i remade

okay you’re thinking of The naked Man Orchid

Sure, I’d be happy to explain in full detail.

I don’t like RuPaul because he regularly uses transphobic slurs and claims that the trans people who ask him to stop just have bruised egos.

I don’t like RuPaul because he claims that “no one has ever said the word tr*nny in a derogatory sense.”

I don’t like RuPaul because he stated on-air that he believes the only difference between men in drag and trans women is “About twenty-five thousand dollars and a good surgeon.”

I don’t like RuPaul because he had to be pressured by his network in order to discontinue a game on his show where his contestants attempted to clock drag queens the way they do trans women by labeling them with the s-slur.

I don’t like the RuPaul because he proudly defended Shirley Q. Liquor, a drag queen who performs in literal blackface. He said Liquor is “not racist” and “Critics who think Shirley Q. Liquor is offensive are idiots.”

I don’t like the show because one of its most popular contestants created a YouTube video where he “appeared to shoot and kill a trans woman (caricatured as having a wig and mustache) for objecting to certain language used by drag queens.” (This link is a step removed, as I’m not comfortable linking my followers directly to that kind of violence.)

The language we use to talk about racism is obviously distorted, a big clue that something is being hidden. It’s pretty easy to pinpoint the source: most White people can’t handle talking about racism. We flail. We don’t understand the subject, we get really uncomfortable, and we either clam up because we don’t want to say the wrong thing, or we bust out the whitesplaining (FYI, this is a best-case scenario. It can be much worse).

To mitigate our shortcomings, we surround ourselves with comforting words. Words that feel neutral. Words that don’t point fingers (at us). Words that center Whiteness, while erasing the harshness of discrimination and segregation. We reject words that we feel are too direct, that might reveal complicity on our part.

Let’s be clear that these linguistic gymnastics are only fooling White people. People of color have been aware that corporate pushes for “diversity” are often flimsy CYA efforts to mask sustained homogeneity, and “inclusion” is often code for tokenism. Scholars of color have been writing about the nuances of privilege and oppression for a long, longtime while watching White people invent different ways to either wriggle out of, dominate, or shut down the conversation. These same scholars have also been watching White writers and educators whisper the same exact thing they’ve been shouting, and magically draw a crowd.

….

Terms like “inclusion” and “white privilege” are designed to sneak past the racial stress triggers of White Fragility. They center Whiteness in a way that makes White people comfortable, while deflecting from the stressful realities of the racist harm that Whiteness causes. Imagine how many racial stress trigger alarm bells would go off if we were using words like “discrimination awareness” and “white undeserved advantages” instead.

And this:

White supremacy

Things we call “supreme”: The most delicious desserts. The most well-known and glamorous Motown singers. The highest court in the land. Um… God.

It has bothered me for years that linguistically, white supremacy sounds kind of great. Almost holy. It would sound more appropriately scary if it were called something actively negative, like “White domination” or “White oppressorship.” Once again, imagine the White stress level skyrocketing.

One gently squeezes my hand between both of his palms as he says “squish.” I reciprocate. When he looks like he’s feeling sad or lost, I ask if I can squish him, and he will show me where I can squish him. Sometimes it’s almost like a hug, but most of the time, it’s just a hand or an arm I press between my palms. Then he squishes my hand in return, says “squish,” and moves on. He will come ask for squishes now, when he recognizes that he needs them.

Another boy smiles and sticks his chin out at me, and if he’s really excited, he’ll lean his whole body toward me. The first time he finally won a game at circle time, he got so excited he even ran over and bumped chins with me. He now does it when he sees me outside of school too. I stick out my chin to acknowledge him, and he grins and runs over and I lean down for a chin bump.

Yet another child swings my hand really fast. At a time when another child would be seeking a hug, she stands beside me and holds my hand, and swings it back and forth, with a smile if I’m lucky. The look on her face when I initiate the hand swinging is priceless.

Another one bumps his hip against mine when he walks by in the hallway or on the playground, or when he gets up after I’m done working with him. No eye contact, no words, but he goes out of his way to “crash” into me, and I tell him that it’s good to see him. He now loves to crash into me when I’m least expecting it. He doesn’t want anything, really. Just a bump to say “Hi, I appreciate you’re here.” And when he’s upset and we have to take a break, I’ll bump him, ask if he needs to take a walk, and we just go wander for a bit and discuss whatever’s wrong, and he’s practically glued to my side. Then one more bump before we go back into the room to face the problem.

Me:

Georgia Tann orchestrated the seizure of thousands of kids – all under the pretense of doing good.

“It was the dark handiwork of the Memphis branch of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, a supposedly charitable organization, led by a woman named Georgia Tann.

Tann was a pied piper without scruple; she was the mastermind behind a black market for white babies (especially blond, blue-eyed ones) that terrorized poor Southern families for almost three decades. It’s estimated that over 5,000 children were stolen by Tann and the society between 1924 and 1950 and that some 500 died at the society’s hands as a result of poor care, disease and, it is suspected, abuse.

Particularly vulnerable were newborns. In 1945 alone, as many as 50 children perished in a dysentery outbreak. The precise figure, like so many terrible details about the society, is not known.

Tann had various means of procuring babies and children for her wealthy customers. She bribed nurses and doctors in birthing wards, who would then tell new parents that their babies had been stillborn.

stop engaging with terfs, its not helping. it has never helped. stop reblogging terf posts to poke fun at them, stop directly engaging in arguments with terfs for the sake of getting off some petty insult or telling them off, youre not proving anything and youre not going to change their minds. doing something to “piss off terfs” does not help trans women, it just frustrates terfs, who will then take their frustrations out on trans women. terfs might tell u off or insult u but ultimately they see u as a poor victim who has been Brainwashed By The Trans Rights Activists™, youre not a target, youre not the one who has to deal with their anger, we are.

If someone makes a post about “please don’t reblog from (popular artist) cause they’re a terf,” feel free to reblog it! Help spread information about who terfs are.

If a trans woman makes a post detailing why terf arguments are absurd nonsense, feel free to reblog it! Help spread information about why terf ideas are bullshit.

If you see a post like that, or a general positivity post for trans women, and there’s some terf being hateful on it, just reblog from OP! Even if someone further down in the thread “totally destroyed” the terf’s argument! Don’t give terfs a platform on your blog.

If you see a post from a lesbian feminist blog you don’t recognize, give it a quick look before you reblog! This goes doubly true if the post talks about people in terms of “males” and “females” or the person has words like “radical”/”rad” or “female” in their url or blog title. Put in the effort to not reblog from terfs so trans women don’t have to do it for you!

If someone close to you turns out to be a terf, cut them off and tell them why. Don’t think you can be an ally to us and still be friends with the people who want us dead.

But like the OP said, making a big show about arguing with terfs and mocking them doesn’t actually help us at all. I know it’s easier and flashier to fight a big evil enemy, but it’s better and more important to help the trans women who’re being hurt by them and by the world we live in.

but lets just nip this “all lesbians are terfs” in the bud

any cis radfem can be a terf and they dont have to be a lesbian

its really hurtful and lesbophobic to assume the only terfs are lesbians or that all lesbians are terfs