Some of you may have read Jesse Singal’s article about transgender people in The Atlantic. Singal presents a narrative where female to male transgender people are confused and misled. Since some gender variant people find peace with their assigned gender, the story implies, others could too.
If you are trans, I am sure some transphobes will show it to you, your friends or your family. The misgendering in The Atlantic’s promo tweet (above) gives them all they need.
“Liberals” who try to undermine the legitimacy of transgender identities can actually do more harm than binary conservatives. Singal makes use of the fact that there is a spectrum of gender identities to imply that the ones who truly need help transitioning, may not be who they think they are.
Anti-trans “liberals” like Singal will often argue that since life is complex, messy and fluid (which is true), means that trans kids cannot be trusted when they tell you who they are (which is not true).
If a young person continuously and persistently – and over a long period of time – tells you that they are a girl, a boy or some shade of non-binary, you’d better believe them.
I am also taking the liberty of republishing a twitter thread written by Booker Mendes. It gives you the main arguments for why the narrative presented by Singal is so dangerous.
See also trans philosopher and activist Julia Serano’s twitter thread about Jesse Singal’s history of anti-trans activism.
An aesthetic that first appears to be pure and basic Heterosexuals Are At It Again, but becomes increasingly uncomfortable until you finally understand:
these babygrows (onesies) with parental professions on eBay.
An entrepreneurial sort, eBay user “justtheshirt” realized that for some people, the perfect gift for, say, the baby of a beekeeper is a onesie saying “Daddy’s Little Beekeeper.” In fact, the more obscure the profession, the more excited the customer will feel about the representation! So they took a list of All the Professions, and generated a listing for each one. If someone buys a onesie, they can stamp it with whatever the listing said – and make a rather enormous profit, on a £3 onesie, having made exactly one design and used one script. Genius!
The issue is, they didn’t curate the list. Not a single human appears to have overseen this process. So they have inadvertently created some uncomfortably themed babywear, like “Daddy’s Little Maid,” “Daddy’s Little Nightwalker,” and “Daddy’s Little Courtesan.”
The database also contained a massive proportion of obscure Medieval English professions, like “fulker” and “meader” and “whipcord maker.” (The auto-generated listing enthuses something like, “the perfect gift for a whipcord maker – or just for someone who wishes they were one!”)
There are onesies for babies whose daddies are herbalists, muleteers and sacristans.
I have come full circle in my feelings about this and now I am all in favor of dressing babies in these, as long as the profession is incredibly obscure, and the daddy in question refuses to explain anything.
Oh please tell me they had the sense not to make a “Daddy’s little proctologist…”
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I thought we left this psuedo-psychology in the 60s, shelved away with Frued. So, uh, because this apparently needs to be said:
COCSA (child on child sexual abuse) is a thing and a form of CSA, it is differentiated from “playing doctor” in by actual genital stimulation, as is being suggested
An adult permitting COCSA is sexual abuse
An adult exposing a minor to pornography is sexual abuse and grooming behavior
Exposure to pornography is one reason, second to having been molested, that a child will initiate sexually abusing another child
I WANT A BULLET PUT IN THE HEAD OF WHOMEVER THOUGHT THIS WAS HEALTHY AND GOOD.
THIS IS JUST LETTING MORE CHILD PORN BE DISTRIBUTED BEFORE OUR VERY EYES AND MORE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO START ACCEPTING IT UNTIL IT BECOMES LEGAL.
And by amazing, I mean, “well, at least this time people are being relatively straightforward that they prefer evangelical propaganda to actual scientific resources on child development and safety.”
But, you know, by all means tumblr, buy into the evangelical fantasy that the entire western world is a modern gomorrah rife with child sex slavery and ready to be burned by the cleansing fires of god.
That surely hasn’t even been used as a way to oppress and fucking murder people, and definitely never caused thousands of children to develop severe mental illnesses and oh yeah, to lack the words to describe being fucking raped so that they are unable to get help or protection. /sarcasm
Being antisexualist gets children hurt, and this kind of alarmist, anti-science claptrap is exactly how.
reblogging for the debunking. I had such a feeling of bafflement as I read the first few replies, wondering why people were accepting this at face value. Then I remembered the hysteria that always accompanies the combination of the word “children” and “sex” even when the latter is part of the phrase “sex education”.
please stop spreading reich-wing propaganda
Debunking time!
Additionally: I didn’t notice until now that if you go to OP’s blog they’re a literal Nazi, but indeed that is the case! Most of the first several commenters also declare right-wing affiliation in their bios.
Reblogging for the debunk and analysis of fascists spreading around bullshit.
Please, reblog! IIt’s called self defense. Apart from having here, in the US, one of the highest cases of homicide and rape in the world and high rate of GBV, think about how this could help your mother or sister
@everyone who reads a multichapter fic and comments on each individual chapter (rather than commenting just once at the end) so the author can see you read through to individual events with changing thoughts and reactions: i would kill a man for you.
I try to do this as much as possible but I feel like I’m annoying y’all 🤦🏾♀️
We live for this shit. You are definitely not annoying.
Beltainefaerie's Flights of Fancy 