Be an anarchist. Love yourself.

So hey, what the hell, adding onto this after almost 4 years and innumerable waves of pearl-clutching and witch-hunting to say:

My stance is also shaped by the fact that, as far back as i can remember, i've always been grossed out (ranging from squick to severe repulsion) by things seen in the mainstream as "good" and "desirable" and "progressive" and "hot"...

...which taught me long before i learnt the concept that DISGUST IS NOT MORALITY, and thus inoculated me against all the bullshit reactionism that targets all things "icky".

because you will never convince me that people actually enjoy eating pussy, or having their tits sucked, or getting pregnant, or being a woman. (or eating raw vegetables, or exercise that isn't swimming, or cats as pets, for that matter.) and so my near-daily exposure to people who clearly do enjoy those things and are still Just Some Guy serves as a reminder that:

(1) everything is "weird" to someone, even things YOU think are "normal"

It happened in broad daylight. It was telegraphed ahead of time; TERFs were very clear they wanted trans men removed from public life entirely. Yet during the entire lead-up, and even since then, people have erased transmascs completely from the conversation, saying they weren't in danger like transfemmes are, and in fact alleging that transmascs enjoyed a measure of protection from TERFs, who allegedly just see them as confused little girls they want to protect.

And while people were busy being useful idiots and spreading TERF propaganda for them, while people were busy actively denying the threat to transmascs, TERFs made it so transmascs can be excluded from any public bathroom in the UK.

Shoutout to the people whose parents support lgbt rights but never told their kids until they were in their teens or twenties because they said it was “difficult to explain to children”.

Shoutout to the people whose religious communities came out in support just a little too late.

Shoutout to everyone afraid to come out just because they know they’ll be safe physically but they don’t know how everything will change socially.

Shoutout to everyone whose internalized homophobia that they’re trying to overcome came from subtle cues and not explicit statements.

do posts and stories on the internet make you feel emotions? does that cat pic on your feed make you happy? does that article make you angry? does my friendship matter less because it happens through a computer screen?

so when people claim that a problem or issue or topic isnt relevant simply because the forum or platform is online, I think it really discredits all the work that generations of people who fought for the ability to freely share their story with the world, and continually develop new ways of sharing those resources

And body autonomy does include things that you don’t personally like either. I was prompted to write this post after a series of bad takes from progressives, but one of them was re-hashing the Sabrina Carpenter album cover drama with “I don’t think it’s conservative of me to think that the album cover is a bad look when we’ve seen images of women being abused in this way” because I do actually think you’ve failed to understand feminism by projecting your morals onto a woman who was consensually expressing her own autonomy just because she expressed it in a way that you didn’t like or that made you uncomfortable.

Body autonomy also means unhealthy choices. Body autonomy also means regret rates. Body autonomy also means freedom of sexuality. Body autonomy also means mutilation. If you believe body autonomy has limitations and exceptions, then your feminism is most likely surface level.