Birb-ass Sisterfucker

“I’ve heard SO MANY stories about you Raven”

“THEY say-“

And WHO is “THEY?”

I feel like a certain amount of queer persons have fallen for the propaganda that our existence is inherently sexual, so anything that is even remotely sexual (as identified by a needlessly puritanical culture) is factually for sexual gratification in some way.

One of our event coordinators wants to do a live art session with nude models that are trans, and I was explaining to a friend that the hard part was finding a venue willing to host it. She assumed that the person coordinating was going to be a model and that this was an exhibitionist thing.

Like ... no? He's a talented artist who wants to give opportunities to trans persons.

People think our nature programs are about hookup culture. I would simply like a group of birders that is not going to put me in exile for mentioning my wife.

The bellydancing is not about sex. It is just fun for me. I enjoy it in a nonsexual way. And also like... if it was, would it be hurting anyone?

You will however, understand exactly what they’re saying from the context of the video

And you will get to hear this person’s wonderful laughter

Remember the sixpencee child slave thing? What happened there, exactly? Was the kid freed? No? They were just run off the website? OK so what good exactly did that do?

Remember the bone stealing witch? What exactly did that witchhunt accomplish? The person got arrested, oh that's great, the american justice system surely rectified the situation

And again, those are instances where the accusations were true and involved real substantive harm to another person. We used to joke on here how callout posts were shit like "receipts below: [several paragraphs of petty fandom drama] [three paragraphs of petty interpersonal drama involving cheating on partners or stealing food out of the fridge or something] [fabricated evidence that the person is responsible for the murder of JonBenét Ramsey]"

And that was back in the 2010s. The meta has changed. Callouts used to be a tool people used to point out actual harm a person had done, rarely, and more commonly were used as a means of bullying somebody over petty drama. Nowadays they're used to manufacture outrage and harassment against marginalized populations. They are a weapon bigots use to turn us against each other. A few manufactured accusations here, some out of context or clipped screenshots there, and people who should be standing in solidarity with each other against white supremacy, patriarchy, cisheteronormativity, are instead devouring each other.

It's sinister as shit, dude, and people will still share these accusations without a second thought. So, why? What is the point? What's the best case scenario here? Raising "awareness?" what the fuck is that supposed to accomplish? Will we get the oh-so-trustworthy authorities involved? Are we hoping for an arrest? A conviction? Throwing a queer or poc person in prison so they can be abused and assaulted and humiliated behind bars? Is that who we are?

Callouts and the like don't serve any real good in the world. At a macro scale they divide us when we should be standing together, and at a micro scale they result in deeply traumatic never-ending harassment and threats and doxxing and worse to a person who almost definitely does not deserve it. And again, for what? A sense of "justice?" this is not justice. This is retribution. It is punishment.