go away

"I'm a comedian so I can go lower"

...we reject the stance of Lesbian separatism because it is not a viable political analysis or strategy for us. It leaves out far too much and far too many people, particularly Black men, women, and children. We have a great deal of criticism and loathing for what men have been socialized to be in this society: what they support, how they act, and how they oppress. But we do not have the misguided notion that it is their maleness, per se—i.e., their biological maleness—that makes them what they are. As BIack women we find any type of biological determinism a particularly dangerous and reactionary basis upon which to build a politic. 

Cool. Cool thing you did there. Cool way for an adult to treat a child.

I wonder how they’re going to respond the next time they see something fucked up in fandom, or worse, experience it. Like the rampant sexual harassment and assault at conventions. Do you think they’re going to talk to an adult? Or do you think they’re going to internalise it as just part of the fandom and their fault for showing up?

If a 12 year old snuck into see Deadpool or It and then complained to the threats about it, the theater would probably call their parents and report them for sneaking into an R rated movie.

Ratings are their for a reason.

T H A T is the fucking truth right there. I get sick of hearing “I’m a minor, it’s your responsibility as an adult to protect me from seeing bad things!!” and then when my response is “stay away from my blog, stay away from my AO3, and if you aren’t old enough to be seeing occasional porn then tumblr isn’t a good place for you because it’s a poorly designed website and you’re gonna stumble on that shit”, then I’m still not doing my job.

Warnings are posted for a reason. As a content creator, the extent of my responsibility is to appropriately rate and tag things that have potentially upsetting content. Avoiding those things is the responsibility of the consumer, not the creator.

well….yes and no.

At its most basic form, sure, when one clump of cells combines with another clump of cells they form a new clump of cells with new, unique abilities. It has the potential to become a human, sure, but is it a human? and more importantly, does it matter? For the sake of a tumblr post I will keep this short, but in essence, biology tells us that procreation is not a uniquely human trait, even if specific human DNA is. But in a biological perspective, the DNA of a plant and a human has the same intrinsic worth, that is, the worth it can give to the environment around it, and as such the destruction of a plant seed and the destruction of a fetus are an equal loss and/or gain.

But, then, what makes a human different from a plant or animal, or even a rock? That is not a biological issue, but a social one, a philosophical one. And yes, this can be a theological one as well, but the important notion is that theology does not exist in a vacuum. By all definitions, it is a social study. Thus, the worth of something is defined by the society within which it exists - again. Not purely biological. So, then we must ask, what defines a human? You could go with our classic “I think, therefore I am.” Or maybe more specifically “I consent, therefore I am.” The ability to consent to something - not just sexual intercourse, but anything - is something intrinsic to the human being, that is, that we are not driven by purely instinctual urges and hold each other accountable for following them if they negatively impact another. Complex thought, rational decisions - those are unique to humanity, as far as we know. Again, for the sack of a tumblr post I am following this line of reasoning - there are many ways to philosophically define a human being.

So. Abortion as an issue is not a biological one, but social. And as a social issue, it has a basis in humanity and the societal laws governing that social group. In our social group, part of that governing law consists of autonomy, that is, the right to one’s own body. And thus we come to the meat of the abortion topic. “Your right to extend your fist ends at the tip of my nose.” Or, I like to use the unstoppable force meets immovable object analogy. The unstoppable force of the autonomy of the pregnant person meets the immovable object of the humanity and/or autonomy of the fetus. If the two are considered with equal worth - in the eyes of God, in the eyes of the Universe, in Science, whichever - then there is no fundamental right answer. You cannot stop the force and you cannot move the object.

But, we are not at a standstill. Ethically, this problem does not exist in a vacuum. In our society, when you pass away, unless you have given explicit permission your organs cannot be taken for donation, and violations can cost jail time - even if the organs will save lives. We choose to say - good or bad, ethical or not - that the potential life saved by the donated organ is not worth the autonomy of the deceased person. Not the only example, but the one i will share. We can apply this same principle to the discussion of abortion and make the reasonable claim that, in our current society, it is not worth the potential life of the child to violate the autonomy and choice of the mother. Again, whether you agree or not, that is the logic set in precedent by other laws we have in place.

In summary, yes, the conception of a zygote does indeed happen how you described, but the biological elements of this are far less important than the social ones. And the social governing laws we have in place, as set in precedent by the autonomy laws of the deceased, say that we consider the autonomy of a current situation to be more important than that of a potential one.

*As an additional note, many dead things can grow. growth as humans perceive it is just complex multiplication, really. A mountain can grow. rain can grow. anything accumulating matter, really. Biological definitions of a human are so far beyond conception that it is impossible to pin them to one discussion, philosophical definitions even moreso.

**additional note number two, the biological defense of the abortion argument is often paired with the biological defense of the transgendered person argument (sex equals gender and the like). Which, of course, has already been disproven multiple times by biologists. In other words, and do forgive me if this is too forward….maybe your understanding of biology is not as complete as it could be. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones and such.

***additional note number three, it’s not pro abortion, it’s pro choice. In that the autonomy of the mother - the right to choose what to do with her body - is valued more than the potential life of a fetus.

Sincerely,

a human being composed of two cells-- an egg and a sperm-- does not have more of a right to my uterus than i do. it's my uterus, i'm bigger, i got here first, i'm already alive.

even when it's not about the strict confines of the body, and about property law: landlords can evict tennants even if doing so will kill them. people can be prosecuted for tresspassing even when they need food, shelter, or to escape harm. america deports refugees back to their countries of origin all the time. looters are still committing a crime when they take food.

the second amendment in america is increasingly used to justify people's right to murder home invaders: because a stranger might steal your TV, you can terminate their life immediately with a gun. you can end a real grown human being's life just because they came into your house with intent to remove some of your home appliances.

america has a lot of laws that say, 'even if you need it, even if it would save your life, you can't just go TAKE what someone else already owns.'

and yet conservatives want to argue that a uterus--let's be honest, an entire woman, they don't care about trans men, this is about their ideas of what women are and what women are for--they want to argue that a woman's uterus and a woman's body is different from anything else. it's not protected like a kidney, like blood, like hair. it's not even protected like a house or a store. it's supposed to belong to whatever sperm cell gets put in it .

the question is not 'are embryos legally and ethically human', because even if they are, that's a distraction from the question. people who are legally and ethically human have a right to life that in many cases does not legally supercede anyone else's right to bodily autonomy or even personal property.

Transmasc is like, an nb that also uses masculine pronouns yet was afab, right? That’s convoluted and stupid, but at least it acknowledged it wasn’t a full transition like that of a trans man. 

“Hi, I’m a transmasc lesbi–”

“So… I’m a NB she/they transmasculi–”

“Tips for looking more transmasc?”

“Hey transmascs, I was wonderi–”

“I’m genderq***r/non-binary/bigender/etc. and I–”

I was so downright flabbergasted that a space for female to MALE trans MEN was full of people who were not men!! What in the world??? These people treat “FTM” as some sort of alternative word for “masculine people”. Hell, I wrote a post on there specifically about the FTM subreddit being near-overrun by non-binary people (but more specifically the “transmasc” label) who are just masculine and how I, as a trans MAN, was not comfortable having myself be reduced to just a “masculine person”/labelled “transmasc” (especially because I don’t believe myself to be very masculine). Of course, I couldn’t express my complete frustrations lest I be banned, but even so I was not surprised by the replies I got.

Trans men were mostly in agreement with my feelings towards the “transmasc[uline]” label being forced onto us (as binary trans people tend to have the critical thinking skills to differentiate between masculinity/femininity and being men/women; as well as the fact being a feminine man [for example] wouldn’t invalidate our “gender” that relies on us equating our style to our said “gender”), and—at no surprise whatsoever—the vast majority of people who didn’t understand my feelings were non-binary people in the FTM subreddit saying I was being exclusionary towards them. No shit? You’re not a trans man, why are you here? Why is this sub called r/ftm if it is not for F to M men? Yo??? You good??? Am I losing my mind right now???

The trans man community is a joke now; outside of transmed circles. (I guess we can somewhat relate to how lesbians are feeling with their communities right now; what with how their label is being utterly destroyed of meaning and exclusive spaces invaded by those who aren’t lesbians.)

I’ve gone from toxic truscum to transmedicalist to neither anti-transmed/tucute nor transmedicalist and now back to being a transmedicalist. I don’t care what baggage the transmed label brings me anymore. It—and exclusionist ideology—are pretty much the only places that make any lick of sense to me anymore; where people care about what words mean and understand that inclusivity of (literally) everyone, in every circumstance, isn’t always a good thing, or necessary, or even needed. It’s just annoying at this point.

You are Not Binary. If you are Not Binary, why are You in a space specifically for one of the two Binary Genders? How dare you, honestly. How dare you bust your ass into a space for trans men, call us by a label that only benefits ignorant and/or NB people, and chastise a trans Man—in said space supposedly for trans Men—for taking issue with what you—again, not a Man—are doing.

My goal isn’t to get a “masc” body or a “masc” face shape or a “masc” personality or a masculine anything!!! I’m androgynous; I’m a guy who is androgynous. I’m an androgynous man who just so happens to be a transgender man.

In every single online space created for FtM guys, I always see people referring to trans men as “transmasc” instead of or in favor of “men”, and I—apologies, but—just can NOT handle it anymore. Props to some of you who don’t mind that label, but it deeply bothers me. Being labelled masculine due to being a man comes off as sexist and stereotyping in my opinion, and I’m not about that in the slightest.

There can be some overlap in the transition of non-binary masculine people and transgender men, yes, but the label “transmasculine” should not be applied to FtM men (again, just in my opinion). Masculinity/femininity/androgyny are one’s style, one’s dress, one’s demeanor…not inherently tied to gender whatsoever. To say otherwise would directly imply ladies are all feminine & men are all masculine; both of which are long outdated sentiments as well as not being true.

BUT some context

1) "Be gay do crimes" (to the best of my knowledge) came from a political cartoon mocking people who say things like "the queers are the bane of society" etc. Like people who blame poor folk or sex workers for dragging the neighborhood down. The point was not to actually do crimes.

2) I'm all about evolving the meaning to include a call to productive rebelliousness / civil disobedience / etc.

3) Shoplifting is perceived as a crime without a victim, or rather, a crime where the victim is corporate companies, CEOs, stockholders, etc. If this were the case, hell, I'd be all for it

4) Millions or billions of dollars are "lost" through shoplifting. Those who hold power in companies know this. And you honestly think they're eating that cost, rather than shunting it to those who can less afford to bear it?

5) Retail workers are often the ones forced to bear that cost. Shoplifted goods may be taken out of their bonuses. They may be penalized for not stopping it.

6) Be gay do crime? Yes. Go to protests. Break curfews. Graffiti Trump Tower. Take down confederate statues. Harbor undocumented migrants. Leak confidential corporate bullshit to the news. The list goes on. Shoplifting isn't on it.

7) This argument is not about people who steal out of necessity. What you need to do and are willing to do to get by in the world is your business, and anything I do to criticize that is inherently hypocritical.

are we going to be able to carry that kind of thing again?? NOT IF THEY KEEP WALKING OFF WE’RE NOT.

tucutes..

we may argue..

but we can all agree..

terfs suck ass

ii also feel very attached to labels like lesbian currently so it’s hard to give them up, and if I’m nb then it’s hard to give up gendered terms. me.I feel genderfluid , and it feels more than just gnc to me, like I want to look like a boy I want a pp, but at the same time I don’t and wanna be a girl too.

----

I'm serious, I know what it's like the be scared of the idea of disclosing these deeply personal thoughts to a relative stranger, but therapy more often than not involves helping you draw your own conclusions. They're helping you draw a map of your own brain. It's hard and scary to go about this journey alone, and you can get a lot of help through a professional.

Whatever you decide, remember it's okay to change your mind or your labels at any given time. We're always discovering new things about ourselves.

Dysphoria is a distressful (to some extent) disconnect between the brain and the body when it comes to gender/sex.  It may also be called sex dysphoria.  However, there are many myths about it.

Myths:

     1)  It is not required to be transgender.

This is a myth that is spread by people all around that seem to think trans is just an “identity.”  Dysphoria is the one and only thing that makes a person trans, as it is the reason people transition. People who do not experience dysphoria and medically transition will experience reverse dysphoria, which is where they become upset with their body because they transitioned into the wrong sex.

“The DSM-V says you don’t need it, so you obviously don’t!”

There are many sources debunking the DSM-V, some of which I will link here:

https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.11010050

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26772207

It is considered by many mental health specialists to be unreliable.

    2)  It is always the same. Dysphoria is different depending on the person.  Some people have it concentrated in one place, and others have it about everything.  Some people experience it really bad, others only have mild dysphoria.  There are also different types of dysphoria, which I will explain later in this post.

    3)  It is the same as body dysmorphia. This is one of the most common misconceptions about gender dysphoria.  People like to use the terms dysphoria and dysmorphia synonymously.  In the most basic terms, dysmorphia is where a person believes that something is inherently wrong with their body.  Gender dysphoria, however, is the belief that something is wrong with one’s body because it does not match their internal gender.  A good example that I’ve seen is someone who is assigned female at birth (AFAB) and still identifies with that gender may hate/feel disconnected from their chest because they simply believe it should be smaller, whereas a person who is AFAB but is FtM would hate/feel disconnected from their chest because they believe that is is a female thing and it should be flat.

Types:

Dysphoria comes in many forms, and people all experience it differently.  There are three main types: social, body, and the least talked about, mental dysphoria.

Social Dysphoria: Social dysphoria is discomfort with being seen as the wrong gender.  It can come from misgendering such as being called the wrong pronouns and deadnaming.  It can also come from simply feeling like you do not pass as your gender identity, and it can make it hard to even be in public.

Body Dysphoria: This is probably the most widely-known form of dysphoria.  Body dysphoria is a form that comes from distress due to one’s body not matching their gender identity.  For example, a trans man who has breasts will likely be uncomfortable with them because they do not match his brain’s male sex.

Mental Dysphoria: This is the least-known form of dysphoria, even among the transgender community.  Mental dysphoria is feeling like your thoughts put your gender identity at odds.  Such as a trans man wanting to present in a feminine way.  It can also be feeling like you will never pass as your gender and having an overall feeling of hopelessness.

How Dysphoria Feels

Dysphoria is different from everybody.  For some, it is very extreme distress.  For others, it is simply feeling disconnected in a way that makes you not feel like your body is yours.  Gender dysphoria is a mental disorder, and is never a good feeling.  If you are questioning if you are transgender, be sure to think about what makes you believe this.  You should experience some sort of disconnect to your AGAB (assigned gender at birth).

Treatments:

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT): HRT is the process of taking the opposite sex hormone as a way of achieving a body that matches internal sex.  Many FtM people take testosterone, whereas many MtF people take estrogen.  It helps trans people pass as their real gender.

Binding: Binding is the act of using a device to compress one’s chest to make it appear flat.  Many trans men do this to achieve a male-passing chest.

Top Surgery: In trans men, dysphoria often comes from the chest area.  To relieve this, they often opt for a removal of breasts through surgery.  This allows them to be able to have a more male body.

Bottom Surgery (Phalloplasty/Metoidioplasty): Bottom surgery in trans men is the construction of a penis through surgical means.  It relieves dysphoria about not having an externally male body and reproductive system.  Though a trans man who goes through bottom surgery cannot produce sperm, this gives them similar functions to a cisgender man.  There are many different surgeries that can go along with this process.

Packing:

Packing is the act of wearing padding or a phallic device to give the appearance of genitalia in trans men. This is done to minimize bottom dysphoria.

Breast forms (correct me if there is a term for this):

Breast forms are used in alleviation of chest dysphoria in trans women, similar to packing for trans men.

Tucking:

Tucking is the act of using a device (a gaff) to give the appearance of a vagina for trans women.

Top surgery (mtf):

Similar to trans men, trans women can also get dysphoria from their chests. To get rid of this dysphoria, many opt to get augmentation mammoplasty in order to gain breasts.

Bottom surgery (mtf):

Trans women can also get constructive surgeries for a vagina and reproductive organs; although trans woman are not able to become pregnant under current technologies. these surgeries include orchiectomy, penectomy, vaginoplasty, labiaplasty, and clitoroplasty.

AND NORMALIZE CIS LESBIANS HAVING CRUSHES ON TRANS WOMEN AND CIS GAY MEN HAVING CRUSHES ON TRANS MEN