trying to listen

And of course a lot of these studies suck. A lot of them didn't actually think to ask WHEN the schizophrenic acquired the cat, so it's just always presumed that the cat came before the schizophrenia. Most don't really account for the fact that a schizophrenia diagnosis is often a very slow and complex process due to specific regional legalities associated with having "doctors can turn your rights off whenever" disorder. Basically, the same scientific half-truths that surround the phenomenon of "drug-induced schizophrenia," that is the conflation of schizophrenics self-medicating before their formal diagnosis is set and the ambiguity of proving when symptoms onset in relation to that, has been completely replicated for cat-induced schizophrenia lol.

And I love this because it's kind of a perfect demonstration of how the stigma associated with schizophrenia works in medical and scientific settings, right. Everything becomes possible to pathologize, from smoking weed to owning a cat. While the science here is usually pretty bad, "science communication" outlets make it much worse because they run with the most broad dumbass versions of these stories and present them to the public as if there's a clear causal relationship between owning a cat and having schizophrenia, instead of actually reading through the research with an appropriate critical lens and demanding real actual meta-review of obviously flawed studies.

Which is not to say that schizophrenia can't be caused by cats or THC exposure, but that the standard for a concept to become "scientifically true" when dealing with schizophrenia is uh, let's say lower?

people like to imply that male anatomy inherently means penis and balls and that female anatomy inherently means vagina and uterus and ovaries and boobs which is sooo weird because. anybody, of ANY gender, trans or cis, intersex or perisex can have ANY combination (or lack) of ANY of those body parts at any time. (i think most people saying this stuff either completely forget about the existence of both gender-affirming surgeries and intersex people, or they are intentionally ignoring those things, both being really bad options) some people (as in, those who support and/or don't recognize the transphobia behind terms like this) try to act like these terms are useful for discussing issues that only affect people with certain body parts and they absolutely are NOT. (shit like this is also like a repackaging of agab language which is ALREADY bad)

and i need every transmasc reading this right now to know that if you care about your trans siblings, you need to stop this. you need to. it doesn't help. all it does is reinforce gender essentialism.

to literally anyone of any identity who does this tho:

you arent doing transfems a favor by demonizing transmascs and dismissing very real threats that transmascs face. you aren't doing transmascs a favor either, which should be obvious but alas.

you're teaching any queer person that presently identifies a man to villainize themselves while discouraging them from unlearning gender essentialism.

Last week i was looking into one of my teen's homework when I noticed she was writing words she "wasn't supposed to know" in english (like "furthermore", for example. They only know very intermediary english) I got a bit mad for a second. I wear an "anti-AI" button all the time, i even told them before why i was anti-AI, yet she didn't listen to me and thought she could get away with it... But i decided to keep it cool because i didn't know why she would do this, since she never did.

Okay, one week after, this Wednesday, it was time for their class again and, when she arrived, i told her to come to my desk and asked her: "what is furthermore?" She went pale when she noticed the paper in my hands. I asked again: "darling, what is furthermore?" Then, she shuttered: "I don't know, teacher. I'm sorry, I had to ask Gemini because I had no time..." then I sat her down, she was clearly upset (she is just 13) and I asked her what happened. "I didn't have any time left because of my exams and there were too many units to go through. So I asked my mom to help me and she told me to use ChatGPT but I asked google instead." Okay. So I looked into her eyes and told her it was okay, that she didn't need to be upset, but she would have to re-do that paper and bring it back to me by the next week. I told her she didn't need google or gpt to do her work, because she got a very high score at her english exam (both at school and at the course). She got right back on her feet and we started class as normal.

Oh absolutely. Most of the time, when a person with PMOS declines the idea of being intersex, there's some weird explanation behind it.

I've seen this quite a few times with women who have PMOS. I've seen many of them say "I am not intersex, I am a woman" as if those are two distinct things.

The other thing I often hear is "well, hormones aren't enough to make me intersex", which just spreads misinformation about what intersexuality is, and also downplays people with other hormonal variations.

If someone chooses not to use the intersex label purely because they feel no attachment to it, that's one thing. But saying it's because it "devalues your gender identity" or "isn't enough to be intersex" is intersexist.

I didn't realize how much time I spent wondering when the hell my period was going to show up, and if it wasn't going to show up and I was going to have to worry about that again when occasionally, I was capable of being regular and not having that be an issue, until suddenly I was on T and not having a period was considered a good thing and proof that it was working, and every doctor wanted my periods to be stopped and asked if they were, instead of fretting about how it had been too long since I had one.

I didn't realize that literally every time I put on a dress, I noticed that I didn't have as pronounced of a waistline as perisex cis women are "supposed" to have until I went on T and watched that waist melt away completely and that was a good thing that meant I was responding well to HRT.

I didn't realize that loads of the time when I was singing with my choir and struggling to hit a higher note, I thought about how probably, I was an alto because of my higher testosterone levels, until I started singing bass instead.

I didn't think about just how often my mother commented on my facial hair and how I should get it waxed, or how much I was aware that me choosing to leave it and not do anything about it was considered an unusual, GNC choice, until I was on T and everyone was congratulatory and excited when they saw that I had facial hair. Now that was a good thing that people celebrated.

And so on and so forth.

I don't want anyone's takeaway from this to be "going on HRT cures being intersex" because like, a) every variation is different, some of them are still going to have effects on cross-sex HRT (for lack of a better term), and some mean that it wouldn't even work at all, b) I have not stopped being intersex either. Like, it's not an issue or thing I have to think about currently, but I would like to have children some day, and PMOS is going to be a huge issue then and make that a lot harder.

Rather my point is that if you're a person with PMOS, and you feel like you aren't really intersex, or aren't intersex enough, or sure, you're intersex, but like, you're the bottom tier of the community, and all those people with real variations are above you. You only think that because you're used to PMOS. The ways that it impacts your life ever single day have become invisible to you. You don't notice them because that's always been your life. But if one day, they went away? You would absolutely notice. There would be a massive, gaping hole where your PMOS was. You would suddenly realize that actually, it was taking up so much space in your brain, and was a constant thing in the back of your mind that perisex people don't have to think about. And this also goes for every other intersex variation. I imagine loads of intersex people deal with thinking "yeah, sure, it's a problem for other people, but I don't really have it that bad." Yes, you do. You're just used to it.

A canon interracial couple exists "I just don't see their chemistry" proceeds to fanon ship [insert white character] instead, claiming they have more of a connection.

"It's not their skin color, I just don't like them for some reason, btw, here are my top 5 [insert white actors] I think are better suited"

"Not everything is about race". They say, as they prop up every white character over any character of color.

"Please stop bring race drama into the fandom". Which translates to, I'm comfortable in my racism and don't appreciate any criticism, thanks!

White person, "Yeah, I wrote character of color as an animal, doesn't make me racist".

"I love character of color, here's a fic where they act like as [insert white characters] servant/therapist".

Character of color is such a bad friend for having opinions of their own/taking care of themselves instead of putting their friend [insert white character] first.

A character of color is morally ambiguous or a villain, gets redemption arc. "They're awful and haven't been condemned enough of their crimes". Stans [insert white characters] who did the exact same crimes or was a villain who's redemption arc is praised.

"Can't believe that character of color had the nerve not to die as a selfless sacrifice for [insert white character]".

"POC actress/actor is too ethnic and they'd ruin the character".

"I haven't seen racism in the fandom therefore it isn't there".

"Character of color is the main character of the show sure, but let's be honest, everyone came for [insert white character]

"Character of color is alright but I can only relate to [insert white character]".

this behavior deserves to have this user's privileges fully revoked and banned from editing. or at least suspended. this is fucking ghoulish behavior.

oh!

Tone policing is when someone ignores your argument because you were emotional about it. It is not tone policing to ask someone to reflect on / update their words while sympathizing with your point, because the words you said are materially harmful in some way.

For example: It is materially harmful to paint people as being transandrophobic because they aren’t transmasc, that’s similar to how the TRFs and radfems and incels happened. The people asking or suggesting that you try naming the group by action (transandrophobes) are NOT “tone policing” you, they are pulling you back from a hateful pipeline that if you aren’t careful, you will entrench yourself in, just like those other groups. You will remove anyone’s ability to show allyship to you, so helping pivot the anger is an act of community.

Be willing to accept being checked by your community, or you may not have one.

Am I saying we need to be polite and calm and respectful to bigots? No. Not at all.

Swear. Get loud. Get emotional. Tell them how you feel however you want to. I personally prefer a polite approach at first because it works for me, but you aren’t me, so be you instead.

But be *precise* about the language you identify the people you’re talking about with.

———

In the original case i was referring to, the post wrote “non-transmascs” instead of “transandrophobes”. This seems like a small nitpick to some people, but it is actually quite important, and here’s why:

When you speak/write/read/etc., you are coding information into your brain by forming neural pathways, which is super cool. However, you aren’t just coding the implicit meaning of the information, you are coding the words used to convey the meaning. This is important.

When you use a name for a target in an angry post, you connect that anger and that name together in your brain. (Categorization and whatnot, im sure someone who knows more about this can explain it in more detail.) This is how people learn things.

If you see someone you categorize under that label, you then recall the information you’ve associated with it and use it to inform your perceptions and interactions with them. This is how people apply knowledge.

However, the problem lies in the broadness of the labels used. I’ll use “non-transmascs” and “transandrophobes” as an example.

“I’m so sick of non-transmascs silencing us. They never listen and will never understand, they are evil.” - This sentence labels anyone who is not transmasc as someone who cannot be trusted: Cis people, transfems, transneutrals, non-transmasc intersex folks, anyone you cannot otherwise identify as transmasculine. That’s a VERY large amount of people! Like. 99% of the population, none of whom have a choice but to be in the group labeled. This is not healthy, and severely limits who you can find community with, including a large number who would really like to support you.

“I’m so sick of transandrophobes silencing us. They never listen and will never understand, they are evil.” - This sentence labels anyone who is transandrophobic as someone who cannot be trusted. As transandrophobia is not an identity label, people can change in and out of being labeled this way by improving their behaviour, learning and growing.

If you repeatedly refer to transandrophobes as non-transmascs, you will associate all non-transmascs with transandrophobic actions. You will then no longer be able to interact with non-transmascs without thinking about how they’re transandrophobic. Even if that isn’t true. Even if you can read it and think “oh, clearly by non-transmascs, they mean transandrophobes”, with enough repetition, you will start to not distinguish the two. That is what I am seeking to warn people of.

Also, if someone reads your post and does not make the conversion necessary to understand the point you’re trying to make, they might think you don’t want community with them, and therefore will not make community with you. You personally eliminate allies that way.

This applies to any number of discrimination types. You cannot* conflate (non-member of x group) with (bigot towards x group). That is how you get isolation. That is how you get division. We don’t need that.

[*well, you can if you want to, but you won’t benefit.]