genderescent

[genderescent]

i was wondering if genderescent is for me if i am afab & nb chican@/mestiz@. i feel like a liar for not having a dynamic "narrative" (like one of your previous posts mentions here) but now I'm linking it to white hegemony, etc. but again idk if it's for me, especially if it's made by and for dmab iaopoc folks. i wouldn't want to claim it if so.

the only requirement is that you are an indigenous and/or a person of color who is not cis. 

[genderescent]

hello!long time follower 1st time asker. I was wondering if u have any thoughts on gender wrt your audio post for PoC of unknown cultural origin? for ex, I am black american/cape verdean and there is a lot of cultural mixing w/o specificity (cont%)

(%cont) bc of my lack of knowledge of my specific culture, I’m unsure of how my gender can work? like I feel very Un trans and un cis, but I have nothing historical to look back on so I feel very lost? like…. colonialism…. ugh…

sorry it has been so long since i answered this…

interestingly… this is the sort of thing that we made genderescent for… bc, yeah, while i’m super lucky to have cultural/historical roots that i can identify, i know that this isn’t true for a lot of ppl

(also… like, the past is good to know, but it was never perfect, so it is good to have a space to discuss and explore and to improve

but i do want to say that ur gender feels are valid. and they are real. ultimately, you are the only person who can really contextualize and articulate what they are… but they are valid.

like…sometimes we can find words in english (for example) that do closely match but we can also shift the meaning to better suit us or make new words entirely. whatever.

idk. i hope this helps.

[genderescent]

It makes me laugh every fucking time I see racist anti-white tumblrs on a website MADE BY A WHITE MAN and RUN BY A WHITE WOMAN. Holy shit you fucking idiots are funny as FUCK

yes you are laughing so hard, and know so much you had to tell us while hiding behind anonymity. 

[genderescent]

What does d¡*unital mean?

If you don't know you're not meant to. To the other mods, people who know me, don't answer this question.

[genderescent]

I know I'm probably going to be accused of being white/cishet for asking this, but why do we need a special word specifically for us? Didn't our ancestors fight against segregation? Didn't the LGBQTA+ and allies just fight against the 'separate, but equal civil unions' stuff? Separate but equal has never worked in our history, and I just don't understand why we need to invent a new word just to be separate, but equal and segregate ourselves again.

I'm not going to accuse you of being white, but I am going to say you are in desperate need of decolonizing your mind. 

This comment assumes that we developed terms just cause. That we are separating ourselves (and I'm laughing that you think we're the one's that separated) from something based solely on skin color, that the various experiences of Iaopoc is just a white one dipped in shades of brown.

The premise of your questions are wrong. You shouldn't be asking why are we making separate but equal terms (and you should stop with the equal and look into equity because then you will also get a better understanding of why everything you said is white supremacist regardless of your actual race). The question also should not be solely or even mostly addressed to us.

The real questions you need to ask are why are white people, their terms, and their experiences seen as the terms and the experiences? Why is it assumed that the identities and experiences of Iaopoc are the same as white ones just with cute foreign names? Why do so many Iaopoc have white identities forced on them and yet you see nothing wrong with that? Why do many Iaopoc adopt terms and identities, but no matter how they try to live those identities they feel fake, alienated, lost and eventually seek something else?

People don't separate themselves for the hell of it. They do it because the community they were in was hostile to them and/or not for them. They do it because their experiences and who they are ARE different but no less valid than the one you somehow think we are just like.

You also need to ask yourself why are you so hostile and upset with us for creating terminology that actually recognizes us and our various experiences? Why are you hostile to the idea that we have create community absent our oppressors? Why are you so invested in integrating into a community that has erased the black and brown legacy that started it, erases the black and brown people in it outside the statics needed to support white activism? Why are you trying to convince us we are wrong, but putting no effort into seeing how white approved terms, movements, communities continue to replicate white supremacist hetero-sexist cis-normativity?

My ancestors DID NOT fight to be like white people. My ancestors fought to be themselves and to not be dehumanized, erased, and oppressed for being themselves. DO NOT EVER AGAIN try to use the struggles of anyone's ancestors to brow beat them into accepting anything just because you think they should. YOU are being abusive and supporting oppression when you do that.

[genderescent]

You all are racist as fuck!

let us all cry for the white people. poor them. they can't be in the club. must be so hard to be excluded from so little.

[genderescent]

What place do you believe ethnically Jewish people, who may be white, but have been estranged from western culture to varying degrees, fall into, relative to the distinction drawn between white trans discourse and genderescent discourse?

In a place where they're still white and have no business using genderescent or being a part of this discourse.

Seriously white people, stop expecting your ethnicness to erase your whiteness and the very real ways you enforce and benefit from our abuse and marginalization just because you want to not take responsibility for that, just like other white people, and sit and mooch off the cool kids.

[genderescent]

Please don't take this ask to be argumentative, I'm just a little confused. If the separation between sexuality/gender is problematic and white construct, why is it bad for someone who currently identifies as cis to follow read this blog? Like, I guess my confusion stems from being a queer cis woman who is consistently questioning whether or not the term cis is actually accurate for me. So it seems like this space is built for us too but then you say it's not. What's this distinction about?

None of that first part about sex/gender being separate and a white constructs makes any sense to me in regards to this question.

Like AT ALL.

Regardless, someone who identifies as cis, i.e. the gender they are assigned shouldn't follow because this blog isn't for cis people. 

If you are white this space IS NOT for you regardless of weather or not you are questioning your gender assignment, trans, or otherwise, because this blog isn't for white people.

If you are an Indigenous person and/or a Person of Color who is questioning your gender (not just you don't like it when people call you cis) then this space is for you. 

[genderescent]

I don't know if you are right about cis people following this blog being creepy... or any blog about non-binarity. Any window into other people experience can be a good way to educate oneself so you can examine your privileges. And the next-time they encounter non-cis people, they don't act so entitled, so that improve the life of non-cis people. Plus you seem to suggest that cis women have privileges (even lesbians ? ) and well, that's reaaally debatable.

first, i'm not sure why you would think that i or any other genderessence should give a flying fuck about cis ppl educating themselves. do not care. this blog isn't for them. 

cis women do have privileges. even lesbians. this? is not a debateable point. 

[genderescent]

my interest around genderessence as term is also related to my desire to stop seeing communities of colour invoke the whiteness imposed distinction between gender/sexuality. because ‘trans’ as a thing distinct from the queer community is something white gays did to gain their ‘freedom’ at the expense of queer/trans poc. respectability politics at its worse (and, thus, anti-Black to the extreme). you gender narrative is unique by virtue of being yours (and no one else’s) and we all have narratives because we not only need space for ‘non-normative’ narratives about gender but also space for even understanding what ‘normative’ gender is for poc outside of whiteness. space for all our narratives to be told, expressed, articulated, wept over, shared, elevated, *all of them* (because, yes, I’m still interested in hearing a queer ‘cis’ Black woman’s narrative of what it means to be a woman free of whiteness. because, especially with the book I’m reading right now, i’m realizing how much more of a unified a community we were before white queer and white trans activism. about how even know invoking ‘cis’ and ‘trans’ within our communities still forces all of us to view our genders within white gender discourse. because what does it mean to be a man or a woman or neither or both or beyond or between or all outside of whiteness? what does it mean? and, yes, this extends just beyond the gsm people because many of us are from cultures where there was role and place for us in the communities before white - but also during and after - and i feel like we still don’t spend enough time thinking about gender as colonial tool. because i don’t even have the fucking words to say what i want to say right now. like how do i talk about my own role? i’m not gender variant because my role is traditional. how can we understand this with the beauty standards that dictate that all Black women should try and have straight hair? because i see the colonial touch in both - in telling lies that my gender/role is aberrant and lies that some hair is ‘good’ and expresses femininity better than other hair.)

Oh, the hu-manatee!: queer gender | beyond whiteness 

[genderescent]

re: narratives of transition

this is why genderessence was a thing

'cause 'essence' is just that some of us are and always have been

[genderescent]

What if you're mixed? Like half white, half latina? Would it depend on how you're read?

I've been thinking about this for months.All I can really say is: You are the only person who knows who you are. Make the most compassionate and the least oppressive decision.

[genderescent]

high-priestess-jezebel replied to your post: Would it be ok if a white cis person follow the genderscent blog to learn more about it?

I think it’s creepy. I think it’s invasive. Just on a cis (and not cis-and-questioning) level. Add in white and it feels like colonizing. What is there for you? Besides learning about people who are actually just here for each other. It’s. Creepy.

fyi to white cis person with question

[genderescent]

[genderescent]

high-priestess-jezebel replied to your post: Would it be ok if a white cis person follow the genderscent blog to learn more about it?

I think it’s creepy. I think it’s invasive. Just on a cis (and not cis-and-questioning) level. Add in white and it feels like colonizing. What is there for you? Besides learning about people who are actually just here for each other. It’s. Creepy.

fyi to white cis person with question

[genderescent]

To keep up with creating/finding a new vocabulary for genderescents

I really like the fullmetalbitch’s comment about it sounding like ‘ascending’ to our genders.

I think ascension is a good alternative to ‘transition.’ And it couples with the sense of ‘becoming’ in genderescent very elegantly.

[genderescent]

my gender just sometimes feels so “weird” because i like all these ‘girl’ words—even ‘girl’ as a word itself—but i am not actually a girl at all. but i tried the trans man/masculine thing and while for a while since i was feeling very boyish during that time it worked out but after a bit … no. someone had referred to me as a man and it hurt a lot—almost as much as when people misgender me by calling me a woman—then and i realized that, that’s not me either. and i do like he pronouns sometimes, but not really a lot of the time, like sometimes i don’t mind and other times i’ll probably be really, really upset if someone were to use them.

and she pronouns are death toxic poison all the time but sometimes i ‘slip up’ in my own head and then just go “…eh” and don’t think much of it.

it’s very complicated and my vocabulary of trans things is larger than most but it feels very small and restrictive (and binary and white). that’s why i like ‘genderescent’ so much. it makes me feel like i can express myself without having to use a bunch of words that don’t really fit me. since i do poorly with words in general, and offline make a lot of hand motions and drops/gaps in speech and don’t ever really convey what i mean well when trying to explain things, it is really great for me to have a word like that, which works in place of a bunch of complicated feelings.

i’m going to tag this because if someone who’s had a similar experience wanted to have a discussion—on this post or in a message—that would be pretty great.