Will Be Back

Ok. You're allowed to do that. Cool, you're allowed in the nonbinary club because we're open to everyone.

This isn't transmedicalism its looking at reality in front of my fucking eyes and saying what I see. Transmedicalism is a specific kind of transphobic ideology that positions being trans as a medical condition. It's not transmedicalism to say that trans & nonbinary people experience more bullshit in their daily lives when they begin to socially/physically transition. It's just an observation of things that happen in the world.

If you are not someone who is planning on medically transitioning, that's fucking fine. Just stop pretending like this is a thing you have any say in for other people. I do not care if you are comfortable with your body, that's great, I'm glad you're happy. It's just insensitive as fuck to pretend you have the exact same struggles as someone who is physically transitioning.

Visible sex variance via social transition (what you are describing) is obviously going to put a target on you in cis society. This is not the topic of the post.

Ok. You're allowed to do that. Cool, you're allowed in the nonbinary club because we're open to everyone.

This isn't transmedicalism its looking at reality in front of my fucking eyes and saying what I see. Transmedicalism is a specific kind of transphobic ideology that positions being trans as a medical condition. It's not transmedicalism to say that trans & nonbinary people experience more bullshit in their daily lives when they begin to socially/physically transition. It's just an observation of things that happen in the world.

If you are not someone who is planning on medically transitioning, that's fucking fine. Just stop pretending like this is a thing you have any say in for other people. I do not care if you are comfortable with your body, that's great, I'm glad you're happy. It's just insensitive as fuck to pretend you have the exact same struggles as someone who is physically transitioning.

Ok. You're allowed to do that. Cool, you're allowed in the nonbinary club because we're open to everyone.

I actually honest to god started laughing when I read this?

Lets see..

why is everything capitalized

are you trying to make a point to not use the letter u? well you failed because you slipped up when you called me "Willfully Ignorant"

Intersexist

what the fuck is cisintersex and transintersex. You mean intersex people and perisex people who got a surgery and think that's what intersex means? This is like white people getting that horrible eyelid surgery and calling themselves asian

"transwomen" transphobe spotted, 'trans' is short for transgender, it is an adjective in this context and not a prefix. Using it as a prefix changes the meaning of a word. You know that right? You're saying that trans women aren't women by calling them "transwomen" that is a whole ass different word.

Oh yeah TERFs love men sooo much...

Calling men "demons," quite bluntly, does not matter. There is no systemic misandry. Maybe you think it's mean or rude, and that's perfectly understandable, but that's all it is. Despite their rhetoric, TERFs often pal around with cis men. Watch how they fall over cis men who use the right buzzwords and declare themselves "TERF allies." TERFs are a fringe movement that only gain mainstream political power by allying with the far right, so they deal with cis men a lot. They don't treat them with the same vitriol they hold for trans women, even when they do rail about hating men. They'll post men are demons, but how often do they harass and threaten cis men the way they do to trans women? Men are powerful and threatening, trans women are a vulnerable minority and (as a class) powerless in society.

You've provided several examples of TERFs being racist and Islamophobic. This is not surprising, because people who are bigoted in one way are more likely to be bigoted in another. The athletes example is explicitly an example of TERFs being racist to Black and brown women. This is a really clear example of the much-discussed TERF-white supremacist connection. Calling Black and brown women mannish and denying their womanhood is an ancient racist argument. Sojourner Truth discussed it in her famous "Ain't I A Woman?" speech. It has nothing to do with hating men and everything to do with racism.

Marginalized men are not marginalized for being men. When you qualify every statement about misogyny with white men, how do you think that feels to women of color who are dealing with misogyny in their own communities? Marginalized men uphold misogyny, because they are men. The interactions between multiple axes of privilege and marginalization is what Kimberlé Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality is about.

#if anyone has ever doubted that TERFs are bigots/ white supremascists this is one of the best proofs out there#< prev#Yes that's exactly what I'm saying!#Tumblr is seeing a huge wave of anti-transmasc takes atm and I am SO SO blaming people like OP for it#Because this attitude of “man-hating is okay as long as you're not a TERF” is exactly what led to this shit#When you parrot TERF talking points/sentiments#EVEN the ones that aren't about trans people specifically#you are actively encouraging them to keep pushing the envelope#“talking about men the same way you talk neurotypicals” becomes “talking about trans men the way you talk about cis men” (where we are now)#Which then becomes “talking about POC men the same way you talk about white men” (Like in the posts I showed)#Is THAT what you people want?#Because it sure looks like it is

I am not saying "man-hating is okay as long as you're not being a TERF about it." Being a TERF is not okay because transmisogyny is not okay. Man-hating is just as okay as any other marginalized group hating their oppressor. That is the point I am making in the original post. You can believe hate is always wrong in any direction, no matter what systemic forces are at play. There have been activists who believed that and still dedicated their lives to justice and wrote about their philosophy and methods. The more popular view among progressives these days, however, and particularly on tumblr, is that hating your oppressor is justified and should not be policed. Except when it comes to men.

Talking about trans men the way you talk about cis men is perfectly fine, because they are both men. "Talking about men of color the way you talk about white men" is a rhetorical trap. If you take a negative statement like "white men are the devil" and replace "white men" with "brown men" you have fundamentally changed the meaning of the statement. Now instead of talking about the most powerful group, you are specifying a subgroup of men that is marginalized on another axis. What would make brown men bad that wouldn't also apply to white men? If, however, you simply say "men are the devil" and don't specify race, you are "talking about men of color the way you talk about white men" because you are talking about all men the same way and only their gender (and, really, their role in the patriarchy) is relevant. Additionally, it's a mistake to assume all women complaining about men of color are white. Women of color may specify that they are venting about men in their own communities. In those cases the experience of racism can be a motive for solidarity within a community, which intersects with women's experiences of misogyny from the men in that same community, so race and/or ethnicity may well be relevant.

Some of my favs:

Habibi by Joe Daccache (bonus: bilingual lyrics!)

Make It Last by Joe Daccache

C'mon Baby, Cry by Orville Peck

Whine n Cry by Keiynan Lonsdale

Fem in a Black Leather Jacket by Pansy Division

God in Jeans by Ryan Beatty

Pipe Dream by Tobre & RYLO (bonus: Tobre is transmasc!)

Valentino by Olly Alexander & MNEK

Tennessee by Kevin Abstract & Lil Nas X

Boys Will Be Boys by Miles McKenna (bonus: T4T!)

Black Travolta by Doug Locke

Trojans by Doug Locke

Ice Cream by MIKA

Despite the Pandavas and Kauravas being the sort of main characters of the Epic, there are many other individuals who play and important role in the story. One such character is Shikhandi. This seems to be already getting long, so I will give a brief background of Shikhandi. Essentially he was born in his past life as the princess Amba, who was abducted by Bhishma, but later rejected by him (This story is layered but if you want a summary Wikipedia is always good). Angered with this Amba preformed a difficult fast and at the end Lord Shiva granted her a boon that she would in the next life be born as female but would later become a man and the reason why Bhishma is killed. (And additionally gave him the ability to remember his past live as well)

Simultaneously, King Draupda wanted a child and prayed to Lord Shiva for one. He came and said to the king, that in his house a girl would be born who in due course would become a man. Shikhandi was born as Shikhandini, but of course later changed his name. He was raised as a man, and was taught warfare. When it was his time to get married, his father offered his hand in marriage to the daughter of king Hiranyavarman. Shikhandi’s wife realized that his wasn’t a “real man” (whatever that means). And when Hiranyavarman realized this, he prepared for war with Draupda, even though the latter insisted that his son was a real man. Shikhandi, distressed by his wife’s comments and by bringing shame onto his parents, decides to go commit suicide by fasting to death. He goes in the woods where people were terrified to enter since it was inhabited by a yaksha.

He goes in the forest and starts to take of his royal clothing, where the yaksha meets him. He asks what Shikhandi is doing, and the prince tells his story. The yaksha, feeling compassion over the prince, proposes that two exchange their sex. Shikhandi readily agrees and goes back to his family and tells his father of what had occurred. His father was delighted and said to Hiranyavarman that he could send someone over to check if it was true. Women were sent to Shikhandi who then confirmed that he was a man and his wife came back to him.

This has become extraordinarily long, but on a final note as I conclude the retelling I will say that Shikhandi fought on the side of the Pandavas during the war and played a vital role during it.

Now onto my main point. I know the story is sort of unconventional, maybe just by reading my summary or if you go on Wikipedia you might even find parts of it problematic. In our modern definition, Shikhandi would probably be considered a trans man, and his story is important to me, an Indian trans man, for a few reasons. For example, he given the gift of being trans by God. He isn’t just born a man, he becomes one because of Lord Shiva’s boon. As someone who has been told before (and I’m sure that many trans men have had that experience before) that me being trans is a mental illness, it was a point that touched my heart deeply when I reread the Mahabharta. He is distressed and tries to commit suicide but is saved because he allowed to be who he is in the body that he wants. He is accepted by his fellow peers, He is accepted by his fellow peers, and in fact the reason that Bhisma loses to the Pandavas is because he refuses to see Shikhandi as man and doesn’t fight him.

I really understand where people of colour are coming from when they say that they feel uncomfortable being compared to animals. After all, I have heard Indian men be talked about as“animals that only know how to rape”. In the same way Achilles was a character from a story and hence where word “achillean” comes from, I thought that that it would be nice to take the name of what one might consider in current terminology to be a trans man, and use his name Shikhandi, as a way of conveying those who feel a strong desire to be a man.

I do have a hard time finding the suffix for the name Shikhandi. Because Achilles became achillean and Saphos became sapphic. The most obvious would probably be shikhandian (since the name ends with an I) but people have said they don’t want that. I guess shikhandic could also work or maybe shikhandien. (I personally like shikhandian the best). I think you probably have some way better ideas to better mold this name, so I leave it to you or others who want to try.

Greek mythology is extremely common in the Western world, but rarely have I ever seen anyone talk about Hindu mythology. I guess because Hinduism has been constantly said to be demonic, especially by Western Christians. People think of us backwards and not progressive, and not many even consider the idea that Indian queer people exist. At most, Hijras are used as a gotcha by other queers to conservatives to say that “Yeah see trans people have existed for thousands of years, take that”. Without really considering who Hijra people are, how it connects to culture, and what the issues they face and have faced are.

Thus, I thought I would add my two cents about how we could create a single word for trans men that is also rooted in my culture. I guess people might consider it ridiculous and that it doesn’t make sense, but even if the name Shikhandi doesn’t stick, I thought I would talk about my religion and my Hindu culture as well.

I’m really sorry for how long this got, but thank you so much for reading till the end.

- Dev

sorry it took a few days to get to this, but that's a really cool story!! I loved reading it!!

honestly I was already thinking that the words we have that are rooted in lore are already mostly white, or at least that I know of, so it'd be cool to see more words that aren't centered on us so much!

Forced feminization

Hyperinvisibility

In detail:

Forced feminization

From anime characters to K-pop idols, so many East Asian men seem to be regarded as feminine either for their dress or mannerisms with absolutely no consideration of how different cultures might display masculinity. Granted, I've been guilty of this too in the past, due to being born and raised in a western country, but I'm trying to be better about it. Like. Asian guys are not your "shy uwu Kpop idols" or "cute gay coded anime characters". Also: the "small Asian dick" jokes. Goddamn.

I feel like I shouldn't have to explain how this goes double for Asian trans men like me who want to present as masculine in a gender conforming way. But since this is Tumblr dot fucking com, I'm gonna have to. I feel like I have to work twice as hard to be seen as masculine as anyone who isn't Asian and/or is a cis guy because of not only the paragraph above but because of the parts I was born with. Seriously I did not spend years escaping femininity just to have randos insist I stay with it from multiple angles.

Hyperinvisibility

This is probably where people are going to come into my notes and inbox with pitchforks telling me shit like "kys" or throwing slurs but you know what. Fuck it.

EDIT: I am now aware that BIPOC stands for "black, indigenous, and people of color", not "black and indigenous people of color", so I have removed my previous statements as they were inaccurate.

That being said, it still stands that I have seen very few people talk about the racism Asian people face, and that we are treated as "white lite" in many spaces.

As for the transmasc angle: transandrophobia does exist. We are being killed. We are being raped. We are being forcibly impregnated and detransitioned. And nobody is giving a fuck. We aren't even acknowledged as trans men, we're labeled in statistics as "women". And when we try to talk about it we're called either "confused little girls" or "(trans)misogynistic MRAs".

So, reblog this version instead, one because I fixed the misinformation about the term "BIPOC" but also I forgot to talk about

Fetishization (BIG CW HERE)

As an Indian (from India not Indigenous) trans man, I relate heavily to the experience of having my masculinity stripped, but for different reasons. Indian men are generally viewed as weak, and maybe my submissive in a sense. They are thought to have strange accents, can’t speak in English properly, are not fit and generally weak. One time somebody told me (and they totally believed it) that “Indian men were at the bottom of the sexual food chain, no one likes them”. They fold their hands when White people come into their country and house, and are there to take the profanities of their (White) boss.

But! On the flip side, Indian men are actually also hyper masculine rapists. They can’t hide their lecherous eyes from your innocent daughters, who knows if she’ll be safe with an Indian man? Don’t you know how racist they are? They’ll call you the n-word as soon as they meet you! They’re scammers and cheaters, hide your purse from them so they don’t pickpocket you, and don’t forget how all call scams are actually Indian! Queer Indian Men? Not fucking possible, didn’t you know that Indian men are backwards and not progressive in their thinking at all, they could never be something as cool as being queer!!! In fact I think all Indian men should die because of how dangerous they are, Free the Indian Woman (who are so sexy and beautiful by the way)

The above portion is making fun of of what I’ve heard and seen in my life. I believe Indian men have the experiences of having their masculinity deconstructed were they are generally submissive and weak to outer forces, and then reconstructed to seem like inhuman monster where women are put in danger just by having a Desi man near her. I know this because I have experienced many (if not all of these things listed above) and have seen fellow Desi men experience it too. And because of how much people (of all political aisles let’s by honest) seem to hate Indians, and going even more specifically, Indian men, many simply refuse to acknowledge it.

Annemarie Schwarzenbach was a Swiss writer, photographer, journalist and traveller. She dressed androgynously from an early age on and was often mistaken for a young man. One of her friends, Marianne Breslauer described her as “Neither a woman nor a man, but an angel, an archangel.”

It's winter where I'm living and we have really bad snow. And the snow plow people are really bad at their jobs probably because there aren't snow plow people who clean sidewalks. As a solution I got to thinking about how I could increase the traction on my wheels. And the most redneck thing I could think of was taking a bunch of zip ties and tying them around my wheels. They last surprisingly long, and work surprisingly well. It's basically the same premise as chains for your tires during the winter.

It’s not clear when General Electric started boobytraping appliances with DRM. I first encountered it in January when Shane Morris tweeted about his fridge refusing to accept the $19 generic filter he replaced the GE $55 filter with.

https://twitter.com/IamShaneMorris/status/1220367934947758080

The fridges use an RFID detector to distinguish original GE filters from generic replacements, and engage in lots of anti-owner trickery, like memorizing the IDs of previously used filters and refusing to accept them.

https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/unauthorized-charcoal-ge-fridges-wont-dispense-ice-or-water-unless-your-filter-authenticates-as-an-official-55-component/159552/41

Morris isn’t the only one ourtaged that his fridge is plotting against him. One (anonymous) owner was so offended that they created a site dedicated to warning off potential buyers and explaining to other suckers how to bypass GE’s lockouts.

https://gefiltergate.com/

There’s a good reason for the anonymity. Under Sec 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, showing how to bypass an “access control” to a copyrighted work (eg RFID-detecting code in the fridge) is a potential felony, carrying a 5-year prison sentence and a $500k fine.

This is quite the moral hazard. Manufacturers have learned that if they design their products so that any use that hurts their shareholders (like buying third party parts) requires bypassing DRM, it becomes a felony to use your own property to your own advantage.

Which is why we’ve seen DRM creep into all manner of devices, from insulin pumps to tractors to car engines to Iphone screens. “Felony contempt of business model” is the statute that every monopolist has dreamt of, and with DMCA 1201, they have it in their grasp.

Back in 2011, I wrote a short story about this for MIT Tech Review’s first sf anthology, called “The Brave Little Toaster” (in tribute to Tom Disch).

https://craphound.com/news/2011/09/28/the-brave-little-toaster-from-trsf/

The issue only got worse, and so last year I published “Unauthorized Bread” as part of my collection “Radicalized” (it’s being turned into a TV show by Topic):

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

The metastasis of DRM into every product category shows that when business apologists talk about the sanctity of property, they mean the sanctity of CORPORATE property.

If the manufacturer gets to override your decisions about the things you buy - and felonize any attempt to wrest control back - they property ceases to exist. We become tenants of our devices, not owners.

It’s digital feudalism, in which an elite owns all the property and we get to use it in ways they proscribe. The difference is that today, our aristocracy isn’t even human.

It recognizes when I jam a non-HP toner cartridge in there, and delivers some horrific warnings like NON-GENUINE HP PRODUCT DETECTED and DAMAGE MAY OCCUR and USE IS NOT RECOMMENDED but still grudgingly uses it. Newer models simply refuse, and I reckon this one would too if I allowed it to update its software.

And lemme tellya, the price difference between genuine HP and cheap knockoff (that works just fine) is… staggering:

Color laser printing requires four (4) toner cartridges, one black and one each Red/Blue/Yellow, for a combined cost of $704 bucks.

Remember, that’s just for replacement toner.

Compare that to:

$60 for a set of four, black included. That’s what? 12x difference?