#discourse I guess?

[jingerpi]

Its honestly very concerning how popular ContraPoints video on "Transtrenders" was. I want to make a post discecting it briefly because I feel the video does a disservice to young trans folk looking to learn, instead leaving them feeling unjustified in their indentitiy under the guise of some radical acceptance One of the main issues with the video as a whole is how natalie breaks down existing understandings of trans medicine as a tool to try and unseat transmedicalist talking points, and show how being trans is about personal experience and "feelings". While its important to critique transmedicalists, what she does here is undermine what many people see as the best justification for trans existence without replacing it with anything. She does this in my opinion, because she honestly doesn't have anything to replace it with, and doesn't understand the real basis for gender in the world. Saying this is all well and good, I can critique anyone for not giving good basis for thing but its no help if i don't give anything of substance to back it up either, so heres a brief explanation of why transphobia is a problem, based in actual socio-political analysis.

Patriarchy is an economic structure which has been built up across centuries of accumulated surplus value which was passed down through the eldest son of the ruling class. this is a vast over simplification, but functionally this means there are systems in place in society which privilege men, give them access to more wealth, better positions, and control over non-men. Patriarchy has grown and changed over time and held different shapes depending on the society, we no longer have eldest sons inheriting royal rule (in most places), but we continue to have men as the group with the most economic and social agency in our societies. This privilege that Patriarchs have is constituted not of some magical benefits bestowed upon them from an abstract "system" but are instead taken directly from those who are not men. More specifically, men and Patriarchs take labor and resources from those whom patriarchy considers "non-men". Reproductive labor goes unpaid, women are under privileged in political society, we often don't get choices over our bodies. This isn't merely a coincidence, but serves specifically to give men power and confer more benefits onto them. Because of this, there must be systems in place to manage who is let into the patriarchy, who can be a Patriarch.

The most universal way of doing this is by deciding whether or not someone is a man and conferring onto them certain benefits as long as they uphold this structure, and ostracizing them if they are not. They do this ostracization because if this structure is not upheld artificially through oppression of women and bullying of nonconforming men to keep the categories of man and woman or even man and non-man distinct, the privilege given to the in-group starts to fade. In the same way that "White" is an artificial construct created and upheld to facilitate racism like slavery, imperialism, housing discrimination, and unpaid labor, so too is "manhood" and "womanhood". These constructs appear to be based in existing biology, so they often go without question, but race is also based on such "biology" and that does not mean its a founded construct. The basis for both "race" and "gender" break down once you look at higher level understandings of these concepts. Not all people with xy chromosomes are men, not all people of African decent have black skin, etc etc... I could go on about the "exceptions" for quite some time but you likely know many of them already. These are categories created fundamentally to give one specific category an economic advantage and justify their oppression of those who are outside of said category. The reason we need to respect trans-ness isn't because there is something inherently justified about being transgender, nor because we just have to be really nice to everyone and treat their feelings as absolute truths. Its because the systems which confine us and define gender so rigidly exist purely to oppress and extract value from others. These borders are deeply unjustified and we need to tear them away. We do not need to justify existing outside of the borders, but instead challenge the borders in the first place. Contrapoints fails to meaningfully do this Natalie focuses almost entirely on the arguments surrounding justifications for transness and gives little thought to the justifications for patriarchy. It is treated as a default, always existing, status quo that is unquestionable. It makes me wonder how aware of it she really is, she seems to get stuck in justifying her own existence. the "Transtrenders" video focuses on a discussion between several characters where the primary issue at hand is how to justify being trans, should it be done through medicial, scientific frameworks? or should it be done from a kind and accepting view of others? She makes arguments against the former for being flawed and the latter for being unfounded, but she never actually replaces it with any critique of society, instead saying: "Okay, so what am I supposed to tell Jackie Jackson then? What am I supposed to tell the TERFs? That I'm a woman because reasons?"

"No, not even because reasons. Just because you are."

"So it's what, a leap of faith? Oh great. I'm sure that's gonna convince all the rational skeptics. Justine, it makes us sound completely delusional."

"Well Tiffany, delusion is what separates us from the animals." Which is an extremely unhelpful answer to give after tearing down what is to many, a key aspect in their reasoning for why they are justified in their identities, and while it is partially correct that trying to use one of the specific theories she outlined earlier to justify trans existence is an exercise in futility, she can't seemingly offer any alternative than some kind of "because I said so" when there ARE very good reasons to be in favor of trans acceptance, and historical reasons for our existence. In failing to do so she misleads perhaps an entire generation of trans people into thinking theres no real justification for their existence

The justification comes from understanding that the premise is false, that the forces which try to bind people to a specific societal gender role are themselves the issue.

She tries to point out that we dont need to justify transgender existence because the frameworks which hold us to cisgender existence are the real problem, but without ever talking about these cisgender standards in an actually meaningful way, instead talking abstactly about societies "expectations" or whatnot, where she should could be attacking the real economic forces of patriarchy. She should be tearing down patriarchy first and then using that to liberate trans existence but instead she tears down trans existence without touching patriarchy or any of the coercion or exploitation that arise from it. I consider this a great tragedy, and a prime example of her failures as an educator.

[shakespearefreak]

❤️🖤💚 Joyous (late) Kwanzaa from Makena, Evette, and Addy! ❤️🖤💚

Since my dolls didn’t have “Christmas” until Kwanzaa was already over, Makena, Evette, and Addy didn’t get to celebrate the full seven nights this year, but I still wanted to do something, especially as this was Addy’s first time observing the holiday. We ended up watching The Black Candle, a 2009 documentary about the origins and practices of Kwanzaa (I highly recommend it; you can watch it for free on Tubi, or on Amazon Prime Video if you have that). Addy wore the new dress she received at Christmas and the cowrie shell from her great-grandmother and namesake, Aduke, the one piece of Africa that Aduke managed to bring with her when she was stolen from her homeland as a slave. Momma gave the shell to Addy as a reminder both of her roots and that she is “much loved,” which is the meaning of her full name in the Yoruba language. Addy, of course, didn’t know much about Kwanzaa at all before the start of the movie, so almost everything was a discovery to her, but all three girls learned new things from the documentary.

As for me, I found some parts of the movie easy to relate to as a member of a different oppressed community (being LGBTQ+), but there were also many times that I, as a White person, couldn’t relate at all. I had to remind myself that that’s okay: Kwanzaa isn’t a holiday intended for me, and I shouldn’t have to be able to relate to, or even fully understand, something to respect it. For me, as I suspect for many White Americans, that’s a difficult idea: we’re accustomed to other cultural practices merging with our own, and get used to the idea that culture is a thing to be shared. And I believe that is often true; however, it’s also important to note that when Black people are penalized by society for the same things that White people are praised for, things that the Black community introduced in the first place, it makes sense for Black people to want to keep some things for themselves. Also, communities are allowed to create their own spaces, and that includes making their own boundaries.

That’s why I decided to show the kinara with the candles lit for the second night, which is dedicated to the Principle Kujichagulia, or self-determination: the right of the Black community to define themselves as a culture and tell their own stories in their own way. I felt that watching that documentary not only helped me understand the principle logically (that was one of the Nguzo Saba I was never entirely clear on), but also taught me about it on an emotional level. The funny thing is, even though I didn’t understand what was meant by “self-determination” until the other night, I unwittingly made use of it in a conversation last November when talking with my mother about Jordan Peele’s films (specifically Get Out). She said that she thought Peele would do better to write it so White people who weren’t maliciously racist were able to see themselves in his movies; that making the “I’m not racist, but…” people so completely, irredeemably evil would alienate the White people who were both in need of lessons about racism and actually willing to learn those lessons. I said I thought she might have a point, but that neither she nor I get a say in how Black people talk about their own experiences, and that there are simply things that we will never comprehend, because we haven’t lived those experiences. But even though in November I understood it well enough to argue for it, a few nights ago watching the documentary, I felt like I had to learn it all over again… and again, in fact, while writing this. I think it’s something I’ll need to remind myself of many times throughout my life, and that’s just something I have to be okay with. Because yeah, the anxiety of worrying you’re being unintentionally racist kinda sucks, but not even a fraction as much as how our society treats Black people sucks. And one of the most important things I can do to improve that is to trust that people know their own problems, and how to solve them, better than anyone else ever could.

NOTES: Reminder that Evette is not White! She is biracial: her mother is Black, and her dad is White. Though the doll is mostly White-passing, the character herself is frequently asked if she’s Black or white, which frustrates her, as she doesn’t think she needs to be one or the other, but identifies with both sides of her family. I think that because so much of her book deals with her racial identity, it wouldn’t make sense to not have her celebrate Kwanzaa.

Also, I want to make it clear that I’m not laying any claim to Kwanzaa; as I said above, I recognize it isn’t a holiday for me. Every year I do more research so my girls can hopefully celebrate as accurately as possible. If you’re Black and you think I need to edit any part of this post, or take it down altogether, please let me know and I’ll do that! (I’m aware that a large part of this post is me, a White person, talking about how I relate and don’t relate to the holiday, which feels ironic given the Principle I chose to talk about. I thought that since I needed so much reminding, maybe reading this would be a helpful reminder to other White people as well; however, I’ll understand if I should delete that part.)

P.S. If anyone has any info about Black-owned small businesses that make miniature Kwanzaa decor for 18” dolls, please let me know! I asked this same question last year, and several times I’ve tried searching Etsy to no avail. I’d love to make my display more detailed/accurate next year while also funding the Black community directly.

[shera-dnd]

I'm really sorry to post my replies with images deemed NSFW.

Long story short - Varvara is being pretty much converted using Kyouka as a medium (indirect kiss etc.).

That is creepy and disgusting and should not be viewed as a Bi representation but as something homophobic and harmful.

It is even more creepy and disgusting when You took into this equation that Yuuki pretty much knew how she felt about Kyouka and even approved of said feelings.

Long story short - he should demand nothing, yet he demanded everything.

Once again and this time for the last - dont treat it as a Bi rep but as a something creepy and disgusting. And dont be okay with that.

Thank You.

Well good morning, this was the first thing I saw when I woke up. I feel like a lot of people would have chosen violence upon seeing this, but arguing with or venting at someone on the internet has never solved anything, so how about we make a learning experience out of this?

Okay so, no I did not delete your asks because they had NSFW imagery, I deleted them because they came across as very angry and accusatory

Now I'm not gonna hold that against you right now and we're just gonna have a chat. You said you were an ally to the LGBT community, so I hope that you will sit down and listen to what I have to say. You're free to disagree and argue, but at least listen first

On the point you are trying to make about that scene in the manga. I've decided to catch up on it so I could talk about it properly

And I have to say that I do not see it. Like I believe the term you're looking for is less "conversion therapy" and more "corrective rape". The idea that you can fuck the gay out of a woman is deeply gross and the fact people genuinely believe that is horrifying

BUT I don't think that's what's going on in that scene. It's framed as yet another reward, which as usual exists outside of the control of any of the characters and lands entirely in the box of "things the author thought would be hot at the moment"

It is also expressly said that they're "punishing" each other so that they can better serve Kyouka, once again centering their attraction not on each other, but on someone else

Considering also that from that point on nothing has happened to indicate Varvara was any more into Yuuki or any less into Kyouka than any time before that scene

Now as much as I loved to joke about and headcanon Varvara as a lesbian, I was never under any illusion that the ecchi femdom slave kink manga would give me proper lesbian representation.

Varvara had only expressed attraction to women before and now she showed attraction to a man, to me that shows less lesbian conversion and more like one of those tumblr bi women who absolutely adore women and also have that one pathetic man they're into

The way I read this it's whatever

But you read it differently and you have every right to be grossed out. You have every right to be angry and to drop the manga entirely. I'm not here to defend Mato Seihei no Slave

But I have to ask, as an ally, did you come to me because you wanted the genuine opinion of a queer person? or did you do it because you wanted a queer person to validate the opinion you already had?

Just, you know, do some self reflection on that

Anyways back to Chained Soldier, I'll admit there's plenty of gross shit in it. Like jesus fuck have you seen all the reward scenes with Ren??? and I'll fully admit that the manga is capital P Problematic

I just think that the way we should deal with problematic media is not by shutting it down entirely, but by actually engaging with it, understanding what makes it problematic, and making sure that we don't internalize those parts of it

Problematic media can have a lot of good stuff in it besides all the nasty bits, we just gotta like know how to engage with it in a way that doesn't like change our views for the worse

As for the impact this could have on its readers and how they treat lesbians in real life. I don't think anyone who reads this and actually engages with it will come on to any lesbians and be gross to them, because well Yuuki doesn't come on to... anyone actually.

Our boy is very passive about everything that happens and will downright refuse any sexual advances that are not tied to the rewards. He did not initiate the stuff with Varvara and did not force himself on her

And the people who WOULD come on to lesbians and think they can "set them straight", I don't think they need a manga to validate their disgusting beliefs

But you also said you wanted to contact LGBT organizations in Japan to help fight against this kind of stuff, and you know what you got the spirit there

I don't think a manga being gross is even on the top like 100 things those organizations are trying to deal with in that country, and even if it was there are waaaaaaaay bigger and nastier manga to deal with first

But hey that doesn't mean these people can't use our support, so please consider donating to Stone Wall Japan and Japan Pride House, both organizations that try to help queer people, as well as J-ALL which is trying to help grant legal protections to LGBT+ people in Japan

I'll be posting links at the end of this post and will happily signal boost any other japanese charities sent my way

And just as another note at the end

I disabled anon asks for a reason, and you creating an alt account just to send me an ask is extremely shady behavior. That's a boundary I have set that you chose to disrespect and I have every reason to block you for it. I won't, because I genuinely think you're just a person trying to learn and be validated in your opinion, but just don't do that kind of shit again

anyways I hope you take at least some of what I've said to heart and here are the donation links!

[lovvelorrn]

.

[defiantbird]

Excited about new FE Heroes alts ->

Get curious about what people think and make a rare trip to the tag ->

Forgot that I take FEH way less seriously than a lot of people who play it ->

Also that some people are about as angry about F!Byleth's popularity as Smash fans are about Fire Emblem characters being added in general ->

Leave tag

[a-method-in-it]

You know that Chris Fleming line that goes "Call yourself a community organizer even though you're not on speaking terms with your roommates"?

I honestly think every leftist who talks about the "revolution" like Christians talk about the rapture needs to spend a year trying to organize their workplace. Anyone who sincerely talks about building a movement so vast and all-encompassing that it overwhelms all existing power structures needs the dose of humility that comes with realizing they can't even build a movement to get people paid better at a badly run AMC Theaters where everyone already hates the manager.

[jaguarys]

I find it fascinating (derogatory) how the general fandom conversation has shifted from "this woman is getting in the way of our gay ship and she's USELESS and ANNOYING and WE DON'T LIKE HER!" to this weird "no actually she's just not involved in her own relationships because she's too cool and special and awesome and a girlboss". But the problem is that there's not actually a veritable difference there. People still aren't engaging with her as a fully-fledged character. Like sure man calling her a girlboss is fine it's whatever but let that lead somewhere else. Engage with her. Can you actually name any of her character traits or are you just blindly praising her so that you can focus on shipping the guys in the background without feeling bad about it

[askivv]

okay, but like, who the fuck keeps telling dream he was the reason dsmp was popular ? mfer, ur villain character was outdone by fucking Jschlatt . who didnt even want to be there . You were on the same server as Technoblade . sit the hell down .

[jingerpi]

sometimes I run into discourse about trans women being pedos for diaper play or whatever and I usually don't give it the time of day but sometimes it comes back up in my brain and I can't help but think how insidious it is to code piss and diaper stuff as particularly bad or dangerous given one of the most prominent side effects of feminizing HRT is frequent urination and a weaker pelvic floor. like obviously anti kink nonsense can be dangerous regardless of if the people have a "reason" to have a particular kink, but the way it's often targeted at particular groups of people who have specific and common reasons to be into certain kinks is very disquieting. I've seen others talk about how ageplay is often important to trans women because of their lost childhood due to Casab and general transphobia, but I've never seen anyone mention how feminizing HRT weakens your pelvic floor and shrinks your bladder and why that might lead to sexualizing something like diapers

I kind of don't even want to post this because I know people are going to be awful about it if it breaks containment but I genuinely think there's a lot of people who don't know that HRT does this to women and I think it's more important to talk about than to avoid potential backlash from people who already hate trans women lol

[wikiangela]

athena bringing Bobby home to his children, when he always wanted to see them again and be with them again, was such a beautiful act of love and sacrifice. she can't even visit his grave and be close to him without flying to Minnesota, she loved him so much and she knew what he would want. it's such a devastating and heartbreaking choice and an act of love and im forever gonna cry about it.

bathena truly are (were 😭) the best couple ever, nothing will ever compare to their love 😭

[rookflower]

whichever one of us is a person first

[a-mel0n]

everytime someone who doesnt watch 911 makes a post abt it being like supernatural an angel loses its wings

no the show isnt queerbaiting you. 2/7 of the mains are queer. one of them has been married to her wife since season 1. they have two kids. the other hooked up with his gay will-they-wont-they situationship in his house this season. they were slamming each other into the walls and panting like dogs.

911 is not a good show. if it brings up an idea that idea will get resolved in that 45 minute episode. one of the characters said “[doubt] is like a virus” and then they cut to the beginning of The Deadly Virus emergency. buck got asked “are you in love with eddie” and stared directly at the camera when he said “no he’s straight and my best friend and it isn’t like that no matter how many people want it to be.”

[thats-the-biz-babe]

isn't it funny how eddie getting right up in buck's face and shouting at him for no reason, and guilt tripping and shaming him for having feelings = peak romance

but tommy calling buck by his name, looking after him and giving him an ice pack and painkillers when he's injured, noticing when he's not okay and checking in on how he's feeling, even dressing up in a suit and driving with him to a cemetery so he can make a speech to a dead cowboy in order to break a curse he doesn't believe in = abusive behaviour

[idiotsonlyevent]

it is completely understandable to be uncomfortable with the sexual assault in dandadan. it's important to discuss how it's framed, whether it's handled poorly, or if it could be been portrayed better. but the number of people - even fans - stating that it is only fanservice, irrelevant, or could be removed is frankly bizarre to for SO many reasons, starting with the fact that this parallel exists.

the anime made it even more obvious by interpolating cuts from the first scene into the second one.

i thought this scene showed that momo gaining her powers by believing in her relationship with her grandmother gives her the strength to fight back against what is basically a horrific, much more aggressive and abstract (maybe even absurd?) representation of her shitty gross ex - who was demanding she 'put out' and pay for the love hotel in very first scene.

while the escalation from one scene to the next is surprising, it's not something that comes out of nowhere. this first scene is meant to be a set-up to what will happen later. it sets the tone, though significantly more lighthearted at this point. it tells you that sex, sexuality, etc. is something dandadan will touch on - though you don't know what the scope and depth will be until later in the chapter.

i cannot recommend this video enough, as it discusses some interesting interpretations of what the serpoians and turbo granny represent in their respective assault scenes, as well as how right now the treatment of both scenes is unfortunately uneven.

more notes about plot and thematic relevance below the cut. spoilers for anime-onlies (up to chapter 8, will probably be covered in episodes 4/5).

momo was assaulted, and almost cut up by the serpoians, much like the other victims turbo granny appeared around. this is an intentional parallel. turbo granny goes to momo because that is what she does. again, SUPER unclear how that factors into turbo granny's assault of ken, but if we keep the video's interpretation of cynicism in mind, it could be related to that; maybe turbo granny has a cynicism toward men - similar to momo in chapter/episode 1 - and this is why she chose to attack ken. unfortunately, it's still too early to really understand and explain a lot of her motivations.

again, completely understandable to not like how the sexual assault was handled or portrayed, and it's important to keep discussing it. but this is what dandadan does for many different types of trauma and difficult life experiences. this is a huge part of dandadan's identity. if you don't like it, that is fine, but calling the sexual assault 'just fan service' is blatantly untrue.

[valtsv]

You allow yourself a moment to indulge in the fantasy of yourself as their chosen companion—their trusted right hand when their own fails them—before the sheer laughable impossibility of anyone finding comfort in such reliance on you clamours and shoves its way to the forefront of reasons why that can never be. You understand this. You truly do. It’s only that—

sketched some scenes from my fic

+ better quality under the cut:

[sherlocking-out-loud]

and this whole fight was foreshadowed in that bar scene with Buck and Ravi!! Buck was all "Eddie can do no wrong ever!" (because he's a war hero and a great dad, yadda yadda), showing how he idolizes the guy, and Ravi was like "Dude, he almost killed a stranger in an illegal fighting ring, what are you even talking about??"

like, Ravi sees Eddie for who he is, but Buck sees him as this perfect guy on a pedestal, and if the perfect guy tells him he's wrong then that must be the truth, so Buck folds and accepts every single hurtful thing thrown at him and he even apologizes for it!!!

I HATE IT HERE!!!