#and i know there's this aspect of white privilege in this where my white manhood is seen as a lesser threat | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ftmtftm · 3 months

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I've been scrolling through your blog, and I saw your post about discussing the racialized nature of gender. As someone who has several transmasc POC friends, and someone who's a nonbinary POC themself, I wanted to give my 2 cents.

It's important to understand that "woman" in the "man vs woman" gender binary is a colonialist, white supremacist construct, especially in Western countries where you are the numerical minority. My trans friends aren't on T, they haven't gotten top surgery, we are all quite young. But they all have numerous stories about being addressed as "sir" which brings them euphoria but as one person said, while we were making fun of the amount of white people in our club, "Due to my race and skin color, I get masculinized."

And again I'd like to emphasize, that since we're young, none of us really have medically transitioned due to financial and familial barriers. Their hair is long, our binders we definitely have notable chests, and even if they dress masculine, it's notable that no one in our communities would ever gender us properly. It's often white people calling them "sir." Again, I think this reflects how gender performances in mainstream queer communities are deeply White. Like, trans boys talk about having haircuts, but only one of my friends has that wavier, more manageable hair that will help them pass. When you've got curly/kinky hair, the standards are different. For a white person, what's the difference between a "girl" Afro and a boy "Afro"? White cis people have a harder time identifying us, and literally talk to any black girl, and they'll tell you about being mocked, dehumanized, and called "manly".

I don't have much else to say. These are just my personal experiences. But if you want to be an ally to POC in the queer community, this is why it's so fucking important to bring in colonialism/imperialism/white supremacy into discussions of queer liberation. My biggest gripe with ignorant white queers is when they ignore their white privilege, and act like "cishets" (AKA the patriarchal system regulating sexuality and gender) is the only enemy. Because cishet POC deal with plenty of shit with being infantilized, masculinized, feminized, seen as brutish & dangerous, the list goes on. Doberbutts had a post saying, "Believe me, your family's going to care more about me being black than my queerness." towards his white partners. Acknowledging and creating a framework that centers these intersections of queerness and race into your beliefs is true allyship. This is why if you're not anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, ACAB...I do not think you care for queer liberation. None of us are free until all of us are free.

Please don't view this post as an attack. But this is my perspective, and I thought you'd be receptive to me sharing my lived experiences.

Oh I absolutely don't view this ask as an attack, and I really appreciate you bringing these things up because you're right! Like, just very plainly: You are right and your and your friends lived experiences are extremely important to the conversation on the racialized aspects of gender.

It gets me thinking about where Misogynoir and the social White Fear of Black manhood intersect for Black trans men in particular. Because Black women and Women of Color in general are masculinized by White gender standards and the ways in which Black trans masculine people are gendered in alignment with their identity is absolutely not always done with gender affirming intent. In fact, it's often actually done with racist intent or is fueled by racist bias when it's coming from White people or even from non-Black POC.

That's kind of restating things you've said but differently, it's just such a topic worth highlighting explicitly since it's extremely relevant to the conversation that's been happening about Male Privilege here the last few days.

I do think I know exactly what @doberbutts post you're talking about and yeah. It's just truth. It's something Black queer people have been talking about for ages in both theory and in pop culture (my mind immediately goes to Kevin Abstract and "American Boyfriend") where Black queer/trans identity is both materially different from (neutral) and is treated differently from (negative) White queer/trans identity in multitudes of ways and those differences are worth sharing and exploring and talking about.

Genuinely, thank you for sharing! I try really hard not to lead these kinds of conversations outside of explicitly referencing back to non-White theorists because I don't particularly feel like it's my place to do so, but I will always provide a platform for them because they're extremely important conversations to be had.

#asks #anon #racialized gender #male privilege #transandrophobia

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halfd3af · 2 months

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I Think I Might Be Agender

I have some feelings about how I’m viewed in society. Shocker.

I do not like being put in a box.

When I am assumed to be a "cis man" by cis people, because I pass constantly as one, they make incorrect assumptions about my life, such as (white) male privilege or boyhood/manhood.

When I am viewed as a "trans man", both cis and trans people make assumptions about my body, but I am intersex, and I will never fit those expectations of my experiences with sex and gender.

Also, while the existence of“late bloomers” of a variety of ages isn’t a totally uncommon experience, many people will incorrectly assume I must have known I was trans from a young age, and I didn’t.

There was no assumption that something was “off” about my gender until I was 17. It hit me like lightning that I was not experiencing "some self-esteem issues", and that it was not normal for a person to be smothering every aspect of their gender through neutral clothing (hoodies, loose shirts, and jeans) or avoiding looking in the mirror as if it could turn me to stone.

Lastly, when I am viewed as "nonbinary", there are STILL assumptions being made about my gender presentation, that I must be someone who engages in visual gender nonconformity. In my opinion, the occasional usage of black eyeliner does not make me gender nonconforming overall, but I can understand how in an isolated moment, to cis people, it is viewed as such. My hair is also viewed this way by cis people—a former manager at my internship, 100% completely unaware of my transness, would misgender me as “she” behind my back due to my hair—though it being a curlier version of Kurt Cobain’s style seems… laughable, in my opinion, to call GNC, but I digress.

The main reason I chose the label of nonbinary was because I do not fit in with cis men or trans men due to being intersex, and now I'm realizing that I don't think I fit in with most nonbinary people, or at least the expectation set upon nonbinary people that they must be people whose presentations of themselves Do Not Conform To Gender.

My presentation could be viewed as similar to cis gay men, where being myself is viewed as “different” without any particular visual identifiers of queerness, but calling myself a gay man is not correct because I am not cis nor do I aim to mimic it through being a binary trans man.

So, I think a term like agender resonates with me. I’ve seen definitions of the identity include “the rejection of the concept of gender” and “feeling that gender is irrelevant”, so that’s why I think I might identify with it. I am not necessarily attempting to be genderless, because I do wish to be viewed as masculine and nothing but that, but I AM attempting to reject the “weight” of gendered expectations being thrust upon me because of gender. I want to acknowledge its irrelevance. Its meaninglessness.

I chose the name Apollo because of what the Apollo space missions represent to me: a sublime, romanticism of the universe that will always be outside of our reach. And I think that's what my gender feels like. Something that others project their ideals upon, but is inconceivably vast. Ultimately untouchable and unknowable.

Like how no one can know me and my gender as intimately as I know myself.

#agender #nonbinary #I have been having these Big Feelings for several months and I’m finally able to consolidate them into something #you are welcome to reblog—I am very curious to see the perspectives of other agender/nonbinary/labelless people #halfd3afgenderposts

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dynamics-of-prejudice · 3 years

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Fashion Breaking Toxic Masculinity One Runway at a Time.

This past year at the 2020 Oscars, Timothée Chalamet was spotted embracing the more feminine aspects of his style, he was wearing a striking Prada Jumpsuit. He was later quoted saying “You can be whatever you want to be. There isn’t [anything] specific…that you have to take part in to be masculine” this coming from a 24 year old white male, and one can assume he is straight due to his relationship with Lilly Depp although he has never publicly commented on his sexuality. Chalmets choices on the red carpet when it comes to his fashion is a symbol for how the norms that have dominated Hollywood for decades are coming to an end. He is proving through his fashion and his actions that these types of expressions of masculinity are unnecessary for the development of healthy males. As Timothy Beneke states in Proving Manhood when discussing assumptions made that tie the idea of compulsive masculinity and sexism together and show how they go hand and hand with one another “real men are superior to women and superior to men who do not live up to models of masculinity” (270) This assumption would be totally crushed by outfit worn by Chalmet at the 2020 Oscars, and this is why this ensemble is so much more than a pair of overalls.

youtube

In the documentary The Mask You Live In directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, William Pollack a well know psychologist states “The way boys are brought up makes them hide all of their natural, vulnerable, and empathetic feeling behind a mask of masculinity”. Young men like Chalamat that can express themselves so freely without the fear of crossing boundaries is a privilege in itself but it also is the source of strength for young people who are struggling with their own identity and how they should express it. This gives them the impression that it is okay to step outside of these gender norms and essentially move away from sexist behavior. As Timothy Beneke stated in Proving Manhood “I find it impossible to imagine compulsive masculinity without sexism”(270) The whole idea of compulsive masculinity is rooted in the idea that the man must achieve things and be able to endure things that the women cannot not. So, by putting yourself in the women’s shoes (pun intended) such as Chalamet, or Tyler the Creator has done does, puts the whole sexist nature on top of its head and breaks this idea that men are supposed to be one way in order to express themselves dissolves and the mask they keep up can come down.

Another Icon when it comes to breaking masculinity norms would be Tyler the Creator, in 2016 during his first ever runway show he describes how he “just wanted to show people, you don’t have to follow any fucking rules, you can literally do whatever you want.” Speaking to how masculinity is a construct that was designed to keep people inside of a box, when speaking about the black community he also mentioned how there is an expectation of being “tough” and that speaks volumes to the privilege white males experience. They are not persuaded one way or the other on either being tough or soft, whereas in the black community males are supposed to be tough and hard and not act soft at all. To have a role model such as Tyler who has come from the same upbringing as most of those born before 2000 for the black community is crucial in breaking down these stereotypes of what it means to be masculine, and who must be masculine, and why it is stigmatized on certain groups and why certain groups are judged based on how masculine they are, and vice versa.

Johnny Depp one if the first actors to ever blur the lines of masculinity and redefined what the male stereotype was. From his role in Edward Scissorhands to Jack Sparrow, Glenn Lantz there is a certain feminine aspect that Depp has achieved in these characters through the years. In a time where Terminator, and Point Break were hitting the scene, Depp was starring as a misunderstood young man that was different, so he was shunned as we have seen throughout history inside the LGBTQ community. Men like Tyler the Creator and Timothée Chalamet are able to express themselves in these ways due to the steps of those who came before such as Depp. Obviously, there are many more who have broken these lines but not too many more well known then Depp. He himself has been quoted saying “Don’t you know all of my characters are gay” in jest, however this is a direct example of how he does not abide by the normal standards of compulsive masculinity.

This freedom of being able to express yourself while working as these above entertainers have, does not cross over to all professions. It is quite the contrary, in most professions there is a dress code that employees must follow and if they do not follow then they will be reprimanded. Thus, being another extension of masculinity that has groomed our society to think that a suite, clean shaved face and a clean haircut is what a successful person looks like. Not only is this putting all male professionalism into a white, straight, middle-class masculine norm, but it is also influencing the females in the workplace as well.

In conclusion, it is amazing to see people like Timothée Chalamet breaking barriers of toxic masculinity, and continuing a legacy started by those like Johnny Depp. Tyler the Creator also being such a influential force inside the black community especially for young black males who understand that being tough is not cool. To see actors like Chalamet getting lead roles in Hollywood is a great indication that as a society we are seeking more depth inside of our male existence and this is exciting. Although this privilege does not extend to the overwhelming majority of the country, it is still a symbol for those who do have to follow a dress code that at least society is accepting of people who have a similar mindset, and believe in similar ideals, that this idea of toxic masculinity is out of fashion as a whole. Emotional and the ability to communicate feelings is the new age stoic, strong and silent type of the past.

Works Cited.

Beneke, Timothy. Proving Manhood. The Meaning of Difference American Constructions of Race and Ethnicity, Sex and Gender, Social Class, Sexuality and Disability. Seventh Edition. Edited by Karen E. Rosenblum and toni-Michelle C. Travis. McGraw-Hill Education, 2016, pp. 267-270.

Newsom, Jennifer Siebel, director. The Mask We Live In. Jennifer Siebel. 2015.

Raiss, Liz. Tyler, the Creator Breaks Down How His First Ever Runway Show Came Together. The Fader. https://www.thefader.com/2016/06/15/tyler-the-creator-interview-golf-wang-made-la. Date accessed 5/2/2021

Shorey, Eric. How These Celebrities Are Stylishly Breaking Gender Norms. The Manual. https://www.themanual.com/fashion/celebrity-style-icons-masculinity/ Date accessed: 5/1/2021

Greenwood, Douglas. How Timothée Chalamet is ushering in a new era for masculinity. Vouge. https://www.vogue.com.au/culture/features/how-timothe-chalamet-is-ushering-in-a-new-era-for-masculinity/image-gallery/279f743b36c62f3203306451458111e8. Date accessed: 5/2/2021

Harris II, Varno. Edward Scissorhands Is a Deep Reflection On Social Norms, Innocence, And Explotation. Odyssey. https://www.theodysseyonline.com/edward-scissorhands-social-norms. Date accessed. 5/2/2021.

Ben, Barry. What happens When Men Don’t Conform to Masculine Clothing norms at Work? Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/08/what-happens-when-men-dont-conform-to-masculine-clothing-norms-at-work. Date accessed: 5/2/2021.

Hollywood Insider. The Rise of Teen Idols Timothée Chalamet & Harry Styles: Destroying Toxic Masculinity. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHS3ssNScQo&t=79s. Date Accessed: 5/1/2021.

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radiqueer · 5 years

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I read Natalie’s endnotes to the aesthetic and this is disturbing the fuck out of me so here are some. rambly thoughts I guess. people are welcome to add to this if they like

first she goes “this video is primarily about trans women” and like. caveat that I am not a trans woman, I’m nonbinary & afab so that’s not an experience I have access to in any way. so keep that in mind I guess

I wanted to show a wider audience the way trans people talk about gender amongst ourselves

look...I’m not an expert on trans people or anything but I watched the aesthetic and I can tell you that that’s not how trans people talk about gender. at least, I’ve never known them to. I’ve never participated in a conversation about gender that works that way.

....no wait. I have. I’ve seen truscum talk about gender, and the way Justine talks pretty much mirrors the way truscum talk.

I wanted to work through some of my private doubts about common explanations of what it means to be trans

I can’t argue with that.

I also wanted to reconcile the existence of a devoted Tabby fandom with my having created the character as a caricature of leftist ineffectiveness

I mean. how do I say this. I’ve been thinking about the difference between revolutionaries and incrementalists, and it’s clear to me that they need each other. but throughout the video, the way Justine treats Tabby mirrors the way incrementalists treat revolutionaries; as laughable, disposable, pitiable. like they’re caricatures of themselves.

I had to google what veracity means.

Some non-binary people disliked this video because they felt that the dialogue excluded or invalidated them. Whereas most of the feedback I got from binary trans people is positive. Which, fair enough—this is a video about binary trans women.

look...I try not to be like “binary privilege” and stuff because when it comes to trans people that concept becomes increasingly incoherent but how else do I talk about how it feels to be a nonbinary person watching that video, listening to people harp on and on about passing, when I myself will never pass? not just because I’m brown even though that plays into it - white people remain the standard of nonbinary presentation and aesthetics - I won’t ever pass. people are never going to look at me and think “oh, nonbinary” because that identity is not articulated in mainstream society at all. and I have to live in mainstream society, right, even as a marginalized person I still exist in the same spaces as other people.

it feels like this is basically going “articulation of a binary trans identity has to exclude and invalidate nonbinary people” which is how you get truscum. it’s literally. the same thought process.

I feel like I'm being grossly misunderstood by NBs when they characterize the desire to pass, Justine's point of view, as "respectability politics."

nonbinary people are not characterizing Justine’s (or Natalie’s) desire to pass as respectability politics. they’re characterizing Justine’s efforts to police Tabby’s presentation, and by association the presentation of all trans people who “fail to pass” (scare quotes because Tabby passes just fcking fine) as respectability politics. you can’t misrepresent our position and then accuse us of misrepresenting you. holy shit.

My wearing long hair, makeup, changing my voice, generally softening my confrontation with the world is nothing like e.g. a black man wearing a suit and speaking in "white voice." I'm not doing "woman voice" to please cis people. I'm doing it because I want to be a woman.

oh god this is a mess. this is such a goddamn mess. starting with that simile I guess but omg Natalie. who the fuck decides what “woman voice” is? why is that song-and-dance necessary to be trans and to be a woman? like if you want to do it for yourself then that’s fine, but trans people remain trans even when denied the ability to perform their real gender. a trans man who is forced by circumstance to wear dresses and heels and makeup when he desperately does not want to is still a trans man. equating your transness with your desire to pass is just, straight up truscum shit. this is why people are calling you a transmed.

Cis women understand this deeply. They know that they aren't oppressed as women because they psychologically identify as women. They know that misogyny is foisted upon them regardless of their psychology, so long as society views them as women. Trans men escape misogyny to some degree—generally to the degree that society views and accepts them as men. And trans women are in the sad situation of having to claw our way into a social position where we begin to experience misogyny.

dskjhvdkjfhkfdgdslg this is another mess.

trans women do not have to “claw their way into a social position where they begin to experience misogyny” they already experience misogyny by virtue of being women. a woman who looks like a man is still experiencing the world as a woman. she’s still being affected by the things which affect women.

trans men are harder to parse because trans men who fail to pass experience misogyny and the associated violence in addition to violence for refusing to conform to their assigned gender. but they’re experiencing all of these things through denial of their real identity. and that colours their experiences to a great degree. additionally, the social aspect of trans manhood is very, very conditional because manhood, even for cis men, is very conditional and highly gatekept. it’s very hard for trans men to access these structures and weaponise them against others outside of like...a tiny bubble saturated with queerness. to simplify, they’re men without privilege.

It's not psychological identity that makes this happen. It's the interpersonal recognition that comes about as a result of habitually living/performing the identity. Let's be good leftist materialists here.

I don’t know what kind of materialism it is to reject the realness of the mind, of our emotions and experiences, of our internality. I don’t know much about materialism, but if it leads to takes like this I’m not sure I want to. the internet and what happens on it is real. the mind (or brain, or whatever the goopy shit in your head that lets you be a person is, whatever you wanna call it) and the thoughts and emotions it experiences are real. I feel so stupid arguing this. I feel like I’m trying to teach someone that 2+2=4 but I have to start by convincing them that numbers are real. it’s degrading.

Before I transitioned I identified as genderqueer for a while. I presented basically as what used to be called a male transvestite. People were sometimes shitty about that, but my coming out with the NB identity was greeted mainly by, "sure, whatever bro, wear whatever you want." I found that as an AMAB NB, I was for most intents and purposes—socially, structurally, materially—still a man.

I don’t want to explain someone’s experiences to them but that’s them dismissing the reality of your nonbinary identity. and because you were and are a massively privileged person in every other way.

surely an account that begins and ends with "I'm not a man because I don't identify as one" is pretty weak.

[uncharitability cw] I mean. sure. lets all set out to prove why we deserve to exist. that’s a good use of the trans community’s time, because we don’t do that enough in our private lives. lets make it the only story we tell. brilliant plan. and then everyone clapped.

okay and then she goes on for a bit about the relationship between Tabby and Justine, which is fine. they’re good characters. if they were 100% fictional I would write fic for them. thanks for the extra content, I guess.

The most hurtful things Justine says are my confessions. I have no security in "feeling like a woman." I feel like I'm desperately trying to be a woman though confronted by endless obstacles. It's a shadow that hangs over me every moment of every day. But these are just some feelings I have. I don't have opinions.

I don’t like telling people that they need to cope in private but if you’re coping then the content that you create to cope with your feelings and insecurities needs to be separate from your activism. conflating the two is a really bad idea and I have about 4 years worth of fandom drama on tumblr dot hell to show for it. bad things happen when people look at someone working through their emotions and trauma and go “oh yes, are these your politics?” and worse things happen when you do that to yourself and then you end up being invited to ted talks and fuck a whole bunch of people over.

I keep trying not to talk about contrapoints because it serves no purpose and leads nowhere - she’s not going to change. but on some level talking about it helps me and maybe someone wants to hear me talk about it I fucking Guess.

this is okay to reblog, and written entirely in response to those tweets. if you’ve got additional responses to those tweets or want to talk about something I said, feel free. but if you’re going to come here and defend contrapoints, then save it. I’ll block you at best. there are times when I can have a rational, nuanced conversation about this but I won’t ever on this post because that’s not what this post is for.

#contrapoints #me; hey i should finish watching bsd #me; has no executive function #me; writes this thing to procrastinate #thats adhd for you: doing something painful to procrastinate doing something you really want to #or self harm i guess lol #original

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the-habitual-wordsmith · 7 years

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Trans Relations In The Black Community: A Love Letter.

I love my community. I honestly do. Black people are the most vilified, antagonized, unduly criticized people walking God’s green Earth. But we are not beyond reproach. There are many topics that are still taboo in the Black community because of deeply entrenched misogyny and the traditional need to “keep up appearances” in the street. My grandmother used to tell my cousin and I, no matter what happens in the house, you don’t let it spill outside. Which is cool when it comes to not bringing conflicts into the outside world because not everyone needs to know your business, but when it applies to things like mental illness, homosexuality, etc., it’s suppressive and disabling. As far as the burgeoning topic of gender identity and sexuality are concerned, we are still very oppressive towards our own because of the deep-seated hypermasculinity that pervades each and every level of our community, and it is damaging it viciously. This year alone, countless trans women of color have been murdered. Black men are still afraid of being caught with trans women because of what they perceive their peers will think about them, conflating trans women for men in women’s clothing, and that damaging perception is what perpetrates violence against trans women.

We don’t afford trans women the same rights we afford cisgender women because we still conflate genitalia for gender. Admittedly, I am unpacking the same damning concepts and misconstructions because of the socialization I’ve been exposed to all my life in a world where my masculinity is constantly being subjected to social cues and critiques; from family to the music we identify with to relationships, my manhood is always coopted by socialization. So why wouldn’t I buck against gender identity? Why wouldn’t I be upset when I date someone that I thought was a cisgender woman and is actually a trans woman; ain’t I gay for that? My homies are gonna turn on me so I should hide the fact that I ever did that, right? What will everyone think?

While I don’t excuse that mentality at all, I understand where it comes from. It takes a lot to undo the destructive primal chest-beating, psychosomatic reaffirmation of my masculinity and what makes me a man, and rather than address those issues, it is significantly easier to abandon all understanding and tolerance and simply be an asshole. But in being an asshole, the assertion that trans folk aren’t worth learning their identities and respecting them enough to address them as such, as well as not being antagonistic towards them is exactly the fight our community goes through. Yes, our discrimination is different systematically, but the origins are the same: I don’t value you as a human being therefore I don’t give a shit about who you are and what you stand for and I will dehumanize your existence at any opportunity that I get. That is hypocritical. We can’t very well demand the respect of “Black lives mattering” and then exclude Black trans folk because they don’t fit in with our heteronormative concepts. We don’t need to demand that trans folk meet our comfortable sensibilities; we need to meet their humanity at the base level. It literally does nothing to you to respect pronouns. It literally does nothing to you to respect identities. You’re not subscribing to some sort of wicked agenda, you’re being a decent human being.

I currently date a trans woman. She is genderfluid, meaning she identifies either as a woman or agender. Currently, her pronouns are “she/her”, but a lot of genderfluid people identify as “they/them”. She was afraid to come out to me because she felt like she would scare me off, which is the disheartening fear a lot of trans folk feel, and that’s just one of the minimum, upfront feelings. “Is this person gonna reject me? Is this person gonna hurt me? Is this person gonna kill me?” An interesting aspect of our relationship is the conversations that we have about her identity and how she’s learning a lot about herself every day, to which she imparts knowledge on me. We hit bumps in the road, because I’m still unpacking a lot of things myself. I’m learning how to unlearn all these aspects of toxic masculinity that have been dormant in me all my life. I still deal with little microaggressions that want to come out of my mouth and I have to censor myself a lot because I don’t want to be insensitive or unconsciously cruel. I still find myself on social media, talking in trans spaces and stepping on toes by centering the conversation on me, and that’s wrong. I still find myself misgendering some folks and apologizing profusely for it, to which I’m met with “don’t be sorry, be better”, and initially, it hurts my fragile male ego to be told that, but then I understand. How many times have we, as black people, had to defend our humanity to white people? How tiring does it get? It gets just as tiring for a trans person to be like “Look, I identify as this, my pronouns are these, please learn them”.

After I let her know it’s safe to come out to me and she would never have any issues with me as far as understanding and acceptance are concerned, I asked her what she deals with mentally, like what goes on in the mind of a genderfluid person. Individually, sometimes she feels feminine, but most of the time, she feels like she’s genderless, neither masculine nor feminine. We talk often about trans-affective subjects, and I’ve learned that it’s often exhausting to keep asking researchable things but she enjoys educating me, a luxury a lot of heterosexual cisgender partners aren’t afforded. I feel like it’s strengthened our bond even further. I’ve never dealt with a person quite like her and I feel privileged to know her, let alone be with her, in a world where she is targeted as a woman of color, as well as a member of the LGBT+ community. I feel like my role as an ally is increasing and that makes me elated because I genuinely care about her struggles, as well as the struggles of everyone else who has to deal with the stares and the aggressions and the violence and the social media condescension. I stand for all oppressed people, and I believe that empowering the Black community with knowledge will foster understanding, acceptance and tolerance, because we should all stand united, shoulder to shoulder, especially in these times where we all have targets firmly painted on our backs.

#just my thoughts #black community #black people #people of color #poc #trans #trans folk #lgbtqia #essays

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chiseler · 7 years

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THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL FOR WAYWARD GIRLS

Putting "acceptable" limits on depravity in the name of compromise and "reality" is how fascism eventually triumphs. Or so said Professor Yvonne De Carlo of 'Miss Yvonne's Academy for Wayward Hussies' also known as 'The Frankfurt School' -- a place of higher learning for delinquent, pregnant scholars. "Your new president is merely proof that the depraved nature of power is given license by tolerating all but its excesses" said Professor De Carlo as she powdered her ample cleavage in full view of the astonished, pinafore-clad undergrads gathered for her lecture on the 'Dialectic of Fascism and French Manicures Made Easy-Peasy'.

"You want to know what brought Trump to power? Hint: It wasn't a sudden, inexplicable, sewage-strewn wave of raw hatred poised to strike down public schools, libraries and national parks at the behest of a braying, stupid mob of "privileged" former factory workers. It wasn't merely insanity wrought by decades of institutional neglect or unchecked greed -- although that was a big part of it. It was *nice* people willing to accept certain 'realities' to ensure their place at the proverbial table remained a pristine space of individually apportioned, locally sourced food; a place where rhetorical restraint replaced actual political solutions to any given problem.

You chose 'safe' over actual justice -- meaning someone else's kid will take a police bullet to the chest so that we can all read heavily redacted versions of Mark Twain in the peace and comfort of a colorful ball pit of higher learning like our own Frankfurt School, which I should mention was only made possible by a generous corporate donation from a multi-national purveyor of processed pork by-products with vaguely German origins. At the end of it, you'll all be awarded a certificate declaring you free from venereal diseases, and the skills necessary to lower live poultry into a vat of ammonia in a subsidiary facility owned by our trustees. At your age, I was performing burlesque numbers on the mean streets of my Canadian homeland at the behest of my stage mother. But I'll tell you all about that later in the term when we cover 'Hoochie-Coochie Cave Dancing of the Early Ottoman Empire - as Explained by a scantily-clad Miss Yvonne Waving a Jewel-Encrusted Saber'. Consider that your 'trigger warning'. Now let's proceed:

It was enough that we embraced Caitlyn Jenner and applauded Meryl Streep giving the phone book version of the Gettysburg Address to her wealthy patrons -- I could give a better soliloquy while swallowing a sword and balancing a cobra on my head, but I digress . . . It was enough to sprout a 'dad boner' over Pussy Riot to declare ourselves -- "punk rock", even as we devised ways to make earth's human and animal life redundant during brainstorming meetings that took place in an indoor ergonomic playground that served wheat grass martinis on tap. My dear friend Frederick Marcuse who took me under his bosom . . . or was that the other way around . . . argued that the technocratic efficiency of advanced, industrial societies had rendered it 'one-dimensional', and as such, resistant to all critiques of it. Our "aversion to introspection" according to Adorno -- another generous benefactor to the Frankfurt School -- renders left-opposition to Trump little more than an elite-led, sour grape authoritarianism that is unable to contemplate its own role in a paradigmatic shift towards a more 'unprincipled' and unpredictable variety of global aggression. If you don't believe him, just ask a white feminist how writing 'rape culture' on her boobs in sharpie will 'shame the patriarchy', and this will give you some idea about why I start every afternoon coughing up a ball of mentholated phlegm into my cornflakes.

Let me tell you what brought us to this precise moment of imminent planetary collapse: It was "nice" people with library cards and rescue pets accepting the kind of compromises that result in bulldozing homes in the occupied territories of Palestine, imprisoning whistle blowers, putting indigenous land everywhere under threat, and even sodomizing a half dead Pan-African leader while he lay dying in a drainpipe.

It's the 'realists' who sign off on nearly $40 billion in military 'aid' to Israel so that it can build more settlements in defiance of International law, and the similarly counterproductive reasoning that blames Russian hackers for the DNC's corrupt maneuvering to install its preferred Wall Street-friendly candidate in defiance of roughly half the voting population. The same folks who cry foul the loudest when an asshole takes his rightful place on the golden, Imperial throne after they have spent years polishing it for him, and expanding its powers to flush away civil liberties and environmental protections. Now all of a sudden that reclining, ermine-trimmed commode in the Oval Office is a "hot seat". Back in the day when I was bumping and grinding on the Paramount lot for chump change, Charlton would grab me by the pussy and . . . well, never mind that now. Let's just say that my jungle cat put up a fierce resistance that left a permanent scar on his manhood and not a single scratch on my lady mandibles. Not sure where any of this is going, but anyhoo . . .

It's the 'nice' -- meaning the technocratically-minded gatekeepers of the 'left', who perform the linguistic feats necessary to justify, say, the involuntary sacrifice of dozens of dead Bedouin wedding celebrants in Yemen to maintain cordial relations with a despotic petrostate that helps prop up a neighboring Apartheid regime equally ill-disposed towards its benefactor. 'This is why we can't have nice things like brutalist revolving restaurants atop Manhattan office towers', they will remind you. Ingrates like you always second-guessing the stuff we do to prevent maniacs from seizing power here at home'. The nice among us, whom we used to call 'Good Germans', prefer that you don't bring 'false equivalency' into reasoned discussion about state-sponsored murder, and focus on the positive . . . like . . . um . . . 'At least under Trump, my sad face selfies will have all the political urgency of Guernica'.

It's the "nice" that refused to hold Obama's feet to the fire, giving him carte blanche to capitulate wholly to the more clamorous and opportunistic voices of his inner circle without ever troubling his conscience. The guy was so cool he could grant clemency to Chelsea Manning AND bomb a failed state into further oblivion all in the same week. "Nice" folks would never venture into the treacherous waters of condemning or even criticizing your country's first black president for reasons entirely to do with the sort of career-minded, self-preservation that says "Bummer about Leonard Peltier, but Michelle Obama sure rawked that Zac Posen dress on the cover of Vogue!"

When someone *reaches across the aisle*, it's usually to grasp at the last straws of power allotted to them by whichever democratically elected fascist regime happens to control Congress. Or it's a hands-y director trying to cop a feel on a red-eye flight from LA. Yes, Otto Preminger, I'm talking to YOU!

To make a long-winded lecture only as long as it takes to dry one's nails after the second coat of Revlon's 'Dead Roses on a Dusky Tomb': Trump didn't win in spite of your 'reasoned' acceptance of the outgoing president's expanded powers, but because you were willing to rationalize its unsavory aspects long enough to ensure its unchecked and unbridled form reached its inevitable conclusion".

Professor De Carlo then flounced out of the lecture hall with the scent of Shalimar, and two or three shirtless Cabana boys trailing behind her discarded veils. "I'm off to powder my you know what. Class -- and I mean the particular one that conflates legal weed smoking with political resistance - dismissed"!

by Jennifer Matsui

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conscientiously · 7 years

Text

A LINE BY LINE RESPONSE TO:

Original post here, if you’re so inclined to read without my annotations.

Let’s jump right in, shall we?

A Line by Line Analysis of “I Am A Female And I Am So Over Feminists” by Gina Davis

“I believe that I am a strong woman, but I also believe in a strong man.”

A strong man? Just one? Also, what does believing that strong men (excuse me, a strong man) exist have to do with anything? Are you arguing that feminists don’t believe in strong men? I don’t feel that the existence of men who are “strong” by whatever convoluted definition of that word you’re implying is a particularly debatable point, not to mention its irrelevancy.

“Beliefs are beliefs, and everyone is entitled to their opinion.”

This is true enough in context, but you’ve already demonstrated that you confuse belief with irrefutably true fact. Being “entitled” to hold an opinion that defies or ignores a proven statement is called ignorance, and it’s one of the biggest problems in the world today.

“I’m all about girl power, but…”

Are you aware of the definition of feminism?

“… in today’s world, it’s getting shoved down our throats.”

As we all know, the most unpalatable, troublesome public figures we hear about day after day after day in media coverage are all feminists working to further the cause of gender equality (looking at you, Donald Trump).

“Relax feminists, we’re OK.”

Who exactly is the we you’re referring to here? Does it include women who are being brutally tortured, publicly shamed and killed around the globe because of their gender? Does it include girls who are denied education because of their gender? Does it include transgender women? I could go on and on. You are grossly generalizing. Congratulations on being happy with your life—just don’t assume all women have your privilege.

“My inspiration actually came from a man (God forbid, a man has ideas these days).”

God forbid, a woman writes an article bashing feminism without confusing women’s rights and male oppression these days.

“One afternoon my boyfriend was telling me about a discussion his class had regarding female sports and how TV stations air less female competitions than that of males.”

At this point, you may notice my respect of your writing skills falling equal to my respect of your opinion on feminism.

“In a room where he and his other male classmate were completely outnumbered, he didn’t have much say in the discussion.”

As an obvious expert on gender studies and sports media, I’m sure his insights on that topic would have been absolutely invaluable.

“Apparently, it was getting pretty heated in the room, and the women in the class were going on and on about how society is unfair to women in this aspect and that respect for the female population is diminishing quickly.”

I’m not sure what your point is with this story. The coverage of women’s sports on television is far from a top priority of any feminists I know. It’s also not representative of the issue of global women’s rights. It’s an irrelevant personal connection to a problem much larger than you, your boyfriend’s class, or even (God forbid) the WNBA.

“If we’re being frank here, it’s a load of bull. First of all, this is the 21st century.”

Here, in fact, we are agreed. It is the 21st century. And focusing on this sub-sect of inequality that is undeniably superficial compared to the real problems real women face worldwide is a load of bull.

“Women have never been more respected. Women have more rights in the United States than anywhere else in the world.”

Yes. This is exactly the problem that many, if not most, self-proclaimed feminists work to solve. How much more chauvinistic can you get than to claim that since women in America have “rights,” feminism doesn’t matter anywhere? I am not just an American woman, I am a woman of the world. I want to show solidarity with Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani who was shot in the head on her way to school because of her gender. I want women who have fewer opportunities than I do to know I care about them and am working to make their lives better. Please, lift your nose out of your privilege and see the serious problems women face in our global community.

“As far as sports go, TV stations are going to air the sports that get the most ratings. On a realistic level, how many women are turning on Sports Center in the middle of the day? Not enough for TV stations to make money. It’s a business, not a boycott against female athletics.”

I can’t believe we’re still talking about equal ESPN coverage. And I can’t believe how sweeping your gender-based generalizations have become. Oh wait, they’ve been this bad all along.

“Whatever happened to chivalry? Why is it so “old fashioned” to allow a man to do the dirty work or pay for meals?”

Number of times I’ve asked myself if the author of this article knows the definition of feminism: approaching double digits. Feminism is not about refusing to let men play historically male roles. Feminism is not about policing your personal relationship choices. In fact, it’s the opposite. It’s letting you, as a woman and ultimately as a human being, take the role you want in your relationships and your community and your world. And letting all other women do the same.

“Feminists claim that this is a sign of disrespect, yet when a man offers to pick up the check or help fix a flat tire (aka being a gentleman), they become offended. It seems like a bit of a double standard to me.”

First of all, logical fallacy: almost everyone becomes offended when they are shown a sign of disrespect. That’s not unique to feminists, and it’s not a double standard. Also, the part that is disrespectful is when people (not always men) offer something without first asking whether another person wants it. A culture where we don’t pay attention to what others want is a culture of normalizing and excusing rape, abuse, theft, dishonesty, and ultimately, collective egocentrism.

“There is a distinct divide between both the mental and physical makeup of a male and female body. There is a reason for this. We are not equals.”

There is a very simple explanation for this physical phenomena: reproduction. You are substituting anatomical truths for sociological ones. No feminist I’ve ever heard of is out to create a uni-gender human race. But every feminist I’ve ever heard of is out to change the ignorant beliefs that because men and women are different, we’re not equal.

“The male is made of more muscle mass, and the woman has a more efficient brain (I mean, I think that’s pretty freaking awesome).”

Now I see what you were saying about believing in a strong man. You refuse to acknowledge the manhood of any men who have less muscle mass than you. You are doing such a great job generalizing the sexes and blatantly ignoring anyone who doesn’t conform to to the two dominant categories! I mean, I think that’s pretty freaking awesome.

“The male body is meant to endure more physically while the female is more delicate. So, quite frankly, at a certain point in life, there needs to be restrictions on integrating the two.”

I'm sorry, are you actually arguing in favor of gender segregation? After all, that is the opposite of integration, which you say you want to restrict. Men, you get the northern hemisphere. We women will all live in the southern.

“For example, during that same class discussion that I mentioned before, one of the young ladies in the room complained about how the NFL does not allow female athletes. I mean, really? Can you imagine being tackled by a 220-pound linebacker? Of course not.”

Actually, I can absolutely imagine that situation, because you can’t police my thoughts. And many women worldwide can do more than imagine it, because something similar has happened to them in their experiences with rape, abuse, or torture. Also, how is this is still about sports?

“Our bodies are different. It’s not “inequality,” it’s just science.”

The bodies [phenotypes] of a white man and a black man are different. The body of a pregnant woman is different than that of a menopausal woman. The body of a sedentary, obese person is different than that of an olympic runner. Are there inherent inequalities in these differences, too? Does every physical difference between people contribute to a hierarchy of superiority? Groups like the Nazis and the KKK answered yes to these questions. And while we’re on the subject of science, does science have an answer for the pay gap that pervades its own very field of study? Can science explain religions that deny women leadership roles in them? Physical differences are not the end-all-be-all of gender inequality.

“And while I can understand the concern in regard to money and women making statistically less than men do, let’s consider some historical facts. If we think about it, women branching out into the workforce is still relatively new in terms of history.”

Only because of millennia of patriarchal oppression. But please, go on.

“Up until about the '80s or so, many women didn’t work as much as they do now (no disrespect to the women that did work to provide for themselves and their families—you go ladies!). We are still climbing the charts in 2016.”

Okay, we were planning to talk about historical facts. These seem to be historical (and present) stereotypes you didn’t bother to research. Or perhaps they’re alternative facts. But please, go on.

“Though there is still considered to be a glass ceiling for the working female, it’s being shattered by the perseverance and strong mentality of women everywhere.”

Wowzers!! I had never thought of it this way before!! You mean women can take a stand against the pay gap and demand equal salaries to make their workplaces fairer for everyone?? We should come up with a term for that movement!! What do you think would be a good word to indicate a strong and persevering woman who shatters inequalities and advocates equal rights for her gender??

“So, let’s stop blaming men and society about how we continue to “struggle” and praise the female gender for working hard to make a mark on today’s workforce. We’re doing a kick-ass job, let’s stop the complaining.”

This is like heading to the bar to celebrate the end of finals week…on Tuesday night. Disastrous. Yes, women are working hard to fix problems and they should be celebrated. But the work is not done and the struggle (which is not imaginary nor ironic and will not be put in subliminal quotation marks here) is not over. In some places in the world, it is even getting worse. So we agree: let’s stop the complaining, Miss “I’m so over feminism,” look around us at the problems women face and get back to work.

“I consider myself to be a very strong and independent female.”

Whoa, me too!! And I know a lot of other women who would say the same thing!! We should, like, call ourselves something!!

“But that doesn’t mean that I feel the need to put down the opposite gender for every problem I endure. Not everything is a man’s fault.”

You’re right; not everything is a man’s fault (the one man again though? The strong one, right?). Who do you blame though, for the pay gap, which you’ve at least acknowledged as being real? Or is it just no one’s fault? When systemic sexism evolves from centuries of being entrenched in a patriarchal worldview, that’s just not worth assigning blame for? God forbid we offend any men reading this article! No, screw it: if you are a male, and you’re reading this, your gender is responsible for thousands of years of oppressed, forgotten, enslaved, uneducated women who could have contributed to today’s society and made the world we currently live in a brighter place. I am not going to blame you for everything (though I could go on), but for that, I see no other instigator.

“Let’s be realistic ladies, just as much as they are boneheads from time to time, we have the tendency to be a real pain in the tush.”

Careful, you almost sound like you believe there is a shared characteristic between men and women!

“It’s a lot of give and take. We don’t have to pretend we don’t need our men every once in a while.”

The infamous royal we. You, madam, do not have to pretend you don’t need your men (I notice you shift to the plural here. Interesting choice.) every once in a while. But I don’t have to conform to your generalizations of a female as needy, vulnerable and dependent on men. Neither do women who choose to be single, women who choose to depend on other women, or women who don’t have the option to make these choices, who have no one, male or female, to depend on because they are isolated, imprisoned, abused, or abandoned.

“It’s OK to be vulnerable.”

If you met a woman who spent her childhood physically and verbally abused, forced into prostitution, and who was risking her life by asking you for advice on getting out of her current life situation, would you pat her shoulder comfortingly and say, “It’s OK to be vulnerable”?

“Men and women are meant to complement one another—not to be equal or to over-power. The genders are meant to balance each other out. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

Your reasoning here has tied knots in my brain by its paradoxes. If the genders are meant to complement, balance, and not overpower each other, then how can they not be equal? In what logical reality does that make sense? Regardless, the world we live in is not one where one gender doesn’t try to overpower the other. Men have spent all of human history overpowering women, and they are not letting up now. There most definitely is something wrong with that.

“I am all about being a proud woman and having confidence in what I say and do. I believe in myself as a powerful female and human being.”

No but really, have you even looked up feminism in the dictionary?

“However, I don’t believe that being a female entitles me to put down men and claim to be the “dominant” gender.”

Neither do I, although I think out of fairness the men of the world should perhaps allow us to spend the next few thousand years in control and see if we end up better off than we have with them in charge.

“There is no “dominant” gender.”

Right. Really. All sarcasm aside, I agree with you 100%. That is why I identify as a feminist. I see men around the world claiming to be the “dominant” gender every single day, and I want to set it right for my daughters and their daughters until modern gender inequality is as archaic as Adam and Eve are to us.

“There’s just men and women. Women and men.”

No, no, no. You were doing so good for a sentence or two there, Gina. This article gets an A+ in perpetuating the binary gender paradigm. Whether or not you personally believe being transgender is a natural gender identification, you can’t simply will away the existence of people who identify outside “just men and women” by ignoring them. If you want to be relevant to the feminist conversation, you need to address everyone it includes, not least among them transgender females, who are much more likely to face gender discrimination than cisgender females.

“We coincide with each other, that’s that. Time to embrace it.”

What a specific, attainable, and empowering call to action to end this illuminating article!! I am going to go embrace a man now and thank him for all he’s done for me and my fellow women!! I am going to go hug my female professors and thank them for teaching me for a lower salary than their male colleagues!! I am going to send a thank you note to my boss for allowing me to “build character” by living on lower wages than my male coworkers!! And don’t forget about the gender segregation act taking effect next month. I’ll see all y’all men at the equator, which will be the only place we’re allowed to “coincide” from now on!!

A personal message to Gina Davis: Please, educate yourself on what the majority of feminists are fighting for. You will find it not so different from your own views, if you think about the problems your fellow women face across the globe. You are privileged to be a white American female, in a loving relationship with a stable income, internet access, and constitutional rights. You are legally free to write articles that help perpetuate laws that deny other women the same exact right. But by the same token, you could use your rights, your freedom, and your education to help further the cause of those women who lack them.

#feminism #womensmarch #sexism #theodyssey #alternativefacts #somanyofthem #andsomanystrawmen #orshouldisay #strawwomen?

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