#interfeminism

[vinterfeminism]

Happy Pride Month everyone!! This Pride Month, don't forget about intersex people!! Intersex people aren't some weird anomaly nor a fictional thing, we are real and we deserve a voice and a space and a community. Intersex people may be straight or not (including lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, or any other sexuality)! They also might be cis or trans or neither or both!! Intersex gender identities can have a very wide variety just like anyone else, and this may be exacerbated by frequently being inconsistently gendered or raised as one gender when their body has traits as what other people may view as the "opposite" (though really men and women aren't all that different so I don't really think there is an opposite, but that's not what this post is about). There are disabled intersex people, intersex people of colour, fat intersex people, old intersex people, young intersex people, and any other type of intersex person you can imagine! It is very possible that you know an intersex person even if you (or even they) don't know it.

This Pride Month, remember to love intersex people and make them feel included in the 2SIALGBTQ+ community!! (I spell the acronym this way since Two Spirit, Intersex, and Asexual and/or Aromantic people are often forgotten or spoken over)

We belong in the queer community, and we deserve to have a voice. Be kind to intersex people and most importantly, try to make an intersex person smile every day this Pride Month!!

[interspadias]

Honestly the internet becomes a lot less anger-inducing and a lot more generally depressing when you approach batshit out-of-left-field seemingly bad faith takes, not with assuming the person behind them is some intrinsic evil failing to be "correctly enlightened" - but a hurt person, projecting their hurt in the only way they know how to do in the modern online culture of oversharing, overgeneralizing and needing everything to be poignantly tied to some flavor of "activism."

There's so many bloggers I see that when you look between the lines of their discourse, when you try extra hard to put yourself into whatever nonsense they must've been told or forced to endure to make them think that way, it becomes obvious they're desperate to find something to cling to. Someone to hold responsible for their pain and find their power in tearing someone else down. Someone who they can expect to say "sorry I did this to you" instead of the intangible institutional powers that dignify their abuse with accusations and excuses.

So today regardless of stances, of opinions, of discourse and drama - whoever you are, out there reading this - you didn't deserve the harm put upon you. You didn't deserve to be isolated, to be abused, to be strung up on a stage and expected to dance for a jeering audience.

I hope for a day we can all come together and accept whatever differences we may have and celebrate them instead of existing in a digital realm that demands we perpetually be at each other's throats in the name of justice that may never come.

We all deserve better.

[genderkoolaid]

Social construction of biological sex is more than an abstract observation: it is a physical reality that many intersex people go through. Because society makes no provision for the existence of people whose anatomical characteristics do not neatly fit into male or female, they are routinely mutilated by medical professionals and manipulated into living as their assigned sex. Intersex people are usually not given an opportunity to decide for themselves how they wish to live and whether or not they want surgical or hormonal “correction.” Many intersex people find it appalling that they had no say in such a major life decision, whether or not their gender identity happen to match their assigned sex. We believe that genital mutilation of intersex children is inherently abusive because it unnecessarily violates the integrity of their bodies without proper consent. The issue is not even whether or not the sex one was assigned matches her or his gender identity; it is whether or not intersex people are given real choice over what happens to their bodies. Trans people feel dissatisfied with the sex assigned to them without their consent according to the simplistic medical standard. Trans people are diverse: some identify and live as members of the sex different from what was assigned to them by medical authorities, either with or without medical intervention, while others identify with neither or both of male and female sexes. Trans liberation is about taking back the right to define ourselves from medical, religious and political authorities. Transfeminism views any method of assigning sex to be socially and politically constructed, and advocates a social arrangement where one is free to assign her or his own sex (or non-sex, for that matter).

from The Transfeminist Manifesto (2001) by Emi Koyama. This quote is from the section "Deconstructing the Reverse Essentialism"

[stream-of-stars-polling]

This poll is looking for the opinions of ONLY intersex people

I have heard a few intersex people express how they dislike when perisex people (people who are not intersex) use AGAB terminology. I have used it in the past and I know that a lot of perisex trans and non-binary people use it. I even know cis perisex social scientists use it. Should this be terminology we use?

How do you feel about people using AGAB language?

I am not intersex (feel free to express an opinion in the comments though)

AGAB terminology is for everyone. It is as inclusive as a term we can get

^ but it is supposed to describe a very specific thing and people use it wrong

Non-binary people and trans people should be able to use AGAB

^ ONLY when they refer to themselves

AGAB should only be used by intersex people

^ when they refer to themselves

No one should use AGAB terminology

^ It 𝘞𝘈𝘚 good but people use it wrong and now it is used to oppress

I AM intersex and I have another opinion (please share in comments)

Voting ended onMay 29

I know a lot of people use AGAB language as stand-ins for male and female. I have heard people say that the way it's used (even by trans people in trans communities) is bioessentialist and interphobic. I know a lot of people dislike it but a lot of people also think that there is no better way to express what AGAB is expressing.

Thank you in advance for your participation in this poll.

[thisis-intermisogyny]

Chronically online people: Intersex women are never excluded from womanhood!

TERFs:

[trans-solidarity-forever]

Happy International Women's Day!

To every woman, trans or cis or otherwise.

To every woman, intersex or perisex or otherwise.

To every nonbinary, genderqueer, genderfluid, and otherwise gender diverse person whose gender contains womanhood or proximity to it.

To lesbian, sapphic, WLW, bi/m-spec, asexual and/or aromantic, and/or otherwise queer women, and non-queer women.

To women who are masc/butch, androgynous, femme, and everything in between.

To women who use pronouns other than she/her.

To monogamous and polyamorous/ethically nonmonogamous women.

To sex workers, especially those in regions where they are criminalized and denied equal protection under the law.

To career-focused women, stay at home moms, and everything in between.

To mothers and childfree women.

To disabled and/or neurodiverse women.

To women in every country, and especially those in regions where equal rights aren't a reality and gendered oppression is the rule of law.

To indigenous women.

To immigrant women, whether documented or undocumented.

To women of color and women who are racial/ethnic minorities in their regions.

To women who live in conflict zones, who are being subjected to the horrors of war.

To women who are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, Pagan, Christian, other religions, agnostic, or atheist.

To the people who don't yet know they're women.

To the people questioning whether or not they're a woman.

To everyone, regardless of gender identity, who is (or has been) perceived/treated as a girl/woman and subjected to the associated misogyny.

This day is yours if you want it!

I hope we see true gender liberation and equality in our lifetimes!

[esther-tabor]

Intersex trans women and transfems are dealt the brunt of transmisogyny and intermisogyny in such an over way even within the trans community and it's genuinely painful. This isn't to say that similar or the same doesn't happen to transgender intersex men and transmascs but it's more so what I have experience with.

If you're an intersex trans woman or transfem you've probably experienced one of the following:

1) You're not actually a transfem or a trans woman you're just disgustingly hideous and repulsive to look at and you obviously are projecting onto trans women and claiming they're all ugly (Usually this is because the person subscribes to lookism and believes that all intersex women, cis and trans alike, are ugly and they personally feel threatened by being associated with so called ugly people.)

2) You have an unfair advantage in calling yourself transfem so honestly you shouldn't be allowed to use the label. (There are thousands of reasons people say this and it can be about traits that don't even make sense in context.)

3) You're not actually intersex enough and you're a "perisex" trans woman/transfem trying to speak over the entire intersex community because obviously you're basically a man.

And honestly I have in the past contributed to some of these sentiments.

It is important that you protect all intersex transfems- yes all, even those you dislike from unjustified harm and cruelty.

[interyuurei]

Please keep in mind that I myself am visually impaired, which actually makes it quite difficult to tell if it’s readable for everyone else at times, especially if someone's vision difficulty clashes with mine and needs different changes made than I would :’)

That being said, if something needs fixed, let me know and I’ll be happy to adjust it. I did try to use adequate contrast and shading. Still, just in case, I will tag for eye strain given the intersex flag itself is already a bit much for some. You may use these images for yourself if you like, credit not necessary, it's also okay to edit them to be more readable if needed as well.

Now for screen readers, both images are of the intersex flag, with the trans flag within the purple circle, the two spirit symbol attached to the left side of the purple circle somewhat like a clip decoration.

The image on the top left says, in pink into blue gradient colored lettering: I AM NOT “MATURE CONTENT”

The image on the top right says, in pink into blue gradient colored lettering, which ironically and horribly I had to censor with a ‘•’ just in case thanks to Tumblr’s asinine policies (which may not even guarantee this post is spared): MY EXISTENCE IS NOT INHERENTLY SEXUAL

The image on the bottom left says, in pink into blue gradient colored lettering: FACTS OVER FEELINGS: WE EXIST. WE HAVE ALWAYS EXISTED AND WILL CONTINUE TO EXIST LONG AFTER YOU ARE GONE

The image on the bottom right says, in pink into blue gradient colored lettering: MY LIFE HAS INFINITELY MORE VALUE THAN YOUR BIGOTRY AND EGO