not your angel anymore

A giant salamander emerged from Kyoto’s Kamogawa on July 4, 2014, following torrential rains that flooded the river.

Four years later to the date, it returned.

The patriarchy is a shitty thing and i want it torn down probably as much as you do but I don't even think about it when it comes to my identity because its always been a non-factor in it. How I identify and how I know I am and therefore outwardly express myself has always been for me, not other people and not because of society because I do not care about any of that shit, in fact, it was my dropping of care of what other people thought of me which allowed me to express myself as trans.

for the sake of fairness let me think of the patriarchy in relation to my identity, hmm...the patriarchy seems to hate me as a trans person just as much if not worse as if they were to think of me as a woman. do you know how low the trans life expectancy is? about 30? When I identified as a trans male it was not because of the views of the people around m but because I knew I did not feel like a girl, not because of the hatred of women but because I was not comfortable and didn't feel right in myself and at the time trans male was what made me feel more comfortable. I seem to currently be struggling to connect the patriarchy to my identity. Yes, I will always be affected by the patriarchy, not because I am a woman, but because our society is naturally built to put cis men in positions of power, that effects everyone.

you feel uncomfortable with the fact that you are a woman because of the attitude society has towards our bodies, constantly sexualizing our body parts and functions

you don’t think you’re a woman because society has told you that a woman is someone who is quiet, submissive, small and feminine

you have been told through stereotypes (created by men) that women are all nagging bitchy, superficial and overemotional with no original thoughts in their head, no sense of humour, no intelligence, no hobbies or interests besides doing their makeup

you think “I don’t feel comfortable with how I am treated, I don’t play into the stereotypes associated with the female sex, I am a complex human being, not a woman!”

you think our criticism of transgenderism is because we simply don’t understand you, that we’ve never had a conversation with a trans person? WE WERE YOU a while ago.

A large part of us are detransitioned and have been a part of trans rights activist circles for ages. We know everything there is to know about it. It is you who knows nothing about us except for the shit you see regurgitated about us by other people who don’t know anything.

we are largely sympathetic towards gay men who become transgender because they have been brainwashed (usually by religion) into thinking their more feminine traits and interests and attraction to men mean they are “women inside” or whatever (basically just a conversion therapy tactic lol)

the concept of transgenderism is misogynistic in itself, saying that a man is “a woman inside” or “has a female brain” because of gender stereotypes that are enforced on women and associated with women. there is no such thing as a “womanly feeling”, the only way to be a woman is to be born a human female.

another thing you don’t understand about radfems is the distinction between sex and gender. Sex is your biology, down to your chromosomes, your genitals and reproductive system, your bone structure, your fat distribution, etc.

Gender is stereotype. The “female gender” includes being feminine, caring, submissive, etc. The male gender is being masculine, dominant, strong, etc.

that’s just another word for your personality or your aura or your soul or whatever you want to call it

gender doesn’t exist. it’s made up. and when you realize it’s made up, all that is left is biology. even intersex people are either male or female. the two sexes are male and female and that will never change.

you claim to “not believe in gender” or be “gender abolitionists” but then constantly make up new ones and constantly enforce gender roles

gender non conforming girls are told that by not fitting the female gender role perfectly or by not liking the way they are treated as a girl in society (completely normal things that every girl experiences) mean they are trans

meanwhile men who think being submissive, feminine, liking wearing skirts and dresses or just “feeling like a woman” (which doesn’t make sense because there is no such thing as a womanly feeling) and often getting off to acting like a pornified caricature of a woman makes them “female” which is unimaginably misogynistic

it’s all misogynistic and counterproductive to all the work feminists have done proving that there is no right or wrong way to be a woman, you just are one

gender isn’t real, it is a societal construct. I could be as masculine as I want and I would still be a woman

You know my nonbinary friend, who uses they/them pronouns, is going to get misgendered even if I used they/them pronouns too, right?

You know trans people are going to get kicked out of their houses even if I stuck to the more common pronouns, right?

You know conservative states are going to keep passing anti-trans legislation even if I only used one set of pronouns, right?

You know access to blockers, hormones, and surgeries for trans people is going to be restricted even if I didn't make pronoun puns, right?

You know there are going to be hate crimes against trans people even if I stop using neopronouns for myself, right?

You know transphobia is going to exist with or without neopronouns, right?

You know trans people have never been taken seriously by cis people, even the normal ones who have dysphoria and medically transition to binary genders and use binary pronouns, right?

insulin has been mass produced (from animal extracts) since -1923-. slow acting insulin has existed since the ‘50s, and ‘human’ genetically engineered insulin (derived from E. coli bacteria) has existed since 1982.

insulin treatment for diabetes is not some new or ‘unproven’ treatment. according to beyondtype1, “Humalog rapid-acting insulin came on to the market with a list price of $21 a vial in 1997.” adjusting for inflation, a vial these days should cost about $34 at most. instead, it costs over $300. there is NO reason for it to be steadily gaining in price to the point that diabetics are unable to afford their lifesaving medication, other than the sheer inhuman greed of pharmaceutical manufacturers.

“ We’re a team of biohackers with a variety of backgrounds, and skills, and relationships to insulin and diabetes from many cities and countries around the world, including Oakland, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Paraiba, Brazil; Dakar, Senegal; Yaounde, Cameroon; and Puerto Rico. We’re working to develop the first practical, small-scale, community-centered model for insulin production to make insulin accessible to all. We envision a world in which communities in need have local sources of safe, affordable, high-quality insulin, and where people living with diabetes and their communities can own and govern the organizations that produce the medicine they depend on to survive. 

What We Do

We are creating an open-source (freely available) model for insulin production that centers on sustainable, small-scale manufacturing and open-source alternatives to production. We are developing protocols to produce short-acting (lispro) and long-acting (glargine) insulin, working on developing open-hardware equivalents to traditional production equipment, are researching sustainable regulation pathways to bring our insulin to the public, and are building capacities for local, small-scale manufacturing.

How Do I Participate?

Our work would not be possible without the support of volunteers, interns, and community advisors. We welcome people of all backgrounds from all over the world to bring their enthusiasm, time, connections, and experiences, both in life and in work. Our volunteers promote us on social media, build equipment, run experiments, write reports and blog posts, facilitate meetings, connect with other organizations and groups, meet with experts in the field, run virtual events, and contribute in designing tools, resources, and methods of all sorts.

Potential Partners

We welcome collaboration with other groups that share our mission―community labs, academic institutions, patient advocacy groups, and NGOs.

Donate

Your donation will help us get closer to our goal. With a healthy financial situation, we can pay for lab supplies, acquire lab equipment, recruit scientists, and pay for consultation fees for regulation and manufacturing experts.”

I want to rage, to erase this crushing sense of helplessness in my lungs. To snarl instead of sobbing. I wanted to be shocked at this injustice. To be surprised and treat this as a horrific incident and not just a symptom of a bigger problem.

But I've witnessed how racist bigots reacted to Floyd, the instinctive racist response and "jokes" when people identified China as the one who was at fault with the whole COVID-situation, and how I immediately thought that those "low-key" racist thoughts will escalate someday to deadly actions. I listened to some of my friends when they said that I'm exaggerating.

And I wish- I wish I was. I wished that they were right and I was wrong. But look at our bloodied history. Look at where we are now.

One step forward, eight bloody steps back.

PLEASE DO NOT THINK FOR EVEN A SECOND THAT YOUR VOICE WILL NOT HAVE AN IMPACT THIS IS LITERALLY THE BARE MINIMUM