PEOPLE ARE NOT THINGS

Saying “I’m gay/lesbian/bi” is pretty simple. Just about everyone knows what you mean, and you quickly establish yourself as a member of a community. Saying “I’m a trans nonbinary bi woman who’s celibate due to dysphoria and possibly on the ace spectrum”… not so much. You’re lucky to find anyone who understands even half of that, and explaining it requires revealing a ton of personal information. The appeal of “queer” is being able to identify yourself without profiling yourself. It’s welcoming and functional terminology to those who do not have the luxury of simplified language and occupy complicated identities. *That’s* why people use it - there are currently not alternatives to express the same sentiment.

The reclaiming of the slur “queer” was an intensely political process, and people who came up during the 90s, or who came up mostly around people who did so, were divided on class and political lines on questions of assimilation into straight capitalist society. 

Bourgeois gays and lesbians already had “the luxury of language” to describe themselves - normalized through struggle, thanks to groups like the Gay Liberation Front.

Everyone else, from poor gays and lesbians to bi and trans people and so on, had no such language. These people were the ones for whom social/economic assimilation was not an option.

The only language left, the only word which united this particular underclass, was “queer.” “Queer” came to mean an opposition to assimilation - to straight culture, capitalism, patriarchy, and to upper class gays and lesbians who wanted to throw the rest of us under the bus for a seat at that table - and a solidarity among those marginalized for their sexuality/gender id/presentation. 

(Groups which reclaimed “queer,” like Queer Patrol (armed against homophobic violence), (Queers) Bash Back! (action and theory against fascism, homophobia, and transphobia), and Queerbomb (in response to corporate/state co-optation of mainstream Gay Pride), were “ultraleft,” working-class, anti-capitalist, and functioned around solidarity and direct action.)

they fucked up hard.

They missed out on “SPLA2N”

im 100% there for anyone with intrusive thoughts that are not cute

intrusive thoughts that are violent towards yourself or others

intrusive thoughts that are against your morality

intrusive thoughts that are gross

intrusive thoughts that are sexual

they exist

just because your intrusive thoughts are violent, doesnt mean that you are! just because your intrusive thoughts are against your morality, doesnt mean that you went against it! just because your intrusive thoughts are gross, doesnt mean that you are! just because your intrusive thoughts are sexual, doesnt mean that you are!

your intrusive thoughts alone dont define you

they alone dont make you violent

or immoral

or gross

or sexual

Like, growing up as a trans girl, it’s a pretty common thing to be relentlessly scolded and guilt-tripped about how it’s great to be a feminine boy, how much happier our lives would be as feminine boys, how much happier our families would be if we were feminine boys, how much happier our friends would be if we were feminine boys, how we’ll only get acceptance if we’re feminine boys, how our very existence pushes feminine boys to think they have to be trans girls instead of just being feminine boys, how young trans girls trying to explain their being girls is wrong because it’s okay for feminine boys to wear dresses and like pink too, etc.

Add that to people railing against trans women for seeing characters in media , and all the subtext and signs that a character might very well be like us, and asserting that no, the character’s just a feminine boy, that the character can’t be a trans girl, that we’re actually being transphobic for thinking of the character as a trans girl (or merely just wanting the character to be).

Both combine to send two huge messages…that our existence as trans women is harming the ability for boys to be feminine, and that any representation we might find is always just a feminine boy (canonical or otherwise…there are literally canon trans woman characters like Grell from Black Butler that hordes of people still argue is just a feminine boy). Basically, that we’re not allowed to exist, and any attempt to exist hurts men and is sexist.

Like when I was a kid I was horribly crushingly bullied by people who perceived me as a feminine boy. I’m bigender so they were half right and that kind of made it worse. Now as an adult, I feel much safer presenting as female despite transphobia because I have an easier time being perceived as a woman than as a gender conforming man.

And when I came out as trans I got a lot of pressure to be binary, to just give up and be a girl and a lot of well intentioned “I can’t imagine you as male” because I was too feminine to be nonbinary or something.

Like, maybe how transphobia against kids works has changed and/or it’s really really different for binary people, but basically all the transphobia I’ve seen has been about misgendering me as a cis guy and hating me as a feminine boy the same way they’ve always done. And like a bunch of homophobia mixed in, again on the assumption that I was a boy and boys can’t do these things.

Like having my identity recognized is really important but being allowed to act the way I act doesn’t feel like invalidation, it feels like a good start? Like it’s a problem that people stop there but like do most binary trans people really skip that step? Like go straight to “I’m a girl” without any “hey let me do [girl thing here] please” first?

(standing in front of blank wall or empty box) nothing to see here, move along

let’s just put that in the back pocket for now mmkay

*eats ration bar* mm mmm tastes like [dead comrade]

you can’t be mean to me on my birthday

*force chokes a problem*

(between heavy darth vader wheezes) i’m not mad, i’m just disappointed. 

(when something falls over) rebel scum!

*points at large machine* mom

it’s party time (everyone stands perfectly still for at least a minute)

(when friend come into the room) you’re surplus to requirements

they put a worm in him

*picks up thing that is not a phaser* pew pew

Sending troopers new to the unit on an ruffleluff hunt

spreading the rumor that Hoth is secretly the main base because that’s the only place their uniforms make sense as camo

tagging other trooper’s helmets with mysterious substances when they’re not looking

*does something dangerous* eat me ass first

healthy habits start at home

well, as we all know, [lie]

*gives someone a pinecone*  (very difficult to pull off)

i can’t go out dressed like THIS!

my morale is so [genital adjective] right now.

does anyone need to stormpooper before we go

fun is illegal 

*puts foot in small box* i live here now

doubletime sleeping

Jedi are a myth

Kylo Ren is a myth

*explaining damage* It got KRed. (Kylo Renned)

KRUBAR Kylo Renned Beyond All Recall/Recognition/Repair

Calling helmets faces (a relic from the clone days)

Backtalking superior officers “begging to be spaced”

Kylo Ren is having a moment as an acceptable excuse for deviating a patrol route

General Hux is in a good mood as an acceptable excuse for deviating a patrol route

Finn trying to explain to them why their Force-using manchild deadly enemy destroying property in a rage is funny and getting some more odd looks.

Finn feeling a little knot in his gut when he realizes he’s never going to be able to tell these jokes again. How’s he even going to connect to these people enough to make them laugh when they’re all scared shitless? How’s he going to carry his entire squad around in his head when he can’t even speak their language anymore?

Rey being the first one to get it, because she synergizes what Jessika’s telling her and what Finn’s explaining and realizes, this is all communication around communication, the key point is shared understanding, and then she starts making her own, with Jessika, and Finn picks it up, and soon the whole base is in on this bastardized mix of stormtrooper meme and purely Resistance meme and a ridiculous combination of the two.

And then they interact with stormtroopers and something goes on in the background on the First Order side and a Resistance soldier asks, “Is Kylo Ren having a moment?” and there’s muffled laughter and an absence of blasterfire from the stormtroopers.

Pretty soon there’s a whole code that stormtroopers and resistance soldiers can use to communicate. “Nothing to see here, move along” means “I’m ignoring you on purpose, don’t shoot me,” and “I’m KR’d” means “I want out, please capture me.”