boy howdy

who are you and how did you get in here

[insaniquariumfish]

fuckk

yeahh

[t4nku-deactivated20240405]

i bought insanaquarium on steam and i'm having a blast. it's reminding me of being in 5th grade and pretending to do homework on the laptop for hours but the whole time i'd just be playing insanaquarium and then i'd get in trouble but i just wanted to keep playing insanaquarium.

[insaniquariumfish]

A significant portion of people nowadays do not have even a basic understanding of what gender is or what the phrase “gender is a social construct” actually means, and this lack of understanding is poisoning all discourse on the subject of sex and gender as well as semantically mangling the language that we use to discuss these things.

“Man,” “woman,” “male,” and “female” are not genders. “Masculinity” and “femininity” are genders. People are not assigned male or female at birth. People are assigned masculinity or femininity at birth. The state of existing as a man or woman is not determined by gender and has nothing to do with gender. Gender is everything that is culturally associated with men and women besides the state of being a man or woman itself. Gender is “boys don’t cry” and “girls wear dresses.” Gender is not “boys are male and girls are female.” That is sex, which is a biological category, and not a social category, like gender is. A gender is not something you can identify your way into being, because gender is a social phenomenon that is socially constructed and socially imposed, and therefore has nothing to do with your personal internal thoughts, feelings, or desires. Gender is an act you perform, not an identity you feel. How gender applies to you is something that the people around you determine for you, because that is how social constructs work. You are only a feminine/masculine person if the people around you perceive you to be feminine/masculine. Whether you are male or female, on the other hand, has absolutely nothing to do with how you are perceived by others, or even by yourself. You are the sex that you are even if people mistake you for being the other sex, just like an amputee is still an amputee even if people can’t tell that their leg is prosthetic.

Gender is not objectively real, because it is based in subjective and arbitrary social norms that differ depending on culture and time period. No one is innately a gender by virtue of some psychological or neurological property present at birth, any more than they are innately a criminal or a geek or a celebrity or any other social category by virtue of some psychological or neurological property present at birth. Sex is objectively real. You would still be the sex that you are even if no one alive, including you, understood the concept of sex or had the means to determine it, just like you would still be the height that you are even if no one understood the concept of height or had the means to measure it. Meanwhile, you would not have a gender if there was no one who understood the concept of gender, because gender exists only as a concept, and a highly subjective one that is constantly in a state of being redefined, at that, and gender does not describe or indicate any property of objective reality.

[insaniquariumfish]

If you experience dysphoria regarding your physical body, that is not gender dysphoria. Yes, everyone, up to and including academics, calls it gender dysphoria, but this term conflates gender and sex and it has therefore been used erroneously from the start. Gender is not the body, and gender has nothing to do with one’s sex characteristics beyond sex characteristics being the factor based upon which gender is assigned. Body dysphoria is sexual dysphoria, because it is dysphoria regarding one’s physical sex. This is why the term “transsexual” used to be used, and ironically now that it has been phased out, we no longer have a word to refer to people who experience sexual dysphoria. Physical traits that typically indicate sex are not gendered traits, because gender is, as I previously mentioned, everything that is culturally associated with sex besides the traits that actually, physically indicate sex. When a nonbinary person says that they are neither male nor female because they prefer not to perform or identify with either the masculine or feminine gender (or prefer to perform/identify with both), what they are really saying is that they understand how stupid, arbitrary, and harmful the expectation to perform gender is, but because they are unable to free themselves from the mind prison of gender, they still describe this experience in gendered terms, and they still equate the state of being a man or a woman with gender, so to them not performing/identifying with masculinity or femininity, or performing/identifying with both masculinity and femininity, means that they must not be a man or a woman.

Gender dysphoria is not a mental health condition or even symptom. Gender dysphoria is perfectly normal and healthy, because all it is is discomfort regarding the social norms and expectations that constitute gender being imposed upon/expected of oneself. This is something that nearly everyone experiences to some degree or another. The people who label themselves as having gender dysphoria are simply people who experience this discomfort to a much more significant extent than is typical. Having gender dysphoria does not make you a fundamentally distinct category of person from other people of your sex, it does not require that you adopt any new or special labels or terminology, and it does not determine whether you are a man or a woman. A woman who rejects femininity is still a woman, because being a woman has nothing to do with femininity, i.e. gender. A man who embraces femininity is still a man, because being a man has nothing to do with femininity, i.e. gender. 

Sexual dysphoria, on the other hand, is a mental disorder, because it is the same kind of psychological phenomenon as other forms of physical dysphoria. Someone who thinks they look like an alien despite appearing perfectly ordinary, someone who thinks they shouldn’t have any arms, someone who thinks they are overweight despite being underweight, and someone who thinks they should have a penis instead of a vagina, are all experiencing various forms of body dysphoria, which is not normal or healthy. The first line of treatment for any form of body dysphoria should be therapy and medication and not dramatic and irreversible alterations to the body. Living a healthy and happy life despite experiencing sexual dysphoria, and without medically transitioning, is possible in many cases. Saying that something is a mental disorder is not hateful. If you think that it is a bad thing for someone to have a mental illness, or if the idea of being mentally ill offends you, then that belief is coming from your own ableism.

[insaniquariumfish]

A significant portion of people nowadays do not have even a basic understanding of what gender is or what the phrase “gender is a social construct” actually means, and this lack of understanding is poisoning all discourse on the subject of sex and gender as well as semantically mangling the language that we use to discuss these things.

“Man,” “woman,” “male,” and “female” are not genders. “Masculinity” and “femininity” are genders. People are not assigned male or female at birth. People are assigned masculinity or femininity at birth. The state of existing as a man or woman is not determined by gender and has nothing to do with gender. Gender is everything that is culturally associated with men and women besides the state of being a man or woman itself. Gender is “boys don’t cry” and “girls wear dresses.” Gender is not “boys are male and girls are female.” That is sex, which is a biological category, and not a social category, like gender is. A gender is not something you can identify your way into being, because gender is a social phenomenon that is socially constructed and socially imposed, and therefore has nothing to do with your personal internal thoughts, feelings, or desires. Gender is an act you perform, not an identity you feel. How gender applies to you is something that the people around you determine for you, because that is how social constructs work. You are only a feminine/masculine person if the people around you perceive you to be feminine/masculine. Whether you are male or female, on the other hand, has absolutely nothing to do with how you are perceived by others, or even by yourself. You are the sex that you are even if people mistake you for being the other sex, just like an amputee is still an amputee even if people can’t tell that their leg is prosthetic.

Gender is not objectively real, because it is based in subjective and arbitrary social norms that differ depending on culture and time period. No one is innately a gender by virtue of some psychological or neurological property present at birth, any more than they are innately a criminal or a geek or a celebrity or any other social category by virtue of some psychological or neurological property present at birth. Sex is objectively real. You would still be the sex that you are even if no one alive, including you, understood the concept of sex or had the means to determine it, just like you would still be the height that you are even if no one understood the concept of height or had the means to measure it. Meanwhile, you would not have a gender if there was no one who understood the concept of gender, because gender exists only as a concept, and a highly subjective one that is constantly in a state of being redefined, at that, and gender does not describe or indicate any property of objective reality.

[thirstghosting]

@ radfems who sunk their identity into being a lesbian then immediately fell in love with a trans man: youre literally allowed to be bisexual, you dont have to go full fascist.

[insaniquariumfish]

Humans are not sexually attracted to one another based on how they identify or what pronouns they use, they're attracted to one another based on their physical bodies. Lesbians can be attracted to trans "men" because they have female bodies, and lesbians are exclusively attracted to people with female bodies. This is called homosexuality, and it is a normal and natural variation within human sexuality. The beliefs that homosexuality is not real, that being gay is immoral, that gay people are generally immoral beyond being gay because their lack of moral integrity and homosexuality are related, that being gay is a choice, and that homosexuality can be "fixed" with the right mindset, are all examples of homophobia.

And why are you equating homosexuality with fascism? How is it fascistic to be a lesbian? Please explain to me what you think the relationship is between being a gay woman, and believing that we ought to live in a hypernationalistic, autocratic, dictatorial military state with strict and exaggerated social hierarchies? Do you think that that's what feminists want? If so, have you ever had a real conversation with a feminist that wasn't in your own head?

[insaniquariumfish]

These are genuine questions and I sincerely want to know people's thoughts here. I am not asking out of malice, but out of an earnest desire to understand. Anyone who responds to this doesn't need to answer every question, just any response at all would be very helpful.

Okay, so, a lot of people say that gender isn't objectively real, that's it's an arbitrary social contruct that changes depending upon one's culture, and that gender is stuff like, "women should wear skirts and do house work," and "men should be athletic and shouldn't cry," etc. But a lot of other people don't believe that, and instead believe that gender is objectively real, and that it's an innate component of one's personal identity that has nothing to do with societal conceptions of anything (i.e. the whole, "if a trans person grew up alone on a desert island, they would still know they're trans" argument). These same people also believe that gender has nothing to do with one's physical body or their neurology. These are the people my questions are for.

Okay, so, if gender is not what society expects from you/assigns to you based on what socially constructed category you fall into, and it also isn't what kind of body you have, then what is gender, exactly? And if you don't need to do anything, or look or act any particular way, or have any particular type of body, or be perceived a certain way by society, in order to be a certain gender, then what makes you that gender? Some people say gender is a feeling. So okay, gender is a feeling, then what does it feel like, and what causes one to feel it, and what impact does it have? And how do the different gender feelings vary from one another in that regard? And if gender feelings have nothing to do with societal expectations or people's bodies, then how come people will say things like, "well, feeling like a boy is wanting to play in the mud and have a penis"?

This is the part that confuses me the most. People say gender is not societal expectations or body parts, but when they describe how they knew they were trans, they talk about societal expectations and body parts. If "boy" does not equal "plays in mud and has penis," then why would one equate their desire to play in the mud and have a penis with being a boy? In fact, why would you feel the need to transition at all if you already are your gender the moment you realize you're trans? If a woman can be highly masculine and have a "default" male body and still be a real woman, then why would a trans woman feel like she needs to look and act a certain way to validate/affirm her gender? If a trans woman's/man's/nonbinary person's body is a female/male/nonbinary body just by virtue of them inhabiting it, no matter what it looks like or what clothes they put over it, why do they experience dysphoria at all, then? Wouldn't dysphoria actually just be internalized transphobia by this logic, since it's based in the feeling that one isn't masculine/feminine "enough" to be a "proper" or "valid" man/woman/nonbinary person?

[insaniquariumfish]

You're on the queer website stop being a transphobe or go away

Always hilarious when people think that disagreement with a group over what is good or true somehow constitutes a "phobia." You people simply cannot comprehend the idea of not thinking the same way as someone else without it being based in an irrationally intense hatred, because you yourselves are incapable of disagreeing with others without being irrationally hateful. It's no wonder you think "terfs" hate trans people and want them dead. You're assuming we think just like you when it comes to how we view people who aren't ideological clones of ourselves.

Also, imagine the level of entitlement to think that an entire social media site essentially belongs exclusively to people who think exactly like you. Tumblr doesn't exist for the sole purpose of being a "queer" echo chamber. This isn't "the queer website" it's just a website that happens to have a lot of very obnoxious people on it.

[insaniquariumfish]

There is nothing inherently bad about AI generated art. The only reason it is a problem is because of capitalist greed and malicious perverts. That is to say, because of men, who comprise the majority of both greedy capitalists and malicious perverts. Men are the reason why AI art can't just be something fun and harmless, or even serve as a legitimate tool to help artists inspire themselves or help people who don't have much in the way of creative skills express themselves.

[insaniquariumfish]

I want to personally strangle every person who has ever been involved in the creation or distribution of those mobile game ads. You know the ones. And I don't care if they were "just doing their jobs." I would rather work at McDonald's than forever tarnish my soul with the knowledge that I was involved in the production of what is the distilled essence of the progressively intensifying degradation of our collective psyche under late stage capitalism, and if your integrity as both a human being and an artist is so nonexistent that you'd rather program booty jiggle physics or animate popping back pimples than just find another job then I do not respect your humanity.

[insaniquariumfish]

"Black people not liking white people and having a negative attitude towards white people in response to the racism perpetuated by white people is equally as bad as white people viscerally despising black people and seeing them as subhuman for no good reason because all racism is equally wrong"

and

"Women not liking men and having a negative attitude towards men in response to the sexism perpetuated by men is equally as bad as men viscerally despising women and seeing them as subhuman for no good reason because all sexism is equally wrong"

Are the same argument. If you can see the problems with one, then you should be able to see the problems with the other.

[insaniquariumfish]

There's a pro-communism blog on here that posts some of the absolute cringiest memes I have ever seen, and even though I haven't followed it and I never like the posts, it still keeps showing up in my for you. This isn't a complaint, btw. I love you, unapologetically and intolerably cringe communism blog. The absurdity of your existence brightens my day. I'm sure one day you will recruit many new comrades through your Rick and Morty references and depictions of communist Spongebob.

[insaniquariumfish]

was so ready to follow you until I read ur post abt underarm hair 😭 sorry bestie but women w hairy pits >>>>>>>

I'm gonna assume based off this message that you didn't scroll very far into my blog, because considering the kind of takes I've posted, for my stance on pit hair of all things to be where someone draws the line is absolutely hilarious.

[paperlunamoth]

I for one am glad that we're destroying the planet and hope that we manage to render it uninhabitable.

[espresso-nightingale-deactivate]

Not exactly agreeing with you on this one. Mostly because I don't wish people to die a horribly painful death due to the planet becoming uninhabitable. At the same time, I know that people will continue to reproduce till the end of time, even if those times are unmanageable and downright hostile to human life.

[insaniquariumfish]

Man I forgot I made this post lol. (I am OP, this is just a sideblog where I now post my more controversial takes.) I understand what you're saying, however, the way I look at it is this: Humanity will go extinct at some point. That can't be avoided. The process of going extinct will involve massive, unprecedented levels of human suffering no matter what. That also cannot be avoided. So that leaves the only avoidable suffering as that which occurs in between now and the extinction process. Since I mostly base my ethics on negative utilitarianism, I think preventing suffering takes higher priority than creating joy, and I see nonexistence as inherently preferable to existence, given that to suffer is unjust, but a person must first exist to experience that injustice, and to simply not be cannot be unjust because how can a nonexistent being be a victim of injustice? So, from my perspective, the longer humanity goes on between now and extinction, the more preventable suffering occurs, and if humanity dies out, say, 1,000 years from now, instead of 100,000, then all of the people who potentially could have been born if humanity lasted longer would be nonexistent and therefore not rendered victims by having never been born, and all of the suffering they could potentially have experienced would be prevented. Ergo, ideally humanity should go extinct sooner rather than later.

Also just wanna say in case anyone sees this and gets the wrong idea: I do not support people actively doing things to make the world end faster, because causing suffering in order to prevent suffering quickly gets very morally muddy, and these kinds of ideas could easily turn into death cult stuff if taken that route. I just also don't support people trying to extend the longevity of the species in any way. For me praxis on this just means I don't make any active effort to be environmentally conscious, I don't support causes with that aim, and I've made the decision to never willfully procreate.

[insaniquariumfish]

I get and support the very legitimate feminist reasons for not shaving, but I do honestly think that underarm hair is viscerally disgusting and that people should shave it. (I think it's even more gross on men than on women, though, and I definitely think men should be shaving it, too.) Like, I get that the expectation to shave it comes from patriarchy and that there's nothing inherently wrong with natural bodies but like. Acne is natural and it's still gross. Body odor is natural and it's still gross. Bad breath is natural but we still brush our teeth. Plus pit hair actively gets in the way of deodorant being effective and the way that deodorant sticks to the hairs makes me want to hurl. I don't really care about patriarchy on this one. If patriarchy demanded that women shower, but there was no expectation for men to do so, I would still shower because not showering is gross. So yeah. Sorry, but I'm not on team hairy pits.

[insaniquariumfish]

"Women don't hate men the way men hate women, all we want is for them to just stop terrorizing and abusing and oppressing us" okay well, while I respect and admire the many women for whom that is true, I absolutely do hate men the way men hate women. I do wish that men were oppressed and dehumanized and objectified and functionally reduced to domestic slaves. I want for men to suffer the way they've made women suffer. I don't want equality. I want a complete reversal of the power dynamic between the sexes. I don't even believe in retributive justice, and I think sadistic desire is morally abhorrent, and still I can't help but want that despite it going against my core ethical beliefs, because that is the depth of my well-earned hatred. Like I think it's a good thing that so many women have the inner strength to rise above and set aside some of their rage, but that isn't me, sorry. If I woke up tomorrow to find that the genders had suddenly been reversed, I would not care about how that affected men. I would not become a masculinist. I would not lift a finger for men, or have a single kind word for men who came to with their problems, or be in any way supportive of the masculinist cause.

[insaniquariumfish]

Damn you are fucking obsessed lmao. Maybe you wouldn't be so miserable if you weren't thinking abt trans people all the time. Get a hobby

You're the one who can't stop yourself from scrolling through the posts of someone you despise, and something tells me I'm not the only person whom you've hate scrolled for and that this is probably a habit for you. I don't go onto trans people's blogs and read their posts and try to troll them, because doing that would be actually obsessive.

[insaniquariumfish]

At this rate I honesty wouldn't be at all surprised if soon we'll have people calling vaginas "innies" and penises "outties" and claiming that a penis and vagina are actually the same organ just inverted and when that shit gets rightfully called out as ridiculous people will say that the idea that male and female sex organs are meaningfully distinct from one another is a neocolonialist social construct invented by wealthy white men in the past 200 years in order to enforce gender essentialism and people will start claiming that actually penises self lubricate just like vaginas and the cervix is like the meatus of the vagina and the glans and the clitoris are exactly the same thing and vaginas get erections and women have innie testicles because ovaries are the same thing as testicles and testicle skin is just saggy labia skin and actually everyone has both a penis and a vagina and is both male and female at the same time when you think about it since it's all the same thing so why have any kind of social barriers or segregation or boundaries or safe spaces or legal protections or support systems based on sex in the first place let's completely desegregate prisons and women's shelters and bathrooms and sports and sororities and support groups and so on in the name of inclusion and equality and those of us who remain cursed with sanity are gonna wish we spent our formative years huffing spray paint and whip-its so we were too stupid to be bothered by any of it.