#toothpaste flag

[transmasc-punpun]

finding out a fairly popular artist i like is actually cringe about queer men is so sad. it should be illegal to be good at art but have cringe takes.

[sluglover666]

It's interesting how the current transandrophobia discourse seems to follow a lot of patterns previously seen in the 'toothpaste flag' discourse.

'You're just copying us and that's harmful'. Personally, when I've seen people state why they dislike the green-blue gay flag the most often stated reason was 'Because it just copies the lesbian flag'. Similarly, I see a lot of people discrediting the term 'transandrophobia' because they think it's just a cheap copy of 'transmisogyny' created without any depth or understanding of the original.

'By using this thing to describe your identity and experiences, you're making a statement about the identity and experiences of people who you copied it from'. When questioned further, most people explained that by 'copying' the design of the lesbian flag, the creators and users of the 'toothpaste flag' suggested that lesbians' and gay men's experiences were identical, and they found it offensive. Similarly, people who dislike the word 'transandrophobia' often claim that the word itself suggests that 'transfems oppress transmascs'.

'There's already a flag/word for it, so there's no need to create a new one'. This is an argument mostly used by people only casually involved in the 'toothpaste flag' discourse, in my experience, and often thrown casually. The argument that 'there's no need to come up with a new word for your oppression, 'transphobia'/'misogyny' already exists", however, seems to be more emotionally charged when used. While in the first situation it was paired with mild confusion, in the second one it's most often paired with mockery and genuine annoyance.

'It's only used by terminally online teenagers'. Self-explanatory. In both cases this can take a more extreme form of 'It's only used by terminally online transtrenders/tenderqueers/theyfabs.'

Also, I said "us" when quoting the arguments, but in both cases there are a lot of people who are not members of the groups supposedly 'harmed' by the creation of the flag/the word, who were/are very invested in the discourse or simply parrot these arguments because they heard them from people they look up to. There were a lot of non-lesbians who were very invested in shitting on the blue-green gay pride flag and there are a lot of cis people who are very invested in opposing the usage of 'transandrophobia'.

[grimgrilliam]

Happy pride month everyone!!!! I don't have any new art but here's a drawing I did for pride last year. Make sure you all get super gay this year!!!

[yinza]

Some new friends have joined the gang!

Now available in my Etsy shop!

[Image Description: A set of photographs of two handmade plush birds with the blue and green colors of the mlm pride flag. One is styled as a parrot with all 7 colors, while the other is a slightly smaller songbird with 5 colors. /end ID]

[gorebonk]

Thinking of this post always

[mannco-official]

mr hale, can you make one for the toothpaste gay flag

ITS MINTY FRESH

[my-sweet-piano-grl]

I WANT TO FIND ONE APP WHERE THERE ISN’T DISCOURSE ON MY FAVORITE FLAG JUST ONE

ITS NOT EVEN CORRECT DISCOURSE, ITS JUST UNINFORMED

I don’t have to like what others like thank god but damn can SOMEONE show love and appreciation for the mlm flag??

((DNI if you’ve come to argue, do your research))

[l1ttles3am0th]

I thought I’d share my thoughts on this one, because DEAR LORD, is this a subject…

In my honest opinion, Flag Discourse is completely and utterly stupid, and half of it is just speaking over certain groups. There are real-world issues affecting queer folks that are leagues more important than if xyz flag is “problematic” or whatnot. Yes, there are some legitimately problematic flags, such as the Labrys, but I’m not talking about those. What I’m talking about is stuff like the debacles with the “toothpaste” flag, pan flag, etc.. Speaking of toothpaste, as a lesbian, WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN ALLOWED TO SPEAK ON THAT. OH MY GOD, were mlm spoken over to the high heavens on that one. (Fun fact: when I called out a bunch of twitter users for speaking over mlm about this discourse, they asked if I was mlm, which THEY WEREN’T EITHER.) In my honest opinion, I would much rather focus on the worsening discrimination against us worldwide than if a gay person’s flag “copies” my own.