Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Cis Scum Edition

to attempt to frame anthy's choice to stab utena as logical and thought through on her part, and as something justified based on utena's actions and treatment of her, is to ignore the role anthy herself plays in all of this. utena's lack of awareness of how anthy is being abused in part because anthy, in cooperation with akio, is actively hiding it from her. utena starts out asking a lot of questions about the situation but is from the very beginning discouraged from this by anthy until she gives up, because anthy does not want her to know. utena idolizes akio because she is being groomed by him, something anthy is not only very aware of, but helping him do. resenting utena for these things is not rational, and anthy knows that (but she sometimes does it anyway because it's easier to try to feel that than the guilt.) they're both kids stuck in an impossible situation, and they both obviously make mistakes. they hate themselves and occasionally each other, but they love and forgive each other anyway. this is what the entire rooftop scene is about. anthy would not be attempting to kill herself if she believed utena deserved any of what has happened to her. she would not be sobbing and begging for utena to leave before the final duel if she wanted to stab her in the back.

this is not the face of someone who is about to act rationally, or in a way she thinks is the "right" choice, even for herself.

but i know calls to action without any kind of instruction aren't very helpful so here are some tips that i think you can easily do yourself with your own circles:

1) Staring off simple: Look around. Are there any BIPOC girls in your friend group, or are all of you white? Why? Do you often joke about everyone in your friend group being white? Why is that funny?

What to do: Examine why there are no people of color in your group. Examine why people of color may not be comfortable enough to hang out with you & your friends. Correct these, where possible. Do some reading on anti-racism. Talk to more people.

2) Examine how you talk about people of color & racism. Are you downplaying racism in your community? Are you treating women of color as dramatic or unreasonable for bringing it up? Do you find yourself only defending white dolls, always defending them from claims of racism, but never defending BIPOC dolls? Why?

What to do: Think about why you care more about accusations of racism than protecting the women of color in your community. Make sure you're making your space safe for BIPOC girls. Speak openly and loudly about anti-racism. Hold your sisters accountable- they should be apologizing when they say or do something wrong.

3) This one might sound silly, but as we often meet each other over fandom and roleplay- how are nonwhite characters treated in your circle? Are they always aggressive, angry, or antagonistic? Do you find yourself putting nonwhite characters in more roles like cops, dictators, sex pests, etc?

Additionally: If your circle shares sexual content, is there a lot of art where there's a pale/blonde character on the bottom, and a darker character on top? Are you and your friends always drawing darker characters as more dominant, more sexually aggressive, or promiscuous, while the white/pale characters are more innocent, submissive, modest, or clueless?

What to do: Examine how the way your group approaches fandom & art with nonwhite characters in it may make people of color uncomfortable. Examine why your art may make people of color feel unsafe or awkward hanging out with you. It's not wrong to have the occasional character of color be more antagonistic or dominant, but it's a problem when this is a pattern. If it's happening All The Time, question why!

4) Be honest with yourself: Did this post make you feel defensive? Does it make you feel defensive when people say something you did was racist? Why?

If a person of color tells you your actions were racist, they trust you to improve. I don't tell people they're being racist if i think they're going to hurt me for bringing it up. I know many like me. Don't prove us wrong- take these criticisms into account and work on it. You aren't cursed to be some kind of terrible bigot forever because you messed up- panicking without action is useless. Just be sure you examine the behavior in question and work to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. Okay?

yahh ok so. this is both why i made this post and why the first sentence is like that. sometimes my fellow dolls fuck up and hurt me, right, but they're more likely to get hurt if i say anything and that's EXACTLY what causes this issue. if i speak up, im risking ruining their lives the second TMEs smell blood in the water, which causes this horrible awful cycle where i don't feel comfortable speaking up when other trans women are racist to me because i am so afraid of TMEs killing them about it when all i wanted was for them to make things right. This is BAD. This is actively causing trans women of color to hide when they get hurt and racist whites in the community to take advantage of our fear. It's a HUGE problem, and this is the very SPECIFIC problem i was addressing in this post.

So on that note-

Yeah. Posted this one TikTok now here

Translation of the lyrics:

Allenby: “A little girl with really long pigtails/About fourteen years old and pretty cute”

Rain: “My thoughts are on the verge of overloading/I want to see you right now”

For anyone curious, I actually made English subtitles for the Swedish Sailor Moon opening, which you can watch on YouTube (though unfortunately it's region locked) or on the Internet Archive!

@twigs-sprigs was kind enough to throw in an awesome bonus as well:

cis men, cis women, trans men, and tme nonbinary people, are all privileged over transfeminized people on the basis of our being able to leverage transmisogyny while being able to dodge its worst effects.

any of us, literally any of us, if mistaken for transfeminized people can not only escape that accusation with the literal backing of the state's assignment, but also usually receive community support in the form of everyone insisting that this violence was wrongfully applied to us, rather than challenging the violence itself.

people are outraged on our behalf. this violence is not naturalized for us. it is incidental and invites righteous defense on our behalf. this is extremely not the case for transfeminized people.

it is transphobic in and of itself to argue that trans men are not "real" men on the basis of their being trans. it is also transmisogynistic in and of itself to argue that trans men (or tme nonbinary people, or cis women) are less capable of enacting and escaping forms of oppressive gendered violence on the basis of their being assigned female at birth.

the idea that a trans man is somehow less capable of (or rather, less accountable for) transmisogyny if remaining closeted as a cis woman is rooted in the very transmisogynistic worldview that trans women are identifying.

you cannot identify out of responsibility for your part in dismantling transmisogynistic systems of gender valuation. no one can. even transfeminized people themselves must constantly interrogate their own participation in these structures, for their sisters and their own survival. everyone must, but usually only transfems do. this is the issue.