While perhaps most famous for her neologism & description of ‘muffing’, FTW is so much more- it’s a mix of 90’s riot grrl aesthetics, detailed anatomy, the historical study of sexuality & gender, romance, practical advice, diagrams, do-it-yourself-cuz-who-else-is-gonna, essays on the nature of love, sex, pleasure and the self, whirled in the blender of Bellwethers quick wit, sharp tongue and eye for beauty.
A bold, beautiful, fuck-you-fuck-me declaration of radical trans woman pleasure shot across the bow of a pre trans-tipping point world, Mira Bellwether’s Fucking Trans Women Zine (2010) is widely referenced, both beloved and controversial, and at 15 years out has still yet to be surpassed.
Mira envisioned FTW as a sort of community cookbook of trans women’s sexual desires & practices- maybe you’ll hate the ambrosia salad, but love the pound cake- and a way to get that conversation started woman to woman, sister to sister, friend to friend.
Today it stands as the seminal work on trans women’s sexuality, for and by trans women, and has been cited in pop media articles, academic works, and most importantly, bedrooms around the world. However, it is not and never was meant to be the final world- to paraphase mira herself, she wanted her peers and those after her to keep searching, keep pushing, and expanding the map to ‘where thar be dragons’