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so the thing about english is that people think it's so divorced from other germanic languages based on like. words. I've even heard people try to insist that english is a romance language. because of that whole messy business in 1066 with out-of-wedlock willy and his band of naughty normans. and now a good chunk of the vocabulary is french or whatever and they're prestigious so not using them makes you sound like a rube and this and that and the other

and yes william the conqueror will never be safe from me. I will have my revenge on him. he fucked up a perfectly good germanic language is what he did. this will be me in hell

but the thing is that most words in, say, german do have a one to one english equivalent. not all hope is lost, for those who still dare to see it. it's just that you 1066pilled normancels aren't looking in the right place

dog (en) ≠ der Hund (de) but der Hund (de) -> hound (en)

look with your special eyes. that one was easier. not all of them are this intuitive because of semantic narrowing and broadening and waltzing and hokey-pokeying and whatever else. I'll give you a few more

animal (en) ≠ das Tier (de)

aha! you think. I've got him on the ropes now.

but then

das Tier (de) -> deer (en)

nooooo!! you whine and cry in gay baby jail. the consonants are different!!! listen to me. listen, I say, putting both my hands on your shoulder. /t/and /d/ are the same sound. you just put your voice behind one of them.

nooooooooo!! you wail. deer are animals but not all animals are deer!!! listen to me. LISTEN. they used to be. animals used to be deer. that's just what we called them. it was a long time ago. it was a weird time in all our lives. it's okay.

let's try for a verb this time

to die (en) ≠ sterben (de) but sterben (de) -> to starve

same principle with the consonants, we're just changing a stop (where we completely stop the airflow and then let it through) for a fricative (where we still let some air go through. idk where it's going. maybe to its job or something.)

to starve used to mean generally to die, not just to die of malnourishment. we do that a lot. we take one word for a lot of things and make it mean one thing. or take one word for one thing and make it mean a lot of things. this is common and normal.

"okay but roland," you say, suddenly coming up with an argument. "what about tree? trees are super common. I don't think we'd fuck around too much with that. the german word is baum! what about THAT?"

"when did you learn german?" I ask, but then decide it isn't relevant right at this very moment. but fine.

tree (en) ≠ der Baum (de) but der Baum (de) -> beam (en)

beam??? you ask incredulously. beam???? BEAM?????? you continue with the same tone and cadence of captain holt from brooklyn 99.

yes. beam. like the evil beams from my eye I'm going to hit you with if you don't stop shouting.

but the vowels!!! you howl.

listen. listen to me. the vowels mean nothing. absolutely nothing. they're fluid like water. it got raised in english.

"WHAT DOES RAISED MEAN"

it doesn't matter right now. they were raised better than you, at least. stop shouting. open your eyes and see what god has given you. they're the same word.

"they're NOT the same word. they mean different things!"

we've been over this. they didn't used to. a beam was (and is) a long solid piece of wood. much like the long solid piece of wood I showed your mother last night.

FAQ:

Q: could english be some kind of germanic-romance hybrid?

A: do you become a sexy thing from the black lagoon just because you dressed up as one for halloween? english may have gotten a lot of vocabulary from norman french, but its history and syntax are distinctly germanic. that's what we base these things on.

Q: okay but what does it matter? this doesn't actually affect my day to day life

A: you come into my house? you come into my house, the house of an autistic man living in vienna austria and studying english linguistics and you ask me what does it matter? sit back down. I was going to let you go but now I have powerpoints to show you

Q: you're stupid and wrong and gay and a bad person

A: I know it's you, Willy

#linguistics #german

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#queer #transgender

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The Cass Review: Cis-Supremacy in the UK's Approach to Healthcare for Trans Children

is a brilliant academic article by Dr Cal Horton, the full body of which can be found here.

For non-UK folk wondering what on earth is going on, the Cass Review is a recently released report about healthcare for trans and gender-questioning kids written entirely by cis people, the recommendations of which are being used right now to justify further restrictions on trans healthcare, including “pausing” all new prescriptions for puberty blockers in the youth gender services.

This article breaks down very thoroughly the biggest ways in which this review is dogshit and has transphobic bias baked in at the most basic level. The results section is a long (but worthwhile) read, but if you have less time, the much shorter discussion and conclusion sections summarise the results.

It's a great resource if you've vaguely heard about “this thing called the Cass Review” and want to know what its issues are but don't want to wade through hundreds of pages of transphobic dogwhistling. It's particularly useful to cite or quote if you're contacting your political representatives and want to back up your claims.* Horton is very good at stating perfectly unambiguously the massive problems with this review in ways that support trans lives and don't try to “both-sides” the issue.

*And I strongly encourage you to do so if you're in the UK; the website WriteToThem makes it very easy. This website contains useful information and a template email that is Scotland-specific, but obviously you can adapt it to fit the particular situations of the other UK nations.

Choice quotes include (highlights mine):

“Within the Cass Review anti-trans prejudice is not acknowledged as a problem or a threat to trans children. Across several reports the Cass Review centres the concerns of non-affirmative professionals, including those who do not believe in the existence of trans children. The existence of anti-trans prejudice amongst healthcare professionals is well-documented in existing literature and Cass Review reports indeed provide clear indication of professional ignorance or prejudice. However, across Cass Review reports, there is no instance where professional views on trans children are identified as ill-informed or prejudiced or are rejected from inclusion in the review. Instead, the views of ignorant or pathologising professionals seeking support for non-affirming practice with trans children are presented with sympathy. There is no parallel consideration of the rights or welfare of trans children, nor discussion of an NHS duty of care to protect trans children from being harmed by professionals who reject the validity or existence of trans lives. The Cass approach welcomes all views, including those grounded in ignorance, pathologisation or denial of the existence of trans children.”

“Pathologisation of gender diversity can be seen across Cass Review outputs. Entrenched cisnormativity and problematisation of transness leads to the Cass Review prioritising the research questions about transness that trouble cis people. The Cass Review does not centre trans community research priorities such as enhancing depathologised access to safe and effective healthcare for trans children. This leads the Cass Review into research priorities that are more philosophical than medical, questions on epidemiology of transness, aetiology or identity persistence. The Cass Review is able to step beyond (and deprioritise) the domains of effective trans healthcare for trans children, by the Review’s failure to recognise trans children as a core stakeholder group, enabling the very existence of trans children to be a valid topic of cis curiosity. Whilst the Cass Review decentres and delegitimises its core target population (trans children), their health and welfare needs are secondary to curiosity on how children came to identify as trans and whether or when they will stop.”

“The NICE evidence reviews chaired by Dr Cass both utilised an approach where only evidence like randomised controlled trials are considered high quality evidence. In a field where RCTs are recognised as infeasible and unethical, in a field where “high quality evidence” does not and may never exist, we may be left to wonder, has this evidence review really served to enlighten and inform decision making in trans healthcare? Those interested in maximising trans children’s well-being would look at all available sources of evidence, and use the best quality existing evidence to inform decision making. Instead, the absence of a type of “high quality” evidence is used by the Cass Review to conclude that “evidence on the appropriate management of children and young people with gender incongruence and dysphoria is inconclusive.” Such statements have legitimised the closure of current trans children’s healthcare services for England and Wales, with no services currently operational. [Since the publication of this article, this is also now true for Scotland.] The Cass approach places so much emphasis on uncertainties, unknowns, areas without consensus and the absence of “high quality evidence” that it can be read as an argument against affirmative healthcare for trans children. A cisnormative double standard can also be seen, where evidence-based affirmative approaches are dismissed with calls for RCT standard evidence, whilst non-affirmative theories and policies are introduced and endorsed with no or limited evidence.”

“The Cass Review overall can be considered an example of cis-ignorance, a concept recognised in trans healthcare, where “ignorance is not simply an absence of knowledge, but an epistemic practice in its own right” (Mikulak, p. 827). Mikulak recognises that “practices of ignorance are often entangled with practices of exclusion and oppression”. Cis-ignorance can be seen in the Cass Review’s decision to exclude trans expertise, in the choice to appoint leadership without experience or knowledge, and in the valuing of insights from healthcare professionals who do not even believe in the existence of trans children. Cis-ignorance is apparent in the cisnormative framing of research questions, where research on the meaning of identity or the epidemiology of transness are perceived as important research priorities, and in the erasure of trans children from the Review’s stated target group, leaving trans children’s existence a topic of debate. Cis-ignorance can be seen in the citation of discredited research, forcing affirmative researchers to continually re-dispute the same literature that has been critiqued so many times, including in peer reviewed literature, preventing the field from moving forwards. Cis-ignorance can be seen in a futile search for consensus in a polarised field, setting out (with time, resources, and establishment credentials) to reach an objective of building consensus that is doomed from the start. Cis-ignorance can be seen in the dismissal of existing knowledge, framing the whole of trans healthcare as “inconclusive,” “unknown” or risky, and in calls for infeasible and unethical RCT or blinded control studies. Observers may wonder whether cis-ignorance is intentional and abusive, or careless and ill-informed. Regardless of intent, it manifests as an exertion of cis power over trans communities, in a National Health Service that continues to fail to uphold trans people’s rights to equality in healthcare.”

Anyway, I encourage you to go read Horton's article if you have the time and inclination; it's an excellent elucidation of the major issues in a dangerous review that has the potential to make healthcare for trans people in the UK even worse than it already is.

#transgender #transphobia #trans #trans rights #trans youth #trans uk #transmasc #transfem #uk #uk news #uk politics #cass review #cass report #puberty blockers #nhs #gender affirming care #lgbt #lgbtqia #my posts

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the idea that restrooms, locker rooms, etc need to be single-sex spaces in order for women to be safe is patriarchy's way of signalling to men & boys that society doesn't expect them to behave themselves around women. it is directly antifeminist. it would be antifeminist even if trans people did not exist. a feminist society would demand that women should be safe in all spaces even when there are men there.

#transgender

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Y'all, the world is sleeping on what NASA just pulled off with Voyager 1

The probe has been sending gibberish science data back to Earth, and scientists feared it was just the probe finally dying. You know, after working for 50 GODDAMN YEARS and LEAVING THE GODDAMN SOLAR SYSTEM and STILL CHURNING OUT GODDAMN DATA.

So they analyzed the gibberish and realized that in it was a total readout of EVERYTHING ON THE PROBE. Data, the programming, hardware specs and status, everything. They realized that one of the chips was malfunctioning.

So what do you do when your probe is 22 Billion km away and needs a fix? Why, you just REPROGRAM THAT ENTIRE GODDAMN THING. Told it to avoid the bad chip, store the data elsewhere.

Sent the new code on April 18th. Got a response on April 20th - yeah, it's so far away that it took that long just to transmit.

And the probe is working again.

From a programmer's perspective, that may be the most fucking impressive thing I have ever heard.

#space

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"No guys I swear this time it's reasonable to deny language to marginalized people! It's not at all like those other times when we excluded and downplayed the oppression of a certain group of people! This time it's definitely justified to tell people their oppression isn't real! And that they need to shut up and listen to the real oppressed people. We are definitely in the right on this one."

#queer

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#transgender

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#transgender

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Chonky bear dreamin of more fish in the belly

#bears

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#transgender #spiderman

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Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center resident master carpenter Hugo is here making sure everything is ship shape and sturdy be for he sits his big caboose down on it in order to enjoy a relaxing Fat Bear Friday

#bears

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❤️🧡🤍🩷 HAPPY LESBIAN VISIBILITY WEEK ❤️🧡🤍🩷

#queer #art

[ceilidhtransing]

It fascinates me the lengths some cis people - and often even well-meaning cis people - will go to in an attempt to “explain” transness that would be entirely unnecessary if they just accepted that we are who we are and it's really as simple as that.

They'll come up with all sorts of theories in their heads about how some sort of extreme past trauma must have made someone trans, or it must be some kind of strange mental delusion (ranging all the way from “they're insane and we shouldn't pander to their illness” to “we should be kind to these people because they can't help their condition”), or perhaps it's because when they were very young their caregivers didn't encourage them enough into the stereotypes of their assigned gender, or maybe it's social contagion and they caught transness from their classmate, the list goes on.

In a way I get the impulse to try to “understand”, to try to “find a reason”, especially among the well-meaning ones, because they can't get their heads around transness and seem to be grasping for some kind of explanation for what on earth would make someone do all this weird stuff of changing their body and taking on [what seems to them to be] a whole new identity. They can't ever imagine themselves doing such a thing so they land on the idea that something really extreme must have happened to make someone do all that.

But all these theories are so totally unnecessary, and they're conjured into existence purely because the people making them simply. can't. internalise. that yes it's possible to be a woman who was assigned male at birth and yes it's possible to be a man who was assigned female at birth and yes it's possible to be neither a man nor a woman.

That's it. You really don't need any explanation once you genuinely accept that fact into your worldview.

“Why is Jared from accounting doing this to himself? Do you think maybe he was assaulted or something and this is his coping mechanism?”

Well “Jared” is actually a woman, and if you just accept that, everything else becomes obvious and there's no mystery whatsoever.

I often think that cis people get themselves tangled in trying to imagine what would make them want to “become the other gender”, when the only thought experiment they really need to do in order to “get it” is to imagine waking up one day in a body that society assumes would belong to the other binary gender. Hell, imagine growing up in that body. Imagine trying to go about your day as You, still the man or woman that you are, while everyone is constantly treating you as, and insisting that you are, the other binary gender, and while trying to exist in a body that doesn't feel like yours or reflect who you are inside. Of course you're going to take steps to rectify the situation, to ask people to refer to you in ways that reflect your internal self, to change your body to be more congruent with your actual gender, to want to live as who you actually are. It's not actually at all complicated.

And obviously transphobes aren't exactly trying to get their heads round it, but it's staggering how many cis people who really think of themselves as being supportive of trans people still haven't properly internalised the basic tenet that there genuinely isn't anything more “to it” than we are, deeply truly eternally, who we say we are.

#transgender #trans #trans rights #transphobia #trans man #trans woman #transmasc #transfem #trans pride #lgbt #lgbtqia #queer #my posts

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me looking up at you after you call my name

#bears #sheep

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here’s to all the weird little girls growing up into even weirder men

#transgender

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#transgender #wolves

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We call that a Großvater Wurm

#the fact that this sentence is being given by the duo character who looks the most like chani really adds a level to this #duolingo more like dune-olingo amirite #dune #dune two #dune part 2 #dune 2 #dune part two #stilgar #shai hulud #duolingo german #duolingo #learning german #germanblr #my posts