[TW for discussion of forced sterilization and racism]
So someone on Feministing (I think) finally made the connection that trans* rights and reproductive rights/abortion are both fundamentally about bodily integrity and autonomy and therefore have many intersections, and proponents of both should be working together (something I’ve been saying since day one, along with many other trans* people before me).
Well radical feminists aren’t having it. Apparently the fact eludes them that forced sterilization and forced birth are two sides of the same antichoice coin. Which brings me to my main point. This so-called “conflict of interest” has happened before (maybe more than once?). During the second wave the interests and reproductive rights of wealthy, white feminists and WoC were going in opposite directions. White women were demanding access to abortion and to voluntary sterilization without restrictions from paternalistic doctors and simultaneously WoC were struggling to: be allowed to have children, not be demonized for having children, not be forcibly sterilized (often without their knowledge or consent), and not be tested on for development of contraception or other medications. Guess who was prioritized. Exactly. There’s a history here and a lot of tension and mistrust (rightfully) still remains because rich, white women made “reproductive rights” synonymous with what they needed access to and completely avoided the fact that the right to have children is as much of a reproductive rights issue as the right to abort/not have children.
My point is we know these radical feminists hate intersectionality because they think sex-based oppression is the only thing that matters (this is racist all on its own) and we know they hate trans* people. The fact that they don’t see how important forced sterilization is now anymore than they did back then has some serious implications considering the intersection of race and trans* status. Forced sterilization affects us all but TWoC are disproportionately the victims of violence and often have an even more precarious and tenuous relationship to the medical establishment, opening them up to all kinds of violations, particularly in regards to reproductive rights. That once again forced sterilization isn’t a priority for radical feminists and reproductive rights activists is further proof of their racism and the fact that White Feminism™ is alive and well, in case you doubted it for a split second.
tbh the people i’ve met who really empathize with villains are people who have been villainized in their own lives and unjustly made to feel like they’re bad people by those around them. They doubt themselves and instinctively want to support disliked and obviously flawed characters, characters doomed to fail, and attempt to find the good in those characters that no one in their own lives see in them.
real evil people don’t relate to villains, they see themselves as the hero. :\
There’s also some interesting studies about how villains are portrayed as gender nonconforming (read: bad) - feminized men and powerful women. It’s meant to code the character as off-putting because they don’t fit the social code, but being queer, you might just see an ally.
not only that (adding onto the previous point, not disputing or derailing bc it’s absolutely true), but a lot of villains are also:
1) mentally ill / neuroatypical and for ages have been almost the only kind of characters you could look to for that even if nearly all of them are portrayed violently or inevitably become victims of their own minds,
2) abuse/assault survivors, usually as children
3) disenfranchised by other means which drives them to their villainy (living in or have previously lived in poverty, exploited by employers/had their work stolen, experimented on, etc.) which parallels in a way how poverty/racism/institutionalized violence can lead to crime for survival. villains have their initial anger invalidated and further villainized by story narratives, so seeing them fight back against it and come back again and again to keep fighting tbh can be satisying!
cis women are like id rather die than do the slightest thing to include transmascs and nonbinary people in my activism
you’ll tell a cis woman that there are non women who need menstrual products or uterovaginal care and they act like you personally invented misogyny
Trans man: Hey, I need help here. If I leave my gender as F I can’t get testosterone, and if I change it to M I can’t get a gynecology appointment or abortion.
Cis women: How dare you! Traitor! Misogynist! This is why I can’t break the glass ceiling! Invader! (points at trans woman)
Trans woman, looking up from trying to schedule a prostate exam: Huh?
aside from being cissexist the whole XX = female and XY = male thing is Straight-Up Wrong
AFAB people can have XO,XXX,XXXXandXY chromosomes while AMAB people have have XXYY,XYY, and XX chromosomes and since the majority of the population never has their karyotype examined, they’ll never know that they have one of these chromosomal quirks unless that specific combination has associated symptoms, and not all of them do. you could literally have one of the aforementioned combinations without even knowing it and meanwhile you’re insisting that all AFAB people are XX and that anyone else who has this must also be female
we could also talk about how hormonal patterns for XX persons can naturally and biologically mirror that of a typical XY person, or vis versa, which gives rise to things like androgen insensitivity disorder. here u have it, folks, an whole group of intersex people who have XY chromosomes and testicles and vulva and vagina, all grown naturally, all at the same time.
the number of people who are intersex mirror the number of people who are born with red hair, but no one goes around trying to say that red isn’t a natural hair colour just because the phenotype doesn’t manifest in the majority of the population.
seriously consider the bold if you are aggressively upholding the ridiculously flawed theory that is the sex and gender binary.
Big genetics nerd here, with a biology degree for whatever that’s worth. I’ve been saying this for well over a decade (i.e. it’s not a “tumblr thing” lol). The whole “XX = woman, woman = XX” thing, ditto for XY and men, works okay as a rough guideline but it’s simply not a universal “rule”.Sotelling trans people “you’ll always ‘really’ be [assigned gender], because chromosomes” is scientifically ignorant nonsense for three reasons:
Sex differentiation in humans isn’t really controlled by chromosomes. In species where it is, things like bilateral gynandromorphism can occur. That’s not possible in humans, though, because our development is controlled by hormones. Our chromosomes play only a very small role.
Because people don’t know other people’s karyotypes (or even their own, most of the time), they’re just pre-selecting the conclusion they want, then “proving” it with “evidence” they don’t actually have.
Because other conditions can also produce XX men and XY women, the idea that a trans person’s karyotype determines what they “really” are is a blatant double-standard. One which exists solely to “prove” the pre-determined conclusion that cis people’s genders are valid, and trans peoples’ aren’t.
Consequently, there are only two scientifically informed, logically consistent options:
Accept that nature is more complex than one learned in 5th-grade science class, and chromosomes can’t tell someone’s “real” gender. DNA is a truly wondrous molecule, not some Magical Essence of Gender.
OR, double down and demand to see everyone’s karyotype. Refuse to respect anyone’s gender if the results aren’t what one expected. Insist that all cis people with “mismatched” karyotypes must transition against their will, and be transphobic toward them until they do.
In other words, transphobes claim to be authorities on X and Y chromosomes, yet have no clue what they’re talking about.
Cisnormative society has a bizarre obsession with finding the One True Indicator of Biological Sex. Chromosomes are just the latest answer. In the past it’s been ovarian/testicular tissue, or penis/clitoris size. What will it be fifty years from now? But whichever One True Indicator is the current fad, there’s always at least one intersex condition which contradicts it, thus exposing how ridiculous and arbitrary these indicators really are.
Not that transphobes let facts stop them, of course. If someone doesn’t fit either One True Sex, they just don’t count! (I’ve literally heard this.) Cis people with reproductive, endocrine, or urogenital disorders still “count,” of course. An XY man with a small, hypospadic penis? An XX woman born without a uterus? Eh, just a man and a woman with minor quirks. A non-XX woman or non-XY man? They ~don’t count~, because ~disorder~. What an odd coincidence that this magical gender-invalidating power of “disorder” only applies to people who threaten the all-important binary. Circular logic at its finest: the binary is real because anyone who disproves it doesn’t count, and they don’t count because if they did, they’d disprove the binary!
That isn’t science. It’s not nature, or reason. It’s bigotry, plain and simple.
Intersex community is apparently dominated by a view of sex that is extremely close or quasi identical to TERFs/GCs (sex-statism, the belief that you are defined by how your were born and not by your present physical characteristics/how you feel).
& that 1% regret rate is almost entirely “Yes I’m still trans but the surgery was bad, or the transphobia i encounter is so much worse than anticipated, or I was pushed towards a specific treatment by my binary-oriented doctor when I wanted a non-binary transition” etc.
Actual ‘whoops, I don’t identify as trans anymore” cases are closer to 0,02%.
[Image caption for original post: tweet by @EVeracite reading: “I like how in the context of trans affirming care, successful treatment in 99% of cases is treated as dangerous, whereas in all other areas of healthcare a 99% success rate would be treated as an absolute miracle.”
This is quote-reteweeted by @aster_disaster_ with the following addition: “Having a child has a 7% regret rate. A knee replacement has anywhere between 6-30% regret. Across all types of surgery, the regret rate is 14%. Transition and trans related surgeries have a 1% regret rate.” End caption.]
The majority of the people in the trans community (irrespective of assigned sex) are potential targets for the dual framing device of “you’re either an incompetent hysterical woman or a dangerous oppressive man, depending on what’s most politically convenient for me.”
its important to me as a detrans woman to be vocal about it. its important to me as a detrans woman who initially only had radfems to talk to about detransition, because i couldnt find a single trans inclusive detrans person for over a year, to make sure other people know they have options.
radfems arent your aly if you’re questioning your gender. they dont have your best interest at heart. they dont care about helping you explore who you are, theyre only interested in sucking you in to be another transmisogynistic pawn for their violent ideology.
if you’re trans/nonbinary now, but are wondering if it isnt right for you, know that you have options. you can talk to me. there are people who have not done a 180 into bigotry who are here to support you.
please reblog, do not just like, this post.
i dont have a large platform. i want this to get spread. i want to remove terfs from the forefront of detrans/reidentification awareness & support. they cannot continue to be the first contact for questioning people.
i am begging you, yes you personally, to please reblog this, and comment or reply in the tags if you’re a safe, trans-inclusive detransitioned or reidentified person to approach.
Because why shouldn’t people later in life have a scene phase?
This may seem like a joke post, and I’ve headlined it in the most deliberately provocative way I could think of, but I’m completely serious.
We as a society seem to have decided that adults over about 30 are just Not Allowed to experiment with their identity or their personal presentation at all. If you come into work or a party suddenly looking considerably different, a lot of the time, people get upset about it - especially if you try something that does not “work”, in other people’s opinions.
At least some of this is directly tied to the fact that certain styles are considered “too young” for a certain phase of somebody’s life, and that it’s automatically “cringe” to not continuously broadcast awareness of the stage of the aging process you’re in (and, by extension, your waning relevance as an agent of social change, and your own proximity to your impending death).
And while there are certainly some elements of maturity that absolutely should be expected of adults (mostly related to not being an asshole or manipulating people significantly younger than oneself), harmlessly experimenting with personal presentation shouldn’t be one of those things.
So we’ve backed ourselves into a corner where you need a Profound Reason to decide to change things up in anything beyond a subtle way. It has gotten to the point where Halloween costume parties are basically our only relief valves on this particular societal pressure (and even those are considered somewhat immature), and where makeover reality TV shows exist specifically to lend structure to something people normally just can’t do.
It gets worse. You know what group of people really, really need the freedom to experiment with their personal presentation with as little judgment as possible?
Transgender people.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen people say about late transitioners, “I’d respect them more if they actually dressed their age”. And while I think it absolutely is possible to go to a place with that that’s genuinely creepy (i.e., actual predatory behavior), I think there’s an element of that criticism that’s inherently unfair, because we as a society have decided that experimenting with your presentation is something you’re expected to have finished when you’re an adolescent. And in the case of transgender people, that’s doubly unfair because they often just completely missed that window when they actually were that age.
Also like, autistic people often have idiosyncratic senses of fashion, and sometimes people just (for example) have a hobby doing period costuming.
There are lots of perfectly valid reasons to loosen these expectations, and I think we’re genuinely making life more miserable for everybody by not doing so.
Bisexual+ people may not be perceived as queer if they’re datingsomeoneperceived asthe“opposite” of their gender – so does that mean they have straight passing privilege?
You might think so, but try considering the perspective in this comic for a more nuanced answer to this question. It’s a breakdown of the assumptions behind the idea of bisexual+ “straight passing privilege” – and the harm you cause by erasing people’s identities when you make these assumptions.
It’s possible to acknowledge that different queer folks have different experiences without erasing anyone.
Bisexual+, Biromantic+ (Bi+ for short) is the commonly used “shorthand” for the entire Non-Monosexual Community including but not limited to: Bisexual/Biromantic, Ambisexual, Flexisexual, Fluid, Heteroflexible/Homoflexible, Multisexual, No Labels, Omnisexual, Pansexual, PoMosexual, Polysexual, Sapiosexual, Queer, and so many more.
Bisexuality is the attraction to more than one gender, or to genders similar to- and different from- one’s own.
Bisexual Erasure,Bisexual Invisibility is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or re-explain evidence of bisexuality in history, academia, news media and other primary sources. In its most extreme form, bisexual erasure can include denying that bisexuality exists. It is often a manifestation of conscious and/or unconscious biphobia and/or monosexism.
Straight Passing, Hetero Passing, etc. is all those things you get just by being, acting, or appearing straight. Conversely, straight privilege is all those things you lose when you are, act, or appear as queer. Becasue hetrosexuality is (inncorectly) seen as the “default” state, it means that all people are initially assumed to be “straight” unless they do something to actively signal they are queer, ie dress, mannerisms, coming out, wearing pins, badges, t-shirts, jewelry, etc.
Trans Erasure,Non-Binary Erasure, etc, is the tendency to ignore, deny, or minimize the existence of trans, androgynous, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, NB, etc. people. It is often a manifestation of conscious and/or unconscious cisexism and/or transphobia.
I don’t know what’s up with all this today, since I’m seeing cissexism, transmisogyny and exorsexism being discussed on a couple of different aro blogs, concerning a couple of different people. I’m quite disappointed, given that for so long the aro-spec community felt so unquestioningly accepting of all trans, non-binary, genderqueer, agender and cultural gender folks–in a way often not afforded to us in broader LGBTQIA+ spaces.
Regardless, here’s a quiet reminder that the only aro-spec community I’m interested in promoting and nurturing is one that’s unequivocally supportive of one’s right to declare one’s gender, genders, shifting gender or lack of gender and be referred to by and naturally included within the names, terms and pronouns each individual dictates as appropriate for their gender, genders, shifting gender or lack of gender. One’s AGAB (assigned gender at birth) or shape/degree of transitioning is no barrier to allowing someone the basic respect and dignity of being treated as the person they say they are. One’s relationship to or distance from the gender binary is no barrier to allowing someone the basic respect and dignity of being treated as the person they say they are.
Being of the aromantic spectrum is for many of us an experience of looking at a carelessly amatonormative world and saying no, your narrow assumptions on how to be human don’t suit or include me, please let me live as best suits me with the same support and acceptance you take for granted. How can we be here fighting against amatonormativity as aro-specs while declaring the exact same philosophy inappropriate for non-cis folks on the spectrum of gender identity?
It seems to me that an aro-spec who understands and appreciates the true, accepting spirit of the aro-spec community cannot then go and deny trans, NB, GQ, agender and cultural gender aro-specs this same acceptance. Most of us, I think, are not anywhere near so hypocritical as to do this, but it saddens me that there’s a few outlying people who are.
And as a trans, agender aromantic: my blog, my content and my activism is not for someone who rejects the legitimacy of my gender identity and experiences. You have no right to disrespect me and my fellow non-cis aro-specs while still thinking to take advantage of our efforts in building this community.
We’re here. We’re not a minority in aro-spec spaces. We’re helping to build the roof under which you’re seeking to shelter. Respect us non-cis aro-specs as we deserve or stand in the rain on your own.
Disregarding someone’s right to declare their own gender identity and be respected as a person of that gender identity based on your ignorance and hatred isn’t and will never be in the spirit of the aro-spec community.
And for the cis aro-specs I’ve seen step up and declare that they won’t allow cissexism, exorsexism and transmisogyny as any kind of norm in their aro-spec spaces, thank you.
IMPORTANT ADDITION: The Alabama House bill that will accompany this bill forces teachers and medical professionals to out trans youth to their parents.
THIS WILL KILL TRANS KIDS.
This combination of legislation is The most violent anti-trans legislation to date in the US. If you can do so safely, get out. Get out now. Get your children out. Please.
Over at Twitter Owen Jones reflects on the way the history of bigotry is repeating. The new British TV series It’s a Sin reminds him of how the tactics once used against gay and lesbian people is now used against trans and nonbinary folks.
Owen Peter Jones is a British newspaper columnist, commentator, journalist and political activist.
It’s a Sin is a British television drama serial written and created by Russell T Davies. It is about the queer community in the 1980′s London.
Owen writes:
One of the most important themes in ‘It’s A Sin’ was about gay/bi people and shame - caused by growing up in a society that saw gay/bi people as would-be sexual predators, violators of biological reality, threats to children, immoral, deviants, and generally undesirable.
While HIV rates remain significantly higher among gay and bisexual men, treatments now allow those with HIV to live healthy lives. Alcohol and drug abuse as a response to shame and trauma caused by homophobia is today a bigger problem in Western nations.
It’s important to make this point because the evidence suggests that mental distress is even more acute amongst trans people, who are today the most marginalised and oppressed part of the LGBTQ+ world.
Anti-trans activists use the same arguments as the homophobes
Today, anti-trans activists play the exact same songs about trans people: that they are would-be sexual predators, violators of biological reality, threats to children, immoral, deviants, and generally undesirable.
Some of those anti-trans activists responded viscerally to being called out for enjoying It’s A Sin. They are furious at being compared to the monsters who victimised gay people, even as they obsessively target trans people in the same papers that obsessively targeted gay people.
Some of them point to their past association with pro-gay struggles, or in some cases simply that they have been to gay bars before, as though any of this gives them a lifetime freedom pass to say whatever they like about other minorities.
But as It’s A Sin shows, a society which made gay people feel unwelcome - as burdens at best and as menaces at worst - inflicts terrible damage on gay people. The same is being done to trans people.
However those who, in some cases, spend a genuinely huge amount of their lives talking about trans people as would-be predators or threats to children justify it to themselves, they are inflicting the same injuries on trans people as It’s A Sin underlined is done to gay people.
The quadrupling of transphobic hate crimes, the 48% of trans people who fear using public toilets, the trans people discriminated against at work, the quarter who’ve suffered homelessness, all of this is erased from the “conversation”, such as it is.
Even the focus on contexts which don’t affect 99.9% of trans people - but which are used to attack all of them - namely prisons and sports deliberately excludes questions like ‘Why are there no trans Olympic medallists?’ or 'How do we stop trans prisoners being assaulted?’
Inflicting the same damage
The hounders of trans people may hate It’s A Sin being used to hand them a mirror. But the anti-trans faction, who operate strikingly like a cult, are not only singing the same tunes - they are inflicting the exact same damage on trans people as gay people have long suffered.
oh and I’ve set this so only people who follow me can reply because, although anti-trans activists have made a conscious decision to relentlessly and obsessively target me, and I can live with that, I don’t want trans people to have to sift through their bile.
“Gender critical” parents who are harming their kids
Some other thoughts.
One of the most powerful themes towards the end of It’s A Sin is Ritchie’s mother being confronted by Jill for the damage she inflicted on her gay son, suggesting that the shame she instilled in him helped drive behaviour that led to his infection with HIV.
“Actually it is your fault, Mrs Tozer,” says Jill. “All of this is your fault.“ Jill adds: "The wards are full of men who think they deserve it.”
She was right. So many of the gay and bisexual men who died often lonely deaths in hospital wards were traumatised by their parents.
Today, most gay people have gay friends who have mental trauma which often leads to alcohol and drug abuse with absolutely catastrophic consequences. Many, all too many, have had friends who’ve died from suicide. The culprits? Society in general but often parents in particular.
It’s A Sin showcased the LGBTQ family, of other LGBTQ friends filling a vacuum left by the absence of a loving family. A big role of that 'family’ is to pick up the pieces because of the damage inflicted by parents on their children.
When parents refuse to properly accept their LGBTQ children for who they are, they insert ticking time bombs in many of them. That bomb may detonate in their 20s, their 30s, their 40s, who knows, maybe in their 50s or 60s. But in many of them, it will detonate.
This is why there is a genuine horror watching self-described “gender critical” parents ranting about trans people on the internet. Because I can’t help but think, oh god, what if they have trans children. What damage will be inflicted upon them.
But in other cases, transphobic parents will stick determinedly to their guns and inflict the same damage on their trans children as homophobic parents have always inflicted on their gay children. We should be clear: homophobia and transphobia are forms of child abuse.
Hiding behind the argument of protecting their children
Both traditional homophobes and contemporary transphobes claimed they were protecting the welfare of children. As anti-gay campaigner Anita Bryant declared: “As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children”.
Today’s anti-trans activists use the language of 'safeguarding’ and often suggest that parents know what’s best for their children. This is clearly not always the case. Lots of children need to be protected from their parents. That includes many LGBTQ children.
So when this Times journalist attacked Mermaids, a charity supporting young trans people, for including an 'exit button’, suggesting it was 'a major safeguarding breach’. Many LGBTQ children don’t have supportive parents and need to hide their identity away from them.
Anti-trans rhetoric echoes anti-gay arguments
Anti-gay rights campaigners long focused on the danger posed by predatory gay men to vulnerable children, and pointed to scandals in, for example, the Scouts and the Catholic Church as evidence. Today, anti-trans activists similarly extrapolate extreme cases to make their case.
That’s why so many gay people stand up for trans people. Trans people, of course, are in our shared LGBTQ spaces, and their experiences do differ in important ways - but we see them going through the exact same things we’ve gone through.
It is, frankly, grotesque that gay people who for very obvious reasons stand with their trans siblings are then vilified as misogynists, or have obvious homophobic tropes about wanting to endanger children’s safety thrown at them.
It’s also perverse that many of the same people publicly cooing over It’s A Sin are the same people trying to hound the LGBTQ allies of trans people out of the media (they can’t really do this to trans people because there are very few trans people in the media).
LGB people attacking trans people
As for the LGB people who participate in the hounding of trans people. There have long been examples of oppressed groups who participate in oppression, often against themselves: women against the Equal Rights Amendment and feminism, right-wing black Republicans, and so on.
These anti-trans LGB activists are not only completely unrepresentative of LGBTQ people: many queer bars and spaces bar people who express their bigoted opinions for very obvious reasons: to ensure they’re safe spaces for the whole LGBTQ rainbow.
Watching straight people try and foment a civil war within the LGBTQ world by platforming these completely marginal bigoted zealots is actually completely and utterly grotesque.
Finally (!) in the 1980s, almost the whole media was anti-gay, and public opinion was overwhelmingly anti-gay. Today, almost the whole media is anti-trans, but while transphobia is rampant, anti-trans sentiment is not as widespread as anti-gay sentiment back then. There’s hope!
But it takes huge courage to speak out in support of trans people in Britain in 2021. One day, there will be TV programmes about the onslaught against trans people. Those who victimised trans people today will be portrayed in them. They’ll go down in history as hate figures.
Sadly, it’s too late to save all too many LGBTQ people who had ticking time bombs inserted into them both by society and by their homophobic and transphobic parents. They detonated. But we can save others from that fate. So speak up.
detransitioning stories that don’t need more publicity:
i detransitioned because my feelings were entirely due to internalized misogyny, and I believe that all trans people are just gnc people of their birth assigned gender who either suffer from internalized misogyny or are fetishizing women
i detransitioned because i was confused about my identity and I blame doctors / trans people
i detransitioned because transition isn’t God’s plan for anyone
detransitioning stories that need to be boosted:
i detransitioned because my identity changed, and i don’t regret my transition.
i detransitioned because i was confused about my identity, and I regret transition, but i don’t blame other people for my own choices, and I don’t believe that my experience is representative of most people who transition. i believe that further restrictions on who is allowed to medically transition would do more harm than good.
i detransitioned for my safety, because I live in a place where it’s not safe for me to transition socially or medically.
terfs prey on detransitioning people. detransitioning people are at great risk of getting sucked into terf echo chambers. we trans people need to support detransitioning people because they are not our enemies. the trauma of heteronormative gender roles can be difficult to tease apart from dysphoria, and we need to be sensitive to our fellow humans who just want to feel comfortable in their skin. we need to make it okay for people to change their identities, and try out identities to see if they work.
fearmongering directed at young trans people like “make sure you’re REALLY trans before you [medically] transition, because if you’re not it will give you dysphoria” introduces social pressure to prove to other trans people that you’re really trans, which actually increases the likelihood that a person will transition and regret it. because you’re holding validation of their current identity hostage. if someone eventually detransitions, you shouldn’t add to their trauma later by now giving them an inner “i told you so, you weren’t really trans” voice.
Other detransition narratives that need to be boosted and respected:
4. I detransitioned because it was simply far too expensive for me to be able to afford a body that reflected my identity, and I decided that I would rather live in my sad-but-familiar form than an expensive hybrid.
5. I detransitioned because I did not have the necessary time and energy to keep up the absurd amount of work that it took to reliably pass as female.
6. I detransitioned for my mental and social health, because I live in a place/situation where the act of transition was causing me to be cut off from all support.
7. I detransitioned because my medical circumstances were incompatible with continued physical transition.
These, like #3 above, are not situations where detransition is particularly voluntary, but are a product of the circumstances and society in which a person transitions. I’ve known several people who have detransitioned for precisely these reasons, and it was certainly not an easy choice for them or one that they took lightly. Their identities have not changed (to the best of my knowledge), and if they could wake up tomorrow in a body that matched their identity they would. But that’s unfortunately the way life goes sometimes.
[ID: a tweet by username normalhoroscope that reads Every day new pregnant mothers (sic) arrive at the doors to my wizard castle asking me to place terrible curses upon their unborn children. “Come on” they say “it’ll be really funny.”]
Since woman got more rights men can’t tell what nathroom to use. Woman get a kick out of emasculated men. I say thank god there’s still men with real balls.
Manslation: Help me, I’m so lost. I thought maybe if I just tacked a bunch of transphobic comments onto a complaint about women’s rights it would make me sound edgy but now here I am in the middle of this fetid swamp of my own making and I’m probably going to die here.
I was married for twenty five years before I got my parole lady. I know exactly when your species is ovulating. Now go bring me a sandwich you silly bitch. Xo
Manslation: Yeah, that’s right. I was an INMATE in the PRISON OF MARRIAGE. I had no choice in the matter, I was forced at gunpoint to marry some animal from a completely different species (a HUMAN WOMAN). During my incarceration I used my keen powers of observation to gain some key intel on this deadly creature, which I assume I can then apply without alteration to the rest of the species (HUMAN WOMEN). I was trapped for a quarter-century, which might explain why I still think the FUCKING GOD DAMN SANDWICH JOKE is funny. Hugs n’ kisses!
Women should have equal rights. Im just saying that if men decided tomorrow that it’s over, it would be. It’s not a man’s fault he is biologically superior. And the whole position of power thing…every woman in “power” was green lighted by a bunch of men. Didn’t get there on their own
Manslation: I like to say women should have equal rights because I think it makes me sound noble, or at least like less of a fuckin asshole, but then I go on to explain that women are naturally inferior to men and let you know for SURE I am worth less to this planet than a year-old dog shit.
And if it were found on Mars rather than your uterus, you know what it would be classified as? Life.
A uterus is part of a person. That person has to give up a lot to be pregnant for nine months. Mars doesn’t give up anything to have life exist on it. Mars is also not a sentient being with thoughts and feelings and emotions. A pregnant person is, and they have rights. It’s not ok to take away those rights because an embryo or fetus is in their uterus. Mars doesn’t have these rights because it’s not a body, so it doesn’t have bodily autonomy.
After fertilization, there’s not a baby, there’s an embryo. Eight weeks later it becomes a fetus. When childbirth takes place, the fetus becomes an infant. Baby is an emotional term that’s fine to use in your personal life but shouldn’t be used when debating others’ rights, or it becomes emotionally manipulative.
- Emma
A person consents to the possibility of becoming pregnant whenever she chooses to have sex. It’s a consequence of an action. Bodily autonomy argument doesn’t work here. Not to mention, the life growing inside her is asked to give up a lot more by being forcibly murdered.
“Embryo” and “fetus” are nothing more than stages of development, much like “infant”, “toddler”, and “adolescent”. At no point does the subject not have its own unique *human* DNA. You’re dehumanizing what’s clearly human to justify murder. The same dehumanizing tactics were used to justify slavery in the US and the Holocaust in Europe.
Nope. Consent isn’t transitive. Arguing that it is isn’t only relevant to this debate, but is also rape apologism (“well she kissed me so obviously she wanted to have sex!” implies that consent is transitive). Bodily autonomy does work here because the pregnant person (who isn’t always “her” btw) has bodily autonomy, while the embryo or fetus does not.
Murder is a legal term and by definition, abortion is not murder. You could say killed, but if you’re going to argue that killing is inherently wrong, I hope you’ve never stepped on a bug. Or eaten fruits or vegetables or meat or wheat or…you get the point. The embryo or fetus inside the pregnant person is only able to be there with the consent of the pregnant person, because it is inside the pregnant person’s body.
That’s exactly what embryo and fetus are, I don’t see what your argument is. DNA doesn’t equal sentience or bodily autonomy. You’re dehumanizing pregnant people. It’s not even implied dehumanization, you literally compared them to Mars - a non human planet - in your op.
I don’t know if you’re black or Jewish, but if not, it’s completely unacceptable to use slavery and the holocaust as arguments. Don’t compare anything that’s not slavey to slavery, and the same goes for the holocaust.
Reproductive Justice (RJ) isn’t just abortions. And it’s not just just about cis white women.
• RJ is folx of color not having children bc they are afraid of them being killed due to racist injustice.
• RJ is transmasculine (transmen, non-binary afab people, bois/boys, etc) folx being denied medical care because of our trans status, that is if we can even afford it.
• RJ is predominantly folx of color not being to keep their children or give them up for adoption, even if they wanted to, bc they can’t afford the medical bills that come with having a baby.
• RJ is folx who don’t speak fluent English having limited access to medical care, no matter what their decision is.
• RJ is dark-skinned folx receiving less pain meds during pregnancy or the doctor will ignore them all together bc of racist stereotypes which puts their bodies under unnecessary stress which in turn effects the fetus.
• RJ is transmasculine folx being misgendered by hospital staff.
• RJ is transmasculine folx having to teach our health care providers about our bodies, HRT, detransitioning (bc you can’t be on T if you’re pregnant), basic do’s and dont’s, etc. all while being sensationalized as a “pregnant man”.
• RJ is medical staff assuming you want an abortion since you’re transmasc.
And that’s all I got so far. Please add more. And I like the word ‘folx’.
when t-rfs talk about “peaking” people what they’re talking about is grooming btw
they will for real dedicate/circulate entire threads detailing extremely specifically how to recruit people into their ideology, often through explicitly manipulative and sometimes even outright abusive means. they gloat and joke openly about doing it to friends and partners and coworkers and younger siblings and anonymously to young trans people on the internet. you see this happening pretty much everywhere regardless of whatever blog you’ve clicked on and are hate-reading, it’s integral to their entire ideology of which would probably honestly collapse without it yet they accuse trans people of being in a cult
look at any blog in the “des-sted dysphoric” community to see innumerable further examples of this. they wear that title like a badge, very conversion therapy-esque. i’ve seen these people openly discuss how to convince their trans male and transmasculine friends into detransitioning. threads upon threads of advice on how to do this. a lot of times they even journal about it on their blogs, like “omg my TIF friend wants top surgery how do i peak them asap”. this is innately unnatural and predatory behavior
I’m not particularly active on this blog right now due to reasons, but I think it’s important to highlight this.
I need everyone to understand that this is and was always the goal. Banning access to trans healthcare for minors was always the first step towards banning access to trans healthcare entirely. The focus on trans minors has been purely to drum up outrage (“won’t someone think of the children”) and to popularize the bans.
The Overton window has been shifted, so to speak. Less conservative individuals might be uncomfortable with the idea of outright banning adults from choosing what happens to their own bodies and making their own medical decisions…but if it’s banned for 17 year olds, is it safe for 18 year olds? 19? 20? 25? 30? Anyone?
I need everyone to understand that trans healthcare rights are inherently an issue of bodily autonomy, and that Christian conservatism is deeply opposed to the concept of bodily autonomy. Banning trans youth from accessing gender affirming health care is to trans rights as the 20 or 15 or 6 week abortion ban is to abortion rights–the goal is to ultimately erase the legal right to bodily autonomy.
I need everyone to see the connection between transphobia and ableism. I definitely need everyone to stop perpetuating the concept of mental age. This includes repeating the incorrect and neuronormative line that “brains aren’t fully developed until age 25” or suggesting that autistic or otherwise neurodivergent people aren’t capable of understanding and making our own decisions. An adult is an adult regardless of neurotype, regardless of neurological development.
I especially need everyone to be worried about the implications of banning 18-25 year olds from having full control over their own medical decisions. How else might that eventually be weaponized? Especially in regards to reproductive rights?
I’ve believed for years that banning the ability to medically, legally, and socially transition entirely would become a popular Christian conservative goal, and possibly a reality. Not only to enforce their religious beliefs around assigned sex upon us legally–but because trans people who need and are able to transition have better mental health and are more likely to live happier longer lives. And they don’t want us to live.
