as non trans women, it’s easier for us to hate terfs than it is for us to hate transmisogyny. we aren’t threatened in any way, shape, or form by violence that targets trans women, whereas terfs will attack anyone who shows support for them. the sooner we recognize that vocally hating terfs but never calling out forms of transmisogyny perpetuated by members of other groups is performative allyship, the safer the trans women in our community will be.
*republicans flip gender switch on and off* welcome to hell! welcome to hell!
Hey, do y’all remember that time we (trans women) told y’all that stubbornly using gender neutral language to refer to trans women is an act of misgendering and transmisogyny in and of itself and y’all said we didn’t know what we were talking about?
Reminder that degendering trans women is transmisogyny.
I saw this post going around earlier and a whole group of people were reblogging it with “they played themselves” and shit like that.
Non trans women really need to take a look at how trans women are constantly dehumanized, and consider if a large group of people refusing to gender a trans woman out of bigotry is really a good thing.
I’m takin back my body. U dun played wit it, longgg, enuf. Yeah I see ya hemmin n hawwin. But I neva said you ass cud have it in na firs place now did I? You was weak. I was convenient. And nah hea we r. You was lookin fa powa, and you found it, in, dis, hea, flesh. I was yo science project, voodoo doll, And playground all in fuckin one. Yeah! Ya hid ya secrets in me! Even tricked me inta thinkin they was mines ta keep. I can’t go ten seconds witout yo lies searin thru my skin. Hmph! When did my body become yo ashtray? N why am I jus now feelin da fuckin burn? I’m takin back my body. Gon dust it off, take it to da cleanas, open do’s fa it, hol it close when we watchin scary pictures, sava tha kiss good night, n spin aroun’ like onna dem white bitches In ah old powda face movie. Happy! Happy cuz sumbody dun gaves huh sumn beautiful. You hea dat? Fo da firs’ time eva! I’m gon gi myself sumn beautiful. I’m gon gi myself? Me!
What About My Body
not anutha poem not anutha movie Zenobia corpse laid up in da French Quartas like a runned ova possum Milani head was ripped off huh body like a ole track left out on Christopha Street n I still, can’t sleep on my back where my national holiday? where my creation story? no tea! no shade! I get it, evry 5 seconds a black binary woman is beaten well evry 2.5 seconds, a “black” non-binary femme or person is beaten, then killed. I’m done advocatin I’m through, empathizin she ain’t no mo tiyad ah gettin huh ass whooped den me not anutha pamphlet not anutha intervention fuck tha dumb shit! quiet as it’s kept evry time I’ve eva been raped, there was a binary black woman eitha eggin na shit on, or joinin in onna got-dam fun why don’t my screams warrant da police? why don’t my psychosis warrant a savior? I wanna fuckin know! I wanna, fuckin, know! I said I wanna fuckin know! What about my body?
Reacquainted With Life
wade through rocks punch fist through earth reach for the moon as if it were a life preserver climb out one limb at a time spit out worms gnaw mold from fingertips wipe eyes of tears and dirt massage throat allow fatigue clinch torso awaken voice then find pride in where I lay wounded, but alive
KOKUMỌ is an African-American transgender woman and product of Chicago’s South Side. While growing up, the only messaging she received in regards to her identity was that it would lead to either death or institutionalization. Therefore, upon reaching the age of opportunity she was behooved to give herself a name that spoke of life. After an extensive search and emotional journey she discovered KOKUMỌ. KOKUMỌ means, “This one will not die” in Yoruba, a West African language.
So there was this study in which adults were shown a crying baby. Those who were told the baby was a boy interpreted the baby’s emotion as anger. Those who were told the baby was a girl interpreted the baby’s emotion as being upset.
Confirmation bias is when people only acknowledge information that supports their biases, or twists information that does not into information that does.
So whenever someone says “trans women are acting according to male socialization” or characterizes anything a trans woman does as being “male” keep that bit about the babies in mind, and confirmation bias.
For some people trans women can do literally anything and it is perceived as somehow stemming from a fictional essential ~maleness~.
I recall snowflakeespecial, for example, linking two webcomics. One was of a cis woman celebrating her breasts, and one was of a trans woman celebrating her breasts. These comics were very similar in presentation and both said basically the same thing. However, snowflakeespecial claimed that the two strips were obviously completely different because the one made by a cis woman was genuine, whereas the one made by a trans woman was evidence of autogynephilia.
This is also reflected when cis people know a woman is trans, they will interpret any behavior, any physical feature, anything to support the contention that said woman is obviously trans, even if they had no idea even moments before.
In short, the game is rigged. When TWERFs, when truscum, when trans women collaborators pull this shit, they’re not engaging honestly. They’re engaging in terms of “Trans women are men. Therefore everything they do is indicative of being men.”
This is also why they lose their shit when trans women refuse to comply with their perceptions, as happened last night.
The basic rule is, however, that trans women are not allowed to be authorities on our own experiences. Everything we say is debatable and simply being a trans woman makes one discreditable. Any attempt to step outside the very narrow, confining boxes that others have decided describe us is seen as an act of aggression.
For that matter, any attempt to assert boundaries is seen as an act of aggression.
i have no fucking clue what to even say about this like this is just absolutely stupefying
this is why i will always make fun of vegans
Chelsea Manning. Committed. Treason. She put American lives at risk. This is a fucking joke.
She exposed war crimes you fuck, including video of the US military killing journalists (some of whom were Americans to follow your point) and civilians including children, showed the awful conditions and tortue of the prisoners in Guantanamo (again including children as young as 13 and journalists), and revealed the civilian deathtoll from Iraq and Afghanistan to be in the 100,000’s
American lives are not inherently more valuable than any other. It is not treason to expose the crimes of your government; blind, obediant patriotism is much more harmful as it allowed the US to put even more of its citizens into a war zone to die.
Even then, none of what she leaked endangered a single troop on the ground as none of the files had anything to do with current military operations.
As Chris Hedges eloquently writes in his book Wages of Rebellion:
“Manning, if we had a functioning judiciary, would have been a witness for the prosecution against the war criminals she helped expose. She would not have been headed, bound and shackled, to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
But the government effectively shut down Manning’s defense team. The Army private was not permitted to argue that she had a moral and legal obligation under international law to defy military orders and to make public the war crimes she had uncovered. Because the documents that detailed the crimes, torture, and killing that Manning revealed were classified, they were barred from discussion in court, and so the fundamental issue of war crimes was effectively removed from the trial. Manning was forbidden to challenge the government’s unverified assertion that she had harmed national security.”
Some other things to consider:
*Manning was prevented from presenting her motives to the court- that could only be raised at the time of sentencing but we all know that’s too late
*The restrictions placed on her and her defense team prevented Manning from using the Nuremberg Principles in her favor – principles created post world war II by the United Nations to determine what constitutes war crimes
* Had she been able to appeal to the Nuremberg Principles she would have been set free since under them military orders do not exonerate you from committing war crimes
*Empirical evidence now shows that Manning’s actions did not harm the U.S.’s empire building, war-loving ways
So besides being innocent she was fucking shafted by this twisted, servile to the military industrial complex judiciary system we have that so many of us are proud of. This country is pathetic.
cis: I don’t date trans women because I don’t like penis
a trans woman: I have a vagina
cis: UM I MEAN I don’t date trans women because I want to have children
another trans woman: I have kids right now who could use a co parent
cis: UM WHAT I MEANT TO SAY IS I don’t date trans women because I don’t like tall muscular people
another trans woman: I’m tiny and short and I have weak little arms
cis: OH MY FUCKING GOD STOP BEING INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE
Whining about transwomen. Ugh. Will TERFs ever not whine?
I ask why, as a transwoman born with debilitating dysphoria,
you use the term “woman parts.” I don’t know what the fuck that means. I
honestly chuckled reading that shit. Sorry you benefit from going along with
the arbitrary lie you were fed since birth that your vagina defines your gender
identity. But I can assure you, upside-down girl, a large, veiny schlong can
still be “woman parts” if it indeed belongs to a woman. But lol whatever.
Honestly I’m not angry with you. Not because I have any
fucks to give about your plight as a pouty little brat, but because I don’t.
You’re not worth the spoons to get mad at. You are worth mockery though, which
I shall do swiftly and without regret.
You make quite a few assumptions regarding transwomanhood.
You do realize that most of us won’t get surgery, right? It’s expensive, not
covered by insurance, painful, risky, and can often lead to a lifetime of follow-up
surgeries. Why do you jump immediately to the conclusion that our genitals are
what define our womanhood? Probably because you’re still married to the
privilege that comes with being a ciswoman in love with her vagina.
I want to be clear that being in love with your vagina is
far from a problem in my book. It’s a beautiful thing to be proud of something
that has been used against you for centuries, something that has been shamed,
abused, mutilated, something that made you a target for violence. Ciswomen are
still regularly discriminated against both interpersonally and systematically,
and of course their arbitrarily gendered genitalia play a factor into this. I
have no issue with you caring about yourself and the rights of ciswomen. But I
have a few questions for your ass:
What makes you think that transwomen aren’t constantly
bombarded with dick pics and flashers? What makes you think that I, as a
transwoman, cannot be a rape survivor as well? Because let me tell you, I
fucking am. I am a repeated rape survivor. Why are you always pointing to one
of two transwomen in the public eye as an end all example of our “privilege,”
when she represents a very small sample size of privileged and problematic
transwomen? Why do you think that all of us give a shit if you have genital
preferences, that somehow we don’t already know that our reproductive systems
are different than yours and somehow transmens’ similar systems to yours are
null and void because these are “woman parts?” What makes you think that a
transwoman’s inability to have biological children is a lesser experience than
a ciswoman’s? Like, what the hell makes you legitimately posit this? What makes
you think that transwomens’ oppression is a newer thing than that of ciswomens’?
What makes you think that we don’t experience scrutiny and emotional abuse
based on our bodies to an equal or perhaps even greater extent than you? What
makes you think that the way we behave isn’t also conditioned early on to
ensure we never escalate situations with men, that we don’t carry weapons and
text friends, that we don’t fear both rape and murder, that men who rape or
murder us will somehow be rightfully convicted but yours won’t? What makes you
think that some of us never presented naturally femme even before transition,
and even with the privilege of being cispassing come unique challenges and
fears? Fears of being sexually assaulted then “found out” and thusly beaten and/or
murdered. Fears of simply minding your own business sans makeup, your ass
grabbed on the train, another man coming to your aid, then infuriated once he
figures out that you’re “not a real woman” because he sees five o’ clock shadow
(a personal experience of mine).
Why do you think transwomen minding their own business in
changing rooms is the same thing as being “forced to see a penis?” Why do you
think we were ever equal to a man even when we were being raised as “boys?” Why
is somehow your language more important than our lives and well-being? Why is “oppressive
language” the same to you coming from transwomen as it is from men? How is our
fight for our lives oppressive to your ass?
I’m sorry some transwomen sent you meanie pants messages. I
wouldn’t personally send something like that to you, as threats are not in my
vocabulary. But did you ever sit and think, hmm, maybe there is a legitimate
reason why they’re reacting this way? Ever stop and think “Hmm. Maybe I’m
crying cistears and doing everything in my power to silence and diminish the
experiences of transwomen, experiences I obviously don’t know jack shit about
based on the trash article I wrote for Medium?”
I agree, your birth control and abortion rights are
important. But I’ll admit that your toplessness is not a particularly urgent
issue to me, and this is coming from a transwoman who developed breasts at a young
age. On paper, yeah, your rights to openly displaying your breasts are valid,
but some of us have bigger worries than you trying to make everyone look at your boobies. That’s a nice problem to have, sweetie. Ask any woman of color, specifically
black women. They have bigger worries than you. They face bigger adversity and
marginalization than you. And these include ciswomen.
Why do you assume our bodies aren’t hypersexualized and
catcalled every fucking day, that we don’t have to conform even more intensely
to mens’ standards? That if we don’t
shave carefully and wear heaping loads of makeup our lives won’t be in more
danger than you could ever fathom? We’ve lost 13 transwomen so far this year to
anti-trans violence. These were all transwomen of color, most of whom were
black transwomen. You yourself acknowledge that we’re a small percent of the
population, and yet so many of us are dying.
Why do you gloss over the intensified violence we face? Once
again I ask, why do you insist that our surgeries are what define us? Why are
you so obsessed with our surgeries?
I can answer all of these questions for you: you don’t see
us as women, or even as people. You want us gone, you want us silenced, you
want us to appeal to your comfywumfyness. As self-aggrandizing as it is to
quote my own work, I wrote a song that deals with shits like you. The hook goes
as such:
“What you see is everlasting
I ain’t going nowhere,
I’m staying right here.
What you see is everlasting
I ain’t going nowhere,
I’m staying right here.
Your comfort doesn’t matter to me if my well-being doesn’t
matter to you. Why can’t you get that thru ur head, thru ur head?
Your comfort doesn’t matter to me if my well-being doesn’t
matter to you. Why can’t you get that thru ur head, thru ur head?”
We all know why you can’t. And if your feelings need to be accommodated in order for you to be an ally, you never were one from the start.
For the 14th time this year, we are saying the name of a transgender person of color who was lost to senseless violence. Ava Le’Ray Barrin, who was only 17, died in Athens, Georgia in an altercation with someone she knew. She died from a gunshot wound, and her killer was arrested.
A candlelight memorial service for Barrin was held in Athens at 7:00 PM EDT Monday evening at the complex, and her funeral arrangements are still pending.
Ava Le’Ray Barrin is not only the 14th trans person killed this year, she is now the youngest trans woman to die in the US, at age 17. All 14 trans women murdered in the US this year have been trans women of color, with 12 of the 14 being Black. One person, Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow, was Native American, and we recently lost our first Latina in Josie Berrios.
17 years old. She was a child. Rest in peace and power, Ava.
alder-knight 