Sandy Stone also documented that in this manifesto over thirty years ago. Transmisogyny is the main/entire reason behind “you need dysphoria to be trans” even existing, and they went as far as to create “charm schools” to enforce it
[Image Description 1: Three screenshots of a Twitter thread by adrasteia (@adrasteiarose) which read: “i really hate how trans healthcare is and based upon this ‘trapped in the wrong body’ ‘i knew i was a girl because i did *stereotypical feminine thing* growing up’ model. it is SO damaging, and reinforces bioessentialist and patriarchal ideas of what sex and gender are.
it’s especially damaging to gender nonconforming trans people, lgb trans people, tpoc who often have to lie about aspects of themselves and present these idealised versions of what cis people think trans ppl are supposed to be/think/feel, just to access life-saving healthcare.
i’m not a woman because of the fact that i pretended my towels were dresses after getting out of the shower victoria. but we both KNOW that’s all you wanna hear from me that and you won’t give me my fuccking titty patch if i offer you a decolonial materialist analysis of gender” /end ID 1]
[Image Description 2: Two screenshots of a digitized copy of Sandy Stone’s The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto with many sentences underlined with either red or green. The excerpt reads “there are still moments of embodied ‘natural truth’ that cannot be avoided. In the time period of most of these books the most critical of these moments was the intake interview at the gender dysphoria clinic, when doctors, who were all males, decided whether the person was eligible for gender reassignment surgery. The origin of the gender dysphoria clinics is a microcosmic look at the construction of criteria for gender. The foundational idea for the gender dysphoria clinics was first, to study an interesting and potentially fundable human aberration; second, to provide help, as they understood the term, for a ‘correctable problem.’
Some of the early nonacademic gender dysphoria clinics performed surgery on demand, which is to say regardless of any judgement on the part of the clinic staff regarding what came to be called appropriateness of the gender of choice. When the first academic gender dysphoria clinics were started on an experimental basis in the 1960s, the medical staff would not perform surgery on ‘sociopaths.’ At this time there were no official diagnostic criteria ; ‘transsexuals’ were, ipso facto, whoever signed up for assistance. Professionally this was a dicey situation. It was necessary to construct the category ‘transsexual’ along customary and traditional lines, to construct plausible criteria for acceptance into a clinc. Professionally speaking, a test or a differential diagnosis was needed for transsexualism that did not depend on anything as simple and subjective as feeling that one was in the wrong body. The test needed to be objective, clinically appropriate, and repeatable. But even after considerable research, no simple and unambiguous test for gender dysphoria syndrome could be developed. [33]
The Stanford clinic was in the business of helping people, among its other agendas, as its members understood the term. Therefore the final decisions of eligibility for gender reassignment were made by the staff on an individual sense of the ‘appropriateness of the individual to their gender of choice.’ The clinic took on the additional role of ‘grooming clinic’ or ‘charm school’ because, according to the judgement of the staff, the men who presented as wanting to be women didn’t always ‘behave like’ women. Stanford recognized that gender roles could be learned [to an extent]. Their involvement with the grooming clinics was an effort to produce not simply anatomically legible females, but women…i.e.gendered females. As Norman Fisk remarked, ‘I now admit very candidly that… in the early phases we were avowedly seeking candidates who would have the best chance for success.’ [34] In practice this meant that the candidates for surgery were evaluated on the basis of their performance in the gender of choice. The criteria constituted a fully acculturated, consensual definition of gender, and at the site of the enactment we can locate an actual instance of the apparatus of production of gender.
This raises several sticky questions, the chief two being: Who is telling the story for whom, and how do the storytellers differentiate between the story they tell and the story they hear?
One answer is that they differentiate with great difficulty. The criteria which the researchers developed and then applied were defined recursively through a series of interactions with the candidates. The scenario worked this way: Initially, the only textbook on the subject of transsexualism was Harry Benjamin’s definitive work The Transsexual Phenomenon (1966). [35] (Note that Benjamin’s book actually post dates I Changed My Sex! by about ten years.) When the first clinics were constituted, Benjamin’s book was the researchers’ standard reference. And when the first transsexuals were evaluated for the suitability for surgery, their behavior matched up gratifyingly with Benjamin’s criteria. The researchers produced papers which reported on this, and which were used as a basis for funding.
It took a surprisingly long time—several years—for the researchers to realize that the reason the candidates’ behavioral profiles matched Benjamin’s so well was that the candidates, too, had read Benjamin’s book, which was passed from hand to hand within the transsexual community, and they were only too happy to provide the behavior that led to acceptance for surgery. [36]” /end ID 2]
[Image ID: A cropped screenshot of the beginning of a tumblr post which reads, “The general statement of being sick of the focus on trans men and ‘tme’ (ahem *afab) nonbinary” /end ID]
Please stop treating AMAB nonbinary people like this. I don’t care if you think transmisogyny is fake or transfems are delusional or “no one’s exempt from transmisogyny” or whatever. You have got to stop treating AMAB people like we’re not allowed to have complex relationships with gender. You have got to stop reducing AMAB people down to “cis men and transfems.” I have seen so many posts that explain how you can be an AFAB woman and still be nonbinary, and those posts are wonderful and completely true, but I have never seen any sort of positivity or validation or affirmation, anything for AMAB nonbinary men (or agender people or any AMAB nonbinary people who aren’t transfem).
TME nonbinary ≠ AFAB
AMAB nonbinary ≠ transfem
Stop forgetting about AMAB nonbinary people.
[Image ID: A banner of the pink trans woman flag with white text that reads, “I don’t want to see or be seen by transmisogynists” next to a green check mark /end ID]
If you’re an icon or gif maker and make resources smaller than 100x100, then you should consider also releasing the same set but as 100x100 or 125x125 so more people can use your resources. Because when saving an icon/gif you can choose what size you save it as. Which means you could easily make them bigger from the start and then when saving them make the second set of the size you desire. But PLEASE think about other people who want to use your resources but can’t because they are too small.
I should also mention i am a resource maker and run the blog thelovelyicons
im all for de-gendering slang terms like dude guy girl etc but if someone says that you calling them that makes them uncomfortable and you respond by saying “oh but im using it in a gender neutral way!” you’re an asshat
***ASBESTOS WAS FOUND IN CLAIRE’S MAKEUP PRODUCTS!! IF YOU OR A YOUNGER SIBLING, OR ANYONE YOU KNOW USES THEIR PRODUCTS, WARN THEM!!***DO NOT USE THEIR MAKEUP PRODUCTS FOR UR OWN SAFETY PLEASE
Two years ago, I lost my little feathered soulmate. I had 8 great years with you, when some didn’t think you’d make it past 2.
I miss our adventures, dem scritchable cheeks, that beaky smile. You carried me so far out of my shell and made me a more compassionate human.
Although you’re gone, your legacy lives on through every kind act towards all birds, no matter their size, their ability, or plumage.
Today, on Cody’s Memorial Day, remember birds in needs. Donate to a bird charity of your choice, be it an avian rescue, conservation, rehab, or sanctuary group. Take time to learn about companion bird struggles. You can start with Parrot Confidential on PBS. (It’s streaming on Amazon).
The word of bird is getting out there, but we still got a long ways to go. Do it for Cody! Do it for the Birds!
Able bodied parents I’m begging you to teach your kids about disabled people. Not just because they could become disabled themselves one day but also because even if they don’t, they have a very real chance of being rude to us if you don’t teach them.
Yes, kids just say shit. They have no filter. That doesn’t make it any less humiliating when your child sits near me on the bus and incessantly grills me on why I have a stick when I’m not old. Or laughs at us for things our disability causes. It doesn’t take away the hurt when they bully a disabled classmate. For a large part these things could be avoided if you just taught your kids to respect us. It’s really not that hard.
[Image Description: A yellow banner with the text “ablebodied people can reblog but dont add anything”. On the left there is a stick figure of a person in a wheelchair, and on the right there is a stick figure of a person holding a cane.]
I think people misinterpreted what being critical of shit actually means like it doesn’t mean nitpick it so you can throw it in the “problematic” bucket it means don’t treat your media like a goddamn instruction manual or get your politics from cartoons.
the best thing that we can do right now to fight for abortion rights is donating to your local abortion fund, especially in states with “trigger laws” or laws that will immediately take harsh measures to shut down abortion rights as soon as roe is overturned. If you don’t know your local abortion fund or states with trigger laws, here’s one in Texas,one in Louisiana,one in Georgia,one in West Virginiaandone in Mississippi (all states with such “trigger laws”). There’s so many more beyond the handful i just listed here but times like these are the time to donate and support the incredible work that these organizations do for their communities.
As usual, I’m sharing with you a change of policy info from one of the artist to whom I had permission. By the way you can follow the tag “change of policy” if you want to check which other artists don’t allow reposts anymore.
I noticed the artist きまこmade a pinned tweet with written they didn’t allow reposts. Since they gave me their consent in the past, I contacted them and they confirmed they weren’t ok with it now. So of course, I won’t share works from them anymore to respect that.
However, they didn’t tell me anything about the previous arts I shared on my blog. So without a clear response about that, I’m gonna delete them all to not have problem in the future.
Keep supporting the artist on their pages if you can <3
Please be always careful to not support bad reposters aka the ones who don’t credit arts / who don’t ask before sharing the work of others even if credited / who use the works of others for commercial purposes. As you know, it can really hurt artists and impact the way they want to share their works on the internet. Thank you for reading.
but like any revolutionary social movement it requires active involvement to achieve the change you want to see. Here are some handy resources for getting more involved:
Food Not Lawns- project to help communities feed themselves without capitalism
Food Not Bombs - same idea as above but less emphasis on growing food
In terms of building online infrastructure to actively combat capitalism, using and helping to develop open-source, community run software & websites like the sunbeam city mastodon instance should be a priority. This is a good alternative to google for searching.
In terms of building real world solarpunk infrastructure as resistance to actively combat capitalism, the organisations linked above are honestly invaluable - especially Food Not Bombs. I’d also add the Industrial Workers of the World (a democratic workers’ union for anyone in the world without hiring/firing power) as well as tenants’ unions - like ACORN in the UK. Finally, find or start a community garden.
It’s just the sentiment behind them that I find so reprehensible. It’s this idea that men need a retreat away from the responsibilities of family life whereas women do not. I very seldom see people who have man caves also have a space for the woman and if they do it’s always significantly smaller, less equipped, and seldom used.
And the thing is men will often argue this point by saying “well she has the rest of the house” because they think that forcing their wives/girlfriends to do all of the administrative work around the house constitutes personal space. So they force their partners to become household managers wherein a daily flow is created that they are not involved enough to feel a part of, this creates a sense of disconnect from family life, and makes men feel as if they’re being bossed around in their wife’s home , which creates a need to “get away.” Which basically results in him hiding while his wife runs the household. Men think this is fair because they think that it’s natural for women to be household managers rather than realize she’s just picking up his slack.
You know? This might offend some people, but I don’t care. These people are the exact same people I see every time I see a Trump rally on television. They’re the same people I see when I see Bible-thumping anti-abortion protestors on television. They’re the same people I see, every year, when they play clips from CPAC. They’re the same people who tune in to Fox News every f’ing day. They’re the InfoWars conspiracy theorists. They’re the police officer. They’re the mailman. They’re the bank teller. They’re your child’s elementary school teacher.
There are potential monsters everywhere. These people thought they were doing good. Just like members of the Westboro Baptist Church, they thought they were doing God’s work.
Make no mistake. This isn’t a Nazi sympathy response. This is a warning. Beware any person who blindly and faithfully signs up for anything that demands unquestioning loyalty and obedience. The tiki torch protestors and the skinheads with the SS tattoos are just the obvious assholes.
The human animal terrifies me. A huge amount of people in this country, today, in the 21st century would gladly sign up for this. That’s why it must be stopped. We must resist every moment of every day to keep this shit where it belongs, in the dust bin of history. Make these outspoken assholes scared to every speak out. It can never get normalized. It must never get normalized. Because it could so easily happen again. Most folks just need to be given a bad enough set of circumstances and someone to blame it on.
I really do not like putting my nose into “drama” or happenings around the OC fandom, frankly due to what I’ve already experienced here.
However, seeing more and more fellow artists and content creators receive homophobic and racist responses in their inbox has prompted me to speak up- as I’ve been a victim too of such messages. [ Homophobic side ]
A male/masculine OC is NOT a threat to your yume ship. A POC/Black OC is just as deserving to be with the Twst boys as your White OC.
You have NO RIGHT to send such hateful messages to a person just existing and enjoying their time within the fanbase, drawing things that make them happy. Them existing in the same place does not invalidate the content you wish to make, and if you’re that insecure about “sharing” or whatever nonsense I have seen about characters that already do not belong to you, the lovely block button exists for a reason.
Curate your experience, but do NOT use your homophobia and racism to act aggressive towards fellow people who deserve and have every right to share the OC space as you do. I have been told countless times that my nonbinary OC is “wrong” to be shipped with Lilia just for not being a cis girl. That I’m making them feel “oppressed” by simply staying in my lane and being gay. That male ocs are driving yume fans away, when all we want is the same respect they get and consideration to be included in content.
Stooping so low to send racist asks to someone because you are uncomfortable someone is shipping their OC with your oshi? Grow UP. You’re the people making Twst a miserable place to make content for. You’re going to chase away every writer, artist, and contributor you “respect” away keeping this up.
I’m sick of sitting around and watching this issue fester.
