one of the intersexist beliefs i haven't personally seen addressed much is that well. even if you tell people you are intersex (after forming a trustful bond or answering questions) they just don't believe you. "you're lying", "is this self diagnosis?", "you just want to feel special". they insist you can't possibly be intersex, no matter how visibly intersex you are. i think part of it is because they don't really see intersex as something humanly, they see having someone intersex in their surronding as absurd and most perisex people actively or passively don't really want to "have intersex people on their own yard". even if they seem supportive and understanding, i don't believe most of them would keep that energy if their loved one, be it their partner or their child or anyone else was intersex. to most perisex people the sheer possibility of us existing is an absurd joke. yes, medical professionals too. actually, espeically medical professionals.
I don't usually outright ask people to reblog things, but this issue makes me furious beyond belief, so if you feel comfortable please spread this around - I've done the extremely easy, trivial task of providing a citation from before 2002, specifically 2000's Sexing the Body : Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality.
Assigned sex terminology was not invented by queer people at all, but cis doctors writing about intersex people. This is a fact. This is the historical record. Perisex trans people have taken a lot from intersex folk and so often treat them abysmally. The desire to create a fictional history where a perisex trans woman gets credit for having invented the terminology to describe the trauma of perisex trans women being assigned male - not even all trans people, women specifically, because the ones who do this believe that's the only real trans struggle that exists - is utterly repulsive and if we're still arguing this in ten years, if CAGAB actually goes mainstream in the perisex trans community, I will be downright livid every day.
Because they are just lying. They are lying. It was so easy to find this, and the only reason they didn't is because they didn't try.
Hey, just an fyi for those of you who don't know, you dont have to be ftm or mtf to be trans. You don't even have to be ftnb for mtnb. Sometimes people are just trans. And thats okay.
You don't have to be gender non-conforming to be non-binary and you don't need to be gender conforming to be ftm/mtf. You don't have to pass or not pass or whatever. You don't need to even be trans to do trans stuff. You can do HRT and get surgery to change sex related body parts and still be cis or trans or just a person.
You don't always need to know where you fit into the system to fight it. You don't need to be anything. People get tattoos, pricings, wear makeup, cross-dress, change their hair, redistribute their body mass, etc all the time, it doesn't have to be a big deal to you.
It can be a big deal to some people and for others its not. For some its on their mind all the time and others they never even think about it until someone else brings it up.
You don't have to change your name or pronouns. You don't have to cut your hair or grow it out. You don't need to be born knowing or have had a hundred signs growing up.
However you are trans is trans enough.
There is not wrong way to be a gender. There is no wrong way to not be a gender. Just be you, be kind, and stand up for human rights. That's enough.
i dont really understand why people are so against ridding of the concept of AGAB/ASAB altogether in the name of "well, how would we define being trans then?"
a woman is "someone who identities as a woman." there is no other definition that does not exclude people who are women.
why does it make people uncomfortable to define trans people as "someone who identifies as trans"? trying to force it into some other definition will always exclude or include someone who either does or does not identify with the label. even if we are defining transness using AGAB/ASAB to say "someone who is transitioning away from/does not identify with their AGAB/ASAB", this is already true; there are GNC binary men who were AMAB who identify as trans and bigender women who were AFAB who identify as cis.
we do not need to keep around an oppressive concept that harms thousands of people in systemic and medical fashions because it would be harder to define some words. words that are used for identification are already going to be nearly impossible to define due to the complexity of human identity.
trans people hate it when cis people ask about their genitals so WHY do so many perisex trans people ask intersex people about their genitals? is it only inappropriate when it happens to you? is it only invasive when it happens to you? do you think we don't feel disturbed and sexualized by your question?
I have had so many perisex trans people ask me explicitly "what are your genitals like?" how is that okay?? it happens equally with both cis and trans perisex people!
sexual harassment isn't okay when it's trans people but is okay when it's intersex people?
yknow i never noticed the sheer rareness of images having ids or alt text on this website until i started adding alt text to my art (and trying to remember to add it to any images i post in general, especially text screenshots) and that makes me kinda sad
I feel like a lot of people just don't know how to do it or are intimidated by the prospect. I was too, actually, and I couldn't find any good guides on how to do it (beyond basic formatting) and most guides boiled down to "just describe what you see and important details!" I really wanted to add alt text bc accessibility is important to me, but I would always get kinda stumped on how to do it.
But then I saw this image, I think in a discord server, and I immediately started doing it. It kinda broke the ice for me
Oh wow so me saying "no government documentation should ever include a gender marker for any reason" has been right all along. For exactly the reason I stated when people were giving me shit for not supporting x markers on documents.
Listen.
EVERYBODY knows (or should) that you DO. NOT. STOP. in Vidor, Texas.
It’s best to just run out of gas elsewhere. Whatever you do, black folks, DO NOT STOP IN VIDOR, TEXAS.
There’s a good chance you’ll get lynched or just come up missing - and I’m not joking.
also do NOT stop in Harrison, Arkansas!!!! (relatively close to OK and MI) a nazi town with a BIG KKK organization.
Reblog To Save Life
Okay but like reblog to LITERALLY SAVE SOMEONE’S LIFE
Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please puHLEAAASSEEEEEEE BE SAFE
They are called sundown towns and there are a LOT of them in the US.
This website has a clickable map where you can see suspected and confirmed sundown towns by state, as well as information about whether these attitudes are historical or current.
Reblog for the link
reblog for the link
REBLOG FOR THE LINK
Please stay safe
REBLOG IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT BLOG YOU ARE THIS IS GONNA SAVE SOMEONE
I am poc too and i am scared for my LIFE when i go to the south. please stay safe.
I am not poc but I know this could save someone’s life. Please reblog and spread the message.
My obligatory addition to this every time it crosses my dash, because I know the link is definitely missing ones in my own (northern) state and there are some in this thread not on the above link either - thread by LeVar Burton with a LOT of replies from people naming the sundown towns near them:
Just in case someone is traveling, please be careful
AUTO REBLOG
On this weeks episode of why America is terrifying.
im not american but god this is terrifying
Warning people of the existence of sundown towns feels extra important now.
Tbh I think fandom generally needs to get better at sitting with the uncomfortable fact that a story/fanwork/meme/whatever can hurt one person and help another
This is why I think “tag warning” culture is kinder and more constructive than cancel culture / “no problematic content” culture. One size does not fit all, but if we learn to be more aware of the fact that the same thing can be emotionally validating or cathartic to one person and upsetting to another, and pick up a general mindset of thinking before we post, “what might people need a heads up for in this content?”, we grow more compassionate, more thoughtful, and more understanding of the differences in people’s experiences.
Look. You just gotta sit that pretransition trans girl down and make it absolutely clear to her that there is no essential, fundamental barrier that separates her from the hot girls she's envying. She can do that. They were exactly like her, often less than three years ago. It is fully possible.
Do not let her be scared by the research saying she won't see much results from HRT. She is safe to get help from you, and you will protect her from underdosages by the doctor.
#please op i really really really hope this is true
Ok so there are famously several real issues that work in our favour as well informed, modern-day, community-supporting transfems:
First, research on feminizing hormone therapy is generally speaking Shit. Aside from mental health indicators which have been extensively mapped, far beyond what's reasonable to continue investing effort in, very little work has been done on the physical side.
The studies that do exist generally share a few noted flaws:
- Old school dosage regimens and medications
- Very short study durations, often less than two years
- Poor standardization and small groups
You see the problems here. A puberty should generally have enough hormones and time to, you know, work. It's a bit ridiculous to draw conclusions about the likely results a trans woman can expect based on the two-year timelines of some poor girls who were kept at levels where, if a cis girl had them, it would qualify as an endocrine disorder.
Now, as for guarding against this. Here's the thing: You can double check your dosages. You can demand that the results of your blood tests are shared with you, and compare them with, for example, Wikipedia's Reference Ranges For Blood Tests, under "Sex hormones".
Now, when underdosed, you can refer to the data and say you're not in the right range. By standards of care, you should be. If your doctor won't cooperate, make it a problem for them. You are a woman, demand to see the manager. Get a different doctor. Pursue alternative means.
The trans community has your back and can help you figure out the details. Make sure you have friends who'll protect your bodily autonomy.
Very very important advice in this online landscape: you gotta find your local trans community!!!
These are the people who will know which doctors in your area can be trusted to do what. They'll know how to get you a reliable source of hormones if the medical system cannot provide that.
lovely story from a friend today.
Look, this post has been wildly more popular than I thought it deserved, apparently at least in part because "don't burden others; be independent" is far more ingrained in people than I realized. So here's the thing: society works when people help each other. Helping others gives people a chance to know each other, and gives them an investment in the people they help. Helping creates bonds. People enjoy helping, and you are doing a good by letting them help you if they so wish.
Offer help; accept help. You will be a part of creating a helping culture. Which, incidentally, weakens capitalism and the fractionation between people that benefits those who would use us.
Can I just say I have literally NEVER seen an actual intersex transfem who was AFAB put "AFAB trans woman" / an intersex transmasc who was AMAB put "AMAB trans man" in their bio?
This whole fucking discourse (in refrence to intersex trans people, not the stupid TERF dogwhistle) is literally just perisex people demanding to know intersex people's AGAB and forcing perinormative sex binarist expectations on them based on that. This is intersexist by itself, but the kicker for me is that this is being done specifically for the purpose of excluding intersex trans people from a community they have a legitimate connection to.
Anyway, why don't we go back to the time when asking what a trans person's AGAB was would get you decked. You don't need to tell anyone your AGAB. Especially you, intersex people. Perisex people are not entitled to your medical history, especially when they intend to use it against you.
seeing a popular blog get 2k+ notes essentially saying “intersex people cant be transfem unless i say they can” speaks to how dire the exclusionary practices of the trans community are, especially right now on internet spaces. if you can’t accept intersex people who arent as-close-as-possible to the perisex version of a trans woman in your mind, i cant imagine how many other kinds of trans people you’d see pushed out on a whim. especially the transfems you see as ‘too female’ to be valid in their own identity, that you think theyre encroaching on your space (which is especially ironic if you’re a white transfem saying that!) its really sad that you would live that way, and even sadder that people listen to you. creating a boogeyman is just easier, i suppose.