#i didn't even have to aim | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

poisonousquinzel · 9 months

Text

thinking about just how likely it is that Batman was the only person Harley told about having suicidal thoughts whilst in Arkham in Detective Comics #831

"I was seriously considering hanging sheets from the light in my cell and doing the maximum checkout when I heard this voice..."

Detective Comics #831

and how he knew when she strapped that bomb to herself in Batman (2016) #100 that he had to go after her because she was going let herself die in an attempt to end Joker's rampage for good but that she refused to physically do it because he didn't want to her Kill him and he told her that so she's found a middle ground

"We don't need to end it this way. He needs to be locked back up."

that she'd rather die than keep living with his presence in the world haunting her, haunting Them.

That if he did choose Joker, she wasn't going to disarm the bomb herself.

"Honey. You're talking to the wrong girl if you think he's not dangerous locked up in Arkham. It's like I said. That's not good enough for me. Not anymore."

the way he yells for her as she leaves.

"You're only going to get to one of us in time, Bats. Who's it going to be?"

"Harley!"

the way the two men stare at each other in the way they have so many times before, in those moments when Joker stayed or prioritized their fight over her. the way he knew Joker loved the thrill of it all and thought it was funny, thought there was No way Batman would leave him and that this game had to end as according to the rules. And that Batman would do so, he would follow the rules and save him. The way he immediately assumed Batman would choose him, choose his life and choose to stay and disarm the bomb.

And how Batman didn't do that. How Batman walked away from him, leaving him to die or escape or whatever, because He was choosing Harley and her safety and prioritizing her life over him.

The way he stared him in the eyes before choosing the woman Joker had always left to die over him. The way that it was always Him, it was never a question if he would choose Batman over her, but when faced with that type of scenario, Joker is the one that gets left behind to die.

The way she literally woke up in the hospital instead of them having a scene just outside after he removed it. because she didn't intend to live in one of the two options. the way the bomb probably did go off to some capacity because you don't just end up in the hospital knocked out for a week.

Him saying that he's glad she's okay, after everything they've been through, this war and Everything else. and the way he didn't brush off her concern

"I'm glad you're okay."

"Are you?"

"I had to bury my father again today. I did it with my family."

i just, i can't,,,,, i cant

#have i told yall how much i love batquinn because i really fuckin do #they make me miserable and emotional in all the best ways #we deserve more well written content with them FUCK #and like she COULD have killed that fuckin man when she shot in through the eye but she didn't because she knows how he feels about Murder #even tho j*ker had exposed his identity and was about to horrifically disfigure him in such a similar way to how he permanently changed her #and led her to believe he was going to do AGAIN #during the rebirth death in the family arc when she thought he was going to carve off her face #like she had such a solid reason to just kill him and she could have defended it to batman but she still didn't break that rule #that she knew meant so much to him because shes trying and she doesn't want to ruin the budding trust they've got #and just #i cant #i cannot do it y'all #AND SHE KNOWS HE'S BRUCE AND SHE DIDN'T MAKE A BIG DEAL OUT OF IT BECAUSE IT WASN'T SOMETHING BATMAN WANTED EXPOSED #BUT SHE KNEW SHE KNOWS #she heard J*ker say it right before she shot him #and like that just also something she knows he didn't want her or anyone (let alone fucking j*ker) knowing so her aiming for a non deathblo #just #tw abuse mention #tw clown boy #tw blood #tw suicide mention #harley quinn #harleen quinzel #batman #bruce wayne #dc comics #batquinn #♧ comic thoughts ♧#♢ meta & analysis ♢

198 notes · View notes

worstloki · 2 years

Text

people fr are like "do you expect Loki to always be in armour? 🤨" and I'm here to answer that Yes! Yes I do! In fight situations, at the very least! Take a look at Thor! Take a look at Loki in Thor 1! Or either of them in Avengers 1! Or even - dare I say - Thor 2! Loki's got LOTS of outfits, switching pieces between them and across scenes, even. He goes through the most outfit changes, and they were all cool and detailed and suited to the situations! Even when not armour! So Yes! I either expect him to reflect such bombardment of clothing in the series as well (within bounds of what is reasonable) or armour when he's fighting. Or at the very least for him to be wearing some green.

#'why is it BROWN' 'omg you can't just ask why it's brown...' 'ok. why is he working with the timeline brainwashing genocide fascists?' 'um'#the Loki show #is the mcu for real like we're not going to put loki in his signature colours in a show with his name on it #what kind of clownery #my dude he was in green when he was in a cell on asgard #he got away from thanos in green - albeit hastily modified and a bit worn down - armour #bestie he didn't don a single horned helm in the entire season #my guy that is not loki if he cannot summon a new outfit even when the exact topic is broached in a conversation #my friends please consider that he has inexplicably not been able to get a single dagger of his own to himself in the show #his magic looks like goop and is used twice maybe three times in the series #he calls enchanting an amateur thing and then 3 episodes later needs to be taught by Sylvie and struggles #WHAT IS GOING ON #Thor 1 is shaking in Loki's custom made baby seal leather boots rn #L-Loki can't even do mag-- I can't say it 🤢#THOR has recently done more actual proper magic than Loki #my goodness the lad can't even fight well #what happened to his ridiculously accurate dagger aim and the whole mastery of magic and whatnot #AND THEN THEY ALSO WON'T LET HIM HAVE DECENT CLOTHES?#im losing it #are we sure this is Loki? as in LOKI Loki?#''do you expect Loki to always be in armour'' NO BUT IT WOULD BE NICE FOR HIM TO RESEMBLE THE CHARACTER #don't tell me it's Loki being out of his element he did that in Thor 1 Avengers 1 Thor 2 Thor 3 and Infinity War already #don't tell me they needed to strip him down to build him back up. Thor went through that in Thor 1 and it was respectful #it's not even that it's office wear that bothers me it's that it's BORING office it's unsuited to the character #his whole thing is breaking boxes what do you mean he's worn grey and brown the entire show #Wanda got a glow up and Sam got a glowup and Kate and Clint got new fits #man... Loki got a glow down #and that's saying a LOT since he started the series at the end of Avengers 1 after Thanos and getting beat by the Hulk/Avengers #if Loki being a good guy means everyone keeps calling him evil and he's gotta dress down and get beat up constantly... let him be a bad guy #he's literally got nothing to lose here but a shirt that will expose every blood vessel in his abdomen if attacked with 1 glass of water

493 notes · View notes

osoreruna · 2 months

Text

the way toshinori interacts with your muse is highly dependent on YOUR muse's thoughts and feelings on him, but probably not in the way you think ? it's less of a "you give me attitude, you'll get attitude back" and more of a...respect, or boundary sort of thing. it's strange for him — especially after the kamino incident, after everyone's let in on his true form, because...well, everyone knows ALL MIGHT. while he knows nothing about you, almost everything about him is laid out on a table in front of the entire general public. everyone has thoughts, opinions, even complicated feelings about all might. he's done so much in his 40 years of serving the world, accomplished such a long list of things — touched the lives of so many people, in the biggest and smallest of ways and everything in between...he will never not be able to walk up to someone and assume that, before he even opens his mouth, that they've already got some form of opinion about him, even if it's someone he's never met a day in his life. and while most of the time said opinion is GOOD, sometimes...it's really, really bad. sometimes they just don't like the BIG personality, sometimes it's a political thing, sometimes...sometimes it's the one he just couldn't save...literally, figuratively...and when it's a situation like that, he knows there's nothing he can say or do to change it. he won't FORCE you to like him, won't even ask you to be nice to him... he knows such thoughts and feelings are going to predetermine their attitude towards him and all he can do is adjust accordingly.

#𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧'𝗦 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗚𝗢𝗧𝗧𝗔 𝗦𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗘 + [ MUSINGS ]#whenever i start plotting with someone #even if it's a canon character #one of the first things i ask is their thoughts and feelings on ALL MIGHT.#because it really does determine how he's gonna react to YOUR character.#i feel like anyway...#because while the first thought is “well...who DOESN'T like all might ?” the second thought is #“there's gotta be people out there who dislike him...even DESPISE him.” and it's not just villains...#his goal wasn't to become the world's most POPULAR hero...#he isn't aiming for the entire population to *like* him. so he's not going to put his energy into trying to change that for your character.#he's just gonna respect it and move on.#now #those he's TRULY FAILED ??#those he tried to save #those he COULD HAVE saved but didn't ?#because of a mistake he's made or something completely out of his control — doesn't matter...#but THOSE PEOPLE ??? he still won't actively try to change their opinion of him.#but he does feel as though he owes them *something*...and will always go out of his way to make up for it.#even if it's just for his own sake...mentally y'know —#but anyway i just thought it was interesting because i've never played a character before where —#instead of it being two complete strangers meeting and getting to know each other and so on #in this case...98% of the time the other character already knows mine. already has detailed thoughts and opinions on him.#and knows how they're going to interact / respond to him.#even though he has NO CLUE who *your* character is.#and it's WEIRD LMAO

7 notes · View notes

galactic-glamour-girl-posts · 1 year

Text

Hard to believe we'll be saying goodbye to the kings (and queen) of Kids' WB in the same year...

49 notes · View notes

eoinmcgonigal · 5 months

Text

So I saw a post about tumblr wanting to try this 'communities' thing, and I just gotta vent/say my piece. (the tl;dr is 'fuck that shit')

1. I really hate the current trend of fracturing and fragmenting things down into little pieces so they can be categorised into boxes. That's not natural. (Also, discord pushing threads, which I already detest for 1) making me feel like I'm gonna hurl from the violently dissonant, ugly layout, 2) the severely narrow topic problem, and 3) how neurodiverse-hostile they are.)

Like, naturally conversations meander. If you're only allowed to discuss one topic, it's gonna be stifling. You WILL run out of things to say. Making another little box isn't going to fix it, it'll just add to the clutter

2. Quite importantly, honestly, just stop fucking changing shit. It's unnecessary

3. It's not going to be neurodiverse-friendly. As if fandom hasn't changed enough to become increasingly unfriendly to people who are just here to enjoy their hyperfixation and/or special interest. I don't need another thing to learn to navigate. I don't need another place with different rules to carefully traverse. Yes, I'm fandom old and salty. I'm AuDHD and a spoonie with about half a spoon to spend on a good day. I do not have the energy to do all this switching about and jumping from thing to thing. It's exhausting. I want everything where I can find it, and where I can be passionate without having to perform tasks like it's some customer service job, or job interview

4. FOMO shit is toxic. This whole 'be a part of the thing!' necessity if you want to 'engage' or see the conversations and 'content'. Why? I guess it's a social media model that drives engagement, but the stress of it is going to fuck people up. What if you don't have the time, energy, health, spoons, social skills, etc? I have no idea how much interacting will be expected with other people in the 'community' but I can see it becoming a twitter-like circlejerk, and if you're not one of the 'in' crowd doing your required interaction/reblogging/commenting then you might as well not exist to that fandom/group

5. From the description, it looks like these things will be ripe for drama, toxicity, clique shit, becoming echo chambers, etc. because 'semi public' means you gotta opt in/join in some way and whatever's said isn't visible to any old user

Like, who is going to create and mod these things? Who decides what the rules are? What if your fave is 'problematic', or your kink is 'gross' (if nsfw is allowed at all), your take doesn't fit with fanon, or you are just a bit weird and people shun or turn on you for that?

I hope I'm wrong and either these things never happen or they're not as bad as I fear, but fuck sakes I have the above worries because it's shit I've seen happen time and time again, and I don't want to see given a place here

Also, genuinely, what the fuck is tumblr going to be like if you can't/don't want interact with these community things?

Quickly, 6. it creates an 'us' (in crowd) vs. 'them' (not part of our gang)

And then 7. who is going to be dominant in these 'communities'?

Yes, I'm upset right now, because tumblr was just fine (well, fine enough) until this point. I mean:

We have the ability to make sideblogs! (My Star Wars sideblog from... well a decade ago oops... is still out there, I don't touch it any more but I left it up for people to go through). Tumblr even made it so we can reply with sideblogs, which was a very neat update.

Tags!! I don't think it's as usual these days for people to go through tags to find new content, but that's how I do it, how I've always done it, and how I always intend to do it. I'm not following everyone who makes an SAS:RH post. I love you guys, but no. My dash would cause me to have a panic attack. It's already too much for me most days.

EFFORT!!!! I can be here every day full-time doing Stuff if I want! Or I can zone out for weeks if I want/need, materialise and contribute a silly meme, then drift off into the sunset again. If I 'miss' anything, I can go back through the tags, or scroll someone's blog. But honestly, who notices/cares on here if someone lurks or goes afk for a bit. It's super low pressure, because I'm doing what I can/want when I can/want

I want to opt in/out on my own time and terms. The thought of having to be part of a 'community' so I can see/not miss Content TM is freaking me out. I don't want there to be an 'appropriate' time window to interact with things like there is on other social media sites.

So, idk how the shit will look, but I don't agree with making things harder for people to access/find. I won't be posting stuff 'semi-privately'.

And you know what's super upsetting? The thought that I won't be able to see conversations and creations for things I love, because they're hidden away behind some complex new social thing I can't navigate. (Which is already an off-putting, ostracising problem on discord.) That's not how fandom communities should be.

The thought of there being less stuff 'out there' because it's in some 'community' somewhere... really not the direction I'd ever hope this site wold go in

I'm fuckin exhausted. Just lemme do my fandom whateverness without having to perform to some arbritary social interaction standard/requirements that I neither understand nor can do

#i want to murder discord threads because this feels like similar bullshit that's just gonna exclude people #JUST PUT SHIT WHERE PEOPLE CAN ACCESS IT EASILY #aim to be as inclusive as possible with as wide an audience and engagement as possible!#why is that so damn fucking hard?#also lol how long until they'd turn communities into a subscription thing or something #they keep changing shit and the newer people to things like discord and tumblr and fandom in general have no idea what it was like before #things have not always been this bad!#they were bad in other ways but nothing as exhausting as this social-media-model bullshit #yes i'm very fucked up over discord's update #i detest threads with a violent passion there's no fucking need to separate everything out until nothing is left in the channel #i can't even turn the ugly icon off in servers i own #i miss irc #i miss forums #i didn't like lj that much but goddamn #i miss pre-jumbled-up-tags tumblr #i miss pre-threads discord #we do not fucking need this change but it's being shoved down our throats because investors want to see new shit #i'm off to see if i can fix discord so i don't nearly throw up when i open it #the horrible thing is that it looks faintly passable in light mode but i can't read in light mode and you get light or dark and nothing els #personal #vent #just in case anyone hides those tags idk this has been a vent post #i'll go back to rogues soon

5 notes · View notes

sesamenom · 20 days

Text

trying to figure out Lomion's relationships for the reverse gondolin au - so far I have Rog as his mentor instead of Eol and Celegorm as his "uncle". he's not particularly close with Idril, but Turgon helps him with the politics/statecraft stuff. anyways I can't figure out a marriage candidate for him for heir-identification purposes so

#silm #silmarillion #reverse gondolin au #not art #lomion #i dont really have any ship/sexuality headcanons for lomion #so idk who to stick him with #but he is the high king after all and does need somewhere for the crown to go in the case of his likely demise #maedhros can get away with zero children because he has plenty of brothers & cousins #but sadly lomion is an only child (or at least the only surviving child...?)#and by his reign most of his family has been wiped out #idril still sails in the au so she cant inherit #i think celebrimbor is the only close friend/family he has living after the destruction of gondolin??#celebrimbor def would not *want* to be king but i could see him taking the crown in an emergency #so that sauron/morgoth/whoever would focus on him and give his family/people time to escape #the lomion/tyelpe idea actually happened bc i was thinking about if he should be obsessed with the opposite cousin the au #since idril is like 300some years younger than him and they didn't meet until much later #and anyways they're even more cousins-removed than russingon so it should be fine right? lol #the other main marriage option im considering is giving one of the other Lords a kid #maybe egalmoth can have a random daughter somewhere in there?#i don't want to make it too much of a 'random person + random heir kid' situation #so maybe he can just adopt a kid? but then if he dies early the kid is too young #(bc he doesnt have a kid when idril arrives)#also gil galad is younger here to make the timelines work #anyways and if he dies early and his kid is too young but he's also not married and has no siblings then idk who would be regent #bc by the end of the FA i'm aiming to have turgon & aredhel dead; elwing & earendil dead/departed; tuor dead; and idril sailed #and then that leaves like nobody alive family wise #aaagh help me i have no idea who inherits after him #like. does celebrimbor have to be king for a few hundred years? he probably would sooner dissolve the formal kingship than deal with that #or do i throw it back at gil galad? how does gil even get to gondolin?? where does he come from

4 notes · View notes

wereflamingo-in-thai-dramaland · 1 month

Text

I need a triad ending for Beauty Newbie so bad!!! Saint even said some vaguely arospec sounding things, so please please please, just let him be the semi-platonic third to those two socially awkward nongs?

#beauty newbie #thai drama #guys great's character is so fun and ficcable #you gotta watch it #great sapol #also jane is incredible in this show #you gotta #and it turns out ployphach is a chameleon??? i didn't know that #also this show has things to say and although it's definitely aimed at thai gender issues specifically #didn't we all enjoy the warp effect even though many of us have had better sex-ed than that show provides?#watch itttt #c'mon you've seen the emi gifs you know you wanna

5 notes · View notes

dnalt-d2 · 2 months

Text

(probably gonna delete this later idk)

So this isn't Q S M P related but I need to scream into some uncaring void about this so

But I just spent MUCH longer on a project than I really should have (because life is a bitch and chooses the worst times to decide to kick you in the nonexistent dick) and WAY too much of said project was some very tedious nonsense

Like not difficult, but irritating and time-consuming. Basically arranging things in a way to look more coherent in a project file

And of course, I finish it, I get it all done, but decide to add one last part, and subsequently place it where it needs to go

Only to accidentally click on the wrong button

And find out

That there's been a shortcut to this thing I've been doing

This entire goddamn time

LITERALLY mere moments after finishing the project

If anyone needs me,

Don't

#not QSMP #Just cause #I had joked with my cat a few hours before because I was tired and my back was hurting #“Just kill me Nolan you can do it I believe in you aim for the jugular”#And when this happened I actually looked at him and said #“Why didn't you kill me when I asked you son of a bitch”#“This could have all been avoided”#But cats simply aren't beholden to your silly little jokes #Nor are they beholden to mine #I have worked for 7 hours straight #Fueled on nothing but Dr Pepper #roasted potatoes #ritalin #and apathy #I'm lucky I even remembered to eat #And I still have to finish up one last thing on it tomorrow #After a doctor's appointment #And an apartment viewing #If my cat doesn't kill me in my sleep then goddammit what was even the point in getting a cat #I'm gonna go fist-fight a raccoon or something now #I just can't think of anything else to do #delete later #maybe #Idk man it's 5 in the morning for me

3 notes · View notes

bobtheacorn · 5 months

Text

I have a 3 y/o and it's after turkey day and she developed the Sniffles this weekend so today we laid on the couch and binged Mickey Christmas movies/specials and Duck the Halls (2016) was one of them and I just have a couple of questions that I'd like to ask the furry fanfic whump authors that were sitting in that writers room pitching ideas, chief among them....... Why?

#like yall were not slick i see you lmao #girl what were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament .jpg #one of those 'makes no goddamn sense. compels me tho' things for real #look it was on in the background while i was making alfredo and like #i dunno!!!!!!!!#anyone feeling weird abt diving into the monster/animal physiology of their fav anthro characters don't even worry about it is all im sayin #the big mouse done done it Apparently #get weird with it who even cares #donald almost dies of hypothermia bc hes a duck that didn't fly south and his friends rush to save him this is the most #trope heavy #whumptastic #furry fanfic writing shit ive ever seen in a cartoon aimed at kids like i'm laughing this isn't a good example #furry fanfic writers do it better #at least they play it straight and dont chuck it under a goofball lense skjdasfkla I DUNNO *throws hands*#i have to laugh i don't know i'm rotating that stupid 20 minutes in my brain and it won't get out #personal

3 notes · View notes

dinra-al · 11 months

Text

Ok now that totk has been out for a bit and recieved much praise and I've completed the main story, it's time for the discussions.

Did anybody else find the sky islands very underwhelming? Because I found them very underwhelming.

#loz totk #tears of the kingdom #ramblings #it's like. they were such a big part of the marketing in this game and hyped up so much #but they're all actually rather boring! surprisingly there just isn't much going on up there #and also basically none of them are unique! they all have a near exact clone/clones somewhere else in the sky #just getting from one island to another can be a pretty annoying task early on #and it's made worse when you finally GET to the island you're aiming for and there just isn't much of anything there #besides some dazzlefruits or something idk #even the most fun islands get repeated! like the skydive ones! and the giant spheres!#just like. the depths are way more fun and interesting than the sky islands #and the depths didn't even get any marketing #okay rant over #also the sky crystal shrines are tedious and not fun in the slightest there I said it

8 notes · View notes

detransdamnation · 1 year

Note

Maybe i am in a bit of a blind spot now but stumbling upon your blog and a few of your last answers made me question - if gender roles were nonexistent in society so the sex a person has wouldnt dictate how they are treated - how could someone develop an unease about something truly neutral? I know there are sex differences in humans and thats what we talk about when we speak of transsexual people - the desire to change sex based on a terrifyingly strong discomfort with the one one has. But i am at a loss when it comes to understanding where would that discomfort even start/be influenced by (again as long as the sex you are would make everything neutral) because i always assumed that its that dichotomy of how society views females and males is what later translates into the literal base of where it comes from which is one’s sex. Then - Would the dysphoria grow out of purely desiring something that one doesnt have along the lines the grass is greener on the other side? Getting to experience sex the way it feels like as the other sex (especially in case of not heterosexual people)? Or only An aesthetic pursue? If the only thing that differentiated us in society would be the biological abilities of our bodies and the appearance of it…why do you think would someone still come up with an idea of desiring the other?

After reading especially the last answer it made me think that after all there must be some truly transsexual people who are just born being transsexual. Thats why i decided to send it because i think you established somewhere that you believe there are no trans people who are trans ”just because”, just because they have a brain of the opposite sex trapped in the wrong body etc.

I hope this makes some sense, its not an attack on anything you said more of a big wonder and desire to understand better and i really hope it comes off this way.

You make total sense. Your message doesn't come off as an attack at all.

Anon, I'll be real with you. I reread my answer on whether or not I believe gender abolition would also abolish dysphoria. I did rush in writing that response, greatly so, so the way I phrased my thoughts was particularly subpar; however, as I was trying to tie everything together in this response to you, I realized that the viewpoint I argued didn't really make sense when I held it up to my other beliefs. So, this is a humble admittance that I was, frankly, talking out of my ass. I'm going to use this as an opportunity to reassess my beliefs on this topic and will be re-answering that question once I have done so.

In the meantime, one of the best ways to assess your beliefs is to argue something you disagree with or are unsure of, so I'm going to double down and continue the argument as if I'm completely confident that it's the truth, if only to hopefully better explain where I was coming from when I wrote my previous response. So, proposed argument: Gender abolition will not necessarily abolish sex dysphoria.

First of all, what causes dysphoria and how does gender fit into that framework? I talked about this at length here [AL] and here [AL]. I specifically want to zero in on something I said in the former link:

I [...] do not personally believe that there is a “main reason” on as to why dysphoria may develop in a young person in all cases. I suppose my own “main reason” would be that I fell into the trans community because I never thought seriously about transitioning prior to that time—but the thing is, even if I hadn’t, I would still be dealing with everything else that influenced my getting to this point. [...] If I were to take the trans community out of that equation, it would just be the influence of the trans community missing.

Let’s replace the influence of the trans community with the construct of gender and let’s fast forward to this hypothetical dream society where gender is not an existent thing. We can apply what I said above. We’ve taken away gender and its influences—but we still have everything else. There are numerous factors that could cause a person to develop sex dysphoria; in a genderless society, we have only taken away one. In order to shut down any possibility of dysphoria developing, we would need to get rid of every single possible factor and influence and that is just not a possible feat. Homophobia is a significant factor in many cases of dysphoria and will remain so in a genderless society unless efforts have been previously made to abolish it. No amount of social change will ever eradicate abuse, which can be a trigger in dysphoria in that (especially long-term) abuse victims are prone to redirecting emotional pain to certain aspects of themselves, especially in an effort to regain control, even though they may not “make sense.” It is also impossible for us to eradicate, for instance, natural aspects of our biology that are just plain inconvenient or uncomfortable, which may become objects of fixation (especially in puberty) and cause a person to develop sex dysphoria thereafter. These are just a few examples off of the top of the head—but they and more may all continue on as potential factors because these things, in and of themselves, do not have anything to do with what we have abolished. They do not cease to be potential precursors to mental illness, such as dysphoria, just because we have taken one precursor away.

But why dysphoria? Why would someone develop sex dysphoria in a genderless society if sexes were seen as entirely neutral? Well, let’s turn our attention to another mental illness that is perhaps most reflective of dysphoria (so reflective, in fact, that some people believe them to be one and the same): body dysmorphic disorder. Body dysmorphia is “a mental disorder characterized by the obsessive idea that some aspect of one's own body part or appearance is severely flawed and therefore warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix it.” One’s “flaws” cause significant distress, even to the point of seeking out cosmetic procedures in an aim to “fix” them. Anything can be a trigger in body dysmorphia, although some of the most common include facial features, hair, skin complexion, and coincidentally, sex characteristics such as breasts, facial hair, or genitals—which are all inherently neutral features. No physical feature is objectively “wrong” or “bad,” “good” or “right,” “pretty” or “ugly.” They just are.

So, then, we could ask the same question: Why would people with this disorder fixate on these features and develop an unease with them if they are truly neutral? We could argue the societal pressure of beauty ideals, and certainly, that is a factor in a lot of cases—but if body dysmorphia were truly an issue of how certain features are seen and treated, exclusively, then by all means and purposes, people who are considered to be conventionally attractive should not also be seen developing the disorder. Marilyn Monroe could be an example of this: considered one of the most beautiful women in the world in her time and years after and yet (was believed to have) struggled with body dysmorphia until the day that she died.

Things don’t have to be “not neutral” in order for someone to not like them. Things can be neutral and still cause one discomfort. Things can be seen and treated as indifferent by the collective and yet still be hated by the individual. Why do non-dysphoric people have insecurities at all? A lot of the time, they don’t have specific reasons. I don’t feel they need to have reasons. Just like I don’t feel dysphoric people need to have an ultimate reason on as to why we would develop sex dysphoria when we could have fixated on any other physical trait.

I think where people tend to get tripped up in these discussions is, they try to apply what they know to be reasonable to mental illnesses and how they present in order to rationalize, to themselves, what we are feeling and experiencing—but in doing so, I feel we easily lose sight of the fact that, even without mental illness, the brain does not need a logical reason to fixate on something, to hate something, to want to get rid of something. Marilyn Monroe having been an icon of beauty did not change the fact that she didn’t like her face—and my not believing in gender does not change the fact that I don’t like my sex and desire to be the opposite. Marilyn continued to feel the way she did because she had body dysmorphic disorder. I continue to feel the way I do because I have dysphoria. Both disorders alter how we perceive reality and cause us to believe things about ourselves that are not objectively true. We desire what we do not have because that is a symptom of the inherently nonsensical disorders that we have. That is all there is to it. That is our “why.”

And I am content just leaving it at that. It is my own personal stance that we cannot chase the logistics behind something that is not logical to begin with. At the end of the day, there is no ultimate reason for mental illness. Mental illness does not need to make sense. Mental illness only needs humanity. It will continue to exist no matter how humanity progresses.

So, under this argument, there are a few different points to be had, main ones being that gender abolition will not necessarily abolish sex dysphoria because gender and sex are not one and the same; to take away gender is to take away only one possible factor in one’s dysphoria; and although outside factors can (and do) influence dysphoria and would continue to do so in a genderless society on account of the previous two points, there’s ultimately no “reason” on as to why dysphoric people would continue to cling on to their sex in this society where the two sexes are seen and treated as the exact same—simply because dysphoria, being a mental illness, does not exist on a plane that is rational.

Considering these viewpoints and assuming that they all coexist in this genderless society, then, it may be easy to conclude, like you did, that some people are just born transgender. I do understand how you may have come to that conclusion after reading my response and even I, looking back, feel like that is what I insinuated, even though I did not mean to and was not coming from that position. To clarify, as I have stated before, I do not believe in the idea of “true trans,” and seeing as this is a belief that I actually hold very true to and have for a long time, I’d like to explain why. This is no longer me proposing an argument that I am merely “considering.” This is me demonstrating what I believe.

There are a few different things to consider in the statement, “People are born transgender,” starting with the implications of what it means to be transgender and specifically the dysphoric aspect of it. To suggest that someone could be born transgender is also to insinuate that someone could be born dysphoric, that someone could be born already set to hate their bodies as they grow older.

Of course, we could be less technical here. You may not be born with mental illness in the literal sense—but you can develop mental illness extremely early on in life. So, under the argument that dysphoria is a mental illness, dysphoria can develop from a very young age, and therefore the child, express (what may be interpreted as) a transgender identity. Okay, fair enough. What I have never received closure on is, if a young child exhibits hatred of any other part of their body for any other reason, it is universally considered abnormal, a red flag, something to treat—but as soon as gender or sex comes into the picture, this self-hatred becomes something to validate.

Let’s say that a young child tells you that they do not like their body. Without any other context, what would your first reaction be? Chances are, you would assume that someone or something in this child’s life has taught or influenced them to think this way, even if only inadvertently, and hopefully, you would rush to tell this child that there is nothing wrong with their body, that they are perfect just the way they are. But let’s say, after probing a little further, this young child tells you that they don’t “feel like” their sex, or that they want to be the opposite (in little kid terms). Would you then change your tune and decide that they were “born that way,” that they hate their body because they were just meant to be the opposite sex instead? If your answer is yes, or your no follows hesitancy, I have to wonder what, specifically, would change your mind. What is it about dysphoria that is so different from any other form of self-hatred? Moreover, what implications do you think there are in a child telling someone they presumably trust that they are uncomfortable in their body—and that trusted adult telling them that they are uncomfortable in their body because they were, indeed, born “wrong?”

This leads to an essential question that we, ironically, so often overlook. We have a dysphoric child in front of us. What would make them transgender? The most likely definition of a trans person that everyone could agree on would be someone who is dysphoric, likely someone who has been dysphoric since early childhood—but even that is not a perfect or even accurate definition because not all people with dysphoria go on to transition, not even people with long-term or “treatment-resistant” dysphoria. If dysphoria does not make a transgender person, what does?

Let’s say we have one-thousand dysphoric people in front of us and one person in the group—say, the young child in this analogy, now an adult—is transgender. The only thing that distinguishes this person from the rest of the group is the very act of transition. If this person had never transitioned, there would be no difference between them and the rest of the group. We would have a solid group of cisgender dysphoric people. The transgender person is distinguished only through action, self-identity and personal experience in attempts to accommodate that self-identity. “Brain sex” has been proven to be a myth, so we know there are no biological differences to point to them having “needed” to transition—and even under the possibility that there do exist biological markers in dysphoria that we have not discovered yet, that does not prove that people can be born transgender. At most, these markers could stand as predispositions, similar to how people can be carriers for certain diseases or have “bad genes” that make them more likely to suffer from certain ailments—but none of these things equate to destiny, and in fact, in the case of dysphoria, would only prove that a supportive environment could prevent it—and transgender identity—from coming into the picture at all.

The suggestion that some people are just “made” to go through with any action, including transition, is an insinuation of fate—and I do not believe in fate. I believe in free will to some extent, although that would open us up to the more philosophical question of whether free will is truly free, seeing as we are reflections of our environment and cannot completely separate ourselves from it. In either case, we have seen and established that we can both influence one to develop dysphoria, as well as prevent one from developing dysphoria, all depending on how we, as a society, treat them—and if the people around us can help to prevent dysphoria from becoming an issue entirely, thereby circumventing the desire to transition at all, it is impossible for transgender identity to be truly innate to any one person.

In summary and in closing, mental illness, including dysphoria, is encouraged by—and sometimes even brought on by—our surrounding environment in almost all cases. Environments naturally change overtime, and in the process, certain factors in mental illness may become less common or even disappear entirely; however, just because one goes away does not mean all others disappear. One of many of our possible futures as a society is one without gender, and unsurprisingly, this would get rid of gender as a trigger in dysphoria—but so long as no other factors have been dismantled in the process, they will continue on as potential influences in its development, even in this genderless society. It then may be easy to conclude that some people are just “born” transgender, especially seeing as how the development of sex dysphoria in a genderless society would be even more random (comparatively to that of a gendered one)—but that conclusion, that “Some people are just born that way,” would not be reached with any other mental illness, and beyond that, does not give us, the society, enough credit or responsibility. The fact that there are trans people who barely even remember not being trans, such as myself, stand not as proof that we are “true transsexuals” but as proof that we live in a society that is hostile to multiple vulnerable populations and it is up to us to change that. Gender abolition will not solve all of these problems and it may not even get rid of sex dysphoria entirely—but it is essential and a great place to start, which is why I continue to stand for it, even despite it not being a perfect fix.

I hope this gave you a little more to think on.

#i hope this didn't come off too accusatory or preachy #i tend to argue with myself when i write and i can never tell if i'd come off as harsh to someone else #because for all i'm concerned i'm looking at my normal train of thought lmao #anyway anon in the time i left you waiting for a response i have done a lot of thinking #and i have so many more thoughts on this topic than even i previously assumed #my beliefs have already actually rather significantly changed since my previous post #at least in that i am now looking at the situation with a lot more nuance that i had neglected to consider at the time #but hopefully the argument i proposed here paints a bit of a better picture on where i was coming from when i had originally written it #it's far from perfect but then again nothing is perfect to me so i'll just aim for... good enough.#and on another completely unrelated note i have no idea which anon this is because all of mine type the same #someone needs to take on a more distinctive typing style so i can tell who's who lmao #submission #answered #gender critical #writing #text #my post

18 notes · View notes