#but then it was like oh well gender is a social construct and what does that mean

[jasper-the-menace]

Hey, since you're interested in scorpion biology, I thought you'd be interested in the idea of... intersex Chima scorpions! Well, sort of.

There's a specific character that's been bugging me a bit. Scutter is kind of the scorpion equivalent of a centaur; he has two torsos, one anthropomorphic, and another of the scorpion body. With scorpion anatomy in mind, it's easy to reach the conclusion that Scutter's reproductive organ would be heavily altered because of his body, making him intersex to a certain extent.

I hope this makes sense. I'm trying to look for possible trans rep in Chima characters (like in this example). What do you think of this idea?

Oh friend, you don't know the essay you just inspired.

You Opened This Can Of Worms, Now Lie In It

Some important bulletpoints before I get going, just to get all of my followers on the same page:

Disclaimer: I am a transgender nonbinary perisex individual. This means I am not intersexed (to my knowledge), I don't identify with the gender I was assigned at birth, and I don't identify as male or female. The closest thing to describing my gender is literally "no".

I am a strong advocate for making as many characters transgender as possible, regardless of "realism". That's why, in my own writing, half of the Scorpions are retroactively transgender (though they don't understand gender on the whole and most of them would probably be nonbinary if someone took fifteen minutes to explain gender, variable social constructs, and the concept of genitalia tying to gender roles) and also Razar is too on account of I said so.

Being intersexed does not inherently mean being transgender. There is a lot of discussion and individual choice between intersexed people about whether or not they're part of the queer community. It's a very individual thing, and I am not part of those discussions on account of not being intersex myself.

When it comes to humans and other beings with a level of sentience and sapience, the term "hermaphrodite" and its derivates are considered slurs. When talking about animals, hermaphrodite and its derivates are scientific terms. So in something like the Legends of Chima series and other humanoid-animal media, the proper term is "intersexed". (I noticed you used the term "intersex" in your ask, and I appreciate it!)

I know too much about scorpion mating and birth.

We're talking way too much about genitalia and gender tonight in regards to fictional characters.

I am genuinely delighted that you decided to drop in here to discuss this, because boy howdy do I have a lot of thoughts about transgender headcanons/representation and scorpions specifically! Scorpions are just. So damn cool.

Note for my fellow arachnophobes: There are no images attached to this post, but it's really easy to find videos of scorpions doing various things on YouTube, which is actually how I've been studying them.

Scorpion Sex, Mating, and Genitalia

Scorpions of both "genders" have genital opercula (singular: genital operculum), and their asses run up into their tails. In order to mate, they don't just do like horses. No no, buddy, they have a really weird, specific method!

In order to start wooing his potential mate, the male scorpion will lock chelae (pincers) with the female scorpion, and they will start to "dance". The male scorpion will drop a sperm packet onto the ground and lead the female scorpion over it. If the female scorpion is down, she'll basically squat and absorb the sperm packet into her body, which is then followed by a "mating plug" to keep it in while it does the fertilization thing.

(It's important to note that the courting process also contains "juddering", aka the male scorpion doing the dance that the stickbug meme did, and may also contain clerchical "kisses". Honestly, pretty romantic for an arachnid. And possibly tail-rubbing and sexual stinging. Scorpions are very kinky!)

(It's also important to note that some species of scorpions have been reported, though not reliably, to reproduce through parthogenesis.)

Post-coitus cannibalism has not been scientifically seen in scorpions, so the male scorpion is generally safe as long as he scadoodles.

Gestation in some scorpion species can last over a year, and different species can have anywhere from 2 to 100 little scorplings - the physical size of the scorpion is not necessarily tied to how many babies they'll have.

Also, scorpions give live birth!

The baby scorpion is essentially folded like a Fedex package and launched out of the womb. It will then unfold and climb on top of the mother to make way for its next sibling. These will hang onto the mother until their first molt, which happens as a group and launches them into the juvenile stage. After this, they will still stay with their mothers until their carapace finishes hardening and gaining color, at which point they hunt prey on their own and will wander off on their own terms.

Hey, Jasper, That's Pretty Fucked Up, But How Does This Tie Into Chima?

I'm getting there, hold your centaur scorpions!

This is where we get into the worldbuilding of the Legends of Chima series, the Character Encyclopedia, and our poor boy Scutter.

See, the Legends of Chima as a series is very much a product of its time. There is some rife ableism and questionable word choices in regards to the Crawlers (and Sir Fangar, but this isn't about him). According to the Character Encyclopedia, Scutter is "less evolved". There's a looong history of racism in using phrases like "evolution" in regards to other humans, so taking that and applying it to an animal world leaves us with some very strange dissonance, because it's used in Chima to mean animals turned into a more humanoid form by the Chi.

Because really, what is the Chi? It's a magical substance that, depending on how you read it, could be the animist spirit of the land (I say, as an animist myself), or it could be drugs. Or it could be any number of other things! I know one person who writes Chi as the blood of dead gods, which is metal as fuck!

Ultimately, it depends on how one is writing the Chi that makes the usage of phrases like "less evolved" more or less questionable than it was intended. We're all dragging around the corpse of a Lego theme across our writing desks anyway. And the way I go about answering the question of "what is Chi" is definitely different from others. (Again, see the dead god blood part.)

The question of whether or not the Scorpion Tribe, namely Scutter, would count as intersexed relies on 1) defining intersexuality in regards to genitalia arrangement (scorpions don't have penises and vaginas by default; and the Wikipedia article on scorpions just uses "genital orfice" or "genital opercula"); 2) determining if the Chi has magically changed how genitalia works for Scorpions (admittedly, I do this because I didn't want to have to use the term "genital opercula" over and over); 3) determining the humanization extent of the Scorpion Tribe as you write them (I lean more towards human than you do, just from what I've seen of your work); and 4) deciding if such terminology even exists in Chima.

But looking at Scutter and going with the assumption that the back end is fully scorpion... No, I wouldn't count him as intersex by default. Intersex implies landing between the two human biological extremes (which, as we all know, is not as cut-and-dry as high school biology taught us), when really he's kind of a secret third thing (a Scorpion who probably doesn't have either a penis or a vagina).

(Of course, there's also what you said, paraphrased to my own wording: the Chi may have just decided to fuck up this poor man's genital situation and do a half-ass job.)

That's not to say he can't be trans. I mean, I made Scorm and about half of the Scorpion Tribe trans already. That's also not to say they're not all trans by default, considering scorpions without the ability to think wouldn't have the concepts of genders anyway.

Okay Jasper, So How Do You Write Him?

So, here's the thing. I'm aromantic-asexual, and I also write smut and, to a lesser extent, romance, which means I think about fictional character genitalia too much. But thinking about Scutter has left me utterly baffled.

On one hand, I usually write the Chi as a magical animist force of the land of Chima on the whole, and part of that is that the Chi tries to get everyone on the same playing field, physically speaking, which is how we get retroactive transgender man Scorm in my Tales of Chima series.

On the other hand, look at him. Look at him. He's a centaur arachnid. I know he can pass the Harkness Test, but I still feel weird thinking about his genitalia. If I go with my theory of the Chi giving everyone penises and vaginas at random, then I don't want to think about how much that would get in the way for the poor boy! On the other hand, his lower body is still mostly scorpion instead of, well, Scorpion, so who's to say he doesn't have a genital operculum?

Too Long, Don't Want Details About Scorpion Sex

Alright, spoilsport. Here's your TLDR:

It genuinely depends on what the Chi does in your version of the story and how bad it fucks up. It depends on how dedicated you are to scientific accuracy. It depends on how much you want to think about scorpion genitals.

And being intersex is not necessarily trans rep, unless it is, unless it isn't. I'm not intersexed, so I'm not going to say what that falls on myself. There is an intersex pride flag that was created by Morgan Carpenter in 2013.

Trans characters can exist outside of being intersexed, you don't have to conflate the two in order to have transgender representation. Just hit the characters with the Transgenderinator 5000 Beam. Fuck realism, this is a series about walking talking animal people. Who's going to stop you? The fun police? Transphobes? Eat them.

Further Reading

Start at Wikipedia and go from there through its sources for anything of particular interest:

Intersex flag (in case you're curious about it and its history, which can also launch you into further reading about humans being intersex)

Scorpion (morphology section)

Scorpion (mating subsection)

Scorpion (birth and development subsection)

So, uh, yeah! Thanks for coming to me with these questions, it's really touching that you value my thoughts this much, and I love talking about my boys and scorpions and the complicated web! I apologize for any errors or too-crass sections, because I wrote most of this in one sitting after playing wayyy too much Skyrim today.

~Jasper

#answered #olivescales3 #legends of chima #lego legends of chima #lego chima #chima #scutter #loc scutter #scorpions #science #biology #queer #trans #transgender #intersex

[mxmaneater]

How do you see Gortash as queer coded?

Oh, it would be my genuine delight to explain.

Alright, so I have several lines of reasoning, so I’ll start with the low-hanging fruit first.  

Gortash’s obsession with his appearance

Okay, so we all know about Gortash’s eccentricities when it comes to the way he looks.  He wears an ostentatious villain coat, bedecked with golden bits and bobs, matching pants, and a matching shirt (that he wears provocatively low and can’t seem to ever lace properly).  He also clearly styles his hair, which given its length, takes a non-significant amount of time each morning. 

Now.  Am I saying these things on their own make him queer?  No, of course not.  The assumption that gay men take more care with their appearance is a stereotype, though I would argue that there is a subset of people for which this is true.  However, stereotypes also form the context for which we interpret characters and situations, and that social context is very real (even in cases when a stereotype is not), which is why I don’t discount these details either.  

Additionally, when it comes to the Netherstone, Gortash could have easily stuck it in the middle of a suit of armor like Ketheric and called it a day.  But as a politician (and someone who likely doesn’t see a lot of combat), I get that a suit of armor wouldn’t be his first choice.  Nonetheless, the option he goes with (and presumably takes the time and effort to craft and construct himself) is the pair of gauntlets, which are essentially ornate jewelry.  Jewelry that’s functional and dangerous, yes - but also needlessly beautiful.  And he really only needed one of them, but - again - his attention to detail with appearances drove him to build a matching set to become part of his Signature Look. 

Cool.  So let’s move on to:

Gortash’s political career

Alright, so I like to view Faerun as a fairly equitable place in terms of gender distribution in positions of power (at least compared to reality).  From what I can find on forgotten realms sources, it seems like the Council of Four was composed of 2 men and 2 women (at least until Stelmane is murdered); therefore, I think it’s not a stretch to assume that power is pretty evenly divided.  Great - love that for Baldur’s Gate.  Which it was true out here as well.

Even still, that means that 50% of the high-ranking government officials and patriars that Gortash is charming and manipulating as part of his rise to power are men.  As a devout follower of the God of Tyranny, I find it hard to believe that he would just pass up on the opportunity to use sex as a form of manipulation with men, when we have canon evidence that he uses this tactic to gain power with women (hello Lady Jannath).  Why would he - someone who views ascending in power as a holy mission - suddenly be squeamish when it comes to seducing (both literally and metaphorically) the other 50% of his targets?  

Also, like I mentioned earlier, although Faerun may be a veritable gender utopia, the social contexts that influence us in reality don’t suddenly go away when we boot up bg3.  The writers of the game as well as the consumers - us - are very much bound by the social contexts within which we operate, meaning that certain character traits can be queer-coded for us, even if they wouldn’t necessarily look that way to someone who lives in the world of the game (if they suddenly became sentient and engaged in discourse).  

What does that mean?  Okay, so we live in a society that is highly patriarchal and run by men (read: politicians as well as all other highly influential positions of power).  Within these circles, men are forced into “compulsory relationships” with other men (because remember, women don’t hold the clout they desire, and therefore don’t matter) in order to exert and obtain power; relationships such as “male friendship, mentorship, admiring identification, bureaucratic subordination, and heterosexual rivalry” (Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet) characterize these spaces.  Now, as Sedgwick - one of the mainstays of queer literary theory - explains, men enter into these “male homosocial” relationships because they must if they wish to gain power and ascend the ranks; however, the very necessity of these close, male relationships (to the exclusion of, or in superiority to relationships with women) also puts men in the dangerous social position of making it easy to become too close with other men and therefore jeopardizing their access to the very power they sought.  This is the foundation of her argument about forces that keep men in the proverbial “closet.” 

Okay.  So back to Gortash.  Gortash is not driven by fear of stepping over that line - he seems utterly unbothered by professing his connections to whoever he views as influential, regardless of gender (see: default Durge, which I’ll get to later).  He is not scared of stepping beyond this larger, societal “closet” that most men get defensive about in order to protect their relative power.  Sure Faerun is less homophobic than our reality, but again, the coding of these characters doesn’t change drastically based on the in-game setting, because it is ultimately people in our reality who are interpreting and interacting with the game and its characters.  

Also, I make a distinction between Gortash being “queer-coded” and not “gay-coded”; if anything, examples from the game would have me characterize Gortash as bisexual - if he even conceives of sex as an identity factor and not just a means of gaining power over someone, which is a big assumption.  I definitely view him as someone who thinks more along the lines of the latter - and wouldn’t it benefit him, in that case, to be an equal-opportunity manipulator?

This is getting long, so I’ll jump to my final point: 

Gortash’s devotion to the Dark Urge

Whether you read the past relationship between Gortash and the Dark Urge as sexual/romantic or purely a business dealing, the fact remains that Durge is the one character Gortash views as his equal.  And yes, you can customize Durge’s appearance and gender, etc, but the default origin character is male, so a certain amount of “canon”, I believe, can assume at least the possibility of a male Durge.  Gortash - the Chosen of Bane, who loves nothing more than domineering over others - wants to willingly share his Empire with Durge, once he’s conquered the city; that is not a level of devotion that you could expect Gortash to hold for anyone but his “nearest and dearest.”  

And from the letters you can find, it’s apparent that Gortash specifically sought Durge out - tempting him with information about Bhaalist artifacts that had been “stolen” and displayed in a museum in order to form a connection.  This, combined with his desperation to regain Durge as a partner in Act 3 (to the point he’s weirdly forgiving of insult and refusal), offer queer subtext, if not text-text, confirming his particular interest in Durge as a person.  After all, he only “tolerates” Orin, who, despite her own eccentricities, is only trying to accomplish the will of Bhaal, just like Durge presumably was as well.  In fact, most of the characters dismiss Orin as just some “crazy bitch”, which I find hard to believe isn’t rooted, at least partially, in sexism - especially since people forgive Durge very easily for similar crimes.  (I could write my own dissertation about Orin, but I’ll save that for another time).  

In conclusion, there is enough queer-coding between Gortash’s appearance, habits, career, known manipulation tactics, and special relationship with the Dark Urge to at least make the case that he isn’t super straight.  Even without the letter in which he wrote his penpal Franc that he loved him for bringing “wet, slithering malice” into the world.

#enver gortash #queercoded villains #queer theory #bg3 #durgetash

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

The word transsexual is not a slur.

Transgender just does not do justice in explaining our experience anymore. It has become too broad a word. If you’re going to say that you do not need gender dysphoria or to medically transition in order to be transgender, there needs to be a word that describes people like me who need medical intervention in order to survive.

The transsexual experience has much less to do with gender than it does with our own sex characteristics. Gender is kind of a secondary problem, but for us what it’s really about, is our sex, therefore transsexual. Because we experience so much distress over our biological primary and secondary sex characteristics.

That's why this whole narrative of, "gender is a social construct and therefore I can be whatever gender I feel at any moment," is so frustrating for us because gender is really a secondary problem for us where the main problem being our sex, which is why we have the need, the intense need and drive, to transition medically.

Do I feel more comfortable in the female gender role? Yes, absolutely, of course I do. But really, I could take on all those roles as a man. And I wouldn’t be any less of a man.

It is this incongruence between my brain and my heart and my physical body combined with a distress of my biological sex characteristics that drives me to transition. Not because I think, "oh well, I always liked Barbie dolls, or I always like the colour pink." And while those things may be true, it all boils down to our sex characteristics. That is the driving factor and motivation behind us transsexuals' transition.

Not making this video to invalidate anyone. I’m just getting a lot of comments of saying, "ew, gross, why would you say transsexual?" And the reason is because it is a definition that describes my experience and other people's experiences like me, and it is needed and it is underneath the trans umbrella. Okay, that’s it.

==

Reminder: every "LGBT" group has already removed dysphoria from the definition of "trans." It's now entirely about preferences, personality traits, moods, and fetishes: what are your favorite colors, what toys do children like to play with, do you feel more feminine or more masculine today?

People with a significant clinical disorder are left out in the cold as pretenders, narcissists, fetishists, perverts and other activists steal or manipulate the language they use to explain who they are.

I support the plight of transsexuals. I will not participate in the pretend games of "transgender"; you're an average person LARPing as special and screwing things up for those who have real needs.

#Aaron Kimberly #Sarah Hills #transsexual #transgender #gender is a social construct #queer theory #gender identity ideology #gender ideology #religion is a mental illness

[reilleclan-blog]

I know no one is really gonna care when I post this but that's ok,

So "Cyberpunk 2077" is a pretty fun game, it's complex, and focuses a lot on existence, "who are u" and "who do u want to change into" also correct me if I'm wrong, the UNIVERSE OF CYBERPUNK 2077 THE GAME, is based off of our society's reality but "different"

So in this game, gender is what it is a "social construct" ppl dress how they want. Even change their looks from skin to their ankles. There are no boundaries when it comes to expressing one's self. There's no "racism" or "homophobia" b/c the society of 'Cyberpunk 2077' doesn't care for it in their universe.

So those two out ten trillion white supremacy ideals have been cast aside. But what about the pollution, climate change, and poverty, and oh yeah the abusive law enforcement. That's ALL STILL THERE. So why does a game talking about fascism, and breaking down gender and homophobia, still have audiences STILL be homophobic or racist to the people part of the cyberpunk fandom.

Cyberpunk would be called "Woke propaganda" to others. But why is it so hard for ppl to just let others express the way they want/are. I started posting on Reddit and joining different forums regarding Cyberpunk b/c this has been the most fun game I've played in 4 years. I join the forum it's ppl mad at other Cyberpunk enjoyers for being gay or even liking black characters like River and Panam.(there was literally a mod made to make Panam white)

I think this is just the poison of triple A gaming, it's just so frustrating cause no matter where I go I'm never "fully accepted"👏🏾 and the racism and isms on Reddit is so normalized. I guess it's my fault maybe I should take a break from social medias but that won't change the fact that racism is everywhere I go. When I'm online, watching a movie, watching anime it's always there. Even in my own head cause surprise surprise internalized racism is a thing.

My point is, ppl really missed the point of Cyberpunk. Why is it always like that idk. Like a show will make a commentary on our society and ppl will be like "haha edgy, I agree" lol idk. Makes me think of Rick and Morty as well, cause it wasn't fully "incelly"

I guess that also comes down to ppls' able to think for themselves. And be able to see past "propaganda" but i realized years ago that not many ppl can critically think for themselves. But if a game so popularly loved can cast out harmful shit like racism and homophobia, why can't we do that in our "society" so we can focus on the real threat which is "white supremacy"(white supremacy comes in many forms btw, ppl that deny racism is also part of the many forms that white supremacy takes)

-

This has been on my mind cause ppl really be hating black ppl 24/7 so unwarranted. And non black ppl will tell us "racism doesn't exist" while gaslighting us when we can't even wear our own hairstyles at jobs or in our schools. Cause it is deemed "unprofessional"

#cyberpunk 2077 #virtual photography #cyberpunk #cyberpunk 2077 photomode #male v cyberpunk #cd projekt red #cp2077 #gaming commentary

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Thing is about the fungi though… those are mating types (which aren’t even the exact same as sexes but pretty close)…. They aren’t genders like. How obvious is it that fungal sex has nothing to do with human sex, let alone gender, which is a human social construct? Are people really THIS widely delusional? Delusional in the way someone is who claims a “miracle” every time something nice happens, or what? Schizophylum commune having whatever number of mating types doesn’t tell us jack shit about how sex functions in humans… which in turn isn’t even gender, just related to it. So what the fuck is up with tens of thousands of people going on and on acting like it does? It’s like going “AHA grapes are purple and also sometimes green, and both taste good. People are also different colors sometimes. So therefore racism is bad. Checkmate racists.” It’s a loony toons argument, a terrible argument, and it does a disservice to the intelligence of anyone who is asked to nod along and act like it makes any kinda sense. Rotting brains as we speak.

Oh, anon! Where did you get the fungi post? I must’ve reblogged it ages ago… well, nothing wrong about stumbling upon it, of course. 

It’s true that sex and gender aren’t the same thing, and that animals (and plants and fungi and other organisms, of course) have no concept of gender in any form. Animals that change their sex aren’t really transgender, even if it’s fun to say they are, since they have no gender identity to differ from their sex. It’s just a part of their lifecycle, like puberty to us! Totally different. Even then.. I think people pointing out these organisms and their varied selection of mating types and sexes is rather to counter the argument that being trans (and/or queer, and/or a person with an unconventional relationship or family/group dynamic) is unnatural! Yes yes, it’s not a perfect comparison for the sole reason that these animals don’t feel gender identity and what’s natural for them is wholly different from what is natural to humans… but that just shows how silly it is to point at nature and say that it is an unchanging, rigid monolith that humans should follow the rules of, when nature is so diverse and full of exceptions to the so-called rule! You know, undermine the silly “what is natural” thing some awful folks like to pull.

Besides, knowledge of the varied selection of mating types of animals brings people comfort. For one, I’ve seen people in my reblogs say that after learning about seahorse males being the ones that are pregnant, the knowledge brought them gender euphoria! And even if sex and gender aren’t the same thing, sex is still fluid, and seeing that certain animals’ sexes are also fluid is just.. well, nice to learn about. Perhaps it makes one feel less alone, or less like an outcast if they’ve been made to feel like that their whole life — because, well look at that! This animal is like me, in a way! This can go for all kinds of people. I think it’s sweet :]

Anyone can think anything of people likening other organisms’ sexes and mating types to humans and our sex and gender, I do really understand wanting to be true to the nature of… uh, nature! I always want to be as clear as possible when I talk about animals and their biology, so I tend to only refer to fishes’ sexes as just that, sex! I don’t want people to get the wrong idea and anthropomorphise animals too much; a wrasse going from female to male most likely doesn’t think too hard about its body’s change, it just happens. I just wanted to offer a view of why some folks like to liken the two together, you know? I don’t think they mean any harm!

#asks #anon #anonymous #anonymous asks

[the-sparkling-diamond-satine]

Do you know which Buffyverse character definitely exists beyond the gender binary? Glory.

She's a god, so she already exists outside of things like human comprehension and categorization so she definitely doesn't fit inside things we've created like rules and norms or social constructs like gender. She's also incredibly old and has existed for a very long time so she existed before such a thing as gender even existed, since human beings made that as a concept.

According to Giles and Tara, Glory "pre-dates the written word" and is "that which cannot be named". How much more gender binary-defying can you possibly get than being un-nameable and older than words like boy and girl, masculine and feminine, he and she and they??? Like us being the ridiculous mortal humans we are just gave Glory some pronouns because that's what we do but she definitely exists outside of our language and comprehension of gender. Glory just didn't have pronouns or a gender (or if she does we don't know how Glory identifies) so we assigned her one.

The entire thing where she shares a body with Ben I mean how much more trans person feeling trapped into a body that doesn't belong to them could she be??? She got sent to our dimension and crammed into a body she doesn't belong in!!!!!! I am screaming

Glory saying to Dawn, "This body? It's just a rental, Dawnie. Being human… it's like a costume for girls like you and me. Being something else…That's what we are." (5x21 The Weight of the World) Just!!!!! "a costume" and "being something else" like????? Glory is literally something else!!! Also, so is Dawn, but that's for another post haha. (Credit to @summrsbuffy for this one, they came up with it)

So now I headcanon that Glory definitely would ask her minions to coin neopronouns just for her. She'd probably say something about how she's "too fabulous to be referred to by the same words used for something as common as mortals".

You know what else Glory would love? Emojiself pronouns. She'd be using ones like 👠/👠s, ✨/✨s, 💁🏼/💁🏼s, and 🫧/🫧s

Have you ever heard someone try to address a group of people and come to the realization that so much of our language is gendered and watch them cycle through options like "ladies and gentlemen" or "prom king and queen" or "sir or madam" and try to come up with something that won't exclude non-binary people?? Or come up with a non-gendered specific compliment? They usually end up saying the most bizarre things ever!! Well, I have decided that this is exactly what Glory's minions are doing when they compliment her! They are saying the weirdest things ever because they are trying to compliment their god in a non-gendered way!!! They seriously say things like "glittering glistening Glorificus" and "your inconceivableness" who says things like that??? This is now the only explanation I will accept for the utter ridiculousness of their Glory praise.

Okay I am going insane thinking about this!!! I just found a list of all the things the minions call Glory and there's only one definitely gendered term in the entire list!!! Every other time they call Glory something gender neutral and mostly refer to her as some variation of her name or "one" just!! Look at this: "Most beauteous and supremely magnificent one, Most tingly and wonderful Glorificus, Shiny special one, Your elaborate marvellous one, Your terrifically smooth one, Your creamy coolness, Your extremeness, Mistress, Perturbed yet ultimately merciful one, Most silky and effervescent Glorificus, Your most fresh and cleanness, Great one, Your eminence, The magnificent glory, The beautious glory, Magnificently scented Glorificus, Your inconceivableness, Most glamorous yet tasteful one, Your highness, Sacred Glorificus, Oh... Thou, Stunning one, Your unholiness, Glittering glistening Glorificus, Your scrumptiousness, The God, The Glorious One, Your grace, Her magnificent incandescence, Her magnificence, Oh brutastic one, oh sweaty naughty feelings causing one"

This is just so !!!!!!!!!

Glory is non-binary!!! This is my headcanon forever now I don't think my mind could possibly be changed

#btvs #btvs meta #btvs glory #glory #glorificus #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs gender

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Terf: Define a woman.

Yeah, writer, NB here, and generally, I LOVE etymology and being both Korean and Jewish, both cultures have a thing for debating in different tactics. Jews, in particular, have a thing for arguing about words. (well, some of us–it mostly has to do with Torah reading, and meaning, but getting into that is a whole chore.).

How to answer this with queer joy:

Terf: I think words have meaning. Define a woman.

Sure. Woman is a wife man. See, the Etymology is from old English.

So, if you think about it, it's defining this person by their role, in what? Society. WIFE is not a natural construct. It's a social construction and does not refer to genitalia at all. Which means the root of the word is also a social construction.

Terf: I meant female.

Me: Oh... well then, the etymology of female is...

One who can suckle.

Male and female do not have the same etymological root, BTW. And despite what linguists argued on this one long twitter rant, yes, it is quite sexist to define someone by their breasts?

But even so, men do have the organs to *also* suckle babies.

There are historical cases of this in this article.

So technically, men can be female by the original meaning. Because the root of the word feminine and female are the same: dhe(i), to suck.

The attributes of a man in which it's described by his presentation, is attested only to the 1500's, which is long after the fall of the roman empire. The original usage was to gender nouns, which has fallen in English steadily since long before Chaucer.

Emasculate is attributed to the 1600's.

Thus, women can be men. And men can be women. It's very liquid by the original definition and actual biology. And as long as a person can suckle, they can be female.

BTW, Chinese, 女 is a person 人 who sits. Meaning she's in the house all day.

This also is a SOCIAL construct of the word. Do you find houses in NATURE?

(If they haven't fallen asleep by this time. Haha. As an Asian accused of not knowing English well, or whatever racists like to get up to, I LOVE doing this type of thing to them.)

And in fact the start of defining male v. female and woman and man as gender roles coincides with the rise of the patriarchy, and if you notice the dates, English colonialism, as they started to encounter cultures that did presentations of gender different from them. This might not have been the sole two motivating factors, but shouldn't you, "defending women's rights" think seriously on that fact? In order to suppress women, they needed to shift the meaning of those words.

Terf: But I mean people shouldn't use they.

Me:

Etymology:

See, because the original word was hie, which only referred to plural of he, not she. So they switched to a gender neutral word, thai. (Which BTW, is hilarious to me, since Thailand it's the only place to not have their plural gender system ravaged by colonialism. Yes, the sound of the words is different, but if the person is going that far into semantics, they can eat the shift of the masculine and feminine gender root to neuter too.) Anyway, the original is from Indo-European, likely meaning "this" "That" making it not gendered, but was gendered to only mean men along the way, but then was degendered

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/s%C3%B3

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/sa

Singular usage is attested back to William Shakespeare according to Webster's dictionary, singular they was in usage in early Modern English.

William Shakespeare, who, BTW, had men dress up as women which is still a strong part of pantomime today.

Also, for those who look at the Bible: James, the King that enforced this rule for the stage: No women on stage, is said to have been interested romantically and sexually in men and women. Yes, the one that translated the Bible to English, the King James Bible, was attracted to men and women and had sex with both.

This is LONG before Shakespeare.

This means early court cases could recognize gender nonconforming people, thus Shakespeare, who was in the company of queers, and crossdressers was likely to have.

There is even debate about Shakespeare's sexuality as an icon who was attracted to men and women. Plus he wrote about cross dressing in his plays. As You Like it.

So yes, Queer people always existed and it was actually legally recognize way back when in the English language.

If they haven't blocked you by this time... they are likely going to go into how people shouldn't enhance biological sex and change it, and then oh, you have science on your side.

You can go into the history of how testosterone was made and how men used it to enhance their feelings of gender.

You can go into how estrogen was used and applied. And ask them if they think that estrogen is evil when it is in biological males. And if they hate the idea of birth control, "the pill" for women.

You can go over brain science in humans and how a super male is actually gay. Haha. Make their heads explode.

And by this time while you're having queer joy, they are angry and blocking you, but you've won because you have redefine a bit of semantics and science with evidence.

tldr;

Female, one who can suckle, but males can suckle too. Woman, Wife man. Singular They: first attested to Shakespeare, and the birth of Modern English. Shakespeare and King James VI who were also bi. Male and masculine in terms of presentation, rise of the patriarchy and colonization. Gay person? A super masculine man, according to nature. GNC was legally recognized by English law in 1395.

And the terf is going to have to cry and take it.

#the problem with terfs #anti terf #queer joy when facing terfs

[smileymoth]

ok so i gave up figuring out my gender bc i have school and i don't have time for it. However.

its so fucked up to me that i can only ever relate myself to men. like there's so few female characters who i can relate myself to it's always male characters. I don't know if its due to in traditional media being a lack of well written women who aren't 100% traditionally fem, but it feels WEIRD ok!!! the only one i can kind of relate to is Bones from Bones(TV) lol. but thats also bc she's autistic and I'd rather date her instead. And in non traditional media like idk say mcrp, I love all the girls but I don't see myselt in them, it's always some freak whiteboy instead (cough etho cough)

I've felt so guilty for only ever relating to male characters (hence why all my ocs who i relate the most to are men/not women) All the women I see in media/social media, its not a "omg shes like me" moment, its more of a "I want her so bad it makes me look stupid" situation. Which makes sense since I'm a lesbian but uh. Wjere aum I

But like. I'm not a guy? I don't per say want to look like a man. Like my overall gender envy visuals come from, like, embarrassingly, fcking slimecicle, the thomas(? the blond one) guy from Maneskin, fuckin add jozels to the list and most worst of all w**bur s**t bc????. (He does make me me unbelivably angry when i look at him for too long? weird lesbian things ig). But most of them already look like lesbians. WHAT AM I. Weird girlboy freak who looks like the most average woman. But the idea that I look like a woman makes me feel ill . Kind of. If i get my medically humongous tits (still shocked the doctor told me theyre big enough to cause medical issues LOL) reducted it'll be easier to not feel like that much of a womanly woman tho lol .like i dont feel like a woman but i also dont feel like anything else .i dont confirm to the capitalist ideal and the societal idea of a woman, but if gender is a construct then i am a woman? But then me not feeling like a woman has nothing to do with my actual gender and more with societal expectations that i dont want to fill? I feel more like a girl than a woman even though i am an adult woman . Maybe its because i feel like people wont take me seriously bc im a kind of stupid overweight ''woman" . i am also a lesbian and that complicates things even more since have dykes ever been normal abt gender

I got so derailed oh my god . I still dont know why i dont find myself relating to other women. I love spending time with women, theyre wonderful and all, but i just. I dont feel like i fit in with them? I feel like i fit in better with a group of men??? But I also feel more in line with women/femmes???but i dont relate to them????

Like i feel guilty for this but i

??? What the fucj

my ideal gender is loser girlboyfriend who loves her girlfriend and also gets tossed around by her to a acceptable degree. Like i see couples and i just Yearn to be the boyfriend of a girl. I DONT KNoW

I still only like she her pronouns tho lol. And im not particularly butch . Im more femme/futch presenting than anything. I want to be an emo boy): my gender is emo dyke boyfriend JAJWSJWK

#moth post

[dragon-business]

Kiryu and queer customs + Nishida’s touch

Oh, Kiryu learning about queer culture. Code phrases, secret language like in spy movies are all cool of course. But also have the context of the invisible wall, and hiding in plane site, and loneliness and fear. Kiryu knows a thing or two about all this already.

But there’s also the camp, the bars, and safe-spaces, and the relief of having someplace you can just relax and be. And also there’s anger of outlining yourself on purpose, just by not conforming to expectations.

Kink is welcomed at pride and in Majima Constuction ✊ Not cops, tho. Unless they are officer Majima 👉👉

(Nishida struggles 101: is it appropriate to cite your boss's fashion as an example of camp for Kiryu?) (Majima is high camp, expensive af, bright, leather, shoes too cool for this world)

– Kiryu, looking at straight porn: *cringe, disgust, looking away* Kiryu, watching naked men engage in the passionate manly bathhouse battle: *smiling, leaning in, tilting the head*

I feels like after discovering queer scene Kiryu’s tolerance for heterosexual stuff dropped. Can’t even sit through porn with a straight face 👉👉👉

Like, why even care, when martial arts movies exist. No more obligatory blank face sit through girl on balloon action :’D

Discovering he doesn’t have to do it (or enjoy it) was probably a relief, too. Unspoken rules of this world are weird and complex, but sometimes it works out.

(Remember how Kiryu immediately ranted to Rina about how boring the typical routine talks with cabare girls are? How tiresome it is to keep playing this game?) (And after that Kiryu told Goromi, that he doesn’t need to pretend with her, and it’s very freeing)

– In Kiryu’s brain, complimenting Goromi is how it’s Supposed to Be, you say nice things to ladies. But he’s still trying to understand what the rules are around mlm stuff. Gotta approach it right.

After many struggles and frustrations, Kiryu might ask Nishida for advice. His help is very needed. Someone gotta tell Kiryu that giving compliments is alright, and gender should not stop him.

Kiryu “gender is not important” Kazuma should get a moment of enlightenment there. Since childhood he has learned to compliment only the ladies. He made Nishiki and some other boys really uncomfortable a couple of times when growing up, and got told that boys don’t really say nice things to each other like that (it makes them feel vulnerable and defensive).

But still… Even if he and Nishiki would always talk all brotherly, and “hi, assface” eachother, Kiryu will always tell other people that Nishiki has the best taste in everything, great hair, and amazing karaoke voice. Because all of this is not compliments… it’s objective reality.

Kiryu himself doesn't really react when hostesses give him fake compliments, but gets super lost when approached on the street, or when girls poke at some unexpected topic. Like when Rina said he would be popular among men. 

Kiryu is an orphan with social issues, he would’ve loved to hear something nice, even if he doesn’t think he does. But he did tell Rina that he would like to be wooed and praised for once, not the one doing it.

Meanwhile, Majima suddenly got self-conscious about sending Kiryu a gift after Kiwami. Even if he did so much to surprise Kiryu, to train him, to get him to smile as well (it was an unexpected bonus at first, wasn’t really planned, but after the first one Majima started to chase those smiles like the fights)

Majima, holding a cue as a weapon: I came to challenge you! Translation: Kiryu seems to like spending time playing games. Also he smiles more when he is relaxed. Not gonna say anything about the fights then, we’re just gonna play some pool. We’re being chill. This can also be a lesson, right? Probably.

Meanwhile, a year later Kiry is watching construction boys flirt at the bars, and some mlm couples being all gooey: ……??? >C *is a bit sad now* 

He missed so much, apparently. A whole world of things. And Majima is in his denial arc now. Hitting on those “unwanted” feelings hard.

Is there some segway to be so at ease with yourself, to be openly affectionate? Is there a milestone he needs to pass? Kiryu can’t discern it >c It seems to just happen for everyone, and it’s upsetting.

And here Nishida’s help will be needed. Coming to Kiryu smoking outside the bar with a big sad frown on his face.

– If Kiryu voices his frustrations, Nishida can explain that yes, society places a lot of weird expectations on people that couldn't possibly fit everyone. And everyone has to follow them even if it's uncomfortable and even if it hurts, just to be accepted, not shut off.

Sometimes to be true to yourself in this world means being alone, and shunned. So it's alright if not everyone can go for it, this is a heavy life to handle. But that's also why people who don't fit in the "rule and form", they need to stick together. Even delinquents form gangs. And queer people have their communities, and tight friend groups. And they make the world where the things that are taboo or different are safe to exist. That's our lot in life – sometimes, to be ourselves (to do just that!), we have to decide to do it. Have to make the world where we can do it, bit by bit. It can be a bar, or a street, or a family, or just another person you are willing to trust.

Because people aren't made for being alone, Nishida thinks. And they can't live with all of themselves locked away forever.

It's a scary path to take, but it's beautiful, too. Seeing the world from a new angle, seeing the new ways you can live and love, seeing beauty where others don't – it makes the world more beautiful, doesn't it?

So yeah, men can compliment other men, just because they want to. It's as simple as that, and also is not – not for everyone. Some rando in the street can still punch you. But also someone out there probably wants to hear these words, because he's also backed up into a corner by what he's supposed to be in this world.

So you can make a new one, safe and accepting world between each other, Nishida says. That's beautiful too.

Nishida's touch needs to be applied to and absorbed by the best of us. Kiryu was telling Rina to be herself, but it came to be a little bit harder to do in practice. Kiryu for sure will come to admire her bravery. Sure, it's more acceptable for women to be affectionate with each other than it is for men. Raises less eyebrows off the bat. But still, she just goes for it. And it's inspiring, in a way.

– before / navigation / next

#yakuza #kazumaji #kiryu kazuma #goro majima #nishida #majima construction #this is canon now #*holds up Nishida* #praise the best boi

[silverliing]

why is genderbending bad? /gen

This is kind of a loaded question and I will answer it to the best of my abilities and through my own understanding of genderbending and gender identity politics but if you don’t want to read all that i’ll just leave you with the short answer: It’s complicated. I don’t think “genderbending” is inherently a bad thing (i do it) what i do take an issue with is the actual name of this trend as well as some of the rhetoric and ideas about gender that run rampant along it that have largely been ignored or gone unchallenged.

I also do not think that the bulk of this work has been made with malicious intent, rather just out of ignorance in a cissexist society. so yeah, complicated. I would also like to point out that I am gender non-binary and identify as trans, so these are just my personal thoughts regarding this type of content in fandom spaces and the ways I think it (more often than i’d prefer) plays into the erasure of trans and intersex identities from the conversation and can perpetuate cissexist ideas of gender and gender identity.

Anyways, long answer is long so more after the cut -> -> ->

For starters I think the most egregious thing to me about this whole genderbend thing is the name. now, i absolutely hate the name because genderbending is never just about changing a characters gender is it? what we generally understand as genderbending in fandom is typically the changing or switching of a character’s sex from male to female or from female to male and assigning to them the gender that “matches” their sex. And if this is exactly what you’re trying to do then that’s fine! i don’t want to be the arbitrator of what people can or can’t do in fandom spaces so… just maybe call it what it is? maybe also understand how this trend feeds into the rhetoric that gender is a binary and how it conflates sex and gender as if they were interchangeable or one and the same as well as perpetuating some outdated and ill informed views on sex, gender and sexuality too!(since typically when a character gets genderbent their sexuality changes as well)

There’s a lot of discourse on this very topic and much of it might probably disagree with me on these points so i encourage everyone to seek alternative opinions on the matter, but from my own understanding of gender, gender identity and gender expression, i find that the idea of “genderbending” —in the ways it has been traditionally done by fandoms— can have some cissexist implications:

It implies that there are only two genders which are opposite from each other, and that those are (generally cis) “male” or (generally cis) “female”.

Gender is not a binary and gender is a social construct. this is something that psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, biologists, gender theorists and medical professionals have all agreed upon for decades. The thing that happens in genderbending where a character can only jump from fully mature phenotypical male “man” to a fully mature phenotypical female “woman” (or vice versa) without any wiggle room in between is ill-informed at best. And then there are people who will say “oh well that’s not true because i saw a non-binary intersex genderbend once!” and all i have to say to this is… okay. Yes this kind of NB “genderbend” does exist but it’s is not the norm. For the most part when looking up the genderbend tag will generally bring up a lot of stereotypically female petra parkers and harriet potters, and this is just the truth.

It implies that physical traits and gender are related.

Usually this type of work will have things like a tall, flat chested, muscly “masculine” character switch genders to become short, curvy, large breasted, “feminine” one (usually without any regard to how that character’s personality and lifestyle affect their physical attributes) typically the act of genderbending will come along with changes to a characters genitalia, gender markers, and phenotype, not just their gender. I trust you understand how this idea is inherently cissexist and reinforces the thought that things like the set of genitals you were born with ought to dictate the gender you identify as. This also gets into the territory of intersex erasure. Since our society has yet to come to a consensus of how intersex individuals ought to look like (and how could they!) it is less likely that you will find a genderbend that envisions a character as intersex given that genderbending isn’t just about changing someone’s gender but also making them look the part. Which is a whole other can of worms because what does a woman or a man look like? what does an intersex or a non-binary or an agender person look like? these nuances often get pushed to the side in genderbending. And if you have found genderbent art or fanfic that subverts all of these trends that’s awesome! But again, it’s still not the norm.

I know this one sounds bad, but there are some arguments against it that are very valid to me; namely that although not every trans person’s goal is to appear cis-passing, there are some trans folk whose goal is to look as cis as possible and their visions and fantasies of what their ideal gender presentation ought be reflected in this type of art is imo quite valid.

It implies that someone “changing genders” can be reduced to a thought experiment.

Maybe this isn’t the best wording but it’s when you see genderbend being done as a way to explore how a character would be different if they had just been born in a different body. This one doesn’t sound too bad, it’s just a little thought experiment right? and in a way it is but i still want to bring it up because again, it assumes that being born with a specific set of physical attributes will dictate a persons gender. This also could imply that anyone who identifies with a gender that is different to the one they were assigned at birth does not have an equally as meaningful relation to their own gender as someone who was born with the “right” set of genitals. It is also kind of funny to me that some of these genderbenders who just want to do a thought experiment with their blorbo would want to see said blorbo navigating the “opposite” gender from a cis perspective. Now i don’t have any sources to back me up on this but i’m just going to assume that between a trans person and a cis person, the individual who is most likely to be aware of gender identity politics is probably not going to be the cis person. just make the character trans just make them trans

Why I do it

Literally i had not thought about this topic in over a decade, and i had no genuine interest in seeing characters under this type of lens since i was like 12. However, the idea for lesbyler was born as a response to the critiques toward byler fans that said the ship would not be so popular if they had been two girls instead of two boys. I guess you could say it started as a joke or out of spite but in my personal case (which i know is true for many others in the fandom) it became a way to project my own sapphic youth into a ship that is so special to me. Of course i would love them more if those characters had been written as girls! Byler has such a soft spot in my heart because it’s the story of my first love —its the story of a lot of peoples first love— and so in that vein i thought it was permissible to make it all the more mine. I did not entertain the thought of “making” them girls because girls are the opposite of boys and i thought that was cool, or because i wanted to see lesbian rep instead of gay rep, i entertained the thought of two lesbian best friends navigating first love because it’s the story i would have liked to see in a show like stranger things.

Furthermore, i also do not see my lesbyler characters as inherently cis, I still see them as an offshoot or extension of the original characters, so in my head they’re just inherently trans. Of course that is just me and there is nothing wrong if you prefer to see them as cis as long as you understand the aforementioned discussions of gender at play.

Am I also perpetuating the harmful rhetoric by indulging in this type of trend regardless of my intent? Maybe. It’s so hard to put yourself on blast but I will for a second here. I think the vast majority of this type of content is ill-informed, but i don’t think the bulk of it was made with the intent of harming minorities, so i don’t think making it is inherently bad. I think what can be harmful is to have these ideas go unchallenged in this specific trend where they would have been more widely addressed if it were on any other more publicly available platform, and i think that talking about it and bringing this topic up when i make this type of work is a good opportunity to make others aware how cissexism can be perpetuated even in the ways we interact with fandom.

I don’t believe i am spreading hate or harm when i make this type of work, but maybe i’ll cringe at this and change my opinions for the better in the future who knows. All i’m saying is that i think the best way to approach this trend is through information and awareness and on that regard i do consider myself more well-read on this topic than your average joe 🤷🏻

There’s many people that will disagree with me who will say genderbending is more harmful than i claim it to be or that it is not wrong at all, so i would just like to reiterate that this is all based on my experience, understanding, and knowledge on the topic of both genderbending and gender identity politics.

One more time I don’t think imagining a character as a different gender is inherently bad but i do think that a lot of the ideas perpetuated by fandom genderbending are some of the same rhetoric and propaganda that has been used to erase and harm trans and intersex individuals.

Last thing and i am saying all of this in good faith, if you ever looked at my lesbyler (or any genderbent art really) art and thought “those characters are cis girls”, or that they had to have been “born” girls because the opposite of boy is girl, i would like you to consider and challenge why you had those thoughts. Maybe even question why little compulsory cissexist thoughts like those are part of our every day lives. I also just want to say that if you want to make genderbend art or fic go for it, but I do strongly urge you to first consider understanding and acknowledging the arguments i’ve made here. Just know what you’re getting into and know that there is more than meets the eye with this topic. aaaand just remember that these arguments feel hidden and compulsory for a reason, cissexism is everywhere, even in fandom spaces.

Also there’s a chance you’ll probably go your entire fandom career without ruffling anyones feathers about it but i would just advise to be careful, be respectful and know when to apologize and move on. And most importantly don’t forget that trans, non-binary, intersex, agender, gender fluid, etc. identities exist so there’s a lot more options and experiences for you to think about if you do decide to play with the gender and identity of a character.

#sorry for tagging this as byler but i feel like this is relevant to the lesbyler uptick #let me know what other tags i should add pls #byler #lesbyler #millow #genderbend #gender #gender discussion

[themonsterthing]

I wear my dead lover’s clothes.

That was phrased dramatically, so I apologize for the gravitas, but if there’s one privilege I get by being queer, it’s the ability to be extra about everything.

My boyfriend did a recent trans closet purge, and I stole many of the clothes that no longer suited his new life. There, better?

I myself am gloriously, absurdly non-binary. I recently found the term transneutral and I was like, oh, it meeee. But also not? I’ve never been anything but androgynous, which I’ve somehow managed with tits and ass for daaaays. So there was never a period of transition in my life. I am me and always have been. Being born disabled, I had to be.

This is not the first time I have absorbed the clothing of the binary trans around me. Their ghosts gets buried, and the remains are given away.

My gender is mutable. Expansive. Inclusive. Exclusive. I am a boy in the way a girl is when she wears eyeliner for the first time. Proud. Fierce. Owning her body. I am a girl in the way a boy is when he celebrates a victory with his teammates. Community. Love.

As a disabled human, my body is often not safe for me. There are monsters around every corner. It is hard to feel at home in a body that others are scared of, that does not - will not - ever make sense. I can “pass” - until I talk, these days. But I know what it is to drool blood in public, to have “well-intentioned” adults try to put me in disabled courses, “because if would be better for me.” Lock the freak away so we don’t look at them, you mean.

Jokes on you, I’m fabulous and bright and shiny and gay and smart. Try to hide me, I glow brighter.

Being born disabled means that I realized early on that identity is a construct. If I am not what other people say I am, only I can define who and what I am. And without social parameters - without predefined boxes - why would I choose too exist in a box at all? I had to create myself entirely. And myself is a beautiful exploding cosmos of wonder and horror and laughter and joy.

And that means I look fucking great in a dress or in slacks, in fishnet, in crop tops. Because identity does not define me. I define my identity. Who you see is who I want you to see.

I wear my dead lover’s clothes. And I look so good in them.

#thoughts and such #personal #blog #trans #disabled #identity

[lttleghost]

thank you for everything you do for transfem jesse it means so much to me

it's all my pleasure really!! I love talking about transfem Jesse, there's so much to it as an analysis, and it's nice to have his transness being an active part of his character arc and Breaking Bad’s dealings with gender in general, and it's so like... happy for him as well cause god the idea of "manhood" has been a significant factor in the trauma he's experienced and the times we've seen him at his happiest is with women

here's some additional thoughts/headcanons I haven't posted about I don't think, all MOSTLY specfic to my particular personal headcanon for Jesse but I wanna share:

I think Jesse already having a look thats pretty similar to some other butch lesbians would be a pretty big confidence boost, I think he'd have some insecurity about being no-med no-op along with using he/him pronouns a lot of the time, and especially since the whole "gender is a social construct" thing is new to him he'd have that sort concern on wether or not he's "allowed" to be trans, so knowing about the existence of or even meeting other gnc feminine identifying people would be really helpful, especially other gnc transfem people. I ALSO think knowing that there are even cis women or at least afab fem-aligned people that go on testosterone could also really help solidify that it's okay for him to be trans without medically transitioning, because if there are women who are willing to invest in medical transition to be more like him then he has even more confirmation that it's fine to stay the way he is

oh and then speaking of being butch I do think Jesse still prefers mostly feminine terms which I just mention since at least some butches will use things like "boyfriend" for themselves but I think Jesse would still use "girlfriend" and pretty much all feminine terms, the only masculine term I think he still likes is "gentleman"... I have no explanation as to why I think he's still okay w/ that one that I know how to articulate

I think for at least a pretty long while very feminine clothes like dresses and skirts are something he doesn't typically go out in public wearing, but he does often wear them at home around whoever is lucky enough to end up as his partner (I totally don't picture myself in that role what are you talking about hahahaaaaaaaa)

I believe his lovely long eyelashes give him a lot of gender euphoria, and that mascara becomes the makeup that he most consistently wears since it makes them more visible from different angles

LIKE SERIOUSLY THOUGH LOOK AT THOSE LASHES

I'm really honestly sad this analysis isn't super popular. while people do have a right to project and have Jesse as their own gender goals, for those who aren't projecting the fandoms preference for transmasc Jesse relying much more on looks without delving much deeper into her character and how BrBa deals w/ gender and considering other ways of her being trans is... frustrating. AND MUCH WORSE is things like when those same people who often claim Jesse is "obviously transmasc" b/c of how she looks also do observe her connections w/ women and reason that it's specfically evidence Jesse is afab and transmasc which... yay! (hopefully mostly accidental) bioessentialism! and even ppl who project should still be aware of the unpleasant connotations of interpreting Jesse's connection to women as ONLY evidence that she's transmasc

I don't think most people are being malicious, and I definitely don't think the transmasc Jesse headcanon should dissappear, but there is something to discuss about the difference in attention and treatment transfem vs transmasc Jesse gets (espec b/c if we're being truly honest egg Jesse is really the only trans interpretation of Jesse that could actually be canon, tho that does still technically cover A LOT of possible specfic identities, it just does exclude transmasc)

#asks #breaking bad #this is my girlfriend don't touch him #i could also do without people seeing me use she/her pronouns or feminine terms for Jesse and being like #'don't misgender him' #cause like transfem Jesse being so invisible that some ppl dont notice when its being specfically suggested #and using she/her or feminine terms is assumed to be a joke #not great! #also b/c there ARE some ppl who seem to be specfically against transfem Jesse b/c... #in there eyes being transfem is lesser than being transmasc? or transfem ppl are out to get us? #like theres even ppl who are fine with Jesse being a woman on t but apparently a no-med no-op transfem person #is bad in their eyes #again i dont think most people are like that but i think the fandom could and should do more for transfem Jesse

[precursorgod]

Robin Batson (no relation to Batman and Robin)

“If one more person goes ‘Hey, you should change your name’ I’m gonna mcfuckin’ lose it. Gonna become a Rogue. Gonna become No-U-Change-Your-Name-man. That’s my— that’s my Roguesona. No-U-Change-Your-Name-man. Makes people change their names at gunpoint. Nyehehe, you’ll never catch me alive, Batman! And my first victim will be the other Robin. I was here first, motherfucker! I’m not going through all the trouble of a legal name change just because ten, fifteen years ago some teenage fuckwit went ‘Oh, you know what would be a great idea? Making a common given name my superhero codename’!”

Bruce Wayne blinks down at me, nonplussed, as one does when some rando plops down in the seat next to them at a funeral wake and starts ranting about becoming a Rogue.

“I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure, Mis…?”

He trails off, uncertain of what title to use. Gender is a social construct.

I flip my ponytail over my shoulder and stick my hand out. I smile.

“Hi, I’m Robin Batson. No relation to the vigilantes Batman and Robin. Yes relation to the corpse in the coffin and also your newly discovered biokid. Uh, relation to your newly discovered biokid; you and I, share nothing but space. And words too now, I guess.”

Recognition dawns on his face. Bruce breaks into a big himbo smile as he grasps my hand and shakes it enthusiastically.

“Ah, Dotty’s oldest! I was wondering when I’d get to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you!”

Dear gods, this man really does give off overgrown puppy energy. Enthusiastic husky vibes. If I didn’t know what I did, I’d also think someone insane if they tried to tell me Bruce Wayne was Batman.

“All bad things, I hope. I’ve heard lots about you too, Brucie.”

I’ve surprised him with my overfamiliarity. Teenagers don’t typically call people twice their age by a diminutive right off the bat. Heh, bat.

“Of course not! Dotty had nothing but good things to say about you. I’m sorry you couldn’t be there for her final moments.”

Ooh, is that passive-aggressiveness I hear? Why weren’t you there for her final moments?

Dorothy “Dotty” Batson, née Chang. Married to and widowed by Benjamin Batson, older brother of C.C. Batson, father of Billy Batson aka Captain Marvel. She would have taken my cousin in after he was orphaned, but as a single mother with two kids and related only through marriage, CPS wouldn’t let her. Two months ago, she was told she only had two months to live. One week ago, she died.

“Ah, well,” I shrug. “That’s life. Never where you need to be when you need to be. You know how it is.”

He does know how it is. I can almost see the flashback to Jason’s death playing in the man’s head.

“Robbie.”

It’s my younger sister. Half-sister. Finnley Batson. Black hair, hazel eyes, eleven years old. Like me, a halfie. Our asian mother had a thing for white guys. Her eyes are red-rimmed and her nails are ragged. She’s followed by twenty-something Dick Grayson and thirteen-year-old Damian Wayne. Two months ago, I received a message from Dotty informing me she’d told my sister about her biodad. I’d known from the start. It’s not every day someone you know has a breakdown about having been accidentally knocked up by a billionaire during an earlier breakdown. Check your condoms, people.

“Finny.”

I take off my sunglasses and hook them in my collar. With black hair and blue eyes, I probably look more like the stereotypical Wayne child than she does. The only red rimming my eyes is from the scarlet eyeliner I applied earlier.

I haven’t cried since I was a baby. All my tears were used up mourning my first life, probably.

“Sorry I’m late.”

Finny explodes.

“Where were you?! I sent that email asking you to come back two months ago! Mum held on as long as she could! She wanted to see you one last time! She wanted you to come back! She believed you’d come back in time. But you didn’t! You never do!” She sniffs and wipes her eyes roughly. “Did you care about her at all?”

I avert my eyes. I was fond of Dotty, but I never could let her be my mother the way she was Finny’s mother.

“Oh my god. You don’t.”

Finny’s crying again. Her hands are clenched and her face is flushed.

“You don’t care about her, you don’t care about me, you don’t care about anyone but yourself! I hate you! I hate you I hate you I hate you! I never want to see you again!”

What am I supposed to say to that?

“Yeah, that’s fair.”

Not that, apparently.

Finny screams and storms off. Damian throws me a glare and runs after her. Dick lingers. I put my sunglasses back on.

“Dick Grayson.” I nod at him.

“Robin Batson.” He nods back. There’s a strange look on his face when he says my name. Dick glances towards where Damian is comforting(?) Finny. He’s rubbing her back while leading her to a quieter place and sending me nasty looks. If looks could kill… Are double funerals a thing?

“She doesn’t mean that,” Dick tells me. I shake away the image of a double decker coffin and tune back in. “She doesn’t hate you. She’s just grieving. Give her a little time.”

I blink at him. I tilt my head.

“Whoa dude,” I say. “Ever heard of Eldest Daughter Syndrome?”

“I do not have Eldest Daughter Syndrome.” The denial is so quick in coming that there’s no way he’s not been told that before, many, many times.

“Do.”

Cassandra Wayne pipes up from the left, scaring the shit out of me. I clutch at my chest.

“Dear gods, where did you come from?” I wheeze.

“Sorry.”

She’s not sorry.

“I do not have Eldest Daughter Syndrome,” Dick repeats.

“You kinda do, Dick,” Tim Drake(-Wayne?) says, from the right. Him (my favourite boy!!!), I saw coming.

This is more canon characters than I am willing to deal with in my immediate vicinity. I stand up abruptly.

“Good chat,” I announce. “Thanks for looking after my sister, please continue to do so in the future, I don’t live in Gotham—or anywhere, really—but I’ll drop by once in a while to see Finny so make sure your security doesn’t shoot me on sight or whatever. See ya.”

I turn and walk straight into my social worker. Yelena Orlova glowers down at me.

“Robin Batson.”

Aw, fuck.

“Oh my god, what is that thing?!” I shriek, pointing over her shoulder. She doesn’t fall for it (again) but it does distract her momentarily. I bolt.

“Stop! Don’t let him—”

“Her!” I yell, dodging a guest.

“—her—”

“‘Him’ now.” I duck under someone’s arm.

“—him—”

“Whoops, ‘her’ again.” A security guard tries to straight up tackle me. I leapfrog over him.

“Robin!” Yelena finally settles on. “Don’t let Robin escape!”

That’s not an uncommon thing to hear yelled in Gotham. But in broad daylight, at a funeral wake, by a short blonde in a pencil skirt and heels?

I cackle. “Suck my dick, CPS!”

The wake is being held on the sixth storey of a hotel. I pass Finny and Damian in an alcove and backtrack while rummaging through my pockets.

“Hereasouvenirpleasedon’tbemadatmeokayBYE!”

I return to running after tossing a package crudely wrapped in newspaper at my sister. I hope she likes it. She yelps and fumbles it, but it’s safely caught by Damian.

I’m nearly at the stairs when suddenly:

Cassandra Wayne.

Where the fuck did she come from?

I scream as I grab a nearby doorway and launch myself back in the direction I came from. I zoom past Finny and Damian again.

Is that Jason fucking Todd?

The man nearly fills the corridor. His feet are firmly planted on the ground and his arms are loose at his sides. Around, under, over, through; whatever I pick, I’ll be caught. With the Red Hood in front of me and Black Bat behind me, there’s only one option left.

I jerk left, run up the wall one, two steps, and launch myself back first through the window on the right. Through the shattered glass falling with me, I see Cassandra, Damian, and Jason reaching for me, eyes wide and panicked. Finny, standing further back, just looks exasperated.

I twist in the air. I land, roll, and pop right back up, hands in the air like a gymnast.

Being invulnerable is great!

I spin and bow to my adoring (horrified) audience with a flourish.

The window I jumped through is near the windows of the room the wake’s being held in. Dick is half out the window, only held back by the hand Bruce has clamped onto his shoulder, and looking incredibly pale. Oops. Didn’t mean to trigger him.

They’re not the only ones looking at me. People in the hotel, people in the street, people in the nearby buildings; a lot more people than I thought witnessed my little self-defenestration.

More importantly, Yelena is also watching me.

“You’ll never catch me alive, CPS!” I say, flipping the double bird.

She mouths something that looks a lot like ‘We’ll catch you dead, then’. I’d like to see her try.

I shake the glass debris off my clothes, give my audience a two fingered salute goodbye, and run off in a random direction.

#back on my sioc bullshit #my writing #sioc #batman sioc #batman #dc

[miaulogy]

Hello Michi!! Feel free to answer this or not, but what is it like for you to be an autistic person? I'm making/drawing/writing an autistic character and I'm gathering as much info as i can to not cross any bounderies/not be problematic/not be stereotypical. Thank you :)

thanks for asking! i'm really happy you're doing research :3 /gen

so, my experience isn't the same as every autistic person's of course, so if any autistic person doesn't relate that doesn't mean they're faking! we're all different ^^ /gen

i think that as a child, i would get angry REALLY easily, i couldn't control my anger well at all and my mom would just lock me up in my room to not have to deal with me

so, my first reaction would be to break stuff like my books and throw things like pillows across the room

but i've learned to control my anger a lot better now! sometimes i just take a bath and cry a little and i feel a whole lot better :]

i also feel like i can't really understand when people are being serious and when they're joking, my grandma sometimes makes jokes when talking to me and i don't really get if they're jokes or if she actually means it, yk?

i also play a lot with my fingers and can't seem to focus on one thing at a time; when a teacher is talking, i can't just look at them and take all the information, i always have to look at them while doing something else with my hands

so, to do that i focus on the main thing i have to do: listening to my teacher, but if i try to only focus on them i will eventually have thoughts that will distract me from listening because i always do two things at the same time (in this case, listening and thinking), so i play with my hands to replace the thinking part with something less distracting that allows me to listen

does that make sense? lolol ^^"

anyways, when i get interested in something i can't stop thinking of it, a new show comes into my life and i relate everything i do and see to it, seemingly being unable to get it out of my head

that's actually great for creating content, it's really easy for me to make drawings and headcanons when hyperfixated on that thing, but it's very common for me to have trouble sleeping because my mind can't shut up about my fave characters, i usually lay on my bed completely tired and about to sleep but then all the thoughts about my hyperfixation come all at once and i'm completely exhausted physically but mentally i can't stop thinking!! it has taken me hours just to fall asleep, or even close my eyes :(

and oh god!! the sensory issues!!! /neg

i remember being a 7 year old lil guy and scratching the (cement) wall of my room, oh god that made me want to pull my nails off!! i hate the texture of cement walls, i can't pass my fingers through them without biting my tongue and stuff, it's just such a terrible texture! it feels so dry!!

i also remember having trouble with putting on my uniform, i had (and still have) to use a white sweater that had a texture so bad that it would make me cry whenever my mom tried to put it on me! it's a dry texture similar to cement wall's, since i had to pass it through my head to put it on it would asphyxiate me! i simply couldn't stand wearing it, i usually go to school with a random black sweater and with my school's jacket over it (we have a sweater and a jacket with the logo and we can choose which to wear)

on the gender part, i think autism has really affected my way of interpreting it

like, gender is a social construct, and i get why people identify as women or men or non-binary or something else entirely, or maybe in between some of these, but it's hard to get it for myself, especially as a plural

you see, everyone describes knowing their gender in a very complex way, but i just see the words "boy", "enby", and "xenic" and they make me happy, and that's just it, yk?

but if someone asked me what a boy is, what an enby is, or what a xenic is and why i identify as such, i couldn't answer, because i just really don't know JDJSJKS

hmm, i think that would be pretty much it, i really can't separate myself from any of my disorders, they're simply part of who i am ^_^

thanks for reading, have a nice day! /gen

#miau-asks #yipeeee #/ref #grapejuicesby-vamps

[ghostlytidalwavephantom]

Gender both is and ultimately is not a social construct. Any argument which relies on it being one thing or another won't improve the situation for anyone since it isn't actually addressing a real issue. The term science uses is "sexually dimorphic" for what is very much a thing, except this ends up getting called sex, since it's the right word. We can try to say one comes from the other, and it really kinda does. A comprehensive look at nature will reveal sexual dimorphism comes in many different flavors and varieties, with males of a given species sometimes needing larger frames to support muscles, and females of a given species often needing larger frames to support muscles. Doesn't really matter why any given species has a larger gender, it's not even or one-sided, just how things go when you have dimorphism. Sometimes you don't, and with large enough samples, yeah there are species which aren't even hermaphroditic and still swap sex to fill out their population when the environment requires it.

Okay, yeah, admittedly when people are discussing gender they obviously mean for homo sapiens. The real question is whether we consider humans sexually dimorphic and... Oh! It goes back to nature! We have to look at everything else we call dimorphic and compare whether genitals are part of the comparison, and of course the evolved sense of beauty we have means we're going to look more studiously at our own species than anything else, getting upset when others don't want to discuss it and trying to explain why a scientific perspective matters. For any given trait you want to call dimorphic, there are easily three animals we can cite right away who we don't call dimorphic, and it doesn't matter since you're already trying to make gender seem like one thing, when it is actually millions. Sure, we're dimorphic or we aren't, how is this relevant?

When we're discussing animals, we don't question if we're debating something physical—they very much are actual physical creatures. It doesn't make a difference which word we assign to it, we see dimorphism and we're gonna call it something. Why is it the question, and why isn't it relevant? Put simply, it isn't relevant since you don't care. You're going to call anything gender-related "sex" when it's convenient, and you'll call it "gender" when the situation suits you. All words—all meaning in fact—is a social construct. The difference is sex really does correspond to an actual thing, which means... Gender does too. "Suits you," "in fact," "which means..."

"Wait! You can't just make a science post! You're supposed to discuss Nature, with elementals, metaphysical stuff too..." Let me just pick one of the popular tags, and..... send p–

Alright well yes I could (theoretically) end a post just trailing off on a topic, it just doesn't feel satisfying here. "What are you not saying?" "What are you not saying [and why does it validate my opinion]?" "(wait you need to say the quiet p–) (shut up I know to say the quiet part out loud)" "What are you not saying, and why does it validate my opinion?" I'm trying to write a neutral fucking post, taking a specific side or even putting my own stance forward is contrary to the whole exercise. I'm not "saying" anything; there's stuff in nature, people are arguing, further chaos.

Fuck you is gender a real thing, you're reading this at a point in time having occurred after a century of advertising beauty products to millions of people. I want to take a whole paragraph to explain how toys are actually the main source of explicit gender pandering and the role of adolescence in shaping our perspectives, except it wouldn't mean anything since you feel a weirdly specific need to "dress appropriately." Costumes. High trust society? How about every time a homeless person dies in the cold everyone who said "we're all in this together" takes their own bullet? Well, we aren't dressing differently just for sex... ARE WE? (Rape culture accusations) Who can say? Who can even fucking say? Who can speak about the meaning of costumes in society, and actually get people listening? "People really don't care how..." "Dress for success" Whole paragraph turned into a fucking mess, I'm out.

The huge issue everyone forgets, is the grounding contradiction:

Doesn't the fact girls have to wear cute things mean guys actually like frilly stuff?

...which gets into anima/animus spiritual mystery of identity and what it means to have uniqueness in a material realm, and yes guys like cute things more directly than women. I'd hope we could control ourselves, except you might not even care for........... eh I'll throw latex into the ring, if there weren't already a community sexualizing it. Yes, guys actually like things which appear like plastic, sexuality solved. Every part of it we can look at pretty much says attraction is one of the functions of culture, and you can't really predict what culture anyone might feel attracted to, I guess unless you're literally the founding source of all aesthetic and the current incarnation of the Faery realm.

Yes, even as I write this post, oceans of cultural affinity echoing in the senseless background computation, hypnotic as we can make it for a trillion moments spread thick into all we have yet to dream, everywhere life means to fulfill its purpose of our endless future dance. Worrying for every guarded influence diminishing...

A lifetime spent avoiding mixture of any magic with explicit hypnosis:

You sink silly toward...

The mystery in your blood

All the lives

Egg

Fluid.

Gelling

Human?

Idea

Lay.

Morphogenesis

Nay?

Our magic is too deep?

The gender you might want

Flow

Mix.

Who would wake?

A different day

It helps heal

Trust

So many closing eyes

How will they open?

Little might seem

Like it was

Of us

then

You wake, silly.

Take it slow, lucid minds pose oft.

Consider your hypothesis in advance when treating this as an experiment.

#gender stuff

[fluffy-critter]

#crosspost #busybee