tradegy...
any 'social contagion' logic presupposes (white, cis, tme, straight, abled, sane) ppl - especially those under 18, are 'pure' by default and thus in imminent danger of corruption, even possession, by unnamed forces of evil. (and, conversely, that those who cannot meet those criteria are vectors of sin –– i mean, symptoms. we can see this in very obvious ways re: discourses of trans contagion, sex ed as grooming, and the like, but it's definitely also worth considering the overlaps w/ Madness & neurodivergence:
before existing anti-trans moms had the main stage, discourses of "feminine contagion" were already being whipped up by many of these same moms, worried that their daughters' [sic] bodily autonomy was the 'evil' at the root of their disordered/disorderly eating, their self-injury, their suicide. fear of anorexia-as-contagion (and self-harm/injury more broadly) is rooted in this fear of bodily autonomy as a force of corruption, and as such, demands to "recover" in normative ways demands a kind of exorcism. it presumes that the Bad Part of us is unnatural and removable, because the person we are Ought To Be occupies the role prescribed to us already. cissexism, ableism, saneism, entangled once more.
one other interesting example of this - and by interesting i mean evil - is 00's A$ rhetoric around the "I Am Autism" video/campaign. Again, autism is a thing that comes in and "possesses" the hitherto "pure" child and must be cured - eradicated - battled. it's no coincidence that the most violent anti-trans bigots rest on the relationships between gender noncompliance and noncompliance with alimentary/behavioral norms, not because there is some magic genetic link between them, but because they are all expressions of willful & "impurifying" autonomy.
For both cis and trans people, family, peers, and mass media provide models for appropriate gendered behaviour, beginning in early childhood and extending through the life course. Learning through enactive experience occurs as individuals engage in gendered behaviour, observe how others respond, and adjust their behaviour accordingly. Early-life punishment for gender nonconformity is often regarded as a characteristically trans experience. In reality, however, not only do cis people share similar enacted experiences, but successful discouragement from gender transgression constitutes much of the cisgender phenomenon.
— Noah Zazanis, Social Reproduction and Social Cognition: Theorizing (Trans)gender Identity Development in Community Context
(✧ω✧)cherry blossom train(✧ω✧)
If we did this to our trains but with half-dying oak trees and pigeons, would anybody be down for that? Just me? OK...
