drudeger

[drudeger]

Oppositional sexism is a very useful term actually. Like, so much is better explained by the idea of “there’s a societal belief that men and women should remain opposites and should have no overlapping traits” than “this is homophobia/transphobia”. Why does society hate displays of femininity in men and masculinity in women? It’s oppositional sexism. They hate that you’re proof that masculinity and femininity aren’t inherently opposites. Thank you julia serano for another banger

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I say this as a black trans woman.

The same way there are liberals whom get offended at the idea they could hold racial biases because they "don't see race"

There are queers who get offended at the idea that they could possibly contribute to Transmisogyny because "gender isn't real."

Like yeah, in an ideal world none of those things would matter, but the fact of the matter is that society is racist and transphobic, with a particular hatred of black people and trans women.

[drudeger]

there is also something kind of gross to me about the constant insinuations that the "questioning social norms" component of autism immediately turns every autistic person into a genderfuckery kinkster leftist who don't give a fuck. and I say this as someone who is a genderfuckery kinkster leftist. autism isn't a political alignment, it's a disability. sometimes the autism 'sense of justice' is wrong. sometimes an autistic person will find a home in conservative ideologies for many of the same reasons as other autistic people will find a home in communist ideologies. sometimes the autistic communist will come up with dogshit analysis even as they're guided by their sense of justice, because good political analysis isn't a feeling or a neurotype, it's a skill that you cultivate. I know it would be pleasant and emotionally soothing for you to be able to believe that autism turns someone into a superpowered leftist but it's a politically fraught and deeply questionable line of thought to be feeding into

[drudeger]

when you want to play your video games but dont have the energy for it its like who wants to be my proxy that does the gameplay while i watch and make every decision in the game from the comfort of my bed

[drudeger]

My Gender is Marronage by Nsambu Za Suekama/Bl3ssing

i cry every time i read this. black anarcha-transfeminist text essential to any transfeminists toolkit. key spiritual teachings from throughout the Black diaspora on gender variance in (spi)ritualistic practices. connects black transness to the expression of flight, a symbol of liberation. draws a solid black line relating black trans genders to the establishment of societies for formerly enslaved escapees.

what does it mean to be the source of the state's hatred? how does that kill? how does the state influence our families to reject us, abuse us? why do we resist? why do we persist? what does it mean to find camaraderie, find love? how does camaraderie gas our resistance?

nothing i say could be enough to encapsulate this reading, truly.

[drudeger]

everyone should read philosophical trends in the feminist movement by anuradha ghandy. literally the easiest marxist feminist read i've read and she is so to-the-point about her critiques of different feminist trends.

[drudeger]

there's like a thousand posts detailing what these terms mean in laborious detail. might as well add one more to the pile for people to ignore :/

in simple terms: there's a specific group of people that transmisogyny is *against*.

like how racism is 'against' people of colour. ableism is 'against' disabled people. misogyny is 'against' women, misogynoir (another example of intersectional oppression) is 'against' black women, etc etc.

not everyone who transmisogyny is 'against' is strictly speaking a trans woman. (please do not mistake this for "everyone is affected by transmisogyny.") rather than having to include people under the label of "transfem" who would prefer not to self-describe that way, 'transmisogyny-affected' is a useful broad and non-gendered term to use instead.

transmisogyny-exempt is also a broad term. it does not refer to assigned gender at birth. it does not refer to genitalia. it does not refer specifically to transmasc people. it refers to all people who transmisogyny is not 'against.'

cis men are tme. cis women are tme. trans men are tme. many nonbinary people are tme (just as many nonbinary people are in fact, tma.) it can mean almost anything.

these are terms specifically for discussions of transfeminism. these are not Identity Badges that people are expecting you to disclose unprompted if you do not wish. if you are weighing in on discussions of transmisogyny, however, "are you a direct target of transmisogyny" is a relevant question to ask.

i have tried to phrase this as simply as possible. there are more things i could go in-depth about, (like how people try to use the existence of intersex people as some kinda gotcha about this stuff, often ignoring and speaking over intersex transfems who are actually tma) but it would be best to keep this relatively short to reduce the ever present risk of people just not fucking reading it.

[drudeger]

[drudeger]

while I understand queer people having anti black phases when younger and changing and I honestly commend them for changing but we do need to address how casual antiblackness is especially among the queer community and how it isolates black queers from everyone else.

and when we are rightfully upset we are treated as the perpetrators.

[drudeger]

I need to see BDSM haters go on rants about the evils of capsaicin

[drudeger]

comments under any httyd movie content be like "HEY disney take notes, this is how you do a live action!!!" how about no one does any live action ever again

[drudeger]

male gaze is not 'when person look sexy' or 'when misogynist make film'

death of the author is not 'miku wrote this'

I don't think you have to read either essay to grasp the basic concepts

death of the author means that once a work is complete, what the author believes it to mean is irrelevant to critical analysis of what's in the text. it means when analysing the meaning of a text you prioritise reader interpretation above author intention, and that an interpretation can hold valid meaning even if it's utterly unintentional on the part of the person who created the thing. it doesn't mean 'i can ignore that the person who made this is a bigot' - it may in fact often mean 'this piece of art holds a lot of bigoted meanings that the author probably wasn't intentionally trying to convey but did anyway, and it's worth addressing that on its own terms regardless of whether the author recognises it's there.' it's important to understand because most artists are not consciously and vocally aware of all the possible meanings of their art, and because art is communal and interpretive. and because what somebody thinks they mean, what you think somebody means, and what a text is saying to you are three entirely different things and it's important to be able to tell the difference.

male gaze is a cinematographic theory on how films construct subjectivity (ie who you identify with and who you look at). it argues that film language assumes that the watcher is a (cis straight white hegemonically normative) man, and treats men as relatable subjects and women as unknowable objects - men as people with interior lives and women as things to be looked at or interacted with but not related to. this includes sexual objectification and voyeurism, but it doesn't mean 'finding a lady sexy' or 'looking with a sexual lens', it means the ways in which visual languages strip women of interiority and encourage us to understand only men as relatable people. it's important to understand this because not all related gaze theories are sexual in nature and if you can't get a grip on male gaze beyond 'sexual imagery', you're really going to struggle with concepts of white or abled or cis subjectivities.

[drudeger]

Guys if a character shows empathy towards someone they hate. That does NOT mean they’re forgiving them. People can have complex feelings towards others. Especially if they learn things about them that makes them understand why they are the way they are. But that does not mean they’re excusing what they’ve done. It just means they have a better understanding of them. And may show a bit of empathy towards them in the future.

You see a character give an ounce of sympathy towards the other’s situation. And immediately jump to the conclusion that they’re forgiving them for everything they’ve ever done and moving on. Even though they constantly repeat how they don’t like that person and don’t want any sort of positive relationship with them.

[drudeger]

god damn you can't even say "i want to decenter men" without other queer people jumping on your ass for being a man hating separatist. feminism is fucking dead.

[drudeger]

if you’re a white creator and your brown/black characters are always sassy, reckless, aggressive or cold and your white characters are always soft, demure, shy and introverted you should think about maybe why you did that

[drudeger]

[drudeger]

TMA? TME? What's that?

This is a question I get a lot on my posts talking about transfeminism; I intend to make this a masterpost with which to send people if they are genuinely curious.

What does TME/TMA mean?

TME- Transmisogyny Exempt

TMA- Transmisogyny Affected

More specifically, TMA is a catchall term for people whose experience being assigned male and transitioning to a feminine gender or presentation has made them the focus and primary target of transmisogyny. TME people are everyone else.

But isn't everyone affected by transmisogyny in some way?

In some way, yes. But TMA people are, by definition, the ones who are the primary target, and the ones who cannot escape it. A trangender man might be mistaken for a trans woman on the street and accosted, yes! However, his interactions with family, the legal system, other queer people, and any partners are going to be affected by transphobia, but not transmisogyny, because these people see him as outside the "MtF" category. This is the core of transmisogyny and why transmisogyny as a term exists separate from transphobia.

Why not use transfeminine/transmasculine?

Where I'm standing I'd like to be able to use those words with the rough understanding that they are related to one's relationship to assigned gender and transmisogyny, but there are people who do not feel that this adequately describes their identity (ie transfem people who were AFAB). I'm taking these people on good faith, but I still want to be able to discuss what TME/TMA is discussing.

Isn't this just reinventing the gender binary?

It's describing a preexisting one. The White/POC dichotomy is not "reinventing race science", it's describing how the society built on that lie affects people. A black person who uses the word "nonblack" probably knows that racial categories are artificial, but is still affected by anti-black racism, and deserves the language to talk about it. Understand TME/TMA the same way.

Also, to be clear, cisgender men are TME. It is not just restating your AGAB.

What about intersex AFAB people?

Intersex people who were AFAB and transfeminine people have a lot in common, yes; our bodies frequently resemble each other, and the bigotry against one will often be used against the other. But anyone who was AFAB can use that assignment to differentiate themselves from transfeminine people and benefit from transmisogyny in this way.

If you are intersex, I imagine you may have met perisex trans people who state that having transitioned, and thus having a body that does not match the idea of "Male" or "Female", makes them stop being perisex. It's that but the other direction. If you are NOT intersex, I do not trust that you are asking this question in good faith and should probably unfollow certain people.

Okay but what about people who are sometimes affected by transmisogyny?

They can exempt themselves by being cis men/afab and so are exempt. try to understand these words not as literal exact terminology, but as the best we have right now to describe a system of oppression. white people aren't literally white, and tme people don't literally never experience transmisoyny

If it has so many problems, why use it?

Every term used to discuss marginalization has problems. "White", for example, is a category that can include or exclude Ashkenazi jewish people depending on context and usage; the border between cis and trans is one that has edge cases. But these terms are important for describing oppression and helping marginalized people! It would be absurd to completely abolish them, wouldn't it? It's the same with TME/TMA.

I fundamentally disagree that this category of people you're talking about deserve or need a word to describe their oppression, or that they have a unique relationship to that oppression.

Well. You're wrong, so