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.
I recently heard the news that Adam by Ariel Schrag will be getting a movie. I read the book myself about a year and a half ago and I cannot stress enough just how problematic it is.
Adam is a book about a cis boy pretending to be a trans man in order to trick a lesbian into dating him.
Adam goes to New York to stay with his lesbian sister for the summer, and while he’s there he meets trans men who consider themselves lesbians. At a party he meets a lesbian he thinks is pretty and in order to get into a relationship with her he lies and tells her he’s a pre transition trans man. Let’s make a list of some of the highlights from the book, shall we?
At the very beginning of the book his sister and her girlfriend visit home and Adam and his friend spies on them having sex.
Almost all the trans men in the book identify as lesbians, implying that they are still women because they haven’t transitioned yet.
Adam, a cis straight boy, tells a lesbian that he is a trans man to trick her into dating him.
Incidentally Adam is 17 I believe, pretending to be 21. His girlfriend is in the 23 range, I don’t recall exactly.
There are explicit sex scenes, the first of which involved Adam using an ace bandage to hold his erection down and using a strapon to have sex with her.
In the second one he claims to be using a strapon but is, in reality, using his actual penis.
Which is fucking rape.
The book doesn’t try to justify this, it somehow manages to do something worse.
This second scene is one of the last in the book. After he pulls out he lays down next to her and confesses that he’s not trans. She responds “I know.”
She says after they first had sex she started fantasizing about him as a “real guy” (yes quote) and that the image stuck in her mind and she started subconsciously imagining him with a penis.
And it gets worse.
So he goes back to ohio and she sleeps with other girls (because for some reason she decides not to break up with this cis 17 year old who lied about his identity literally raped her) and one night he gets drunk and calls her a bitch and a fucking whore and whatever, and THAT’S apparently the point she thinks that maybe they should break up.
And one day they message eachother to catch up i think maybe he graduated at this point idk but hes planning on visiting his sister in new york and they wanna meet up and
She tells him about her new boyfriend.
Get ready for it
Cis. Man.
So. We have
An underage cishet boy lying about being an adult trans man in order to trick a lesbian into dating him!
A scene in which he actually rapes her!
The lesbian in question becomes attracted to cis men making Adam, essentially, conversion therapy!
Do NOT support Adam (2018)
Ariel Schrag used to sometimes be in my high school for some reason, so I’ve met her in person and let me tell you with just one look at her it becomes obvious that she sees trans men as an advanced form of butch women
HRT does change your appearance but so does getting full body tattooing and you can get a full body tattoo at 18 without proving to a doctor that you won’t regret it so like…
…maybe HRT being hard to access is actually about transphobia…
*foaming at the mouth while reblogging*
Cis women can get a boob job at 18 without two notes from a therapist
In one episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine, they talk about how trans people have it difficult in prison. In the very next episode the sentence “Nothing is more attractive in a woman than the clear absence of a penis” is uttered.
It’s almost like B99 is a show made by liberals for liberals and its progressiveness is entirely performative.
Just want to point out since the post kind of glosses over the fact that the last sentence is uttered ironically by a gay character who is trying to pass as straight to distract a guard at a women’s prison. The running joke is that he believes straight people are transphobic and homophobic, so when he tries to pretend to be one, he acts that way. The joke is, no one around him acts like what he’s saying is off, making further commentary on how transphobic and homophobic our society is.
one thing I don’t think people realize is that in arguments about human rights, it’s not about trying to persuade the other party. it’s not about them at all. they’ve already made up their mind.
it’s about persuading the audience.
if I call out my teacher on being homophobic I’m not trying to change his opinion. I’m trying to convince any closeted kids in the room that they’re not the monsters he’s made them out to be.
if I argue with my aunt about how racist she’s being it’s not because I expect to change her mind. it’s because I’m hoping to god my cousin’s kids hear and learn that maybe skin color doesn’t mean what she says it means.
people will try to hush you and say “they’re not going to change their minds, don’t bother” but it’s not about them. it was never about them.
I’m torn, because on one hand I love anywhere I see the Pride flag, because more exposure and the normalization of celebrating, not denigrating, our community is great. On the other hand, McDonalds really is crap. There is a ton of sexual harassment and it is often worse for the LGBTQ community. This just feels like a money grab for our community. As a franchise, though, I think things like this may vary by location?
hey so i got accepted to university of massachusetts amherst to begin my ba program in english but they’re asking me for $500 as a required deposit. i’m currently homeless, having ran away from my abusive transphobic parents, and unemployed. the deadline for the deposit is june 1st
please donate if you can, my cash.me is $Victablook and my paypal is vannerho@gmail.com.
i’m currently very miserable in my current university and major, and transferring to this college and doing the major i want will really help my deteriorating mental health
A transgender World War II veteran proves it’s never too late to live life truthfully.
Patricia Davies, from Leicestershire, England, didn’t decide to transition into a female until she turned 90 years old.
Davies — born Peter — has known she was a woman since she was just a toddler.
“I’ve known I was transgender since I was 3 years old. I knew a girl called Patricia, and I decided I wanted to be known by that name but it didn’t stick,” Davies told Caters News Agency.
Davies kept her identity a secret for most of her life for fear she would be shunned by her peers or forced to undergo electric shock treatment.
“The atmosphere [around being transgender] was not safe. People did not understand what transgender was,” Davies said.
Davies — who served in the army between April 1945 and 1948 — said coming out as transgender would have categorized her as a homosexual, which wouldn’t have been accepted in the army.
Despite losing friends and cheating death while serving in the armed forces, she says she’s glad she got to have the experience.
“I feel quite proud having served during the war and having done military service, in particular during the trouble in Palestine,” said Davies.
Davies, who married when she was 21, eventually came out to her supportive wife in 1987. Her wife, to whom she was married for 63 years, bought Davies jewelry and dresses that she could wear in private. Sadly, her wife passed away six years ago.
“I was 60 when it all came pouring out to my wife, she was very sympathetic and helped me all the way, but we agreed to keep it quiet,” said Davies, who first learned about transgender identity from a TV show sometime in the 1970s.
When Davies first came out to her wife, she decided to wear high heels but was deterred when teenagers saw her and threw eggs at her window.
Now a nonagenarian, Davies has begun taking estrogen to move her transition forward and has come out to her community.
“It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I was living a lie,” she told Caters.
“I have been keeping quiet. I have slowly started to tell some of my neighbors. Everybody said, ‘Don’t worry, as long as you’re happy,‘” she added.
Patricia was inspired to make the big change from male to female after seeing the romantic comedy film “Boy Meets Girl,” which features transgender characters.
Now that transgender people are portrayed often in film and on TV, Davies feels more comfortable being herself.
“It’s not 100 percent safe now but it’s much better than it was. People that I have told seem to be very accommodating and haven’t thrown abuse at me,” she said.
“I joined the Women’s Institute. I socialize with them and have a natter [long chat]. I’m having a great time. I have a new lease on life,” she added.
Beltainefaerie's Flights of Fancy 