stand twice as tall as everyone around you.

Until about three years ago, I refused to tell anyone.

I assumed I would take the secret to my grave.

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