aspectacular

overloading discourse tags with puns and positivity. they/them/their • love women!

[mini-wrants]

Another consequence of overturning Roe: charging mothers who don’t provide the absolute ‘best’ environments for their babies.

In 2019, a pregnant woman gets into an argument, and the other person shoots her in the stomach 5 times - obviously the baby is lost. The pregnant woman (who got shot) was charge with negligent homicide for ‘bringing her baby to the fight.’ It took 7 months of protest for her charges to be overturned.

Now that Roe is overturned? Can a mother be sued if she doesn’t take folic acid pills and her baby is born with spina bifida? What about the mom who doesn’t realize she was pregant until the 2nd trimester, drank in the 1st, and decides to keep the child? If her baby is born with fetal alcohol syndrome, is she charged with negligence for not keeping her body in tiptop shape, even though she didn’t know she was pregnant?

These are not hypotheticals. If a woman’s body is no longer her body, but *always* either a potential or future baby carrier, then we’re in for a whole host of crimes against pregnant people.

[queen-of-shades-deactivated2023]

*Women. Pregnant women.

[positivityisntdiscourse]

Women are people. OP obviously showed they know how big this issue is for women, but women are not the only ones that can get pregnant and therefore not the only ones affected by this. Why are you so determined to never refer to women as people?

[luxrav]

talked about it on twitter a bit but i dont post a lot on tumblr so. we dont need the teal nd blue flag. for one, the person who made it is a transmed who thinks lesbians can like men, secondly its just a hue shift of the sunset lesbian flag which is lazy af, and thirdly it reinforces “pink for girls blue for boys” in conjunction with the previous point.

we dont need it. if you want a gay flag thats not an umbrella pride flag then use the baker flag or the philly flag

[positivityisntdiscourse]

The two flags on the right are not just gay men flags they’re used as umbrella flags quite frequently. Both flags have histories of being used to symbolize people across the LGBTQ+ community, not exclusively gay men, which is exactly the issue folks have had. And the flag at the bottom may have actually been stolen by the transmed (as linked by several folks in the notes), not created by them (though either way, it was not intended to be spread as an official flag).

Also it’s kinda funky to go after one flag for fitting gender standards but not another…I dearly hope you must have reservations about pink lesbian flags that do the same thing. The achillean and sapphic flags also use these gendered color associations. Many of these are specifically chosen because of the gender divergence represented in gay & lesbian communities; that’s not uncommon, though it can have its issues as you mention. And not that there’s nothing to the idea that these flags are based on or take from lesbian flags, but there is more to it than what’s said here.

[faenyst]

Neopronouns are bullshit. Ain't nobody transition into a cat. I don't give a fuck if it makes you "comfortable". Even if gender is made up, species isn't, the fuck. Grow up. You cry when someone refuses to call you glitch/glitchself. Are you educated? With your F in almost every class? Hell, you aren't. I don't care if you call me transphobic. Every trans person I know feels mocked by neopronouns. They were created by actual transphobes to mock the trans community, yet the 14 year old whose name is Wolf uses them? Ridiculous.

[positivityisntdiscourse]

op....have you read a single book on trans history or neopronouns........where are you getting your sources? “every trans person I know” who are you talking to? five transmeds or something????  “created by actual transphobes” LMAO???? where???

Frankly, you’re doing more harm to the trans community right now than people who use neopronouns ever have or ever will.

[fuckedcroutons-deactivated20201]

imagine thinking asexuality is a sexual orientation and not yknow, probably a medical problem or a mental health issue. you're not gay because you have a hormonal issue lmao what? do you know what most people who havent been roped in by the Internet Culture of pretending you're gay for no reason do when they think they might be "asexual"? they go to the doctor, ejrbdkkssm are you kidding you probably have some kind of reproductive health disorder or mental trauma or something Wrong with you my guy but it's easier to ignore that and be homophobic online i guess

[acephobia-is-real]

Imagine being such a homophobe that you repeat homophobic rhetorix verbatim just because you don’t understand the concept of not experiencing sexual attraction.

[officialaspec]

[fuckedcroutons-deactivated20201]

im disabled but okay, just because you shouldnt be demonised or whatever for having a disability doesnt mean its like. Good. or healthy. like when the cysts burst and you have to go to the ER and have organs removed because you didnt get your abnormally low sex drive checked out dont blame me compadre

[positivityisntdiscourse]

1. You can be disabled and still be ableist, there’s more than one type of disability, and “disabled” is an umbrella term that can cover hugely different things. I’m disabled in multiple ways but it’s still 100% possible for me to be bigoted towards disabilities I don’t have. A Deaf person can be ableist toward autistic people, an autistic person can be ableist toward Deaf people, etc.

2. Whether someone’s lack of desire for interpersonal sex is a health issue is not your business, frankly. It’s their business and their doctor’s business.

Trying to diagnose someone over the internet when you don’t know anything about them beyond the fact that they call themselves asexual, and despite whether or not you’re in any way a professional who is trained and qualified to give this kind of diagnosis, is frankly ableist and not your place.

If asexual people are:

otherwise healthy, or already know the symptoms and reasons they are unhealthy outside of being asexual

are not experiencing distress directly because of their asexuality

Then there’s no reason it cannot be a natural part of human diversity. Many people still consider being gay a mental illness, despite all evidence to the contrary. Desire for sex is naturally not equal in all humans—why can’t there be people who don’t care for sex at all? People who just aren’t interested and persue other things? People who don’t experience attraction to specific people?

There are asexual people who have already checked if there are other reasons for their experience, there are asexual people who have grown to old age and still identify as asexual without immediate harms.

3. Yes, there are some disabilities or medications that can cause decreased sex drive. For the record, cancer is not the most common of these, and the “when the cyst bursts” comment was incredibly unnecessary and inappropriate in any case.

Again, perceived asexuality being a symptom of a health issue is not your business unless you’re the one experiencing it or you’re their doctor.

[neopronounhaven]

xe/xem/xirs

she/her/hers

he/him/his

they/them/theirs

This is one of the most common constructions of conventional neopronouns; it is only one of many ways in which gender neutral pronoun options have been created.

Neopronouns follow patterns and grammar just as traditional pronouns do. They are a functional and valid part of linguistics, and are in large part created by linguists and trans folks especially.

[transgenderjordanpeterson]

This should be taught at every school

[spencers-smoothies]

Lmao absolutely none of this gender bullshit was created by linguists.

You are not a fucking expert at languages because you made up stupid words one day. You are an idiot.

[positivityisntdiscourse]

1. This post was talking about the pronouns, not even about gender. The pronouns were largely created by linguists.

Sources: see The Writer, published 1889, in which multiple linguists proposed gender neutral pronouns. Also see: ae/aer, used in 1920 for David Lindsay’s book, “A Voyage to Arcturus,” which later became inspiration for JRR Tolkien.

2. “Making up words” is not the only way op is a linguist; they’re studying linguistics & have been learning multiple languages since a young age. What excuse do you have? Are you a linguistic expert yourself, or did you come into this conversation with no background information in this topic?

Please give me the sources for how you know none of this was created by linguists. Because historically, many of them were & are.

3. This stuff was also created to help women, believe it or not. Many of these were in part created to have an option for generic pronoun that isn’t defaulting to he/him. If you’re a feminist, you should learn about the history of how gendered language affects women and enforces sexism.

4. How about you don’t call a disabled person an “idiot,” which is a word with both historical and modern ableist usage & origins.

If your feminism doesn’t include disabled people or gender-non-conforming women then it’s not feminism.

If your feminism doesn’t include educating yourself on women’s issues around language then it’s not feminism.

[aemond1eye]

i think if you’re ace you should grow up

[positivityisntdiscourse]

Quite a message from someone younger than many ace people! And not even subtly bigoted and erasing of the many older ace people both alive and throughout history.

[to-be-deleted-deactivated202206]

Unpopular opinion

Most neo pronouns are okay. Like sie/hir, ae/aer, ze/zim, etc.

Other neo pronouns (like emoji pronouns) are just ridiculous.

If you arent comfortable using they/them and feel like it/its is dehumanizing, go ahead and use neo pronouns. The only people that wont like it will be the ones that hate change.

[positivityisntdiscourse]

Abt your question in the tags about MOGAI, not sure which part you were wondering about, but MOGAI actually stands for “Marginalized Orientations, Gender Alignments, & Intersex” which simply makes it an alternate umbrella term for people who’re LGBTQ+ (though not everyone who’s LGBTQ+ also IDs as MOGAI, and they don’t have to; they just functionally can fit under it by its definition).

As for emojiself pronouns, I just want to note that they’re really more like “fun” rather than ridiculous. For the most part, they’re similar to if you’d use an alternative nickname in online spaces which you wouldn’t use IRL. It’s just a nickname someone wanted to use online because they like it and it’s fun.

So I don’t quite think describing it as ridiculous is quite fair. But otherwise, thank you for sharing the neopronoun love, feel free to ask some questions, as I’m a linguist who’s studied these things.

[to-be-deleted-deactivated202206]

Thank you so much! I've seen a lot of controversy around mogai but never saw anyone explaining it. I knew what it stood for but there were so many conflicting opinions that I didnt know what was true.

But on emojipronouns: yeah that makes more sense, as long as people are using them for fun then that's totally understandable.

[positivityisntdiscourse]

Yeah, for the most part the conflict around the MOGAI acronym is exclusionists & ableists taking issue with the fact that the acronym is explicitly supposed to be inclusionist. And then (the ableism) a lot of the more active people in the MOGAI community are neurodivergent people with a special interest in micro labels & LGBTQ+ things, which then tends to lead to a lot of ableist LGBTQ+ folks disliking them for their “weird” interests.

Anti-MOGAI people tend to overwhelmingly target nonbinary & neurodivergent people to make fun of, so I’d take most anti MOGAI criticism with that in mind.

There are of course harmful people in the MOGAI community, but that’s the same as any community. So yeah, just looking at it with a nuanced view is good!

[to-be-deleted-deactivated202206]

Unpopular opinion

Most neo pronouns are okay. Like sie/hir, ae/aer, ze/zim, etc.

Other neo pronouns (like emoji pronouns) are just ridiculous.

If you arent comfortable using they/them and feel like it/its is dehumanizing, go ahead and use neo pronouns. The only people that wont like it will be the ones that hate change.

[positivityisntdiscourse]

Abt your question in the tags about MOGAI, not sure which part you were wondering about, but MOGAI actually stands for “Marginalized Orientations, Gender Alignments, & Intersex” which simply makes it an alternate umbrella term for people who’re LGBTQ+ (though not everyone who’s LGBTQ+ also IDs as MOGAI, and they don’t have to; they just functionally can fit under it by its definition).

As for emojiself pronouns, I just want to note that they’re really more like “fun” rather than ridiculous. For the most part, they’re similar to if you’d use an alternative nickname in online spaces which you wouldn’t use IRL. It’s just a nickname someone wanted to use online because they like it and it’s fun.

So I don’t quite think describing it as ridiculous is quite fair. But otherwise, thank you for sharing the neopronoun love, feel free to ask some questions, as I’m a linguist who’s studied these things.

[positivityisntdiscourse]

Neopronouns are incredibly beneficial to English — coming from your local linguist!

[kaninkaninn-deactivated20230702]

I'm generally pretty neutral on the dysphoria debate and LGBT issues but MOGAI and neopronouns have my brain dying

[positivityisntdiscourse]

“Pronouns are gendered” this very much screams of cissexism, in fact this is almost word for word something my transphobic dad has said to me.

“Neopronouns are useless” if it makes someone more comfortable it is not useless.

They/them has been used as singular since about the 14th century and STILL that doesn’t mean alternate gender neutral pronouns are not beneficial to English.

The main use of they/them is plural. Even when singular, it uses plural verbs (are/have, rather than is/has)—therefore, it breaks subject-verb agreement. The only other pronouns in English that break SV Agreement are you/your—and that’s because you/your used to only be plural. (xx, xx, xx)

Because of both, 1) its main use being plural, and 2) always using plural verbs—English speakers automatically assume they/them is referring to multiple people. The only distinuishment between plural and singular they/them is context, and -self rather than -selves (which not everyone uses).

And some people are fine with that! They’re comfortable using they/them even with its dualism! But other people aren’t!

Some people feel they/them’s dual, plural-verb nature is alienating to them. Some folks would prefer to have an option for themselves that doesn’t break Subject-Verb agreement and is never plural. Or they’re just otherwise uncomfortable with all our current third person pronouns because of their connotations!

So, we’ve got neopronouns! And they do actually follow actual grammatical patterns! I’m a linguist and it’s very clear neopronouns easily reflect standard pronouns!

“They are my friend, I love them. Their cat is a calico, and the calico right here is theirs, they told me that themself.”

“Ne is my friend, I love nem. Nir cat is a calico, and the calico right here is nirs, ne told me that nemself.”

Neopronouns are beneficial to English. They are beneficial to many languages, especially ones with extremely gendered pronouns.

Please practice compassion and understanding instead of mirroring the bigotry of cishet folks.

[wandererslullabi]

Everybody go watch “I Put the Bi in Bitter” in celebration of Bi Visibility! It’s a really cool show featuring bi women of color, a fabulous Asian lesbian, stable relationships between both bi/bi couples and gay/bi couples, and a whole lotta queer inside jokes! Season 3 comes out only three days after Bi Visibility Day. And the episodes are all really short so you don’t need a lot of extra time to watch it!

[wandererslullabi]

Season 3 came out today and you can watch it here on Youtube! And here are season one and season two. Go support #ownvoices and great representation of bi & gay women of color by checking it out. <3 Make sure to comment to show your love & support – it’ll boost the algorithm and share the stories of the marginalized peoples they’re representing.

[buzzfeed]

Here’s What Older Trans And Nonbinary People Want You To Know

“It is neither a fad nor a trend. It is who you are.”

[elierlick]

They is valid

[transgenderhelp]

“In the 1600s, some writers objected to the use of ‘singular you’…“ x

“[’They’ has been] used as a singular pronoun since 1300, e.g. in the 1325 Cursor Mundi.” x

[positivityisntdiscourse]

Nonbinary butch people are fantastic and amazing and I love all of them!

[positivityisntdiscourse]

You know who’s incredible? Every nonbinary butch person ever.

[ottitty]

Do you ever just like hear someone next to you go "non-binary ppl don't exist" and then it's like hi? Hello. I'm right here. Look at me, existing. OooOoh spoopy.

[no-sign-of-land]

the non-binary gender doesn’t exist. you do, but you’re just not non-binary.

[positivityisntdiscourse]

Nonbinary people DO exist! You not believing in genders outside the binary doesn’t stop those genders from existing. The idea that there are two genders is not seen in every culture, it’s almost always coming from a perisexist worldview that isn’t accepting of intersex people, and it’s just messed up in general. Simply because certain genders are more common—men have the most common gender, followed by women—doesn’t mean those are the only genders out there.

And don’t think you can slide by with all that transphobic bull you keep reblogging. Shove off nonbinary peoples’ posts and leave—nothing about their existence greatly affects your life, so leave them alone.

[positivityisntdiscourse]

Being aporagender is real and beautiful. Aporagender people are incredible and deserve love, happiness, and acceptance.