Too Many Word, Too Few Panel

I have very strong opinions about anime, manga, and Final Fantasy XIV, and one day you might be lucky enough to hear them

[nintando64]

[doe-eyed-disaster]

it's exhausting to see constant TMA/TME discourse that fundamentally does not understand intersectionality. Transmisogyny affected, TMA, describes someone who cannot leverage your assigned gender to mitigate the oppressive force of transmisogyny. Transmisogyny exempt, TME, describes someone who is able to leverage their assigned gender in some way to mitigate the oppressive force of transmisogyny. They are not identity labels; they describe a person's relationship to transmisogyny.

[doe-eyed-disaster]

these labels also do not categorize people as ontologically "victims" or "oppressors". everyone, including TMA people, can wield transmisogyny and everyone can wield it most effectively against TMA people. just as cis women can perpetrate and enforce misogyny against other cis women, so too can trans women leverage transmisogyny against one another. however, given the relative lower social status of TMA people, we are less able to advance their own social standing by leveraging transmisogyny. Caitlin Jenner is both TMA and openly transmisogynistic, but she is less successful in advancing herself compared to TME people like Marjorie Taylor Green. this is similar to how cis women can wield misogyny against men (like suggesting that an fashionable man is inherently less masculine), but a similar criticism from another man will generally be a more potent attack.

[doe-eyed-disaster]

oppressions can look similar: racialized women, particularly black women, are often degendered in ways which superficially resemble transmisogyny. for example, Michelle Obama was mocked for having supposedly "mannish" features. to the extent that transmisogyny might have impacted her, she was able to mitigate it by leveraging the fact that she was assigned and conformed to expectations of women. she was unable to leverage her race to deny the full extent of this public abuse because degendering is a tactic empowered by both racism and transmisogyny. a black trans woman who is similarly degendered cannot leverage TME privilege because of her gender assignment at birth. both people are targeted and harmed in some way by degendering, but one is more able to mitigate that harm due to being able to exempt herself from transmisogyny.

in a similar example, Imane Khelif was subject to simultaneous pressure from transmisogyny, racism, and intersexism. because she is TME, she could leverage her gender assignment and was not barred automatically from competing in women's events at the summer Olympics (an option unavailable to TMA athletes facing similar scrutiny). she also enjoyed an outpouring of public support in favor of her continued participation, whereas TMA athletes received little sympathy or support in the press (in fact, the event that prohibited them was hailed as especially inclusive for lgbtq+ athletes). however, she was still pressured sufficiently by racist and intersexist policies to undergo invasive medical procedures and to publicly reveal medical details that she might have preferred to keep private. the fact that Imane Khelif was subject to other systems of oppression in no way disproves the validity of transmisogyny because she was able to do the thing that defines being TME: she leveraged her assigned gender to exempt herself from transmisogyny.

[doe-eyed-disaster]

in Kimberlé Crenshaw's formulation of intersectionality, she describes the unique marginalization of black women. unlike white women, black women cannot leverage their race to mitigate the impacts of racism. unlike black men, black women cannot leverage their gender to mitigate the effects of misogyny. thus, black women are demonstrably subject to a unique synergy of white supremacy and misogyny (misogynoir) from which others are able to exempt themselves to varying degrees and by various means. the same formulation can be applied to TMA people, who are unable to leverage either their gender assignment or social identity, to mitigate oppositional and traditional sexism, thereby rendering us uniquely vulnerable to the synergistic oppression of those forces. (and of course, we cannot forget that TMA people can also be subject to other discrimination from which they cannot exempt themselves; TMA people can also be variously racialized, disabled, poor, intersex, and so on.)

[doe-eyed-disaster]

great tags from @futchlingg

[doe-eyed-disaster]

I'm glad the tone i struck was accessible to you. I'm going to continue to be very generous right now: this response is transmisogyny. one of the kinds of privilege that TME people experience is getting to be judged as individuals whereas TMA people are always judged collectively. TMA people should not have to be as precise, nonjudgmental, and even in tone as i was in this thread. i chose to put in the effort to explain things in these terms, but i did so because when TMA people like me aren't, we get taken with the worst possible faith.

if a cis woman wrote a post like mine about the ways in which men leverage misogyny against her, it would be obviously misogynistic for someone to reply "oh thank goodness. i never really got feminism because they're always just so bitchy about men". this would be the case regardless of who said it or what their proximity to misogyny is. the same is true here: i made a long post with very precisely chosen language, and this reply contrasts me against all those other, apparently uncouth trans women who don't haven't decency to be nice about our oppression. (if you know trans women like that, please send them my way. they sound based.).

TMA people do not owe any deference to TME people's feelings when talking about our oppression. y'all can get away with shit on the regular, usually against us, that is far crueler than incivility. TMA people shouldn't have to make posts that are hundreds of carefully chosen words long with step-by-step logical constructions from first principles and real-world illustrations whose relevance is spelled out on exacting detail. this was a high effort post and WE DON'T OWE THAT TO ANYONE. we shouldn't have to do that every time we want to talk about the fucked up things that happen to and around us, especially not to TME people who benefit from doing those fucked up things to us.

(and if you think my reply here is veering into incivility, let me invite you to examine why it is that you're feeling so defensive. let's internalize and practice those analytical skills which i described apparently so well in those first canonically non-bitchy posts.)

[doe-eyed-disaster]

a common (and exhausting) misconception seems to happen around the word "exempt". let's be clear: transmisogyny isn't just "misogyny that happens to trans women". transmisogyny is a social force which influences *all* people which posits that differently gendered people are intrinsically different in some meaningful way and that one gender is in some way socially superior to another. the ways that we construct, define, inscribe, navigate, and relate to gender are all influenced by transmisogyny. if getting to wield misogyny without consequence is the carrot of patriarchy, then the threat of faggotization for being too great a failure to one's assigned boyhood is the stick. I've seen transmisogyny described as the psychological lynchpin that holds patriarchy together. some people can leverage their gender in some way to mitigate the impact of this force, but it is a fundamental part very sea that we all must swim in.

the same can be said for other marginalizing forces. temporarily nondisabled people can experience negative consequences of ableism, but feeling burnt out from an excessive workload is a fundamentally different experience when not fully exposed to ableism. for instance, you might have your exhaustion taken more seriously by your doctor if you are not yet disabled and consequently receive better medical care. a straight man might be mistreated if others believe him to be gay, but he's dealing with one moment of interpersonal bigotry rather than an entire lifetime of being under threat (for example, his right to the social and financial benefits of marriage are far more guaranteed than they might be if he was gay). and so on.

TME people experience transmisogyny but they are not its primary targets and can exempt themselves from scrutiny and mistreatment by leveraging their gender in some way that TMA people cannot. one pernicious way that this happens is through a kind of affected incompetence, positioning themselves to always be seeking education from TMA people about transmisogyny and offering shallow rebuttals and critiques such as the images attached (which they may not even consciously recognize as such). this positions TMA people as bearing the expectation of answering and clarifying on demand and being held to account for all the other TMA people who have come before her.

like i just spent nearly a thousand words giving the piss easiest "intersectionality 101" and you're complaining that the language is unclear or flawed in some way that precludes your understanding or prevents you from internalizing what you've just read, complaints which would be irrelevant if you just read the first paragraph again in which the terms were defined in clear, simple language. if this is your response, you are exactly who i was complaining about from the beginning.

[transsexual-feminism]

This is transfeminism!

[kyleehenke]

hey do you have a tumblr

no sorry

[sensiblereblogifposts]

Reblog if you don’t have a tumblr 

[wonderstruck]

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

[clonehub]

I hate you epitome of innocence being represented with blonde hair I hate you lightness representing goodness I hate you "angelic features" automatically being read as blonde hair and blue eyed with pale skin I hate you whiteness as the default for morality I HATE YOU I HATE YOU

[clonehub]

Guess who's being the most annoying on this post

[clonehub]

this post isnt about blondes and how its so unfair to them that theyre always viewed as good healthy holy morally upright outstanding people no matter what this post is about racism its about colorism its about white supremacy making people with dark features and skin literally feel evil. this is not about your stupid disney princesses or achilles or your fave anime boys being allowed to be unhinged feral shitty awful people and this sure as hell is not an opportunity for blonde people themselves to show their entire pasty flat asses and beg praise for "breaking the stereotype" by being shitty unhinged people. fandom people you are 192% of the problem. white people in general you are 1,000% the origin of the problem. this site is so unbearably white my GOD

[emmacandle]

god i love trans womens voices

[emmacandle]

like idc if shes voice trained or not or somewhere in between hearing a trans womans voice is so lovely and warm it lifts my spirits and makes me feel at home trans women i love it when you speak keep doing that

[emmacandle]

im surprised it took this long for someone to pull this bullshit. fuck off my post, this is for trans women

[emmacandle]

we dont fucking get voice change on hrt. we dont get to post monthly fucking updates on how affirming our voices are. we either get ridiculed for having deep "masculine" voices or we have to spend so much fucking time and effort and money to practice a voice we have to consciously use every fucking time. and you come on my fucking post celebrating transfem voices and have the fucking audacity to bring up how lovely it is trans men get their voices changed on hrt? fuck yourself

[milliebobbyflay]

To the closeted transfem audience member, the Tranny stock character exists primarily to remind you of how you will be treated if you are ever to act on your desires, to teach you that you are right to be ashamed and to hide these feelings, and that if you ever were to act on them you would become an object of justified ridicule and the acceptable target of unlimited patriarchal violence. The idea that such characters constitute "representation" or that the widespread presence of the tranny caricature as a target of mockery and bile fascination in media constitutes evidence of some sort of privilege is a bizarrely cruel position that a lot of people who claim to care about trans women nevertheless seem to take.

[strawberry-crocodile]

the fact that the comments are full of tme people rushing to the defense of drag makes me want to do bad things. like frankly i dont even think this is a case where tme people value their shows and their cis men over trans women i just think this is a case where tme people close rank around transmisogyny

[spirkbitch]

Do you prefer fanfiction with or without smut?

I only read smut

I prefer it but I’ll read fics without

I prefer no smut but I’ll read it

I don’t read smut

It’s not a consideration/don’t care if it’s

Another answer (explain in the tags)

Voting ended onApr 24

Because I saw some discourse that was upsetting me (ignore the typo it’s too late to fix it)

[nintando64]

My girlfriend is having a breakdown because she has just discovered Thomas the Tank Engine lore exists

She cannot believe that I, an autistic trans woman, am aware of the existence of Thomas the Tank Engine lore.

[gem-andromeda]

[donuts-multifandom-hellhole]

Something that I get chills about is the fact that the oldest story told made by the oldest civilization opens with "In those days, in those distant days, in those ancient nights."

This confirms that there is a civilization older than the Sumerians that we have yet to find

Some people get existential dread from this

Me? I think it's fucking awesome it shows just how much of this world we have yet to discover and that is just fascinating

[sleepymccoy]

@makaeru peer review cos this made me check when the Sumerians happened and I forget how recent history is for every other continent. 7000 - 8000 years ago just isn't that long when you're in Australia, and the amount of detailed history we have access to here is wonderful and should be recognised more internationally

Source (non Aboriginal)

And a quote I picked out from a longer interview with an Aboriginal local elder about the area where he touched on the history

Source (the rest of the interview is really interesting and all transcribed, have a look if you're curious)

[chaotic-archaeologist]

This is part of my Ancient Civilizations class that I teach, which does a whole week about Australia and the Torres Strait Islands because I was sick of never seeing them represented in USAmerican history contexts. With the help of @micewithknives and @acearchaeologist I've learned so many incredible things about Australia's past and it's been incredibly rewarding to share them with students.

[aggressivelybicaptainamerica]

My favorite fact about Aboriginal oral history is the fact that we pretty recently discovered that the Aboriginal myth of the 7 Sisters, an origin story for the Pleiades star cluster, accurately reflects a point TEN THOUSAND YEARS AGO when two stars in the constellation got close enough together to no longer be distinguishable by the naked eye.

The story? 6 sisters running from something that took their 7th sister.

[jinkohhh]

as a gilgar gunditj woman, i was not expecting to see my culture on my dash.

thank you for spreading our words and treating our culture with respect.

[forcekenobi]

as a child being told "the moon controls the tides" with no additional explanation was like. oh okay. you want me to believe in magic? you're talking about magic right now? okay. fine

[forcekenobi]

sorry. only semi-related but i simply wasn't ready for "the sun is a distant gorilla". thank you NASA

[hyperchaotix]

[icarus-suraki]

[irawhiti]

btw it's not spelled "Maori", it's Māori. the tohutō (the line above the vowel) is important for the pronunciation of the word. if you don't have the tohutō on your keyboard (it should be on your phone keyboard at least), it's "Maaori" as the tohutō lengthens the vowel it's placed over. never Maori, preferably Māori but Maaori in a pinch. thanks

[nintando64]

Tumblr isn’t a social media site to me. It’s a place where I log into, scroll a couple posts down, and send a post about cows to my girlfriend so I can hear her say “Cow” in the next room.

[edenemy-art]

SHAKE AROUND THAT PATHETIC WOMAN. PUT HER IN A BLENDER. THROW HER AT A WALL. CHEW ON HER. IM TIRED OF YOUR MEN ITS TIME TO TOSS AROUND YOUR GIRL BLORBO LETS GOOOO

[edenemy-art]

“add tags” nah. the lesbians got me i can feel it

[twilightofthesandwiches]

Congratulations! You are now a Magic-User!!

Spin the wheel to find out in which way your Magic begins to gradually transform your body?

How do you feel about this?

HELL YEAH THIS IS PERFECT FOR ME

This is very cool!

This is neat, I guess…

I mean, it could definitely be worse….

I feel utterly indifferent about this change

Honestly, I don’t think I’d even notice anything is different

This transformation has both strong upsides and downsides, I feel conflicted

This is perfect for me (Deragetory)

This isn’t the worst, but I still feel disappointed…

This feels pretty sucky tbh…

This is a very lousy side-effect, but at least I still have magic, right?

THIS IS SO SO BAD MAGIC ISN'T WORTH IT FOR THIS SIDE EFFECT

Voting ended onApr 12

[nintando64]

you're cute do you have a gf?

I do, her name is rae and she is the best :D