Mel

And then I went to the USAmerican Midwest

Rains frequently, but the worst is like standing under a bathroom shower. Genuinely inhospitable rainstorms are uncommon.

Along the coast, it's pretty easy in most areas to walk to at least one store, or else there's usually a bus or shuttle available. There are sidewalks and bike lanes everywhere.

It's a temperate boreal rainforest, so while there are many freshwater lakes and rivers, they're usually pretty cold. The biggest danger is typically getting caught in a strong current, and the most dangerous animals in swimming distance are on land.

Earthquakes happen almost every day, but the vast majority go unnoticed. Buildings are designed to withstand bigger seismic activity, so unless it's a 5 or higher it just kind of feels like having low blood sugar for a second. There are no tornados

Rural Illinois, USA:

One minute it's sunny, then ten minutes later that distant smudge on the horizon has swallowed the entire sky in black clouds and the water is coming down like waterfall and you literally CANNOT SEE. Then there's a crash like cymbals and you need to get indoors because the thunder and lightening are on TOP of you

No sidewalks until you are in the smack dab center of town, which is a three hour walk or twenty minute drive from wherever you are.

There aren't many natural bodies of water other than small ponds and creeks, and because the environment is so much warmer, those are filled with snapping turtles that can grow bigger than a nine year old child and water snakes that are incredibly venomous. These are paired with leeches and mosquitos for that sweet umami flavor.

years ago i had an idea of what might've happened if kairi wound up in twilight town instead of destiny island and grew up with hayner, pence, and olette.

and while pence is the guy who wanted to investigate the mysteries of the town in canon, hayner has some pretty out-there ideas too. like trying to flying kick ansem sod. olette's the one with the braincell of them.

Got this when i asked what transemasculation was.

Why the fuck are they making terms for oppression against trans masculine people in spaces that we arent in? We should get to decide on our own vocabulary. That just feels straight up rude.

The funny fucked up part about this is that antitransmasculinity theory has always; always; always been intersectional. It has always considered and included the perspectives and experiences of people who are not transmasculine, it has always considered and included that gender is influenced by race and ethnicity. “Transemasculation” is nothing but another attempt at creating a colorblind gender theory that only pretends to be intersectional as it consistently ignores the ways that other oppressions influence and compound antitransmasculinity. It is gross and antiblack.

Not only that, the term “transemasculation” makes it seem like the biggest concern transmasculine people are facing is not having their masculinity taken seriously, like everything would be just fine if only trans men were truly treated like men. Like? What the fuck? And how much do you wanna bet that if transmascs did start using “Transemasculation” people would start accusing them of “desiring all the privileges of the patriarchy and being mad you don’t get them”. When what transmasc ppl (and person with a gender expanse that includes trans/masculinity/manhood) really need (and what “transandrobros” have been trying to do!) is to be fucking listened to and taken seriously as PEOPLE who MATTER.

Transandrophobia, transmisandry and antitransmasculinity are all terms created to give people the space to articulate their experiences and understand them as functions of greater oppression. Period.

Black cis men, for example, are seen as being especially masculine. You can see this in how Black men are hypersexualised - the whole idea that Black men have large penises, that Black men are dangerous rapists, look at how interracial porn with Black men is characterized- it's "this big Black dick is gonna dominate you cause I'm a real man", especially with gay porn. Black men are seen as hypersexual and violent BECAUSE of the characterization of having dangerous masculinity (rather than, eg, protective masculinity).

Black women are also seen as especially masculine. Black women are degendered and seen as more masculine than white woman are. Black women are seen as angry, violent, and dangerous, and that the cause of that is the lack of appropriate femininity and the proximity of masculinity. Black women are also seen to have a dangerous promiscuous sexuality that is degendering because it's not the appropriate sexuality associated with desirable white womanhood. Black women are seen as ugly for masculine (and animalistic) traits as well - big noses (characterized as masculine in comparison to the desirable button noses of white ideals), strong jawlines, being hairy, etc are all tied to masculinity in a way that devalues Black women as women AND as people.

I am the most familiar with this with regard to anti-Blackness, but the overall phenomenon of men being hypermasculine, hypersexual, and dangerous, and women as being masculine through a lack of femininity, ugly in comparison to white beauty standards, and angry through proximity to masculinity, is a phenomenon that many racialised groups experience, especially Black people, Indigenous people, Mestizo people, South Asians, and many other groups.

So how do gender non-conforming people in these groups fair, whether they're trans, intersex, queer, or generally GNC?

Not fucking well!

We are seen as whatever is the most dangerous or worst in the moment. We are seen as simultaneously the sluts looking to lead white men astray, and the monsters following white women in the dark. We are seen as especially dangerous because our gender non-conformity marks us as people outside of the normal gendered social order. We are degenerates causing the downfall of society, monsters hurting (precious, valuable, and especially WHITE) women and children, freaks of nature abusing science to get what we want.

The idea that trans fems, trans mascs, and trans neutrals face entirely different forms of transphobia is incorrect.

Screenshot via Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net on bluesky

Tldr Amnesty International, global human rights organisation, published a report called 'A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK'. In it is detailed, amongst others, a whole bunch of transphobic groups and organisations, including Beira's Place, JK Rowling's trans exclusionary sexual violence support service. JK Rowling threw a shit fit and got Amnesty to take the report down by threatening libel. This was obviously not enough, because you can't appease a fascist, so now she's going to bankroll a bunch of lawsuits anyway through the JK Rowling Women's Fund.*

You can read an archived version of the report here, please save it and share it.

majestic waterfalls of the north fork of the chicago river

the perilous scraggly peaks of rockford

city state of chicago, viewed from the placid waters of lake michigan

illinois beach state park sand dunes

the joyously colorful rolling hills of terre haute

shawnee national forest

lower wacker drive

the state’s great capital, springfield

the rambling eastern border along the mississippi river