#...but i would be a token - a THING they use to justify /their/ transphobia...

[uncanny-tranny]

Something beautiful about the word transsexual is that contrary to popular (often by transmeds) belief, it has always included people who don't medically transition in anyway. It simply is an older word for what a lot of people would now call transgender and there are so many transsexual elders who never went on hormones and never had surgery but have identified as transsexual for decades and still do. I know transmeds have been around back in the day too, claiming that transsexual is only for medical transitioners, but many elders will disagree. Even if you look at some trans glossaries from 15 years ago they will define transsexual the same way that we define transgender. Transsexual and transgender are largely synonymous with different connotations to different people. The beauty is that we as trans people get to choose whether we want to reclaim a term that was put on us by cis people, or if we want to claim a term that was created by us for us, and both are beautiful and radical in their own way.

The thing about the history of transness is... we have documentation of trans people having existed for at least a thousand years. Trans history is ancient. We are a fact of humanity, not an option.

The interesting thing about transsexual is that it's a new word - coined in German as Transsexualismus by Magnus Hirschfeld in the 1920s, introduced later as transsexual. Around this time, more people were interested in what would be known as transsexualism. It's around this time and after the war that more and more medical transition options became wide-spread and practiced. Medical transition is by no means as experimental as people fear monger it to be, but in terms of trans history, we're living in a vastly different era than our trans ancestors.

The understanding of transsexual depends on who you ask, but it's my opinion that we ought to include as many transsexuals as possible. The idea that transsexuals are the Good Trans People, the ones who Put In The Work is an idea that's based on transphobia, not the language that's used. The attitude is the problem, the idea that we are inherently broken or must prove ourselves worthy is separate from the words that we identify with or are used to describe us.

It's for this reason that transsexualism is important to me. It's for this reason that I want as many people to be transsexuals as possible, whether or not you medically transition. I personally started preferring transsexual because I see it as political, as personal, as a community of beautiful people I want to help make good. If you don't identify as transsexual, that is great! But, please, know that transsexuals are also not stereotypes. We're not the Good Ones. We are part of the broader trans community, and thus, we should all work together.

[pumpumdemsugah]

how do you think is the best way to respond to the queer theory fandom when they say shit like this: "I don’t think you can fully understand transmisogyny without understanding how it’s weaponized against cis Black women" and then go on to give examples of calling black women men. How does any of this make sense.

Claiming cis Black women experience transmisogyny is going out their way to remove racism from the conversation and invent something that does not apply to us. We have trans Black people. It's decentres Blackness cause 90% they do this to talk about their gender and feelings. It's completely self serving

How is this not normal classic standard anti-Black racism? Black women are beastly, is Stage 1 of racism. We're not reinventing the wheel. idk why so many people have convinced themselves otherwise . 'Black women aren't refined' is CLASSIC racism first edition. Black women should have never let online whites learn this because now there's never ending convos about Black women's bodies being gleefully had by white people to one up other white people. I'm so sick of it.

The trans that's relevant to cis Black women is trans-Atlantic slavery. There is no way to argue this that makes sense without validating the way slaves masters saw enslaved people as factual. Black people needed to be super strong animals so working my ancestors to death for profit seemed like a mercy, so we needed to be "civilised" and needed chattel slavery. If we're going to bring up Black women and gender and we don't start talking the propoganda whites created to justify mass rape, pedophilia and torture of enslaved Black girls and women, then when will we ? They're bringing up Black women as one size fits all tokens and go on to not talk about the Black experience or Black trans people

I want to know why they don't want to talk about racism so badly? It's a very strange way of centring whiteness because it treats how Black women are viewed as factual and not part of the oppression. They can understand why talking about Black men as strong and beastly is racist and why people focus on Black male bodies but not for us ? Why is it that cis Black men aren't also experiencing a form of transness as well ? They're dumb so repeat shit they think looks smart. These people aren't thinking . If racism disappeared, this way of viewing Black women would go but if transphobia disappeared, this way of viewing Black women would still exist. Things are interconnected but not so much that race stereotypes won't go without ending racism.

Some think, ' not seen/treated as a woman' = maleness instead of abuse. The context people ' don't treat us like women' is always because they're trying to abuse us, humiliate or use us. If they're saying we experience this, would they be comfortable if we started talking about trans stuff? Nevermind we have Black trans people.

Convos about civilising Black people do not come up because this dumb way of talking about anti-Black racism is dominant and unhelpful. Implying Blackness as a gender identity always ends up pushing race science. I know some Black people do this but I rarely come across Black people that do this who don't have a history of Black self hatred because of racist bullying. I don't think that's a healthy basis for describing identity and I don't think people newly dealing with self loathing belong at the centre of most convos because they will come to toxic conclusions

[meme-loving-stuck]

Hey listen

Knowing the history and origins of the word "femboy" as a slur used to describe trans women in the same vein that "she-male" and other shit is used. It was CREATED by cis people to fetishize trans women and compare them to men. It is not only transphobic but transmisogynistic. This is known by most 'older' people in the community.

With that said? I fucking cannot stand to see the way it's EVERYWHERE now, most often being adopted by young trans men who-and I know this sounds callous but it holds some truth- are so desperate for the validation of being called "boy" while still being effeminate and cute (because yes, misogyny and transphobia about anything feminine in the transmasc community also exists), without knowing the history of the word or WORSE thinking that they're somehow "reclaiming it". It's weird, it's still LARGELY used in a fetishistic way, and it's being used to reduce trans men to this stupid babified caricature that's honestly unsettling to observe!

I want to emphasize this because Ive been seeing a lot of other TME people hemming and hawing and going "Well just because it CAN be used as a slur doesn't mean it IS one" and... sorry! But that's not how that works, at all! If we want our support to be intersectional, we have to recognize that.

Here's the part that's not just my opinion though: Trans men and boys are TME. Trans-misogyny exempt. If you don't experience transmisogyny, you cannot "reclaim" transmisogynistic slurs. You can't. That's not how it works. If a trans woman wants to reclaim it? Sure! I don't honestly see why anyone would, but I'm not a trans woman.

And yeah, some trans women feel differently about it. My ex gf called herself a trap. She thought it was funny and she'd probably think the same thing about this word. I know a few trans women who are closeted IRL and use this word to refer to themselves in online spaces.

The thing is, these few people don't really represent the whole community, and me as a man tokenizing those trans women in my life who are Whatever About It in order to justify using it myself somehow? Would still be wrong and fucking gross. Because not EVERY trans woman feels that way about it, they're certainly not the majority.

Tl;Dr? Read it anyway lmao. Not everyone wants to be called a fucking slur. Not everyone feels the same way about the word. AND I dont caaaare what you read in your neo-liberal sex-positive reddit server; it should not be used to describe trans men, NO not even GNC genderfluid demiboy trans men. You cannot claim solidarity with trans women in good faith and then call yourself a transmisogynistic slur. You cannot tokenize the trans women in your life to justify using a transmisogynistic slur for yourself or others. You cannot reclaim a transmisogynistic slur if you are TME.

And if you're cis and you're using this word? Take a long look at yourself and ask yourself why it's so important to you that you use a literal fetishistic slur. It's not only transphobic in general, transmisogynistic specifically, but it's just fucking gross, man. Be better.

[pigspeetsandhooflikefeets]

Hey. I don’t like posting this because I like to be a positive person and this is a really cool and positive fandom, but I need to say please avoid melodicalmusic on DeviantArt/doggiebeats on Quotev. Initially I thought it was just someone who was missing the point, but they are far worse and actively harmful. (notes under cut)

melodicalmusic/doggiebeats is the author and illustrator of an au fic named “Velo Life”. At first glance it is harmless, the art is fine. The story revolves around a mask named Pap (a papillon dog) doing things, being an assistant to the monarchy, and dating Fox. Sometimes other masks get chapters, but the overall focus is on her oc, which is fine, as ocs can be good. The problem isn’t conception, it’s execution.

Transphobia: Melodic decided to cast Leopard as a non-binary intersex character. It was a fair design choice, other than the fact she referred to them as a “pseudo-h*rmaphodite”, which is medically outdated, as well as the inclusion of ‘pseudo’ is more offensive than the slur alone. Leopard has biological cubs, despite most intersex (obviously not all) being infertile or unable to carry children showing a lack of research on the topic, as well as it being a very dysphoric situation for many trans and intersex people.

Leopard was referred to as a “quing”, combination “queen” and “king”. Now. Mull over it. Okay stop mulling, because she had every inch to just use “Monarch”, such as “Monarch Leopard”, as well as titles like “Their/Your Majesty”, which works for both kings and queens, so it should have been suitable for Leopard.

Unprompted, she backpedaled saying “But I wanted Leopard in my AU to be a actual female. Cause I think it's for the best. Everyone kinda hated Leopard, but I love everything she does. No not Transgender, just really a female.”. Besides the fact she took it in her own hands to decide that a mask played by Seal was ‘now a cis woman’, she implies that trans women are not women, calling cis women ‘really a female’.

In her fic, the only other trans character is Egg, who is exceptionally ambiguous to being trans, not specifying if Egg is NB, FTM, or if he as well was going to be intersex. She dedicates a chapter to pride month, yet a lot of the focus is on the cishet masks (Pap (her oc), Frog, and Fox), as well as a concerning ship of T-Rex and Poodle, as everyone knows that T-Rex is somewhat coded to be a child, since Jojo was only 16 when she performed. Despite claiming to respect trans people, she only had two trans characters, and decided that one of them wouldn’t be trans anymore because “I admired the high-pitch voice that was fitted for the Leopard, it just suits SO well. Even if the show kept going, I always hear the digital high vocals.”. Call me crazy, but that’s not a reason to make a man a cis woman.

As a trans man, Leopard was disgustingly handled in the show with the panel first week, accusing Seal of ‘tricking’ them for wearing drag and acting feminine (not acting like a woman, acting feminine), and I hoped it wouldn’t leech into the fandom. Clearly I was wrong.

Homophobia: Where to start with this. As stated, she changed Leopard from a NB intersex character (in her original canon) to a cis woman. In the fic, Leopard is married to Nick. I don’t need to tell you that she made Nick x Leopard into a straight ship. She made the only gay ship tease in the show into a straight ship. I wish it ended here.

Somali, an oc, has potential. Not here, but he has it. Somali is gay. If you think I’m undermining his character, that is his character. Somali likes magic and theater, and is very flamboyant. He is a gay walking stereotype. In his description, it is stated, “The story is that he turnout Gay, Of course Pappy was Supportive, but she knew it wasn't fair, especially through everything she's involved.” If you need me to translate: Somali broke up with Pap after realizing he was gay. Pap saw that as unfair, and that she was a victim of being lead on because he found out he was gay. Yes, Pap is making Somali being gay and dealing with his internalized homophobia… about herself. She goes to the point of calling him her nemesis. Which is a... toxic way to refer to someone who broke up with you on clean terms.

Somali eventually teams up with Rottweiler, Pap’s brother (who abuses her, despite it being out of character in every means) and is. Evil, and he hates Pap now apparently. We can’t go a minute without the gay oc being evil huh. Somali being gay doesn’t add to the story, it just suggests the only reason he stopped dating her was that he was gay (which is bad and offensive in Pap’s eyes) because he is not shown to fall for Rottweiler, or have any crushes on other male masks. His homosexuality is an accessory tag, and it’s really not a good one when he is the only gay character with a lot of lines.

Every. Character. That. Is. LGBT. Is. A. Token. Ice Cream and T-Rex are the closest ones to not be tokens, as Ice Cream has a job at a diner and T-Rex gets lines, but T-Rex is only used for exposition, and again, a child shipped with an adult mask. Peacock’s and Rabbit’s role outside of the first chapter is to have a rocky relationship, being forced to rekindle their relationship after Pap tells them to do so for a love festival. Several of the female masks are bisexual or lesbians, but they add so little to the plot, that I don’t even remember which ships are which. Every [since Leopard used to not be but is now] main character is heterosexual and cis (Pap, Fox, Leopard, Kitty, Frog, Turtle, Rottweiler) which doesn’t imply that she actually is that pro LGBT. Drawings of hers for Ice Cream and Egg are captioned “Just something Gay for you guys to see~” (fetishizing much?).

Ableism: One of the ocs in the fic is a Red Panda, who is related to Panda (don’t be confused, animal wise they are not closely related at all). In the fic, Red Panda suffers from PTSD due to an accident which caused her to be disabled in the leg, who uses a single-leg-crutch to walk. The physical disability is handled well enough, not being a hindrance or made fun of, but her personality is the worst. Red Panda is a cowardly and sniveling child, scared of her own shadow and completely incompetent. Her PTSD is very thinly written, not giving her any specific triggers or reasons for anxiety. If her PTSD was presented with her being afraid of entering a vehicle or certain smells that would relate to the accident (rubber, smoke, leather), it would make sense, but Red Panda is scared of everything. On a dare, Frog tells Kitty to impersonate a mask. Kitty impersonates Red Panda, making fun of her cowardice, which can be an actual attack on people who have PTSD (like myself), Kitty justifies herself, saying she couldn’t think of anyone else, Red Panda immediately accepting it. Being a minor character, there is no time for her to develop, and the Red Panda we were presented with is already a mess.

In the same chapter that Red Panda is introduced, Axolotl (mentioned a lot later) dares Fox to remove his prosthetic arm. I don’t need to need prosthesis to know that asking someone to take their ARM OFF is unfunny and uncalled for. Pap, Fox’s girlfriend, decided to take the time and kissed the welt, commenting that it “looked interesting”. Don’t- don’t do that. Don’t kiss people’s scars or cuts or welts or anything related to their disability, especially without permission. Axolotl was being ablest to Fox and somehow Fox didn’t know better and forgot to tell her she was acting uncivilized, despite being one of the smartest masks in the canon.

Condoning Incest: One of the ocs in the fic is an Axolotl. The axolotl is Frog’s biological sister, Frog having Turtle as his adopted brother, which in fic Turtle is stated to have been adopted in Frog’s family for over 15 years. In the axolotl’s description, it is stated “Though Axolotl is a relative of him, She deeply has a crush on him. Which maybe weird but hey, Turtle's Adopted. So not a big deal”. No, it’s not ‘ok’ because Turtle is adopted, especially since they’ve been related 15 years. It’s not like Frog and Turtle are ‘close enough to be brothers’, they are related by law. Axolotl is presented to quirkily force a kiss on Turtle in one chapter, which she is not punished or condoned for 1. Sexually harassing him 2. Committing incest and putting it on his conscience, OTHER than her getting salmonella, which all characters who kiss Turtle are prone to getting (Ice Cream in chapter was stated to have fallen sick after kissing him). Axolotl is treated completely fine and Turtle has her in his band, regardless of the fact she is predatory towards him. Additionally, Axolotl is treated as a babysitter towards all of the children on the island, despite, again, sexually harassing someone she is related to, which people saw happen.

Incest is a harmful thing that can cause people to self-deprecate themselves or worse. It’s not a quirky “ha ha, they kissed, so funny!” because Axolotl DOES want to prey on Turtle. She DOES want to be with him. She didn’t CARE about his feelings, in the moment or after. It wasn’t a cute kiss on the cheek, and it wasn’t funny.

Fetishization of Japan: Pap is a weeeeeb. Pap is stated to be Japanese (her last name being Akita) which is confusing on account of the fact Rottweiler and her family are not shown to be Japanese? Anyways, Pap uses broken Japanese, completely unsparingly, and just says it in a way she expects everyone to understand her. It’s not Engrish, she speaks English well enough, she just adds it in sentences, and Melodic doesn’t even offer translations at the end of chapters. Phrases used are arbitrary, one some reason ending with “translator”. Entire sentences can be in Japanese, making the story hard to follow. If this fetishization of the language was limited to Pap, it’d be more tolerable, but other masks, ones who have no reason to know Japanese, use it as well, equally poorly.

Xenophobia: Some reason the USA and UK masks are all good guys (other than Rottweiler) but the German masks live in a ‘badlands’. German Monster teams up with Rottweiler and is his girlfriend, while German Dragon sexually assaults Kitty when they go through the badlands. There is no rhyme or reason why they are the scapegoated ‘evil’ series, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Inability to handle criticism: I tried. I tried my absolute best to tell her that what she was writing was harmful and past borderline offensive. I told her that Somali was a gay stereotype and very poorly presented, not getting a personality out of ‘likes singing’ (which all masks do…) and ‘is evil gay’. She didn’t care. We told her she was using slurs and that turning a mask played by Seal into a cis woman was offensive and transphobic (as well as Leopard already poorly being handled). She didn’t care.

In fact she more than didn’t care. She called us insensitive and whiny. Quote from her, "Now, I been feeling upset about some Haters/Karens harassing me on my AU ideas. And yes that's dumb.” Karens. You know, the stereotypical older women who hate the gays and trans people and bully people doing their jobs? Karens? Yeah, no. A Karen would be against any characters being trans or gay, insisting the show is for families, not telling them to stop using literal slurs (which have been outdated over 20 years) and to actually write gay characters. She genuinely acts like she can do no wrong and that everyone that doesn’t fawn over her is bad. This has nothing to do with the quality of the writing and the lack of grammar, this is about how she is unapologetically offensive and writing triggering content for the sake of being ‘quirky’.

I’m not saying “go rally against her” or “dox her” or “flame her story”, I’m suggesting please don’t give her attention. She’s clearly a child, and she’s not willing to change. All we can do is limit how much attention she gets until she grows up.

[queerpuff]

Discussing the TLOU2 leaks.

Obviously do not read this if you want to remain spoiler free for TLOU2. 

I have looked into these leaks and what they mean, and have a few thoughts to crystallise so I have done below. This is mainly a way for me to express my feelings and get them off my chest, I’m not looking for any responses, I just needed to rant. If you have something to say though, feel free to DM me & I’d be happy to chat. :) 

So, in all honesty, the whole news about the leak - the reasons why it was leaked, the fanbase reaction, as well as other speculative elements to it - have upset me. 

Ellie is important representation. The Last of Us is one of my all time favourite games, for a variety of reasons. However, one aspect of the game which will always have a place in my heart is Ellie. I’m sure so many of you feel the same way, but as a lesbian, seeing myself represented in a video game in such a casual, yet beautiful way means a lot to me. Especially seeming as the video game industry as a whole is still massively tailored to the male audience - seeing Ellie written as a lesbian in a non sexualised and normalised way is quite groundbreaking for the LGBT community (feel free to correct me if you think I’m wrong of course, but this is my opinion.). I have always had a deep respect for Naughty Dog for including such representation in their games - as well as portraying characters which aren’t hyper sexualised/unrealistic. 

However, the leaks have really hit close to home due to many factors. The storyline leak/spoilers to me weren’t that bad - I couldn’t escape them as most of the angry fanboys have taken to all forms of social media to spoil everyone who’s still looking forward to the game. The storyline to me isn’t awful, from what I’ve seen it could be an opportunity to tell a fantastic story about revenge and hate. However, there’s been some speculation about [SPOILER] Ellie’s fate in the game, as well as the main story antagonist Abby potentially being a trans character.

Bury Your Gays Trope As we all know, the bury your gays trope is something which has plagued the LGBT community for years. It’s exhausting to see yourself finally be represented in a form of media, only to have our characters killed off in haste or poor writing. I sincerely, sincerely hope that this isn’t the case with TLOU2. Joel & Ellie are the most beloved characters in the ND franchise, and killing them without justification is hard enough. The spoilers haven’t officially leaked Ellie’s or Dina’s fate in the game, only that they get hurt pretty badly. It could go either way honestly. But in deciding their fate, ND are potentially adding to a trope which has hurt and upset the LGBT community for years, as well as leaving the fans completely hurt and unresolved after losing one of their favourite characters. Using the ‘it’s an apocalypse, anything could happen’ excuse would boil my blood. It would be an incredibly stupid move on their part, and I’m curious to see whether they were hasty enough to make it. I have faith that they won’t.

Abby + trans representation On another note, there has also been a lot of speculation on Abby’s character being trans. Although I have not seen proof of this myself (to me she just looks v muscly - something I am very much here for!), I also sincerely hope this is a path ND have chosen not to take. Although trans representation in the media is scarce enough as it is, especially within the video gaming industry, deciding to introduce their first trans character as the main antagonist who [SPOILER] kills one of the main characters and potentially kills the other too - is fucking DISGUSTING. It is actively inviting the players to dislike her and hate her, something the gaming community has proven to do fantastically already, but by the same token, they’re enabling so many gamers to use this as an excuse to be heavily transphobic. Which disgusts me to my core. Which brings me to my next point...

The toxicity of the gaming community The gaming community is quite frankly one of the most uneducated, narrow minded and frankly disgraceful communities that exist around popular media today. It has been largely dominated by straight white men up until more recently, something which has caused a shift in the representation we see in the games. Something that will continue to anger me, is that these men still fail to see value in anything which doesn’t feature their ‘kind’ as the main characters. The minute the representation strays away from this at all, agendas are being pushed, and ‘SJW’s are taking over’. It’s completely mind numbing to see men freak out over a fictional character being anything but a white cishet. What’s unfortunate though, is that this childish attitude is often coupled with these men refusing to invest any of their time or money into these franchises. Which in turn, will be detrimental to the companies who chose to feature this representation. Naughty Dog is going to suffer a lot from these leaks. I have seen a vast array of hateful comments from people saying they’re outright refusing to buy the game, etc, which I know will affect the company in the future. It is unfortunate that a company who actively tries to give us more representation is going to be punished for attempting to break the norm a bit. This statement only stands if they decide to keep Ellie alive, and if Abby is not a transgender character - if not I will also refuse to invest my money in any of their future projects.

Naughty Dog & their ‘disgruntled employees’ A last point to be made, is spoilers aside, the message behind these leaks seem to root from a sentiment of unrest within the Naughty Dog company. I understand to some extent the overwhelming pressure of releasing a sequel to TLOU due to it’s massive success, but this in no way justifies the ‘crunch culture’ of overworking and underpaying your employees. It’s barbaric. It’s deeply saddening to see a company such as ND neglect their workers in such a manner, and I sincerely hope that these leaks will hopefully cause some sort of upheaval in the way things are run there. There seems to be many issues to address - being silenced out of fear of opposing any of the main ideas, the whole concept of bonus pay 6 months after the game’s release etc, it all needs to change. I want to continue to support ND, but I will not if they don’t change things around. 

This franchise has mattered to me since it was released, and ND has been a company I’ve respected and praised since 2009. So naturally my opinions on it are very strong. Nonetheless, I am still looking forward to TLOU2, and I will purchase it as normal - not buying it at all will affect the neglected workers far more. It’s sad to see such negativity spread from something everyone used to be so excited about. It’s also heartbreaking to see so much transphobia and homophobia stem from this too. It’s only cementing the idea that video game companies need to push through with this rep despite all of the braindead fanboys opposing to it. It’s important to a lot of people.