I normally don’t post TERF nonsense on here, but I came across something on Twitter that had me laughing my head off. So here is a sign made by some TERFs.
You might be thinking, “Well this is just you’re standard “Woman = Adult Human Female” sign.” However they have tried to make their equals sign a little artsy and well I teach Mathematics and will gladly tell you ≈ does not mean the same as =. ≈ is the approximation sign meaning their sign in fact reads, “Woman approximately equals adult human female” meaning there is still room for error in their definition.
It is a great petpeeve of mine that many progressive-minded people tend to lump in “white” in the general criticism of homophobic and transphobic behavior.
Being homophobic or transphobic is not inherent or exclusive to white people, and to hang onto this mindset tacitly permits the continuation of these dangerous attitudes in poc communities. Let’s not overlook that in many cases of trans women of color being murdered, the perpetrators are often also poc. This is not only a huge disservice to those victims of hate crimes, but it also erases their struggles as LGBT+ individuals within their respective communities.
I know America is majority white (roughly 61.3% or 76.9% when including white Hispanic and Latinos), so it is easy to connect general homophobia to the white majority, but to ignore the fact that virulent homophobia and transphobia exists in Latino, black, Asian, etc. communities just within the US (and completely excluding the attitudes in other countries) simply allows these toxic attitudes to fester, hidden in the shadow of “white bigotry.”
terves saying that trans people are effectively being irresponsible because transphobic medical providers refuse to treat us is the epitome of victim blaming. if someones argument is “we shouldn’t have trans inclusivity in medicine because it’s your fault for being denied treatment because you are trans” are straight up an apologist for medical abuse discrimination and malpractice
This is. A bit weird but. Like I’ve mentioned recently, I’m part of a group of people trying to create a local queer collective. And I’ve learnt some time ago, that one of the members of this collective is aphobic. Like “I don’t feel like saying ‘acephobia’ or ‘arophobia’ because they don’t exist” level of aphobic.
Which is bad enough, and honestly it doesn’t make me want to interact with her because, what an asshole lmao. The problem is, she’s a trans woman. So, it doesn’t feel good to outright dismiss her as an asshole, even though I don’t have the energy to educate her. If I see her and it comes up, I’ll just spam her with sources, whatever.*
Another issue arise though: excl/us/ion/ism, as we all know, is pretty popular among…te/rfs. So, while I don’t want to use up my energy for an aphobe, I can’t help knowing having this kind of bullshit in her head is dangerous for her (also, let’s be honest, it’s really fucking dangerous for the aspec people in her life, but it’s apparently not important to care about us so). So, while my actual main goal in wanting to make her change her mind is, the safety of one particular aroace person I know (they’re close), I’m also genuinely worried she might end up hurting herself because of her wrong beliefs. And I don’t know if showing/explaining to her how te/rfs have popularized aphobia and thrive on it would help? Like, trying to appeal to her own interests at first before getting her to care bout other people and trust/believe us?
I have no idea on if this would work or not. I don’t know her that much, we’ve barely met, and I don’t want to put the work into an aphobe with no garanty that they’ll at least change to be respectful of aspec people.
So yeah it’s a bit of a complicated situation. Maybe I just shouldn’t care but like I said, there’s this aroace person I care about in this equation. Thoughts?
*On that, I have some pretty convincing studies/reports about acephobia, but not so much about arophobia? I’m thinking about the GLSEN report that is very good for aces, but they didn’t care enoguh about us to survey aro people
CW for infant genital mutilation, intersexism and transphobia
Reaching out to educate the perisex (that means “not intersex”) trans community about intersexism in an effort to build solidarity and support between our communities, not to discredit the trans community or to make anyone look bad. Intersex people are erased and abused heavily by perisex cis society, and we need solidarity to survive and the trans community has the potential to be our most solid and supportive allies.
If you are trans and your initial feeling about this is defensive or attacked: please address that in yourself. Of course you feel bad for not realizing there’s a whole erased group of people that is suffering, and maybe you’ve been complicit in intersexism without realizing. Now’s the time to learn and grow!
And do NOT compare this to “detransitioning”. To transition is to identify as a gender other than the one you were assigned at birth, and to be forcibly surgically altered and assigned a gender and then to transition from that gender is NOT what intersex people call “detransitioning”. To say so is to be intersexist, and to erase intersex experiences and define us out of our own identities. We do NOT have to conform to perisex words and definitions that do not apply to the intersex experience.
Also keep in mind: whatever you say in response to this, the person this is about will see your comments. Be fucking kind.
If anyone is able and willing to caption this, please feel free to do so or DM me so I can add it to the original post. My own auditory processing disorder makes transcribing anything from audio to text absolutely hell so I need help. Thank you!
more information about the upcoming movie Adam (2019) from trans actors who worked as extras in the film
for those who don’t know Adam (2019) is a film based off a book written by Ariel Schrag and the reason why it’s so gross and offensive is that the plot basically revolves around a cishet boy pretending to be a trans man so he can sleep with lesbians
So everyone’s talking about misgendering trans people they don’t respect. And yes we all know why we’re talking about it but deflecting and derailing with “Wah, I’m not respecting [you know who]!” every time this comes up isn’t fucking acceptable, because this isn’t even about them and you know it.
Just to keep anyone from bringing them up, I’m going to use a completely unrelated example. Youtuber Lily Orchard is a cartoon reviewer that gained a reputation for her controversial opinions. In one video made by another cartoon reviewer about her they said they would be “nice” by “using her preferred pronouns”.
When you consider correctly gendering a trans person the nice thing to do, and when you hinge it on your respect for them, you’re telling everyone that you see it as a privilege as opposed to correctly gendering a cis person which we all see as a given.
Let me unpack that for you: you’re saying that - in a world where trans people are oppressed - that not oppressing them… is a privilege.
To put in into perspective, imagine if I claimed that me not saying the N-word was me being nice? Would you not think that I sounded like someone who wants to say the N-word? Someone who still thinks the N-word but just refrains from saying it? Someone who thinks that the N-word is perfectly acceptable, but I’m even nicer to not say it? Would you not think that I was a racist and pompous asshole?
And that’s what you sound like to trans people because if not being oppressed is what you consider a privilege, what you call a kindness, then being oppressed is the given, the normal, the neutral state. You are telling everytrans person that you don’t see transphobia as the cruel thing, but what you think they deserve by default.
If I follow an anti blog you can’t do shit. I hate antis. I love kids. Until the point I slept with one after working.
ah, THATS why you followed us! ‘you cant do shit’ right….sure…there is nothing i can possible do. oh, wait! i can report you to multiple people, including tumblr itself (which is proving to be more effective) and i can spread the word so other people can assist in taking you down!
In this week’s FFR we have a pipin’ hot entertainment roundup! ☝
Who’s being tragically transphobic this week? What’s the latest in video game labor? What brave artist can tackle the dreaded menace of cancel culture?
We talk all this and more. Find it with the link in our bio!
we need to drop the t, now. people think i support the trans movement because i’m gay. every time a trans person speaks their bullshit ideology on television, my family looks to me as if i’m the spokesperson for them.
this is hurting women. this is hurting gay people. we need to distance ourselves from them.
You know what? I’m going to get hate for this, but I don’t care.
It’s time that someone finally stood up and said a booga bagooba blooga boo. Blaguba booga wooga blar. Bagooba wooba dooba woo. Buhugabuga buduga woop, woopa whee ba gadooba. Meep morp boo blee borp fneeeeeee.
Furthermore, why don’t we ever talk about how bhurhurbaburbarburgaburgadoo. Fluh bloo badooga hurga doo?
I just think it’s interesting that bluruburbubrubruburburburburburburburburburbirburburbwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
One thing that A Series of Unfortunate Events does really well is that it establishes very early on to a quite young audience that sometimes people don’t mean it personally when they hurt you, but that doesn’t excuse their behavior.
Take Mr. Poe for instance: in every single encounter the Baudelaire orphans have with him, he messes everything up. He consistently puts the children in dangerous situations just because it’s convenient for him, he never listens to what the children actually have to say, and he refuses to be held accountable for his own mistakes, thereby dooming himself to make them over and over again.
If you divide it up evenly, Mr. Poe is just as responsible for the children’s ill fate as Count Olaf because for every single book in which he’s involved, and up through The Carnivorous Carnival in the Netflix series, he is capable of righting the situation and saving the children and he still decides to save his own behind rather than helping the children who are in dire need of an adult figure they can trust. Desmond Tutu famously said that “if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”.
And yet, Handler draws a distinctive line between Mr. Poe and Count Olaf in the series because one truly is worse than the other. Mr. Poe doesn’t mean to harm the children, and genuinely does care about their wellbeing, even if he is awful at doing so. He is always appalled when Count Olaf is actually revealed at the end and he does want the children to be safe. Count Olaf on the other hand actually hates the children and means to cause them harm.
The series draws the same distinction between Charles and Sir in that regard and Jerome and Esme, as well. It makes the point that people hurt each other and do harm in the world for all sorts of reasons and very rarely is it personal - that we shouldn’t take it personally when people are bad because adults are fallible too and sometimes they make mistakes without thinking. But even more so, the series makes the point that unintentionality does not excuse the harm that they do. Just because someone doesn’t hate you and that someone didn’t mean to harm you doesn’t mean you are obligated to forgive them or be understanding of their position. So often in this world people make excuses for their behavior, saying they didn’t mean to do something or they didn’t understand the effect it would have or they just weren’t listening and we’re expected to accept their apology and move on because we’re told intent means everything.
But the thing is, intent isn’t everything. Intent is only half the battle and our actions always have consequences, regardless of whether we like those consequences or not. Ignorance is not an excuse for inaction because it is our responsibility in the world as citizens of the world to be conscious of the effect our choices could have on others. The Baudelaire orphans never forgive Mr. Poe, and in The Penultimate Peril when Mr. Poe approaches them and offers them help and offers to take them to their next home, they refuse his help and their refuse his apology because his intentions in that instance don’t matter because he created great harm in the world and just because he didn’t foresee it doesn’t mean that he couldn’t have. This follows the same vein as excusing someone’s behavior because it was rooted in deep trauma or mental illness or justified revenge - the reason why someone did something wrong doesn’t matter, they still did something wrong and they need to face up to their crimes.
It was an important message then, but I think it’s an even more important one now in the political climate that we live in. There are so many people in this world right now who want to cause harm: neo-Nazis, the alt-right, homophobes, transphobes, racists, sexists, and we have an administration that actively takes delight in causing harm to oppressed people as long as it stands to benefit them in some financial way. They know they are hurting people and they continue to do so anyways so long as it makes them more comfortable. These are the Count Olafs of the world.
But then there are the ignorant people that support Trump and his administration, that do racist things like calling the cops on black people just because they look “suspicious”, or use their religion as an excuse to justify discrimination, and simply regurgitate everything they’ve been told by others just as ignorant as them about the way the world ought to work, and those are the people who pave the way for the Count Olafs of the world. It is easier to excuse their bad behavior because they really don’t mean for what they do to cause harm - most of the time they genuinely think they’re doing the right thing - but their actions have just as big of consequences as the actions of the Count Olafs. The children never would have ended up in Count Olaf’s clutches time and time again if Mr. Poe hadn’t put them there. The Count Olafs are worse, and it’s important to recognize the difference between intended harm and unintended harm, but we have to hold the Mr. Poes of the world accountable too, because ignorance is just as much a choice as malice.
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
terfs accuse their “enemies” of that which they themselves are guilty, chapter 4,826
What I’m saying is that JKR, like so many average people, very likely started off in a place of well-meaning ignorance. Then she started exploring new and different ideas being shared online. Some ideas resonated deeply with her experiences as an abuse survivor, so she began exploring them deeper. Then, wham, public backlash. Her trauma is triggered - but so is her curiosity. After all, if something she did or said set people off, maybe she’s onto something. So she starts exploring more. Starts asking more questions. And when she does this in public, there is always backlash. Meanwhile, however, in private, her new friends are telling her “See? This is proof we’re right. This is proof that the world wants us silenced, because they’re scared of the truth, and they really hate women that much.” And what do you know, what they’re telling her starts sounding more and more reasonable, especially since the outside world is becoming more and more hostile.
People keep searching for ways to argue that JK Rowling has always been a horrible person deep down as a way of explaining her recent behaviour.
But here’s the thing: that’s probably not true at all.
Pretending it is discounts the harsher, scarier truth: that even decent, well-meaning people can be radicalised by dangerous, hateful, predatory groups, and given enough time they can become truly hideous versions of their former selves.
It can happen to me. It can happen to you. It can happen to any of us, given the right mix of circumstances. And over the past few years, we’ve seen it happen to one of the most famous children’s authors of our age.
Nobody is immune.
So you’re saying that The Clown wasn’t always… outright evil?
No one is born evil
Good point, but prejudice is best installed at a young age. Why is why I assumed the said Clown was just evil since some early part of their life.
And round and round it goes, until you have a radical.
This is absolutely how radicalization works. I started out “I could never be a feminist, they hate kinksters” (yes, this was a massive oversimplification) and within, oh, i think two years? i was saying “well, i don’t like the overtones of ‘radical feminist’ but what’s so wrong with saying you’re a radical AND a feminist? we need to make sure there’s space for traumatized women who really do legitimately hate and fear men.”
When you become an extremist, you become UNRECOGNIZABLE even to YOURSELF.
This isn’t to apologise for her behaviour or rehabilitate her into some former activist who is still worthy of saving; it’s to contextualise her recent descent into TERFdom compared to her previous political stances she’s openly held. She was probably never going to be a staunch ally for equality and diversity, and yes, a lot of the HP series were very problematic in retrospect, but she could very easily have gone the other way and at the very least turned out to be less of a bigoted shitbag she is now. The fact that her politics in late 2000′s/early 2010′s were similar to so many people who are now activists and organisers for queer, BIPOC and vulnerable communities should tell us to be all the more careful about radfem ideology and transphobia in progressive spaces.
It’s comforting to say “we should have known in hindsight that she was always going to become a TERF, the early signs were all there!” but that’s also not true. We have to recognise that the toxic ideology, the active harm she chooses to participate in, was a deliberate choice; this was a path she chose to go down, not one that was pre-determined for her. It’s also an easy way to separate ourselves from being critical of radfem influence; “JKR was always a right-wing bigot and that’s why she became indoctrinated with radfem bullshit. I’m not a right-wing bigot, therefore unlike her, I will never fall for radfem bullshit.”
People who become radicalised, including those to become radfems, were not always irredeemable right-winger proto-Conservatives doomed for extremism and hatred, and that’s the point. The revisionist idea that she was always beyond salvaging erases how TERFs recruit people (especially vulnerable, impressionable people) in queer, progressive and liberal circles and how easily their dogwhistles can go undetected. The idea that JKR was already a closet right-winger from the get-go and therefore could never have been a good person is ultimately unhelpful because all it does it separate from the reality of how radfem doctrine spreads. TERFs sell their own toxic, harmful views packaged as progressive ideas as part of their strategy and that’s why their ideology is dangerous and requires constant vigilance to drive out.
this actually happened to me in seventh grade, i knew what terfs were and i didn’t want to become one, but i started seeing posts about how sex work is used in society and how it harms women, and i started getting into it by saying ‘alright, i’m going to listen to these people but i’m not gonna be a terf. i’m not gonna let that happen’ but the posts turned from sex work, to sports (“women athletes are at a disadvantage to trans women athletes, i’m not a transphobe i just think this should be noticed”) to trans women in womens spaces (“there are women who are vulnerable and traumatized because of their pasts with males especially, and trans women can’t relate to that in the same way they’re just concerned with being in a woman’s space, i’m not a transphobe i just think this should be noticed”) until it was genuinely, irrevocably transphobia and terfness (“trans women keep harassing lesbians, nobody is obligated to feel attracted to you, other women understand that, why can’t they? unless…”) and still i didn’t notice how far i had fallen.
i don’t remember what it was that made me pause, step back and say ‘no, actually this is exactly what i said wouldn’t happen. we need to stop’ but i did, i looked up trans perspectives and forced myself to unlearn the bullshit i had absorbed. and while i’m glad i did that, it’s not an exaggeration to say the internet lives forever. there’s still comments under posts from years ago that i wish i could find and delete, but i doubt i ever will.
It may be true that everything is forever on the internet, but that includes the fact that your story should be one of hope.
It IS possible for someone who’s been radicalized to go “what the fuck am I doing?”, learn better, and then openly say “I fucked up and this is wrong.” You literally did it on this post.
That should be the end goal: creating a community so open that radical groups stand no chance of growing, and indeed people can be rescued.
For Rowling in particular, it’s also worth noting the effects of suddenly coming into a huge amount of money and power, and the subsequent case of Never Being Told No Disease that so frequently develops.
Never Being Told No Disease is what happens when someone is so wholly insulated from pushback, criticism, disagreement, and consequences that, after a while, being told No in even the most trivial context becomes a huge blow to their ego. Rich people are particularly susceptible to the condition. It’s reversible, but the cure requires having someone in their life who will call them on their bullshit.
Rowling, who more-or-less opted out of being edited past book 4 (and whose publishers let her), who went from a pre-HP life composed mostly of being told No to a life largely devoid of it, seems to have let the Handle Being Told No With Grace center of her brain wither away to nothing. So when her initial bad takes were gently corrected by trans activists, she reacted to this very mild No like a vampire to sunlight, and fled the searing gaze of mild criticism for the soothing darkness of TERFS who told her she was right about everything.
thank you for this post! it’s gets extremely grating to see posts saying “JK was always horrible (and you were stupid for not noticing before)”.
she’s changed as a person, the problem is that she changed for the worse. Anyone can become worse, anyone can fall for the lies of bigotry. She should be seen as a precautionary tale
@nonasuch this is such an excellent addition. An editor would have really tightened the last few books - but beyond that, not needing one clearly ungrounded her ego indefinitely
I hate using the language of “canceled/canceling” because it feels delegitimizing but this thing with John Mulaney and Dave Chappelle is a situation where canceling can be something positive and meaningful. On the one hand, people have overblown canceling as this rabid force attacking everyone and everything. On the other, it’s become a glib “oh no, don’t let the libs cancel you” joke for ultimately pretty harmless shit. But this is someone immensely popular with a platform and a large audience inviting an infamously transphobic comedian to deliver a surprise transphobic, homophobic, and weirdly ableist opening on their tour and then calling that person their best friend.
The first tweet hits particularly hard because it’s a reminder that being the butt of a joke that 12,000 people laugh at isn’t very far from being the victim of a hate crime. It’s not just offensive, it’s fucking dangerous. It’s demonstrably unsafe.
Transphobia isn’t “brave” or “unsanitized comedy”, it’s a crucial tool for maintaining the status quo of interpersonal and legislative violence.
So yeah, cancel John Mulaney. Hold public figures accountable for targeting us, over and over again.
