Transfemingway @ashmacg - Tumblr Blog

we need less “trans women/men should be allowed in women’s/men’s spaces” and more “gender segregated spaces are inherently sexist and transphobic, and we should replace them with gender neutral spaces”

strictlyquadrilateral

i saw a post the other day that said something like "if you identify as the gender you were assigned at birth, you are cis and shouldn't be allowed to call yourself trans" which i'm sure sounds reasonable if you don't know any, say, bigender people

ashmacg

The fact of the matter is—

Iff (if and only if) you identify *only and normatively* as the gender you were assigned at birth, you are cis

and you are always allowed to call yourself trans if this ever changes in any way, and know that there are people who are ready to listen and affirm you when you want to talk about it.

strictlyquadrilateral

and how do intersex people fit into this schema?

ashmacg

If they identify only and normatively as their AGAB, they are cis. They self-ID as such therefore they are such.

It may be difficult for that person, however, to square a cis identity with a non-perisex identity. I.e. their self-ID situation changes.

Hell, cis perisex people can self-ID (assuming good-faith) as trans. I don't and can't know their experience of life as they do, so I cannot judge their witnessing of self to be untrue. Such a person may change their self-ID at some point, who knows.

I view labels as only ever being descriptions of self-concept of a person, not that the person ontologically is what the label is commonly understood to mean. Hence my general disinterest in declaring concepts like "male lesbian" to be bad faith by definition. I'm not with the wOrDs MeAn tHiNgS purist crowd.

So I view people who "are intersex" as people who typically experience an intersex condition. "Intersex" describes them. What they actually are, well...at this point of semantics I typically invoke the Heart Sutra: the Self is illusory, nothing exists in and of itself—every discrete "thing" comprises other "things". People aren't concrete things, they are matter-energy systems containing exchanges of information that include the perception of their own existence...et cetera, et cetera.

At no point do I place any different value on the idea of being {label} vs the idea of being described by {label}. I assume validity.

So to answer your question most directly (and as it happens, least effectively),

"Not at all. Intersex people don't fit into this schema."

The wording makes the wrong assumptions. The schema is an imprecise but conceptually compact thought object that can only attempt to fit around them. I don't expect intersex people to fit into anything, and I wouldn't want them to. I've tried that fitting stuff and it's crap.

strictlyquadrilateral

you know what, if i'm understanding your response right i think i can get behind that. i'm just not sure you should be throwing around schemas as though they're universal if that's not what you actually believe

ashmacg

You are understanding it right, yes.

I suppose that as clunky as that schema is, I felt like the wording of the exclusionary attitude offered a good scaffold for baiting by seemingly agreeing with the first premise, but then switching the second premise with radical affirmation.

All schemas are wrong, but some are useful. Highly toxic paints can still be smeared into works of great beauty.

(that is not to say that your caveat is at all unwarranted; it very much is)

strictlyquadrilateral

i saw a post the other day that said something like "if you identify as the gender you were assigned at birth, you are cis and shouldn't be allowed to call yourself trans" which i'm sure sounds reasonable if you don't know any, say, bigender people

ashmacg

The fact of the matter is—

Iff (if and only if) you identify *only and normatively* as the gender you were assigned at birth, you are cis

and you are always allowed to call yourself trans if this ever changes in any way, and know that there are people who are ready to listen and affirm you when you want to talk about it.

strictlyquadrilateral

and how do intersex people fit into this schema?

ashmacg

If they identify only and normatively as their AGAB, they are cis. They self-ID as such therefore they are such.

It may be difficult for that person, however, to square a cis identity with a non-perisex identity. I.e. their self-ID situation changes.

Hell, cis perisex people can self-ID (assuming good-faith) as trans. I don't and can't know their experience of life as they do, so I cannot judge their witnessing of self to be untrue. Such a person may change their self-ID at some point, who knows.

I view labels as only ever being descriptions of self-concept of a person, not that the person ontologically is what the label is commonly understood to mean. Hence my general disinterest in declaring concepts like "male lesbian" to be bad faith by definition. I'm not with the wOrDs MeAn tHiNgS purist crowd.

So I view people who "are intersex" as people who typically experience an intersex condition. "Intersex" describes them. What they actually are, well...at this point of semantics I typically invoke the Heart Sutra: the Self is illusory, nothing exists in and of itself—every discrete "thing" comprises other "things". People aren't concrete things, they are matter-energy systems containing exchanges of information that include the perception of their own existence...et cetera, et cetera.

At no point do I place any different value on the idea of being {label} vs the idea of being described by {label}. I assume validity.

So to answer your question most directly (and as it happens, least effectively),

"Not at all. Intersex people don't fit into this schema."

The wording makes the wrong assumptions. The schema is an imprecise but conceptually compact thought object that can only attempt to fit around them. I don't expect intersex people to fit into anything, and I wouldn't want them to. I've tried that fitting stuff and it's crap.

#there's a saying in statistics that works for this‚ too: “All models are wrong‚ but some are useful.”#language is simply fundamentally incapable of *exactly* communicating anything—#—so to argue that an aspect of reality must follow a linguistic construct is a textbook example of something being bass-ackward #we use words to get our minds close to the same idea. the closer we get‚ the better we can work together. the more we can help 1 another.

wouldyoueatthisfood

Would you eat this?

I would eat this

I would not eat this

I have eaten this (positive)

I have eaten this (negative)

Remaining time: 6 days 15 hours

Food: Indian saag paneer

Ingredients: turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt, vegetable oil, paneer, spinach, kale, mustard greens, onion, ginger, garlic, garam masala, cumin, coriander, yogurt

ninanation

Come to think of it, it really is insane that my entire country is burning alive and literally no one in the rest of the world cares. Thousands of Indians are dying every day from the heat, it's 45+ degrees in multiple areas, the government couldn't give two fucks, we're getting severe warnings and red alerts, and not a soul outside of South Asia is speaking about it because why would you ever care about brown people

ninanation

please keep talking about how Becky from Maryland doesn't like the rising gas prices. It's clearly the more pressing issue.

creacher-art

USA folks, that is a consistent temperature range hitting 113°. Death Valley temperatures. In Banda, it hovered between 116°-118° (47°-48° C) for a week straight.

This has been happening all month with little to no international media attention. Here are a few organizations you can check out for resources or to support:

ActionAid India

SEEDS India

GlobalGiving

Raise India (Project Tapan)

ashmacg

Maybe we oughta try the ol'—

Put the lime nuke in the coconut Yellowstone Magma Chamber and shake it all up detonate it

—trick. What do y'all say? Might cool things down, might put the pyroclastic kibosh on the Murican Empire...

I say this, half-seriously, as an American, living in the US at present.

Heheheheheh let's see if we can make "VEI-9" a real thing

#seriously tho #we are approaching the point at which triggering a supervolcanic eruption or sending rockets to yeet an asteroid at ourselves—#—will be the best options to save lives in the long run.#unless we...idk...STOP BUILDING AI DATACENTERS AND START BUILDING GIANT MIRRORS WE CAN PARK AT THE L1 LAGRANGE POINT.

strictlyquadrilateral

i saw a post the other day that said something like "if you identify as the gender you were assigned at birth, you are cis and shouldn't be allowed to call yourself trans" which i'm sure sounds reasonable if you don't know any, say, bigender people

ashmacg

The fact of the matter is—

Iff (if and only if) you identify *only and normatively* as the gender you were assigned at birth, you are cis

and you are always allowed to call yourself trans if this ever changes in any way, and know that there are people who are ready to listen and affirm you when you want to talk about it.

sweatermuppet

do you have any gender related tips

get a big pair of boots

ashmacg

I am Schrödinger's Futch Transbian:

The first time I read the answer, I read it wrong and read it correctly at the same time.

sephiramy

me messaging a casual acquaintance: hello, how are you?

me messaging a best friend w/zero lead-in:

#and this is why a lot of my friends stop talking to me‚ I guess.

iwilleatyourenglish

something i have always found really weird is when english texts italicize words from other languages.

i remember reading a book as a kid and the author continually italicizing the word tamales

iwilleatyourenglish

official-linguistics-post

official linguistics post

viktorslastnerve

All of our words are stolen, misshapen from being ripped out of the mouths of their native speakers and stuffed into our pockets like the gold we chased them down for; we would do well to remember our place, to lower our voices and hear the songs that echo in the winds around us, sung by the ghosts we created.

ashmacg

Regarding the dyslexia issue—

ᛁᛋᚦᛁᛋᛠᛋᛁᛖᚱᛏᚩᚱᛠᛞ

ᚹᚩᚱᛞᛒᛚᛁᚾᛞᚾᛖᛋᛋᚠᚩᛚᚳᚷᛚᚪᛞᛞᛖᚾᚹᛖᛁᚷᚻᛁᚾ

quentims

zoemira

allthingswhumpyandangsty

unpopular opinion probably but I actually like that ao3 doesn’t let people take back their kudos.

unlike social media platforms (which ao3 is not) where people unlike stuff whenever they think or find out the original posters’ moral compass doesn’t perfectly align with their own’s or whatever, and “likes” can be taken back at any time, ao3 treats kudos as something sacred. once you give it, it’s the author’s to keep forever.

mariasklodowskastwixbar

But it does mean that there's a certain subset of readers who refuse to give kudos because there's no take backs and they're terrified of being found out for kudosing a problematic fic

ashmacg

I will say this for their benefit and thereby also for The Good Of The Order™:

An AO3 account is NOT NECESSARY to leave kudos on a work.

I just re-kudos'd a fic by opening a Private Window (the vast majority of browsers [with that feature {aka Incognito Mode, etc}] run the window without the cookies for logins) and, while visiting the fic page as a guest in that Private Window, I was able to leave Kudos. Never had to login to AO3 in any way (just had to accept AO3's T&C). Heck, I had my VPN on, too; and I use Vivaldi browser, which is very privacy-forward by default—I doubt AO3 received any information from the interaction that could be connected to my online identity.

So, for anyone fearful of having a kudos connected to their online identity, y'all can leave kudos anonymously while logged out/browsing incognito. It is safe.

And, of course, one may add a private bookmark (while logged in) that won't be seen by other AO3 users.

#ao3 #ao3 fanfic #fanfic #fanfic readers #archive of our own #ao3 reader

norabee

What if more characters were just. Fatter

And it's not like a plot point of their character, they're just treated normally or (audible gasp) appreciated for being fat

That'd be pretty cool i think.

tobeabatman

it pisses me off how long it takes for the research community to find out basic stuff about fat bodies

”Hey guys, we found out that obesity isn’t a singular thing but that there are 11 endotypes of obesity!”

For decades now, obesity has been defined by a number on a scale or where you land on the body mass index (BMI) measure. But a groundbreakin

Like yeah?

This is what I mean when I say that the research on fat bodies is lacking. We talk a lot about dieting but it takes this long for the research community to start figuring out that we’re not all the same

(Which is quite obvious considering there’s not a single cause for all people being fat and not all fat people will get the same symptoms. Like my dad has been fat from childhood and has no issue with insulin)

manyphasedgod

ashmacg

cryingbard

If you see this, it's not too late.

ashmacg

This is why we don't gatekeep or police queerness of any form. Those ways there be lives lost...by our hands mouths.

makingqueerhistory

Hundreds gathered in San Francisco’s Chinatown as city leaders and community members celebrated the opening of the world’s first Chinese LGB

Hundreds gathered in San Francisco’s Chinatown as city leaders and community members celebrated the opening of the world’s first Chinese LGBTQ museum. Mayor Daniel Lurie joined supporters for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the OUT Museum, a space dedicated to preserving and sharing Chinese queer history and culture. The museum was founded by Chinese artist and LGBTQ advocate Xiangqi Chen, who spent more than 20 years promoting queer visibility in China before moving to the United States in 2023.

June 5, 2026

rabbits-of-negative-euphoria

if they're gonna remake The Princess Bride, it should open with a kid sick in bed scrolling on his phone. his grandpa arrives with a gift--it's a DVD player with a disc already inside. grandpa hooks it up to the TV and presses play. and we all just watch the original 1987 film again.

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Transfemingway