.. it’s all about how you take it. You can be triggered by it because of your own insecurities or you can love it because of your own insecurities. There are 2 sides to the coin and promoting censorship of art because of how it makes you feel is about the most hypocritical thing anyone who is not a straight white male can do. Simply put, those who wish not see, need not look. But I don’t want my children growing up in a world, where they don’t have the option.
I find g!p gratifying
It’s literally not all about how a person “takes it”. It has nothing to do with triggering (although those are valid experiences), and everything to do with the way the trope reproduces and directs sexual violence against trans women, deeply fetishizes and dehumanizes us categorically, and erases our lived experiences and the realities of our bodies in ways that render us vulnerable and conditionally worthy of desire and love.
So, uh, yeah. It’s got nothing to do with whether it gives an individual person the warm fuzzies.
And I’m not promoting censorship, since I can’t censor anyone. I’m promoting that people recognize the harm their works do and find it in their heart to weight the wellbeing of trans women over the orgasms they get off our backs.
“Don’t Like Don’t Read” is a highly privileged and ignorant stance to take in fandom
If you want to understand more, read this, this, this, or the other posts on my education page on g!p
Because you may find g!p gratifying, but it’s literally deeply cissexist, transmisogynistic, trans-fetishistic, and reproduces a whole host of stigmas and taboos about trans women that direct real physical sexual violence against us and promotes our exclusion from women’s spaces, wlw spaces, lesbian spaces, often while casting us as dangerous male predators. Those are the facts, regardless of how you, I, or anyone else feels.
“Don’t Like Don’t Read” is a highly privileged and ignorant stance to take in fandom
In a time when women are standing up to male violence and saying ‘no more,’ trans women are still being left out and here, ‘censorship’ is the excuse – even though there is no call for censorship, only understanding that will lead to better choices that do not harm others.
I remember when Roman Polanski was defended by Hollywood actors and actresses saying that his raping of a child should be forgiven because he was a ‘great artist’ and how his working life should continue. Same for Woody Allen.
Now that the tides have turned, sympathy for these ‘great artists’ has eroded – we recognise the harm done, the harm that continues, when we allow these men to be given power and feted. Dylan Farrow’s story of the ongoing hurt and harm of watching Woody Allen escape justice, the harm he did to her family, while he kept working, kept receiving awards – can you see some parallels here?
No one calls for ‘censorship’ of a ‘great artist.’ It’s the human equation that is being left out. The human cost of allowing oppressors to maintain status quo – one that only benefits a few. Will people throw away ‘Chinatown’ or ‘Stardust Memories’ as crap because the men who made them are rubbish?
How many films or books created by ‘great artists’ featured content that we now consider backward, harmful, ignorant, sexist, racist – and those books and films still exist? No one ripped them off the shelves (that’s something fascists and Nazis do). I find the 50 Shades books to not only be terrible, but terrible influences and the woman who wrote them is another rubbish human being who benefited enormously from spreading wrongful, harmful text – that was openly derided far and wide. Did anyone get offended and call it ‘censorship’ to point out her work was harmful? I’d never call for anyone’s works to be banned – but we do seek to educate others on their content, don’t we? How many posts have you seen over the years of readers declaring 50 Shades is harmful? Is it a censorship issue or education?
But trans women point out g!p is harmful and support disappears (insert gif of Mariah Carey in sunglasses, unable to read suddenly).
How much g!p fiction mirrors 50 Shades?
It’s time to to allow those they have harmed to be free from that harm and to know we will progress in better ways. Society either improves and becomes genuinely inclusive and equal – or it continues to fall apart, thanks to selfishness and greed.
If trans women are shouting what is harmful to them and you are not listening, take some stock of the world around you. Look at all the other women who weren’t listened to when they told the world they were harmed. Look at all the other women who were too terrified to come forward, who were told they were asking for it, who were told it was all their fault it happened.
Instead of looking at trans women as something separate, maybe we could start seeing them as women who are pointing out the harm being done to them and stand with them.
Would that be gratifying?
I’ve pointed out before, in the Clexa fandom, fans stood up to a man who did them harm. We pointed out a HARMFUL TROPE that should not be used – no one called for ‘censorship.’ We asked straight content creators to be better allies, to be better educated and not perpetuate the writing of harmful content. It’s about representation.
Trans women are usually the last ones who receive any kind of support. Is ‘time’s up’ inclusive? Is ‘me too?’ I believe them when they tell me someone is hurting them. I believe you, I’m listening, I hope to be a better ally.
It means a lot to come back on tumblr tonight and have read that 🙂
.. it’s all about how you take it. You can be triggered by it because of your own insecurities or you can love it because of your own insecurities. There are 2 sides to the coin and promoting censorship of art because of how it makes you feel is about the most hypocritical thing anyone who is not a straight white male can do. Simply put, those who wish not see, need not look. But I don’t want my children growing up in a world, where they don’t have the option.
I find g!p gratifying
It’s literally not all about how a person “takes it”. It has nothing to do with triggering (although those are valid experiences), and everything to do with the way the trope reproduces and directs sexual violence against trans women, deeply fetishizes and dehumanizes us categorically, and erases our lived experiences and the realities of our bodies in ways that render us vulnerable and conditionally worthy of desire and love.
So, uh, yeah. It’s got nothing to do with whether it gives an individual person the warm fuzzies.
And I’m not promoting censorship, since I can’t censor anyone. I’m promoting that people recognize the harm their works do and find it in their heart to weight the wellbeing of trans women over the orgasms they get off our backs.
“Don’t Like Don’t Read” is a highly privileged and ignorant stance to take in fandom
If you want to understand more, read this, this, this, or the other posts on my education page on g!p
Because you may find g!p gratifying, but it’s literally deeply cissexist, transmisogynistic, trans-fetishistic, and reproduces a whole host of stigmas and taboos about trans women that direct real physical sexual violence against us and promotes our exclusion from women’s spaces, wlw spaces, lesbian spaces, often while casting us as dangerous male predators. Those are the facts, regardless of how you, I, or anyone else feels.
“Don’t Like Don’t Read” is a highly privileged and ignorant stance to take in fandom
In a time when women are standing up to male violence and saying ‘no more,’ trans women are still being left out and here, ‘censorship’ is the excuse – even though there is no call for censorship, only understanding that will lead to better choices that do not harm others.
I remember when Roman Polanski was defended by Hollywood actors and actresses saying that his raping of a child should be forgiven because he was a ‘great artist’ and how his working life should continue. Same for Woody Allen.
Now that the tides have turned, sympathy for these ‘great artists’ has eroded – we recognise the harm done, the harm that continues, when we allow these men to be given power and feted. Dylan Farrow’s story of the ongoing hurt and harm of watching Woody Allen escape justice, the harm he did to her family, while he kept working, kept receiving awards – can you see some parallels here?
No one calls for ‘censorship’ of a ‘great artist.’ It’s the human equation that is being left out. The human cost of allowing oppressors to maintain status quo – one that only benefits a few. Will people throw away ‘Chinatown’ or ‘Stardust Memories’ as crap because the men who made them are rubbish?
How many films or books created by ‘great artists’ featured content that we now consider backward, harmful, ignorant, sexist, racist – and those books and films still exist? No one ripped them off the shelves (that’s something fascists and Nazis do). I find the 50 Shades books to not only be terrible, but terrible influences and the woman who wrote them is another rubbish human being who benefited enormously from spreading wrongful, harmful text – that was openly derided far and wide. Did anyone get offended and call it ‘censorship’ to point out her work was harmful? I’d never call for anyone’s works to be banned – but we do seek to educate others on their content, don’t we? How many posts have you seen over the years of readers declaring 50 Shades is harmful? Is it a censorship issue or education?
But trans women point out g!p is harmful and support disappears (insert gif of Mariah Carey in sunglasses, unable to read suddenly).
How much g!p fiction mirrors 50 Shades?
It’s time to to allow those they have harmed to be free from that harm and to know we will progress in better ways. Society either improves and becomes genuinely inclusive and equal – or it continues to fall apart, thanks to selfishness and greed.
If trans women are shouting what is harmful to them and you are not listening, take some stock of the world around you. Look at all the other women who weren’t listened to when they told the world they were harmed. Look at all the other women who were too terrified to come forward, who were told they were asking for it, who were told it was all their fault it happened.
Instead of looking at trans women as something separate, maybe we could start seeing them as women who are pointing out the harm being done to them and stand with them.
Would that be gratifying?
I’ve pointed out before, in the Clexa fandom, fans stood up to a man who did them harm. We pointed out a HARMFUL TROPE that should not be used – no one called for ‘censorship.’ We asked straight content creators to be better allies, to be better educated and not perpetuate the writing of harmful content. It’s about representation.
Trans women are usually the last ones who receive any kind of support. Is ‘time’s up’ inclusive? Is ‘me too?’ I believe them when they tell me someone is hurting them. I believe you, I’m listening, I hope to be a better ally.
I know the standard-issue response and defense is ‘don’t like, don’t read’ – aka, leave us alone to have our fantasies that, while, perhaps, not intended to harm anyone, are built off of our (as you point out) willful ignorance, and if you try to educate us, we’ll tell you to back off, none of your business what we do. It’s not about trans women, anyway. It’s about a person with a label I just invented to be conveniently removed from any and all discussion. Censorship! Danger!
Not exactly a supportive attitude toward trans women or discussion or education of their reality or how the pervasiveness of this work affects them in the wider world. The impression is that the writer’s fantasies are more important than trans women’s real lives and they don’t seem to care that there is a price for what they do and they don’t seem to have a clue that other people are paying it (and, keep in mind, so many of them are very young and even admit to having no or limited sexual experience themselves – who/what is informing their fantasy lives? Is that a discussion to have?).
The freedom of the oppressor (even if unintentional) is everything.
I mean, they’re not entirely wrong that fandom is a safe space for them to do that. They willed it to be that way, at the expense of trans women. They’re safe to reproduce transmisogyny and the fetishization of trans women to any length they desire, freely without consequence, as they’re not affected by transmisogyny, and they can very easily shut out the voices of trans women and/or rally people to ignore us and support them. And the fandom, as a whole, allowed that to happen, supported that turn of events, that exclusion of trans women. All the folks who thought “Oh shit, I don’t want to get caught in drama, I’ll just keep quiet and keep enjoying X, Y, and Z big name fanworks creators’ stuff, this isn’t my battle” helped this along just as much as those who actively supported and promoted the g!p trope and pushing trans women out of fandom. We needed help, and only a tiny spattering of allies tried to help push back against the wave of transmisogyny. And then, long after the damage was done, some regretted what they did but made no effort to really change things and repair the damage, generally reverting to the “not my battle, not my problem” mindset. So not a lot of solidarity for trans women in this wlw fandom (or really any other major wlw fandom tbh).
So yeah, they kicked us out of the fandom so they could reproduce harm against trans women freely and without consequence. it’s now a safe space for them, even if it absolutely shouldn’t be.
Many just refuse to admit that simple truth, and get defensive about it, but it’s still the truth. When trans women were reaching out to say “this really hurts us, we wont be able to keep participating if you keep pushing this, it makes you unsafe for us”, folks re-centered the dialogue on ‘trans and nb people’ in general, so they wouldn’t have to listen to trans women, so they could pretend transmisogyny wasn’t involved, so they could rally around all the trans men and afab nb folks that were responsible in the start for promoting the g!p trope, who were ignorant of transmisogyny as a whole. it was willful ignorance, because it was a willful dismissal of our voices so that the only ones they’d hear were the ones they wanted to. People who weren’t trans women.
You’d think that after 3×07 that folks would recognize fandom’s importance as a safe harbour, as a place to escape harmful media representation and gain the support of others who share the love of those characters, those worlds. But it’s just not the case. Too many rush to fandom to flee harmful canon rep, but refuse to accept that their harmful fandom creations can force out others within fandom, who then don’t really have anywhere to go. LGBT+ folks find the majority of our representation within fandom, it’s essentially our version of mainstream media representation since most is subtext and/or baiting-grade material. But many refuse to accept that, and just keep comparing our rep to cishet rep rather than looking at the differing dynamics among the communities.
All in all, I won’t want people to stop writing g!p and other trans fetishistic works because I tell them to. I want them to stop because they recognize the harm it’s doing. And so, so many refuse to see and accept that harm, but it doesn’t make it any less real. And that’s the most upsetting thing…telling someone they’re hurting you, and them insisting repeatedly that they’re not, while continuing to hurt you. All while claiming to be open-minded and caring, which might fool some of our allies, but not us, but I suppose that’s the point. They don’t care about us, it’s just virtue signaling.
And it really sucks that clexa, as a pairing, was kind of really tainted, if not ruined, for a lot of us because of it. it’s a beautiful romance, and it just really hurts that I can’t think of Lexa, can’t dip into her character’s voice, without recalling all the horribly transmisogynistic, trans fetishistic shit that’s been funneled into her character.
Don’t come in OUR space and tell US how to write about people like YOU.
And no one wants to support or engage with anything that someone they perceive as more powerful than they are labels as ‘censorship.’
There are layers to all of this that reflect society as a whole and are, altogether, disturbing and in need of wider discussion.
Oh, the canon issues with clexa differ from the fandom issues with clexa.
Canon issues:
On the show, the showrunner (Jason Rothenburg) and staff aggressively baited the fandom, fueling the fire under the clexa fandom specifically to draw views, acclaim, etc. The fandom grew worried after season 2, because Alycia Debnam Carey (Lexa) was only renewed for a guest role, while she had recently signed on as a lead for an AMC show, Fear the Walking Dead. Generally, networks don’t let their stars play on other networks’ shows, and Alycia only getting contracted on part-time had people thinking she’d get killed off. Rothenburg and staff rushed onto social media to tell us we were idiots to think that, that they had too much respect for the character and the fandom to treat them that way.
They repeatedly, repeatedly said that Clarke and Lexa would both be alive at the end of the season. When worries renewed after Alycia Debnam Carey was absent for nearly half a season’s worth of shooting, Rothenburg made a huge, huge deal about bringing her back in to film in the finale, inviting the fans to come see the scenes get shot in Vancouver, where fans could see Lexa and Clarke embrace and kiss.
The fandom was going wild with joy, and took the CW and Rothenburg and the 100 staff at their word. After all, they had been so reassuring, and so aggressive in their support. As Season 3 progressed, The 100′s social media focused heavily on Clexa, playing up on the recovering, budding romance. They leaked a sex scene that was set to air in episode 7 early, just to get the fans riled up.
And directly after that sex scene in episode 7, they killed Lexa off. Accidentally shot by a bullet not meant for her, a wound in a spot far less lethal than others had suffered in the show, with Clarke (a trained medic/surgeon) present. Lexa died in that episode, and the version of her that showed up in the finale was simply a stored virtual reality version of her.
The clexa fandom blew up in grief, and the show’s social media, cheered the ‘twist’, and claimed that the fandom was taking things too seriously when the LGBT+ fans rightfully lashed out over being baited on a show meant for a teen audience, one far more vulnerable than adults.
Just the way the show treated the fans, the characters…it was hideous and cruel and some of the worst, ham-handed, shoehorned writing I’ve seen on television in my nearly 31 years.
Fandom issues:
In the lead-up to season 3, and the anticipation of a romance involving Clarke and Lexa, a few big names in the fandom (none of whom were trans women, or intersex women) started a “Lexa’s Dick” meme. Prior to this, the fandom’s fan works were were solid. There was a surprisingly low amount of transmisogynistic, trans-fetishistic, intersexist content compared to other wlw fandoms. It’s part of what helped me feel safe to join it when I had, early on in season 2.
Anyways, trans women like myself spoke out against the meme and how it was used to aggressively, joyfully fetishize trans women’s bodies. We were thoroughly, swiftly laughed off. if anything, the pushback against it only seemed to make people celebrate it more. Especially when season 3 started airing and the sexual tension started up on screen. The more that ‘Lexa’s Dick’ stuff spread on social media, the more fanworks of g!p and a/b/o tropes were made. And when lexa was killed off, one of the rallying cries as a means to cope was “Lexa’s Dick”, pushing people to revel in that even while the show was falling apart and had hurt everyone.
There were people crying out against the Dead lesbians trope, the Bury Your Gays trope. There was a huge push to get people aware of how wlw were represented in media, how often they would get killed off directly after validating their relationship, how toxic wlw representation has historically been, etc. etc.
Rightfully so. Media representation is an important fight. nearly all fo the clexa fandom recognized that intimately, having been hurt by it.
But so, so many of those same people refused to acknowledge that they were causing the same abuse against trans and intersex women, by reproducing and reinforcing and celebrating our violently misrepresentative, fetishistic, toxic representation, and refusing to hear us when we spoke out on that. They’d cry over how the media wasn’t listening, the showrunners weren’t listening, how hetero fandoms were vilifying them and just didn’t understand. yet, they’d laugh us off when we’d bring up transmisogyny and trans fetishization, all while propping up monikers and orgs like “LGBT Fans Deserve Better” when they were aggressively dropping the T.
And that momentum behind trans fetishistic, intersexist works has only continued, and now The 100, as a fandom, is not so arguably the most saturated fiction-based wlw fandom when it comes to g!p and a/b/o fanworks. Some of those big names have since recanted their support for the trope, but generally haven’t done anything to work at undoing the damage they helped cause, haven’t done anything to make fandom safer for us.
Even today, some of the biggest names reproducing those works have patreons and paypals and whatever earning them good money each month by exploiting, misrepresenting, and fetishizing trans women, and directing harm against us. Some of them are published authors. Most of them are very well loved in the fandom and nearly no one actually speaks out against them for fear of causing drama, such is the hold that transmisogyny has on it. Apparently, it’s okay for trans women to suffer so long as other marginalized people might benefit. When they claim to be willing to do anything to help except stop harming trans women directly, it’s pretty telling who they deem disposable and not part of the wlw community, regardless of their offhand comments of ‘support’.
I’ve written extensively on this. I’ve a long post here covering most issues, I’ve a shorter one detailing the impact of these works on trans women here, and I’ve got data from g!p fanworks in the clexa fandom here, just to toss out a few things, if you’re ever curious.
I see so much defensiveness on this topic due to the idea that we have freedom of expression (well, depending upon where you live),that fetish-shaming is wrong and so long as the stories are tagged properly, you just have to live with ‘problematic’ content and not read it, if it is not for you. No one is here to parent you and there are no safe places, so don’t even ask for them anymore, kthnksbai. All useful discussion stops here.
Nothing in the OP’s articles (and, if you consider yourself a trans ally, I hope you read with an open heart and mind) call for censorship. Her articles DO point out the inherent transmisogyny, intersexism, and heteronormative bias of these stories (basically presenting Lexa as a heterosexual male in all but name) and how they can relate to perpetuating damaging and hurtful images of trans women in media and, thus, perpetuate violence toward them in real life.
Do we only care about what gets us off and not how it harms other people who are presented as the source of that fetish? Do such stories fetishise abuse? Isn’t this what heterocentric porn has been criticised for for decades?
I’m not blind for the need of many writers to exorcise a demon or two in their writing. Some people write ‘dark fic’ that helps them cope with their own lived trauma. Some people write g!p stories where the g!p character is presented in a positive light, is popular, successful, etc. with the hope that it will help ‘normalise’ being trans or intersex, to give a trans woman a happy ending she probably won’t see in real life (regardless of how problematic the depiction of her body or sexuality might be).
People are going to have their fantasies and write what they will – but I hope we care as much about being educated and honouring the lived experience of other people (and thus truly honour our queer family in its entirety) and not reduce anyone to a truly damaging stereotype, to not bully trans women when they speak out with clarity and conviction over what is happening to them.
The Clexa fandom rose up in rage when they realised they had been manipulated over the use of a damaging stereotype. We refused to back down and sought to educate others and change minds.
Are we not willing to look ourselves in the eye when we do the same to one another? I think this writer has some excellent points to make, I hope others read and absorb all the information and pass it on – build a respectful discussion. We – and our art – can only benefit.
What? Trans people are 0.03% ish of the population, of course most tv show characters won’t be trans? Don’t we have bigger things to worry about?
the point they’re getting at isn’t just that there’s no representation, is the type of representation. the sidekick, the comedic relief, nothing of substance. and that impacts people’s perception of LGBT+ people.
Okay, but I just don’t see how that is important right now. I see way more activism like this than people focusing on the places where people are being driven from their countries, killed, d y I n g. We’re in an administration right now where trans people’s health care is at risk. We both know how bad that would be if transitioning wasn’t covered under any insurance or not deemed medically necessary. Yet people are advocating for tv shows? The perception of LGBT people? Idk man, like there’s nothing wrong with that, I just disagree that it has any significance
i completely get where you’re coming from, but how do you think we’re going to solve the bigger problems? Representation is where it starts. People vote for what/who they want. If people who aren’t really familiar with the trans community only see trans people as hookers, prostitutes, sassy, rude, stereotypical, or not at all, do you think they are going to care if trans people have healthcare or not? Starting with how people perceive the community is VERY important. We need to show them correct facts, statistics, accurate representation, and stories about real trans people. We have to start making people see trans people as human beings before they can start being treated like one. It’s messed up, but that’s how it is.
And on another note, it is extremely important to have good trans representation, not just to forward the movement, but because young people who are scared to come out/transition, still trying to figure themselves out, and want to know that there are others like them can find solace in the characters on TV.
And about your comment in how there are bigger, badder problems going on elsewhere in the world, you do realize people can care about several different problems at once right? Hell, I can advocate for trans rights, women’s rights, men’s rights, the end of child marriage in the middle east, minimum wage, and gender equality… the list goes on and on and on
Empathy matters.
Despite being a liberal queer woman who ostensibly supported the trans community, I still held lots of deeply transphobic beliefs until my husband started his transition. I’d never met a trans person before or seen one on TV who wasn’t vilified. Seeing him transition while knowing him as a person is what showed me my many mistakes. (And there are more to discover, I’m sure.)
Trans people are a tiny segment of the population. Not everyone is going to know a trans person, or they might not know they know one, because many trans people are closeted for their own safety. That’s where representation comes in. TV and media can ‘introduce’ trans people to the cis population at large. Even if they’re fictional, it helps. Once we see trans people as relatable human beings, most of us will start to care about them.
This applies to many different marginalized groups, by the way. I didn’t know a single lesbian, bi, or queer woman growing up. Not one. The only time I saw women like me was on television and in books, and even those representations were usually bleak. They were the only role models I had, and the only role models my straight, cis extended family had when they stepped in to support me when my parents wouldn’t.
If we want cis/straight/etc. people to empathize, to become activists on our behalf and vote for our safety and protection, they have to know who we are first.
2017 is the year of transgender people not taking shit or remaining silent anymore
As an ally, lemme know what I can do to help.
heres a few ideas: -correct people if they misgender someone (famous or a friend) and don’t let it go when they say “whatever you know what i mean” -don’t buy into cis white womens movements like “pussy grabs back” -everyone needs to stop saying shit about penis size making someone more or less of a man -if you dont know someones pronouns ask or just simply use they/them until you know -support businesses owned by transgender people (or trans bands!) -normalize being trans dont make it some taboo -never say shit like “oh theyre like caitlyn jenner!” -stand up for trans people online or in real situations -don’t out someone. before meeting a trans persons friends or family ask them who knows -donate to trans peoples kickstarters if you can
-don’t ask about a person’s deadname/genitalia – When you’re speaking about a trans person before they came out it is still not ok to deadname or misgender them! -be aware and self-critical of ways in which you might still enforce transphobic ideas (ie: calling menstrual products “feminine hygiene products” or using “men” and “women” when you really mean people with certain body parts/physical characteristics) -be aware and self-critical of ways in which you might still enforce the gender binary through your language – get in the habit of using neutral language for anyone you don’t know even when they don’t “look trans”
I keep seeing this fucking argument about trans people using bathrooms like “Well if that had been an option for me back in the day I totally would’ve signed up as a ‘trans-whatever’ to get into the girls’ locker room back in high school” (Yeah, the fuckwit on FB I saw earlier actually said ‘trans-whatever’).
Like, you really, genuinely think that you, as a 16 year old presumably straight teenage boy would have changed your name, requested everyone you know call you by different pronouns, changed your entire wardrobe and look, went to school presenting yourself as a girl, dealt with the bullshit you would likely have gotten from your parents, family, friends, classmates, teachers, doctors, neighbors, people on the street, and rearranged your entire life…
Because you maybe, might have possibly caught a glimpse of a titty in the locker room?
Yeah, it’s clearly the trans people we should be worried about.
I always find it interesting that they seem to think that declaring “Given the opportunity I absolutely would have been a sexual predator” is a defense of their position.
I always find it interesting that they seem to think that declaring “Given the opportunity I absolutely would have been a sexual predator” is a defense of their position.
I am just going to save this, modify pronouns as needed, and use it as a response to this. Forever.
All the above.
This also makes me think of all the shows where straight boys dressed as a girls in order to solve some unrelated problem and wound up succeeding at whatever they were doing (including ogling girls and winning them). Never forget Disney (Touchstone/BV) made this film. In 2002.
trans women don’t experience male socialization before we come out
we experience closeted trans woman socialization which is an entirely different and extremely toxic monster
thank and have a terrible day if you disagree
hi if you’re safe to do so you should probably be reblogging this the idea that trans women are socialized as anything but women is one of the most potent arguments for stripping us of our humanity
if i reblog a terf, its an accident and i want to know so i can delete the post
for cis people who may not know what to look for, check for these things in someone’s bio:
gender critical
radfem (although not always a 100% qualifier, it usually does lead to trans exclusionary discourse)
“Detransitioned female”
A huge obsession with genitals, including reducing other cis women to their vaginas
If they have “TERF” anywhere in their bio or their blog and it isn’t ironic, be cautious
Saying things like “TERF is a slur!”
If they have a lot of content where they call trans women “dysphoric men” or “male to trans,” get outta there
If they keep pushing the narrative that “TERF” is synonymous with “lesbian” (it’s not), or that trans women are trying to force cis women to have sex with them (we’re not)
“Natal Women”
And that’s just what I can think of off the top of my head from all of my numerous experiences with these people
•if they reblog from a lot of terfs. it doesn’t always mean they’re a terf but it can mean they either agree with the terfs they follow but don’t reblog terf posts, are on their way to being a terf, or don’t care enough about trans people to not follow terfs
The fuck is a terf
Trans Exclusive Radical Feminist. They believe that trans women and men aren’t really what they “claim” to be. They have caused a lot of outing of minors, suicide cases, bullying, and disgusting other stuff.
You’re also likely to see ‘discourse’ decrying use of the world ‘queer’ as a slur and demonising of bisexuals (especially bisexual women).
Please don’t confuse all of this with open discussions on feminism, gender identity, sexuality or women’s bodies (including vagina-owners). There’s lots of good intersectional discussion to be had.
The Doctor Is Out 