Dad, how do I? š„°
i really love trans people. i love binding and tucking and packing and styling your hair the way you want and wearing gender affirming clothes and creating yourself from scratch. i love listening to trans voices, hanging out with trans people, singing trans songs until i'm out of breath, creating trans characters. transition is beautiful, seeing gender norms and saying no is beautiful, being unapologetically yourself is beautiful. i think being trans is genuinely amazing.
ultimately a lot of feminists will look down on or outright condemn transmasculinity and transmanhood simply because it is not narratively satisfying. because transmasculine identity and joy does not mesh with their feminism-as-defined-by-cis-women. they see trans men&mascs and, immediately or deep down, feel disappointed. by the womanhood dropouts. feel that transmasculine people will always be less feminist, or that they relinquished their place when they "quit" or "betrayed" their "sisters." they may not even hate trans men, they may not even be cisgender, it's just that they think it would be such a better look for the movement if you didn't... you know.
anyways. without acknowledging this feminist discomfort with transmasculinity and transmanhood, how it's caused by the friction between trans m&ms and cissexist feminism, we'll keep being failed over and over and over again by our own communities. we need to change the narratives we prize instead of treating trans men's identity as a problem to be solved.
Source
ALSO:
āThe idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that.ā
holding my own face in my own hands and screaming āthere is no connection without an open heart! you must be brave! you must be honest! you must be true!ā in the mirror
not ignoring you not replying to you but a secret third thing
the word empathy is WIDELY misused, even in mental health spaces.Ā
empathy:
is responding to a personās emotions by experiencing the same emotion as them (i.e. feeling sad when something sad happens to that person, or happy when something happy happens to that person.)
is an automatic response that cannot be controlled
cannot be learned
sympathy:
is recognizing that another person is in pain, even if you do not experience that pain, and offering comfort to that person
is something a person must actively choose to do
can be learned
compassion:
is showcasing care and support via words and actions
is something a person must actively choose to do
can be learned
if you need an example of a person with no empathy who practices sympathy and compassion, look no further than data from star trek: the next generation. he doesnāt have emotions at all, but heās still kind to people and wants to help them.
stop telling people that theyāre evil because they donāt experience empathy. stop equating empathy with morality. stop equating empathy with caring. stop saying that cruel people ālack empathy.ā stop throwing neurodivergent and mentally ill people under the bus.Ā
Your daily reminder you can download a FREE copy of Stone Butch Blues off of Leslie Feinbergās website
This is a reminder to:
Never mention a possible pregnancy/abortion to anyone, especially not through a social media app messaging service such as messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, Snapchat, etc.
Delete all period tracking apps and to start tracking using a planner or physical calendar
Book appointments for a form of birth control if possible, or to always carry condoms for yourself and other
Look into sterilization options if that is the route you want to go down (here is a list of 1000 doctors willing to sterilize you without a fight)
Protect your fellow person, protect the women in your life, the queer people, the disabled people, everyone will be affected by this
Form communities. Tell your people that you love them. Protect one another. Check in on one another. None of us are alone.
accepting that youāre objectively weird & owning it is infinitely better than being constantly desperate to appear normal to people who donāt even matter to you
shit(and sometimes serious)posts of a 22yo trans man
389 posts