#YOU ARE HELPING NO ONE AND HURTING FELLOW TRANS PEOPLE

[die-tenebris]

don't wanna derail the post I saw this discussion on- it was all in the notes anyway, so it certainly isn't op's problem. I'm gonna say this with so much love:

Calling somebody a 'theyfab' is not punching up. If someone's being transmisogynistic, say that, or call them a bigot. Naming the tangible harm done to you will always be the most effective thing to do.

The cis people who created that term made it with the explicit intent to mock and insult people's identities. No matter what you mean when you say it, this is its origin and to most people, its only meaning. It describes nothing about the discrimination you face.

People afab are marginalized, especially if they're queer. You cannot "punch up" on a fellow oppressed group. I understand the specific vitriol that they inflict on you hurts.

You don't need a word to call somebody, you need and deserve adequate justice for the tangible harm done to you; and my heart aches that nobody queer- especially trans women- ever seems to receive that.

I'm aware I can't make anybody do anything, so I'm not gonna try to tell you not to use that word. I just want to say it can't ever address, undo, or heal any harm done to you. It can only redirect it.

[jewish-vents]

I'm so tired.

I'm so tired of watching the world around me burn and crash and head straight back to the Nazi Germany regime.

I'm so tired of hearing people accuse Jews as Nazis and resembling us to Hitler.

I'm so tired of going on the news and hearing the disgusting atrocities that happen to my fellow Jews simply because they are Jews.

I'm so tired and hurt and I can't help but wonder if people learned nothing about what the Nazis did and what they achieved.

I'm so tired of seeing people call us Nazis and turn around and shout 'Queers for Palestine' Did you learn nothing? Did you learn about the trans and queers who were sent to camps because they were who they were and loved who they loved?

Did no one on this G-d forsaken earth learn anything? Did no one think to turn around and think that maybe, just maybe, this isn't about advocating for Palestine? Did no one stop and think and realize that it's simply becoming an excuse to attack Jews and ravage synagogues?

Please I beg for the world to wake up and realize we, the Jews, are at risk. I'm so scared for the day I wake up and am being rounded up to be sent to camps.

Assaulting and burning our synagogues and books and boycotting our stores and business is EXACTLY what the Nazis did before they started rounding us up and send us off to death camps. Before sending 6 million of us to our death.

I know this may sound irrational to some, but I truly believe this is something that could very well happen if the world does not put a stop to the antisemitism that is happening today.

Make antisemitism bad again.

Love,

An extremely tired Jew.

.

[mid0khan]

I know it's not what I usually post here, I mostly use Tumblr as a comfy space for friends and fandoms, but there's something that has been itching at my brain for a time and I think it's worth a post, so let's talk about something more serious and less funny than gay ships for once.

Let's talk about transandrophobia. (throwing some TW for transphobia and misandry too while i'm at it)

I am a trans man, and I'm quite often exposed to the "all men should die" and "you're a gender traitor" discourse, which is awful for obvious reasons (the genocidal ideation, the sexism, the hatred, you get the point).

I don't know if the people who believe in those ideas realize they are sexists, or that wishing to kill half the human population is Marvel Bad Guy level of bad? But they seem convinced they are knights in shinning armor for the feminist cause. Which I disagree with (feminism was created to achieve equality, not to reverse the sexist hiearchy). It sucks, but I manage to deal with it most of the time, since it's "only" transandrophobia (they hate me for being a man, not for being trans, and they don't question my identity).

I have been exposed to another... flavor of those ideas. And they are both terrible, I'm not trying to say one is worse than the others. But I struggle a lot more with this other version.

I have a flatmate who wholeheartedly believe in the "all men should die" thing, and they aren't affraid to say it. But when they say this kind of things when I can hear them, they hastily add "except trans men, because obviously they don't count". Which I can't help but understand as "you don't count as a man -> you aren't really a man".

Which sucks twice, because it's misandry with bonus transphobia. Coming from a friend (who will soon be a former friend though if they don't do some self-reflexion) and a fellow trans person (they are enby) it hurts a lot. I often wonder if, since I started my medical transition, maybe one day I'll be too "man" for them and they'll start being openly against my mere existence.

Not only that, but this discourse shows some crazy hypocrisy imo; they seem to think that, by saying "all men deserve to die but trans men get a pass", they get to be violent but since they say they accept that a minority exist they are obviously good, unlike those who want to kill everyone.

And sadly my flatmate isn't the only one saying this kind of things; I am lucky enough to live in a fairly LGBTQIA+ friendly area (which doesn't mean there isn't any queerphobia, but it's a lot less common than where I grew up), and some people seem to think that, as long as they don't direcly attack LGBTQIA+ people, they can be hateful without it being bad.

All of that to say, it's not possible to be a misandrist and be an ally to transmascs. Personally, I'd rather people be honest when they are being hateful and discriminatory, rather than try to do moral gymnastics to be hateful without attacking minorities so they get to think of themselves as allies.

[theoldlesbianwithcats]

22.02.17 — On lesbian socialisation (by sespursongles)

We all know how female socialisation works, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone discuss the concept of lesbian socialisation, how it affects us, with what consequences — and how it is like female socialisation, squared.

To put it in a nutshell — female socialisation teaches you that you are inherently worth less than men and you must always defer to them and prioritise them and their feelings over yourself and other women. Lesbian socialisation teaches you that you are inherently worth less than male-attracted women and you must always defer to them and prioritise them and their feelings over yourself and other lesbians.

Lesbians are of course affected by both, although being gay can help us fight some aspects of female socialisation—e.g., the need to prioritise men or win male approval. Not that it doesn't affect us at all, but the message that “you are worth less than men” does impact you differently when men are worth less than women to you in your love life, and “you must behave in X and Y ways and treat other women like rivals for male interest” sounds like irritating white noise when getting male interest isn't a desired outcome.

On the other hand, we have nothing to help us resist the impact of lesbian socialisation, because we love women. We are fully behind the idea of prioritising women. Add to this a healthy dose of internalised lesbophobia, and we are now fully behind the idea that mlw are worth more than lesbians and we should prioritise these women in particular, always.

Not to mention the factor of our social isolation and quasi-total lack of outside support — how every other group and political faction hates us in a different (but, deep down, the same) way, how desperate we are for allies.

I wrote a post last week about lesbophobia and double standards in the radfem community, and one part of it was directed every bit as much at lesbians than at mlw: “Het/bi women are really seen as inherently more important and worthy of respect than lesbians, aren’t they? Can’t waste your shock and anger on people who hate lesbians because you must save it for when a lesbian calls a manloving woman a manlover.”

I wrote that post because there were lesbians who were much more shocked and outraged at other lesbians for hurting a bi woman’s feelings by calling her a lesbophobe and a “manlover”, than at said bi woman for being a lesbophobe who defended the idea that lesbians can be manlovers. (She was defending a book I mentioned previously, written by a bi woman, in which a lesbian falls in love with a guy.) There were also lesbians who hurried to write posts urging other lesbians to calm down and be nice when we started reacting to the lesbophobia, but felt no need to write posts telling mlw who were being lesbophobic to calm down and be nice. And there were lesbians who felt the need to write posts reassuring “our bi sisters” that we still love them and we know most of them aren’t like that and NotAllBis and wlw solidarity, but didn’t feel the need to respond to this surge of lesbophobia with comforting posts of solidarity to fellow lesbians. That’s what I call lesbian socialisation. Put manloving women first, always. Suck it up, be nice, placate, placate. Can’t risk alienating the very few “allies” we have.

Female socialisation teaches you “it’s in your best immediate interests to care more about men’s feelings than about women’s oppression.” Lesbian socialisation teaches you “it’s in your best immediate interests to care more about manloving women’s feelings than about lesbian oppression.”

And that’s exactly why the queer/bi/trans community has been able to dismantle the lesbian community so easily and walk all over us. Because all lesbians have been taught to never dare prioritise ourselves and our own wants and needs, to always put every other group’s feelings and wishes before ours, especially other women and other marginalised groups who need our help and compassion*. Gay men don’t have this problem and so they still have “exclusionary” spaces. *And these groups know it. They might not know it consciously, but they know it, and they exploit it.

Every time a het radfem reminds a lesbian of how dangerous and painful partnering with men is, every time a bi woman throws those bi suicide and rape statistics at us, every time a “trans lesbian” talks about how much it hurts his feelings to be rejected by mean lesbians who won’t date him, they are counting on lesbian socialisation to kick in, waiting for lesbians to feel terrible and forget about our own best interests and duly start prioritising theirs.

Het radfems do this deliberately, to get us to admit that het privilege isn’t really a thing and, back in the day, to convince lesbians to accept their political lesbianism rubbish (“Why won’t you welcome us in your community as your lesbian sisters? Do you really want us to go back to our hurtful hetero relationships?”). Bi women do this deliberately, to guilt-trip us into “including” them everywhere and shut us up when we talk about their lesbophobia. “Trans lesbians” do this deliberately, to get us to fuck them. (Men don’t have complicated motivations).

They all know the stereotypes (they create them) that are an integral part of lesbian socialisation, teaching us our worthlessness. The mean lesbian, the angry lesbian, the manhating lesbian, the ugly hairy rabid hysterical cruel insensitive heartless biphobic transphobic gatekeeping selfish exclusionary oppressive genital-fetishising lesbian.

Lesbian socialisation is the incredibly useful and necessary extension of female socialisation. It functions to keep the women most detached from patriarchal institutions, the women who least need men, who have the most reasons to rebel, quiet and well-behaved. Growing up as a lesbian, you receive female socialisation, hear that as a woman you are subhuman and born to love men, serve men, worship men, and you feel angry. But you also receive lesbian socialisation, hear that you are not merely subhuman but subwoman, lower than low, if you turn into one of those crazy rabid angry lesbians, and you back down.

And other groups know how to use all these hateful messages and stereotypes against us, either throwing them at us outright, or subtly reminding us of them, then watching us desperately scramble trying to prove that they aren’t true, or at least not true of me. They know.

So, it would be good if lesbians knew, too. Be aware that lesbian socialisation exists, that it affects you, and that other groups use it against you. Notice patterns. Notice in what contexts the calls for “empathy”, “solidarity”, “sisterhood”, politeness and niceness start flowing. Notice in what contexts other groups give you tragic statistics about their own oppression. Notice when you start feeling bad and guilty and ask yourself why. Who are you prioritising? (Usually, yourself and/or your fellow lesbians.) Whose feelings are you ignoring? Who are you concretely hurting? (Usually, no one. Prioritising lesbians does not actively hurt other groups, no matter how badly they want us to believe that—using the aforementioned tragic statistics as well as words like “denying us” to make us feel like our bodies, affection, time, solidarity and emotional labour are as necessary to them as oxygen.)

And remind yourself that it’s okay to prioritise lesbians, and that you do not have to care about people and groups who have shown time and again that they do not care about you. When a group has a long history of disregard or blatant hatred of lesbians and shows zero willingness to change, it’s okay not to care anymore. It’s okay to answer questions like “Do you support X group?” (trans people, radfems, gay men, bi women…) with “No. I support lesbians.”

Because you are not required by law to support groups who do not support you back, let alone groups who are actively promoting an ideology that hurts you and your community. It’s nice to be nice and polite and supportive, but when the niceness and politeness and support always flow in the same direction, at some point, it’s time to stop. Allow yourself to stop. (At the very least, allow other lesbians to stop and don’t lecture them for not being sufficiently nice and polite to the groups that you, personally, still have some faith in. She probably has good reasons for losing her faith in them.)

If you do stop, you’ll probably feel very guilty at first (they’ll make sure you do), but it will get easier. You might even start feeling better about yourself now that you stopped caring about some groups who never cared about you.

And finally, please keep in mind that if you don’t prioritise yourself and other lesbians, no one else will. No other group will care. Not even marginalised groups who share some aspect of their oppression with us. Not het women, not trans people, not gay men, not bi women. No other group will defend us, support us and prioritise our hurt feelings over their oppression — what they constantly demand of us. No matter how nice, accommodating, polite, helpful we are to them. It’s never going to be our turn.

[allseeingportrait]

Happy Pride, y’all! I just wanted to do an indulgent little thing for now, we’ll see where the month takes us

I was thinking while Considering a pride piece how prevalent in my early Egg & Early Trans Years the scenario was of my peers going through the “men are awful and trash universally” rigamarole was and how much that made me feel like shit and kept me from figuring my gender out- especially when people’s response to my hurt was “oh but not YOU you’re DIFFERENT you don’t count”. Didn’t help that figuring out I was gay made those conversations Much harder, either. Leave it to a Studio Killers song about something entirely different to dredge up those feelings…

But being The Bad Guy is very on brand for me so leaning into it this one time is fair, right?

To all my fellow trans folks, happy pride- and know that the way cis people talk about you doesn’t define you. Stay Safe out there!

[nervoustragedyluminary]

Idk why calling transmasc people "cunts" & "bitches" in an insulting way is so normalised by fellow transmascs and trans guys in the Anti-Transmasculinity and transandrophobia tags.... like you realise you're just doing toxic masculinity and transphobia right?

Trans women never asked you to do this and it's pretty transmisogynistic and chauvinistic to claim you're doing it on their behalf or to fight for their liberation when it's actually the same self centred bullshit that predatory cishet men do when they go "I'm a feminist and all men are trash (but not mee I'm one of the good ones)"

the tone of many of these kinds of posts is very "I'm not like those other guys I'm one of the cool guys who is better than all the whiny boys who are behaving like girls (Derogatory) for talking about Anti-Transmasculinity and I'm gonna prove how feminist I am by calling them cunts and bitches and telling them they aren't real men because IMO 'real men' (white pericishet abled men) don't face gender based oppression or talk about facing it"

it's just very thinly veiled truscum "you're a transtrender for talking about Anti-Transmasculinity " BS trying to hide behind "I'm defending trans women & fighting transmisogyny by calling out these whiny bitchcunt tboys who won't man up and suffer in silence for the good of trans women like I do" when you're not even centring trans women in this kind of "advocacy";

you're just doing the classic thing of making it all about your own insecurities with masculinity and attacking other trans people for not being 'stoic' enough about transphobia and violence they face & claiming that trans women benefit from our erasure and silence .

Like you realise most trans women don't see you hurting trans dudes, misgendering them or mocking trans survivors of DV & SA and go "woo yeah this helps me fight transmisogyny & SA and DV against trans women please tell another guy that he deserves to be SA'd or detransitioned for being whiny"

and it's pretty telling of your unexamined transmisogynistic assumptions about how this behaviour must somehow benefit trans women that your first go to for "how can I be an ally to trans women? " is apparently to seek out trans guys and tell them they deserve sexual or domestic violence while calling them bitches and cunts and misgendering them to try to threaten them into silence on issues that effect them

... Just yuck behaviour like how to say you agree with terf rhetoric about trans women being pro DV and SA MRAs without saying it.

Seriously if you want to advocate for trans women and trans fems (and trans neuts) try to actually listen to them and stop trying to use them and their struggle for liberation (which is inextricably entwined with our own) as an excuse to play out this tired self obsessed "I'm more of a real man than you" dominance paradigm BS

And also maybe while you're at it listen to some of your fellow trans men and transmascs talking about their own issues and don't be so quick to assume without cause that they're blaming trans women for Anti-Transmasculinity existing in the first place or that they think trans women as a group are oppressing them.

Like there's a HUGE difference between talking about societal violence from cis people, lateral in community violence and anti transmasculinity and going into terf GC & radfem BS that claims that trans women are "using mAlE pRiVeLeGe to rule the trans community and oppress the poor TIFs" & listening to the good faith discussions and understanding what people actually mean when they talk about Anti-Transmasculinity and transandrophobia actuall helps you to quickly identify and discard BS terf rhetoric that tries to pretend to be pro transmasc rather than just writing off anyone speaking on these issues as "you're just a detransitioner (Derogatory) in waiting you're not a real trans man because real men don't have or talk about problems"

[lostamongthestarz]

Hello!! I hope you’re having a good day! I don’t know if you do platonic requests or one so if you don’t just ignore this!! But if you do what about Miguel O’Hara with a younger trans spider man just getting started superhero-ing? Just domestic father-son dynamic :-)

I absolutely do write platonic headcanons!! Feel free to send them in my inbox <3

❗❗Female readers are on thin ice but don't fetishize my writing, I write these headcanons for my fellow trans men ❗❗

❗❗❗DO NOT TAG AS ROMANTIC/ANYTHING WEIRD THESE ARE STRICTLY PLATONIC HEADCANONS❗❗❗

·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙

the frist time miguel meets you it's awkward as hell, probably out as spiderman or taking a walk late at night when he sees this young kid in an alleyway after getting his ass handed to him in a fight. He'd walkover and ask if your alright and if you not in the right state of mind to answer or lie and say you are then he's gonna try and help the best he can.

If you for whatever reason live by yourself, miguel takes you back to your apartment and patches you up there. Makes sure not to hurt you more then you already are, after that when he is spiderman he'd constantly be making sure your alright weither your fighting or doing something else as a spider-person.

After you two have gotten more close and established the father/son bond you'd probably be comfortable enough revealing your identity to him, though it takes longer for him he'll get there.

He would constantly make sure your taking care of yourself, remembering meals etc.

would be 100% supportive if you did come out to him as trans, he thinks of you as his child why wouldn't he support you?

Would help you train as a hero and help you grow better with being spiderman

The first time you called miguel dad is was in front of the rest of the spider-crew (Jessica,gwen,Peter B) and they all swear that that's the fastest they've seen you run

"Alright dad, I'm gonna head home"

"....."

"Did you just-

"NOPE YOU HEARD WRONG- BYE"

Miguel nearly sobs after he hears you call him dad, he probably hasn't been called that in so long. You apologize afterwards but he reassures you that is okay

He makes sure your safe at all times, if he's not around then he has another trusted spider-person around. He can't lose another kid and he doesn't plan on it

Protective as you can get, if its not safe for you it's not happening

Also the rest of the spider-people call you little-spider, miguel calls you arañita (spiderling)

I love you never goes unsaid, he always worries about losing you or not making it back so it's a thing with you two

"Be save, arañita"

"I will, te amo" (I love you in Spainish)

Would absolutely kill if anything happened to you. (Saving that for a short)

·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙

If any of you need me I'll be crying over miguel and his backstory/j

Request are open <3

[nsfwitchy2]

I am very tired and very nauseous so idk if I will word this the way I want to but like,,,,

It’s real. Weird. To me how many people will reblog posts about supporting all queer people and supporting all trans people, and then talk about how they don’t wanna vote because Biden has done this or that terrible thing.

Like…. Idk man. If you can’t put aside your personal morals for .5 seconds to make sure a dictator isn’t put in charge of the country, I actually do question how much you care about your fellow man.

There are tons of people in this world I do not like, or I do not agree with. I think republican women and republican gays are the dumbest motherfuckers on this planet - but if I found myself in a position where I could choose to help one of them, or let them suffer - I would still choose to help them because that’s my fellow man. That’s another human being. I would be willing to put aside my personal feelings on this persons morals and ethics to acknowledge they are a person who needs saving.

And if you can’t put aside your personal morals and ethics for a fraction of a second to acknowledge that, at the end of the day, our options are a guy who wants to kill all minorities or a guy who could be doing better but isn’t actively trying to kill everyone - I genuinely question how much solidarity you have to your fellow humans. I don’t think you’re performing activism anymore, I think you’re angry and you don’t care who you hurt with that anger. You’d rather give up than acknowledge the world has gray areas and sometimes doing the right thing is uncomfortable and makes you feel icky inside.

[feminismisstillahatemovement]

I gotta say that some of your points are a bit... extreme and out there, especially the transphobic stuff (I promise you the obnoxious ones are the ones you know, I literally just want to go by the name I picked and not hurt anyone or do weird shit, leave us alone pls) But the points about feminism aren't... horrible? Which is honestly strange to think about but like... yeah. Kinda hate myself for thinking this way but here I am.

'Transphobia' is a silly made-up term that has been aggressively promoted by fanatical activists the past 20 years, and not one I respect or consider to hold much useful meaning: it's a false appeal to a rushed and artificially-fabricated normality in an attempt to influence the population that doesn't in any way reflect the views of any population. There's nothing "extreme" about being opposed to the mutilation and sterilization of children, biological males exposing themselves to little girls in changing rooms, biological males beating up women and destroying all women's sports, and being compelled by the state to say things you can plainly see with your own eyes are not true.

On the other hand, I believe you should have every right to dress how you want, and call yourself what you want, and be left alone to do so without threats of violence. You do you, and I hope you find a happy and meaningful life through doing so.

It's ironic that so many "trans" people are now openly and aggressively opposed to feminism when the gender ideology underpinning their beliefs about reality and the legal changes in law and education that led to their present protected status in society emerged out of false feminist claims about sex in the 1970s, specifically that "gender" is a "social construct" distinct from sex, imposed from above by a "patriarchy", rather than something that evolved over millions of years to help the human race best survive, and which is observable in all our fellow mammals.

And it's also ironic that in this issue I tend to support what the "trans" folks call "TERFs", because, even though those RadFems holding the line are doing so largely because they hate men even more than all the other feminists, they are still asserting reality in this matter over delusional fantasy, and often in the face of both activist and state violence, so I can't help but applaud them for doing so.

But, as I say, I hope you make your way through the world happy and unharmed and in peace.

[windienine]

idk, fellow transmascs. i just think there comes an age where we have to accept that "guy who doesn't hurt people" isn't a category you can squeeze yourself into by changing and sanding off aspects of your personal identity. at some point you have to work to help people.

i've met a lot of guys who decide they want to be guys and freak out a little when they realize that they have access to a system that used to hurt them, when they realize just how easy it is to fuck up a woman's life with that access. minor existential crisis. "is this what i want?" "is this who i am?" "how do i become the kind of man i want to be without being the kind of man who hurts people?"

i was like that, too. i think you just have to acknowledge that you have teeth and they're a part of you and what you do with them is up to you. renewed strength means energy to put towards dismantling the systems that did and do cause you and your loved ones pain. renewed strength to reach out to your trans sisters and find community.

moreover, you've always had teeth.

[jokerislandgirl32]

Hammerheads, Or …The Episode Where Zach Had His Period

Okay, so this is just a little headcanon dump based on observations I made the first time I watched Hammerheads. In this post I will be discussing trans Zach and menstruation/periods, so if this upsets anyone please let me know, I do not mean to cause any harm or hurt to anyone who is trans by making these observations. 

If anything you read is hurtful or harmful to you as a trans person, please feel free to dm me and tell me. Just do so politely, please, I’m truly not trying to cause harm with this post. If anything I wrote is inaccurate, feel free to let me know and I can adjust it, or if it’s downright triggering for you, I will be happy to delete the post.

You can find the rest of the post below the cut ⬇️

My reasoning for this headcanon is honestly the way he’s acting throughout the episode…he’s like me when I’m having my cycle (for my fellow period acquaintances can we all agree they are awful, please tell me it’s not just me)…so this post is considering the possibility that Zach is trans and is enduring…the many joys…of a moon cycle. 

The first thing that I notice about Zach in this episode is that he’s binge eating cookies for over half of his screen time in the episode. And they are not just any cookies, these are cookies with chocolate on them, and from the looks of it half of the chocolate is dark chocolate.

I can’t say it’s helped me or anyone I know who has a period, but I’ve heard dark chocolate can alleviate the pain associated with cramping, and if that is the case, Zach may be experiencing cramps, and he’s trying to dull the pain with a comfort food. 

And, he can probably go through phases in his cycle where he’s eating everything in sight. So, the fact that he’s chowing down on a whole box of cookies makes complete sense to me. Then there is his reaction when the box falls to the ground, crushing and soiling the cookies.

Now, we all know Zach’s a dramatic little guy, but his reaction is over the top dramatic, even for him. The man shoves the tattered remains aside and then flops over in his chair in complete devastation….ummm, you good, Zach? 

When going through a cycle, one’s emotions can be all over the place. So, if Zach really wanted those cookies, and he didn’t get to eat them, having a little hissy fit over the loss of them is not out of the question if his period is wrecking havoc on his body and mind. 

Next, I bring your attention to his body language throughout the episode. Zach is historically known for his lazy behaviors: not wanting to move much and having the Zachbots carry him around, but his movements and actions feel a bit off to me. He is moving and acting as one who is guarded in their actions, namely, one who is in discomfort. 

Of all the screenshots I compiled of Zach from this episode I only have about 10 out of 93 where he is standing straight up. In all the other screenshots, he is either sitting or leaning over/against something. And even when he is sitting and leaning his body language seems tensed. 

While he’s sitting in his hover chair eating his cookies, one of his hands is almost always shown gripping the seat, which seems like another clear indicator of him trying to deal with his pain. 

In the scenes where he’s watching the Zachbots be equipped with their hammerheads, and he’s taking them out to breakdown the Tortuga’s door, he is almost always leaning over a railing. He seems to be holding on with both hands tightly, for pain management, perhaps…and his stance itself seems strange to me because Zach’s usually very straight or angular in his movements/body language. 

Here it’s like he’s curling in on himself, almost trying to get into something of a minor fetal position (I can’t speak for everyone, but again this is something I do/people I know do when cramps are bad because it does bring relief). 

So, maybe I’m overthinking this situation, but from my experience, and from his unique behavior in this episode, I just think Zach was having a horrific cycle. And yeah, that’s it, thanks for coming to my TED Talk. 

And again, if anyone is hurt by this, please let me know, it is not my intention to cause pain to anyone with this post. I may not personally headcanon Zach as trans, but if he is trans or others headcanon him as trans, I feel like this episode and his actions support this argument/headcanon. 

[lighthouse-system]

My trans siblings, please listen to me.

I learned some disturbing news about a nearby "surgeon" in my state that I watch very closely named Kathy Rumer. Ms. Rumer (I refuse to call her a doctor) is known as "The Butcher of Ardmore, PA" and that title was not given to her willy-nilly. Due to her dwindling reputation in Pennsylvania, she has started taking medicaid from outside states.

This is extremely concerning because Kathy has a long history of transphobia, medical malpractice, filing SLAPP suits against whistleblowers, and abuse towards patients/victims and fellowship trainees alike. By the way, if you're in Eastern PA, I recommend giving Dr. Kathryn Brandt (Reading PA) or Dr. Katherine Rose (Bryn Mawr PA) a look-- two infinitely better surgeons. I had top surgery through Dr. Rose in July 2022 and her team went above and beyond to help me out. I'm in the process of getting things done with Brandt, and her team is also amazing.

Rumer has also decided she will see exclusively trans patients, meaning she has chosen to target us specifically. But don't let that fool you: before making that choice, she permanently disabled a cis man who needed gynaecomastia surgery by severing ligaments in his arm. So it's not just us she's hurt. She's hurt cis people too.

You will see reviews online that say otherwise or claim this to be a troll operation. Do not fall for it. Rumer creates sock puppet accounts on Reddit, Google etc to post fake reviews propping her clinic up.

A friend of mine in the group we watch her in has made a much longer, more in-depth post about her atrocities here. There are accounts of Rumer prescribing meds that could have killed a patient, Rumer ghosting or even denying patients who were in desperate need of care for complications she created, and more. And while no one has died under her care (yet, or that we know of), it would be best that it stay that way.

The scariest part is that the lawyers she's appointed to work for her are Trump-aligned, and the court she has threatened to take her victims to has a Trump-appointed, anti-LGBT judge.

Kathy Rumer is an active threat to the trans community. Please, please do not let you or your fellow trans siblings go to her. Do not let the short wait time and cheap price tag entice you. There is a reason her clinic is like a revolving door. When you go under the knife, speed is not the primary concern; accuracy, gentleness and safety are. She claims to be a "gift from God" for trans people, when in reality she is leaving a trail of blood in her path, and she could very well be coming for your state next.

Edit 1: "Apprentice" wasn't the best term, so I subbed in "fellowship trainee" instead

Edit 2: Took out my assumptions of her being abusive towards other docs bc I want concrete evidence first.

[drdemonprince]

I found your post about forgetting about privileges after gaining them very insightful, but I don't really agree with what you said about transmisandry.

Because I've never seen transmisandry used as a shorthand for dening that trans men can gain privilege by transitioning (which is how your comment read to me). The usage that I'm familiar with is as an umbrella term for transphobia specific/specifically trageted at trans men/trans masc people.

An example: The visceral disgust often expressed about the concept of pregnant men and the way this bleeds over into treatment and discussion of pregnant trans men. Is this transphobia: absolutely, but it also just not something that trans women have to deal with (not directly at least). So why not group issues like these with a specific word?

You could absolutely make the case that most of the things that could be called transmisandry are a combination of transphobia and misogyny and should be named accordingly. But as it stands transmisogyny is currently used as "transphobia trageted at people perceived as trans women".

(Sorry about the spelling, English isn't my first language)

What you are describing is transphobia. I guarantee you that if a trans woman could get pregnant (or once medical innovations allow trans women to), people would also react with extreme disgust and violence. Just as transphobes get disgusted when either trans men or trans women breast feed.

It helps no one for us to act like every single highly specific experience of transphobia is its own unique oppression, because that denies us the ability to talk about the actual systems and beliefs that make this stuff happen in a broader sense.

Both trans men and trans women face loss of reproductive control. Trans women are forced to be sterilized in order to change their gender marker in nearly every country in the world. Yet almost no one talks about it, including women's reproductive justice organizations. Many of those same organizations are quite vocal about preserving reproductive care for trans men. Why?

This is not intended to erase trans men facing restrictions on reproduction. We have to realize we are all under attack collectively. We need to stand up for trans women's reproductive freedom as well as our own. These attacks have the same origin points: transphobia, and misogyny.

Oprah's "pregnant man" was the first trans man I ever saw in media and it fucked me up, so I get why this topic hurts. But our pain must be a bridge to our fellow trans people, especially women. Let's not lift that bridge up and separate ourselves.

[uncanny-tranny]

from one nonbinary person to another, i’m so sorry about that ask. some people really just can’t seem to be fucking normal abt nonbinary people for some reason and it’s horrible. wishing you the best, and i hope you have a good day/night/whatever time it currently is for you. ^_^

I appreciate your words, and I want to assure people that, while unfortunately, I am accustomed to this sort of stuff, I still appreciate the community outreach.

I don't typically post that sort of stuff, but it's important to me that we recognize, address, and combat all forms of transphobia. While trans people as a whole are in an often unfortunate circumstance, there are still hurt people who perpetuate supremacist ideas about transness. Lateral aggression isn't just bad because it is bigotry done unto another, but also because you separate yourself from any other community and help. You hurt yourself just as badly as the people you seek to hurt.

I need fellow trans people to never tolerate any lateral aggression in any form. It will never serve you. It will never serve the trans community. You are doing the dividing and conquering for the people who want to see our demise.

I know you, anon, didn't come for me to write you an essay, but it's important that people don't just dunk on the previous anon and learn nothing from it. We need to learn how to be in community with each other.

[xxfangirl365xx]

Question: "What is a day you'll never forget?"

Ghoul's answer: The Day we met Show Pony

NOTE: Written in my wattpad a few months ago, i posted Jet's and Kobra's here so here is Ghoulie's (:

Mine predates all of the other guys' stories and it's kinda sappy but why not. Mine was the day I met my fellow prankster Show Pony. Despite popular belief they didn't just roll up and start hanging around with us.

The four of us ( Poison, Kobra ,Jet and I) had been in the zones about a year and had pretty well adjusted to life out in the middle of nowhere. We were on patrol by ourselves, one of the first times Dr.D let us do that alone. Basically we got to drive around all day, nothing usually ever happened. On this day in particular we were on our way home and spotted something off in the distance...Dracs? Possibly. We drew out ray guns and headed over only to be met with a horrifying scene of three people, all fairly young, seemingly dead.

"Dear Destroya" Poison remarked observing the sad scene

They definitely had just escaped the city and made it pretty far into the zones...unfortunately they were unarmed and didn't stand much of a chance.

Jet went to the three and looked to see if by some miracle they were alive. First two were a sad head shake no.

The third person had long dirty tangled black hair and was maybe about 17 years old...about the same age as me. Jet gently grabbed their wrist expecting nothing and were were all shocked when he found a pulse.

" Guys! This one's alive!"

" They're bleeding from somewhere on their head" Kobra noted, hiding behind his brother, scared for who knows what reason.

It's not a secret that I hate blood, I get a paper cut and nearly pass out and the guys make fun of me for it a lot, but this time it didn't bug me, I was much more bothered by the fact this poor kid was now hurt and alone laying next to their dead friends. I wasted no time In gently picking them up and we headed back to the car so we could go back to the diner and hopefully help this kid. I rested their head in my lap to keep them as comfortable as I could on the ride home. I took my vest off and covered them with it because it was getting cold. I felt really bad, you know, I was so lucky to have found a good group to rely on and call my family and I think this made me realize how fortunate I really was. This kid needed a friend and I decided to be that friend.

We got home and I carried their limp body in the diner and laid them on an extra mattress we had.

" YO DR.D" Poison yelled

" What's up boys?" He asked coming into the room a few seconds later ( this was before he hurt his leg)

"We found this wanderer on the route home" Poison explained " Their buddies were dead but they're alive for the time being"

He stood over my shoulder looking at the kid

" Should I call a doctor?" he asked after a second

" Aren't you a doctor?" Kobra asked confused

He laughed, realizing he had never clarified where that title came from

" It's just a name, I ain't got a degree to back it up. I don't know shit about medicine" he continued

" Ohhhhh..." we exclaimed in unison

"I'll call someone" He said leaving the room

I sat next to the kid for a while, just watching the rise and fall of their chest for what seemed like hours until an actual doctor came.

He looked them over before coming to the conclusion they were in perfect health other than a head injury.

" Just keep a close eye on them for the next few days,once they wake up they may be a little out of it but I'm sure they will be okay." He said before him and Dr.D went outside to smoke a cigar and gossip for a while.

" Well, you heard him. I guess they're gonna be alright" Jet said. "Well' I'm gonna go change the tire on the Trans-am, it's got a leak."

" I'll come watch." Poison said , Kobra following right behind his brother

Jet poked his head in the doorway after a second.

"You coming Ghoul?"

" Nah, I'm gonna sit with them." I said

" alright"

I sat for a while enjoying some silence until the kid began to wake up. Of course I had never been in a situation like this before.

I sat next to them and gently moved the hair out of their face.

"Ugghhh-shit" they mumbled groggily

'"Uhhh...Um.." what are you supposed to say in this situation?! " He-y?"

They looked over at me and the first they they said...I kid you not was

" Why do you have a bee on your sleeve?"

I looked at my shirt sleeve..I do have a bee on my shirt. Huh...good observation.

" Who...are you? You look funny." They said again

" I'm Fun ghoul, I'm Killjoy." I explained " what's your name?" I asked, unsure if they could answer that question. To my surprise they answered rather quick

" I've been waiting foreverrr for someone to ask me that. My name's Show Pony." They said slurring their speech.

" Nice to meet you, Show Pony... How ya feeling?"

"I dunno" they giggled

"Looks like you hit your head pretty bad huh?"

" I think so" they said continuing to giggle like a crazy person

" What's so funny?" I asked starting to laugh too

" The room's spinning it's like a carnival ride"

" Oh yeah that is fun- do you like carnivals?"

"Yeah...no clowns though"

" Oh you don't like clowns?"

" nu uh they're creepy and smelly...am I smelly? The dessert is gross." They thought for a second before they started crying

" Am I a clown? I'm weird looking and I smell" they said in between tears

I forgot the kind of wack mood swings that happened when you were going through withdrawals from BLI brainwash drugs.

'"Hey, you're not a clown, don't cry" I said, trying to comfort them.

Without a second though I knelt down further and hugged them.

They stopped for a second and were perfectly still.

" I overstepped and made them uncomfortable!" I said in my head " Oh Ghoul you idiot!"

To my surprise they hugged back and quietly whispered

" Thank you"

I spent the rest of the night doing my best to take care of Show Pony and just chatting and giving them a hard time while they tried to tell lame jokes such as this fun one at 2:07 AM

" Hey Ghoul Knock Knock"

"Who's there?"

" Boo"

" what?"

" Nooo you're supposed to say boo who!"

" Aww don't cry Pony"

" Your a jerk"

Show Pony became very good friends with us all and impressed Dr.D with their intense knowledge of music and when he started his station he made Show Pony his official helper.

So yeah, I love Pony, they're one of my best friends no matter how annoying they can be, one of my favorite people and a part of my large Zone family.

Anyways that's my story, see ya later

-Fun Ghoul

[hellyeahscarleteen]

As a trans person, how can I navigate authentic gender expression and avoid the identity police?

Being part of a caring queer community means helping each other find and celebrate our authentic selves – NOT taking part in gender policing. In this advice from the archives, Mo demonstrates how to do exactly that.

A user writes,

“I’m a 17 year old transmale and I’ve identified as male for about 2 years now. I am 100% confident that I am a boy, but I am also fine having breasts and a vagina. I don’t think of them as female. They’re just my parts! I like wearing things like dresses and skirts as well and I enjoy makeup, none of these things make me less of a boy in my eyes. However, I fear that people will not take my identity seriously because of this. Even in the LGBTQ community, I feel like people will say I’m not "really trans.” Dressing the way I want to really boosts my self-esteem (and I have struggled with horrible self esteem my whole life, so I really need it) but being called “girl” and “she” really hurts. I guess my question is, how do I deal with wanting to present a certain way but hating how it makes others perceive me? I will be going off to college in a few days as well, and I know that could be a time to show how I really want to be, but I’m scared of how people will react or treat me.“

Mo answers,

"I’m going to make probably the biggest understatement of the year: gender⁠ is complicated. As obvious a statement as that is, it’s still true, and I think it’s worth repeating.

I think one thing a lot of people - even many gender-savvy folks or fellow trans people - sometimes forget is that there are a lot of components to gender and that knowing someone’s gender identity⁠ doesn’t provide much information about what their gender expression⁠ or presentation will be. Plenty of people, whether cisgender⁠ or transgender⁠, have gender identities and expressions that don’t fit neatly into a rigid and binary⁠ system of gender norms.”

You can find the rest of Mo’s response here!