Vibe Zone

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party reported more than $1m in missing and worthless assets in more than six years of filed financial records. The period spans from 2016 to 2022. More recent data isn't available because they've FAILED TO FILE AN ANNUAL FINANCIAL RETURN WITH THE OFFICE OF FAIR TRADING IM QUEENSLAND SINCE 2022.

They've repeatedly failed to do their legal obligations, repeatedly failed to hold annual general meetings on time, repeatedly filed annual and financial reports late - OR NOT AT ALL - and used an account manager to sign a director’s declaration form.

One Nation is dodgy as hell. I know telling One Nation supporters that the policies are super racist won't sway their minds, but they're likely turning to One Nation out of distrust of government and establishment politicians.

Also to bitch about my account being hacked then deleted even further, I am so upset how much of my transistions documentation has been lost. I am really upset about my writing. I guess I just know now to save everything on my notes app, I cannot beleive how stupid I've been.

I got a hysterectomy 2 weeks ago.

⚠️dysphoria, mental health, sex⚠️

17 days ago I woke up from surgery. And for the first time in my life I felt at peace. Not one ounce of fear, dispaire, hatred or dread.

For the first time in my life I'm able to call my body "mine". I haven't been able to do that before. Not even due to how disconnected from it I felt but being forced to acknowledge that the thing I was living in was actually me, and not a vessel I was unfortunate enough to possess, was unbearable. It wasn't my body. It was a body, a prison, a punishment. But never my body.

Getting a hysterectomy has not only fixed my bottom dysphoria but also my top dysphoria (I still haven't been able to get top surgery). My chest no longer triggers the "ew ew what the fuck is thay get it off get it off" feeling from before. Instead it's just kinda, idk disappointing? I dislike my chest in the same way cismen with gynecomastia do.

I haven't been properly misgendered in almost 2 years but I still felt like I looked like a women. Like everyone could tell I was a lier. When I looked in the mirror after surgery I saw a man, every time I've caught sight of myself since I've seen a man. I actually feel like a man. I feel whole.

My lower dysphoria was severe enough I had almost no sensation below the belt.

I can actually feel sex now.

Was almost never able to cum from someone else, but since getting surgery I've cum every time my boyfriends given me head.

It felt like there was a mass in my stumach that nulled any of sensations below it, like it was physically blocking my nervous system from communicating with my brain.

A dead zone that started just below my belly button and ended at my thighs.

The type of dread that came from acknowledging the uterus isn't something I can truely put into words, but I will try to explain what I had been living with;

⚠️dysphoria, transphobia, transandrophobia, lesbophobia, misogyny, tokophobia, eating disorders, substance use, rape, self harm, mental health, sex⚠️

i am deeply saddened by the loss of him to our community. i wish i had been able to know him better personally. i admired him a great deal. i am thankful he was here. i am glad we were both around on this earth for enough time to know each other. he made the world a richer and better place by having been here at all. i can't thank him enough.

suicide is an immensely personal and final choice. he was unhoused, disabled, and without options for a life that felt meaningfully survivable. it was his right to choose to end his life, he expressed this himself. as painful a choice as that choice is, i am glad he felt able to make it with an appreciation for life and a genuine belief in our ability to fight for a world where disabled trans people never have to make this decision out of desperation again. i am glad he went with a sense of peace and love for himself and the world.

His final words on his last post are: "Keep fighting comrades, and never lose your compassion for yourself and others."

i feel like its important to share some of ansel's posts from April and May, to provide context in his own words:

i'm sharing this because i myself am a disabled trans person. i have family support, but have also dealt with neglect, being blamed for being a "moocher," and struggling to access official resources and do things the "right way." i've feared how little the people in my life seem to understand how precarious everything feels for me being disabled and trans. how easily i could end up homeless and unemployable. every time i saw him posting about this i thought, that could be me.

please think about disabled trans people. please care about us. please fight for us.

happy pride, ansel.

Hello, I'm Rucach O'Cearba! I'm just a hobbyist with an interest in anthropology and queer issues.

I'm hosting a survey regarding how non-binary people feel they are perceived by both their binary and non-binary peers, as well as their opinions on others. This survey is intended specifically for those who are non-binary and genderqueer.

how about a childrens day. how about we have a day where we acknowledge the fact that minors are treated like the property of their parents and lack rights. how about a day where we acknowledge they're an oppressed group too

yes, India made legal gender change impossible but my friends have always gendered me correctly and stick to it even when it confuses other people and my friend's little sibling calls me older brother in Kannada yes, India made legal gender change impossible but my dog learned my new name quicker than the humans and she runs to give me a kiss when she's told to without being confused about who's being referred to

yes, India made legal gender change impossible but I can feel the Adam's apple growing in my throat and my muscles getting stronger, and my smile more real and I'm growing a beard, and I talk more freely

At present, the dominant strand of transfeminism does not promote unity and solidarity. Instead, it has fallen into relying upon toxic and often separationist politics- a crude distortion of the founding ideas of transfeminism. Emi Koyama, author of The Transfeminist Manifesto, was explicit in transfeminisms inclusion of all trans people in its movement. She wrote that transfeminism began primarily for trans women and that "it is also open to other queers, intersex people, trans men, non-trans women, non-trans men and others" (2). Her initial publication of The Transfeminist Manifesto was in the year 2001. Two years later, she revisited it and added the following in the postscript of the 2003 edition "I take full blame for the fact that this manifesto is heavily focused on issues male-to-female transsexual people face, while neglecting unique struggles that female-to-male trans people and other transgender and genderqueer people face" (3). Numerous other transfeminist publications recognise the need for greater solidarity between all trans people and for transfeminism to be explicitly inclusive of all transgender and nonbinary people. Talia Bettcher explained in 2017 that "since trans men are also vulnerable to sexism, transphobia, and the interblending thereof, trans feminism would be ill-advised to exclude them from its purview" (4). [Reference 2: Koyama, Emi. The Transfeminist Manifesto, 2001 & 2003 p. 1] [Reference 3: Koyama, Emi. The Transfeminist Manifesto, 2001 & 2003 p. 10] [Reference 4: Bettcher, Talia, Trans Feminism: Recent Philosophical Developments, 2017, p.2]

"Transandrophobia describes the transphobia primarily experienced by trans men. While trans men do experience an intersection of transphobia and misogyny, they also experience an intersection of transphobia and a hatred of men or masculinity. Arguably, much of what is called transmisogyny for the experiences of trans women is also partially an intersection of transphobia and a hatred of men or masculinity. The ideal word for the concept is sadly marred by disingenuous cis men, but to use 'misandry' here tentatively is not an endorsement of any kind of MRA-style politics, but a convenient shorthand for a kind of hatred of men or masculinity which has a significance in (and only in) the context of transphobia. As alluded to, the term transandrophobia is the most popular term presently for the transphobia primarily experienced by trans men. Earlier terms did include 'transmisandry', which, aside from one academic usage in the context of an intersection of transphobia and racism (5), has not enjoyed much usage due to knee-jerk rejection of the term's suffix. In short, 'misandry' in this solely trans context conveys the transphobia rooted in a hatred of men or masculinity." [Reference 5: Martino, Wayne, Omercajic, Kenan, A trans pedagogy of refusal: interrogating cisgenderism, the limits of antinormativity and trans necropolitics. Pedagogy, Culture & Society. 29, 2021, p.679–694.]

"All trans groups experience a mixture of misogyny, 'misandry' and misandrogyny- the levels of which vary from group to group. Trans women may experience misogyny (such as unwanted sexualisation for being female and trans), however, they may often experience 'misandry' (such as the vitriol some transphobes espouse which accuses trans women of being 'violent males) and misandrogyny (such as transphobic rhetoric which centers around a trans person's appearance being androgynous and thus not easily sortable into male or female categories . This may result in slurs like 'heshe' being used). Trans men, on the other hand, may experience 'misandry' (such as accusations they are going to transition into -'violent men'), misogyny (such as insinuations trans men are being led astray and that they are incapable of thinking for themselves) and a similar kind of misandrogyny trans women may face. Nonbinary people may experience misandrogyny (such as being forcibly put into a male or female category against their wishes, especially in a medical setting), misogyny (such as rhetoric which claims being nonbinary is a social contagion amongst those assigned female at birth) or 'misandry' (such as rhetoric that claims those assigned male at birth who are nonbinary are identifying as such in order to be predatory). In short, every kind of trans person experiences a mix of misogyny, 'misandry' and misandrogyny. It differs from group to group as well as from person to person."

"Love Black Men: Boldly, intentionally, and without condition. This love calls us to confront and dismantle systems of oppression, patriarchy, and anti-black racism that equally devalue Black men’s lives, criminalize their presence and deny their full humanity. To love Black men is to make space for their healing, joy, complexity and vulnerability—not as a counterpoint to safety, dignity, or gender justice, but as essential to it. We call on ourselves and our communities to choose to build systems grounded in care, accountability, liberation and create spaces where Black men can thrive in love and be loved in return."

My dad has 4 half siblings and two step siblings. They're all a decent bit younger than him. When I was a teenager, we went to a family reunion, and I realized something—my dad did not respect his siblings. He looked down on all of them. He saw them as fuck-ups and overgrown children. My dad had the American dream: well paying management job, suburban house, wife, and three kids. My aunt and uncles did not. Excluding my aunt, none of them were married or in serious relationships. They hadn't really settled into long term careers. Several of them were working the kind of jobs that get called "Unskilled labor." So he looked down on them because the youngest one was in his thirties (and several were much older), and yet none of them had "settled down" into what he saw as lifelong, permanent careers and relationships and lives. He was polite to their faces, sure, but I heard how he talked about them behind their backs, to my mother.

And then a few years ago, we visited his brothers again for Thanksgiving. And I realized something again--he respected them now. He saw them as equals. Why? Well. All of a sudden, every single one of them had serious, committed romantic partners. They didn't even need to still be with those partners—one of my uncle's fiance passed away from cancer before they could marry—just having had one showed that they matured into a real adult participating in society. In fact, at one point, my aunt was telling my mom about how one of my uncles was no longer living in an apartment she owned, but instead, after having a steady girlfriend for about a year, he moved in with her. And my mom literally said to my aunt, "wow. Look at that. He finally grew up."

One of the lines that frequently gets repeated about anti-aspec sentiment is "why would anyone hate asexuals/aromantics/etc? They aren't even doing anything." And that's exactly it. In the eyes of amatonormative culture, we aren't doing anything. Adults are supposed to do things. That's how you become a member of society.

if you are making something featuring multiple flags and you put in the asexual flag, you better put in the aromantic flag.

if you put in the aroace flag, you better put in the aroallo flag.

^ the aromantic flag

^ the aroallo (aromantic allosexual) flag

& just btw, aromantic erasure is so bad that on pubmed, many of the very few studies that have looked into aspec people specifically, categorize us as a type of asexuality. from this study:

Our findings highlight that aromantic people wish for aromanticism not to be considered a part of asexuality—a practice that has dominated contemporary literature (Antonsen et al. 2020; Carvalho & Rodrigues, 2022; Clark & Zimmerman, 2022; Hall & Knox, 2022; Zheng & Su, 2018). Many participants clarified the distinction between their sexual identity and romantic identity and highlighted that though they may be connected for some, they should be considered independently as unique contributors to an individual’s identity and experience. This aligns with a previous aromantic community survey that showed 72% of the sample did not identify with asexual terminology (AUREA, 2021a). In combination with our findings, this suggests that a tendency to conflate and describe these identities as the same or linked may be to the disadvantage of a significant portion of the aromantic community.

this is why it is so important to include aromantic people as our own group and to specifically include non-asexual aromantics. i hope y'all can understand how frustrating it is to be erased through a group that is already erased.

asexual representation is sparse? all aromantic rep is asexual and most of the time people don't even bother to remember that "aromantic" is its own thing. i can't count how many times i've seen a character talk about not experiencing romantic attraction, only for people to go "wow asexual rep!" even though sexual attraction was never brought up.

asexual community & resources are sparse? when i try to look up groups for aromantics, i get resources on "ace & aro groups" that are literally all asexual-focused. at best asexual-focused with a mention of aromantic people. which isn't really helpful when you are aroallo and don't really want or need a group that is clearly meant for alloro asexuals and aroaces.

asexual history is sparse? i've literally never seen anything even trying to talk about aromantic history. the most impactful thing on aro history is that one tumblr post talking about a woman at a nursing home who heard the term and realized her best friend was likely aro. see above with the character situation as well.

my point here is not "aros have it worse than aces" because we are both aspec and both get fucked over by the same forces and in fact, a LOT of asexual aromantics are also very frustrated by aromantic erasure! i've even heard some people talk about not identifying as strongly as asexual, even though it fits them, because they feel their aro identity is more important to them but gets constantly erased by their asexuality.

my point is that it is so fucking disheartening to be aro even in queer spaces that are trying to be asexual-inclusive, even in supposedly aspec spaces, because it swiftly becomes apparent that people see your entire identity as just a footnote for asexuality. so many people never even realize they are aro because they aren't asexual and don't realize that you can be aro but not ace. i dealt with some really intense arophobia as a teen after realizing i was aro, feeling broken and alone. it hit much harder than any internalized homophobia or transphobia did for me at the time. i did not meet another person who identified as aromantic irl until this year. any resources and community that i had as a queer teen, as a trans teen, did not exist for me as an aro teen and does not exist for me as an aro adult, really.

and big problem is that, because people think of aromanticism as just a footnote of asexuality, they implicitly assume that more asexual rep, more asexual resources, more asexual visibility will automatically serve aromantics too. and when it doesn't work like that, aro people continue to suffer as a result.

In the past couple decades, I’ve met a couple dozen Black folks who have had a similar story happen to them with white people with varying timing/lengths. Some I’m still in contact with, some have disappeared, some I just ain’t kept ties with. No deed on us naming us their property legally, but thanks to the machinations of capitalism and white supremacy, property and slaves nonetheless—far beyond the average abusive relationship.

For a lot of y’all, slavery is something abolished a couple centuries ago and history is history, why should it affect you now? Why should there be reparations for Black people or countries? For slightly better-taught folks, when we think of modern slavery, we usually think of prison labor, human trafficking, undocumented and exploited labor, the exploitation of the global south, we think of systems. Don’t get me wrong that shit is still there and needs to be addressed, but some of y’all motherfuckers think the only slavery close to home for y’all is the white people calling themselves slaves on fetlife and that’s a problem to me.

When I first named myself Anonsee, it was as a SW mononym the year I got free from my enslaver, in part because of the version of Anansi played by Orlando Jones for American Gods despite never seeing the full show. In particular, there are two monologues I used to be able to recite perfectly from memory.

The first, Coming to America/Story of Black People, is a story Anansi tells to captured Africans on a slave ship who prayed to him for help. So, he tells them a story. He tells them how they don’t even know how fucked they are yet.

How over three centuries later, even after we “got free”, we would still be getting fucked economically, socially, physically, emotionally, mentally, every damn which way while the professional descendants of slave catchers still enslave us and kill us in the streets, in our homes, our schools, our jobs, anywhere they fucking please.

“You shed tears for Compe Anansi, and here he is, telling you…there isn’t one goddamn reason you shouldn’t go up there right now and slit the throats of every one of these Dutch motherfuckers, and set fire to this ship.”

One hesitant man speaks up, saying that if the ship burns, everyone on it will die.

To which Anansi retorts “You’re already dead, asshole. At least die a sacrifice for something worthwhile. Let. The motherfucker. Burn. Let it all burn.”

The second monologue has him meeting with other African gods in a funeral home, who ask him why he’s so full of rage when they wish to choose peace, to choose complacency, to simply accept how things are.

Anansi says “I am not a god, in the sense that I can tolerate exploitation, oppression, and repression, my worshippers KNOW freedom ain’t free and that the most potent weapon of control for the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed; they know slavery is not a condition, slavery is a cult. Human trafficking is a cult. Slavery got a rebrand like mothafuckin ‘The Alt-Right’ and snatched, another one gone.”

How every 30 seconds, another Black girl fucking disappears, and the new plantation owners built a pipeline to take us from school to prison while we live as a suppressed, oppressed people within the imperial core, living as spectacle, tool, or to be disappeared—no AMBER alert. Snatched, 30 seconds, another one gone.

“The world assumes white people are naturally good, so when something bad happens, it’s a good person doing a bad thing. They assume Black people are naturally bad, so when something good happens, it’s only a matter of time before that animal’s true nature rears its ugly head.”

I run into people regularly who think Abolitionism is too far. Shit, some of them are even Black and think that if we simply reform modes of slavery everything will be ok—that if we just make sure its just the bad ones who experience slavery, surely we can keep the same systems in place. Hell, California even majority voted against abolishing slavery couple years ago. For economic reasons, you understand, right?”