absolutely 😵‍💫 I keep replaying the compliment in my head … hanging out in trans spaces really fucks me up afterwards, I feel like it’s one of the only places where my gender is stripped away now (other than the doctor’s office, when I have to choose between honest disclosure and protecting my gender and humanity; I’ve only told my PCP and obviously my endo for HRT access, but otherwise I just tell doctors I was born without a uterus and don’t disclose trans status and they just assume I’m cis and move on).

originally “fish” was a misogynistic slur used by gay men to refer to cis women (to show their disgust for vagina as smelling of fish, etc.), and from that developed the phrase “serving fish” which means someone looks or seems like a cis woman (usually applied to drag queens and trans women in a positive and affirming way - it’s a compliment) … it’s admittedly maybe a more popular / common phrase in drag and gay subcultures

the context was that I didn’t want to be in photos, and as I moved away from the camera, the group started complaining - they thought I was avoiding the camera because I thought I was too ugly / not passing (fair assumption), so the transmasc guy was trying to reassure me by saying I was “serving fish”, and others chimed in that “you’re fish, get in here”, etc. thinking that this would convince me I should be comfortable having my photo taken.