Avatar

Bliss

@bliss-bliss-bliss-bliss

Dear trans youth:

I am sorry.

I am so sorry you are facing more and more hatred nationally, which I'm sure is emboldening the transphobes in your life to express more and more hatred personally. I'm so sorry your right to safely exist is seen as "controversial" in so many places. I'm so sorry laws are being passed that serve no other purpose than to harm you.

I've always been cis, so I can only imagine how it must feel to have your life mocked and dismissed and so often threatened, targeted as a talking-point by bigots who promote violence against you because it "polls well". 

I'm horrified by the literal, this-is-not-a-joke, actual goddamn genocide already gaining steam in the Northern Hemisphere's taint-stain I mean South, the US South. I hate that I am watching human rights get rolled back with every election cycle. I am more ashamed of my country every day.

As a Californian I feel like I can't do much politically, except vote and sign petitions and write long emails to various representatives (find yours here), but I can at least tell you about some resources I know of:

These folks, and these folks, and these folks, can give you free legal advice, including help with emancipating from your parents if you're a minor.

These folks, and these folks, and these folks, can also give you free legal advice, including help with seeking asylum or refugee status.

I wish I could do more. I wish there were more resources out there for you. (And if you know of any more, please reblog with them!) I wish we lived in a better world.

I am so sorry you have to face all this, but please, please remember that you are not facing it alone. You have allies.

We see you.

We are fighting for you.

Please don't give up hope.

OK this question has been bugging me all morning so y'all please let me know

bc ours did nd I never thought much of it as a kid but know I'm thinking about it and it feels kinda gross? so pls tell me if this experience was universal or not it will haunt me forever otherwise

We had a designated Bucket For Big Messes that was kept upside down on the back porch and rinsed w vinegar and baking soda as part of the regular chores. By the time my youngest brother was 7 that thing looked like it had been questioned under torture

im excited to get top surgery bc oh blah blah disphoria back pain slouching not a girl but mainly because i have been planning for over a year a joke thats about to pay off:

my family does not know i am getting surgery so i made sure to get all the same bathings suits i wore last year in a new size and just straight up gas light my aunt about it

like imagine her. you go to the beach with your family one day. its a beautiful day and you are obsessed with commenting on peoples bodies. everyone begins removing their coverings and you are now seeing someone who, historically, has bazonga’d with the best of them. this person is no longer breasting boobily. child, you say, what has happened to your one redeeming feminine quality? the child responds, auntie wat the hell you tawking bout? ive always looked like this i literally wore this last year??

Examples of needle binding / nålbinding dated ca. 500 - 800 A.D. National Museum of Finland.

Ancient textiles never cease to amaze me. The skill, the intricacy, the unlikelihood of their very survival for us to study them. The grave goods, made with such care by someone so long ago, and then buried with someone they loved, never to be seen by them again. The small, easily overlooked reminder that people have always been people, and even in the hardest circumstances we've always spent time and effort making things beautiful for no practical reason.

Look at that top one! God, I wish I knew what the rest of it looked like. Who made it and why? Did they make it for themselves, or for a loved one? Was it always turquoise, or is that faded from some other color? And in AD 500, needles weren't the mass-produced, easily procured thing they are today. Getting needles, and keeping them sharp and rust-free, was its own whole project. And this looks like fiddly work that required a very fine needle. Why did they bother? Was it a commissioned project by a tradesman? A personal project? Did some grandmother make it for an expected baby? I'll never knoooooow

Anonymous asked:

Female skeletons literally have a wider pelvis than male skeletons so a baby can pass through it. Its ridiculously fucking easy to tell. You're just spouting bullshit. No amount of buzzwords will make you right, sweetheart.

"Female skeletons literally have a wider pelvis than male skeletons so a baby can pass through it."

OK, where's the source for that? If you're going to accuse me of spouting bullshit and using buzzwords, at least cite a credible source for your claim, sweetheart.

Avatar

Absolutely nothing about the human skeleton is ridiculously fucking easy to tell!

I'm sure we've all come across some transphobic asshole going on about "skeletal sex", or whatever the haterese lingo is today. But I've got good news for everyone: that's not a thing! Even the concept of "biological sex" at all is way more complex and amorphous than terfs want to think! I feel pretty confident guessing that the anon who sent this ask has never actually seen a real human pelvic bone in person!

Skeletons don't have two standard sizes like they were mass produced from the fuckin Gap; due to a whole bunch of complicated factors, the range of individual variance is way too wide to definitively identify, say, a skull or a pelvic bone just by looking at it. And anyone who claims they can is full of shit and not practicing good science.

Actually, when archaeologists dig up just a pile o' bones with no grave goods or any other in situ clues, they have tools that can tell them that person's age, race, place of origin, diet as a child, level of radiation exposure, how close they lived to the ocean growing up, how far they traveled, probably their last meal and possibly how they died, how long they've been buried and whether they were moved at some point, what chronic conditions they may have lived with, and even what tasks or chores they regularly did... all more easily than they can tell what that person's genitals may have looked like.

And, of course, what a person's genitals looked like obviously wouldn't tell archaeologists anything about how that person identified, because trans and gnc and intersex or twin soul people - or whatever names their societies had for them - have existed in literally every group of humans forever. In fact most ancient cultures were way cooler about the spectrum of gender expression than Americans are now; our Bronze Age Mongolian steppe sisters would be ashamed of this bullshit.

Anyway, sorry bigots: there's absolutely no science out there to back up your stupid butt phrenology cult

Transphobes be expectin skeletal dimorphism like

you’re twelve years old and you break your father’s hand when he hi-fives you. the first thing you learn is that the smallest slip up can hurt the people you love. your (foster) father smiles and says it’s okay (it’s not). 

your parents are not your parents. the idyllic farming community that raised you is not your home. you’re a You-Don’t-Know-What from You-Don’t-Know-Where. all you know for sure is that you’re not human. 

so you can fly. so you can run fast. so you can lift cars. so what? why do you even have this power? what should you even do with it? 

your father said do what’s right, so that’s what you do. 

you stop a robbery. the man’s knife shatters against your skin and you see the same fear in his eyes that you saw in your father’s when you were twelve. you catch a falling child before it can hit the water. his mother looks at you like you’re a god. 

they love you, even though they don’t know you. the most powerful man in the world hates you because they love you. 

you wanted to write when you were younger. you wanted to tell stories that needed to be told. you never wanted to star in them. you never wanted super-geniuses and demi-goddesses looking to you for advice; like you have any idea how to handle threats to reality itself. you’re just a kid from smallville who’s trying to do the best he can with what he’s given. 

you try and get back to the farm as much as you can. it feels normal being back among the open wheat; where everyone smiles because you’re that nice Kent boy. 

when you were younger, you pretended to fly, hands out to your sides and running through the tall grass by the river. it doesn’t look as beautiful from on high; the details get lost and the colors of your hometown blur together from a mile above ground. 

the problem with flying is that it puts you so far above people you care about

“oh but Superman is such a boring c-“ shut up shut up shut up forever.

It’s no secret that LGBTQ+ women have been breaking boundaries since the beginning of time. Unfortunately, patriarchy and homophobia often leave their identities obscured from history.
While every March marks Women’s History Month, queer and transgender women have yet to get their flowers. There have been attempts to make the month more queer and trans-inclusive, but recognizing the work of LGBTQ+ women goes beyond simply saying that it’s their month, too. It’s our duty to uncover the contributions of queer and trans women throughout history and honor them all 365 days of the year.

these are wonderful women! but they’re all 20th-century, so I would like to add:

Edmonia Lewis (1844-1907)

Biracial American sculptor (Black and Chippewa) who was part of a circle of known lesbian artists in Rome, though information about her own personal life is somewhat scarce. Her largest work, The Death of Cleopatra, was featured in the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, PA. She’s well-known for several sculpture grouping inspired by Longfellow’s poem “The Song of Hiawatha,” more sensitive in their depictions of Native people than many contemporary works.

The Chevaliere d'Eon. chosen name unclear, possibly Lia Beaumont (1729-1810; Chevaliere being the female form of the French word for “knight,” it is the correctly gendered title for her in her own language, not Chevalier.)

After serving as a spy for the French king from 1756-60, and serving the crown at home for a further 6 years (and in exile for 8 more- long story detailed on her Wiki page), she more or less socially transitioned upon her return to France. Claiming to be AFAB, she got the king to issue an official statement to that effect AND pay for a whole new wardrobe of women’s clothing. She wrote a memoir stating that she’d been raised as a boy because her father could only inherit if he had a son- unfortunately, the results of her autopsy made her birth-assigned gender public after her death. I say “unfortunately” because it’s clear that was not her wish; we are fortunate to know about her today for the sake of understanding that trans people are not a new phenomenon.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

I mean, I hardly have to describe her situation or fame, right? A noted American poet who maintained a lifelong romance with her sister-in-law Susan Gilbert Dickinson. Sue’s name was literally erased from many of her poems, only discovered decades later through graphite analysis of the manuscripts.

Angelina Weld Grimke (1880-1958)

Image

Biracial (Black and white) American writer counted among the notables of the Harlem Renaissance. Her best-known play, Rachel, was written in direct protest to the 1916 film “The Birth of a Nation,” which glorified the KKK. Analysis of her work and personal papers suggest that she was attracted to women, possibly exclusively.

Loie Fuller (1862-1928)

American expat dancer and lighting designer who spent much of her life in France. While famous for her “skirt/serpentine dances,” which involved manipulating a vast gown around her as she danced, she also pioneered many stage lighting techniques still used today. She and her longtime partner Gab Soere developed new methods of creating colored gels, and experimented with the use of chemical salts for luminescent paint.

Happy Queer Elders Day to those who celebrate! 🌈🥳💖

Nice that we can’t report the promotion or incitation of violence against us on the basis of our sex 🙄🙄🙄

[edited for space: 'explanation' of how Tumblr will "side with gender over sex every time", which "erodes sex based protections"; what either of those statements mean remains unclear]

Etc.

You know, I'm starting to think that maybe.... just maybe...

... I'm starting to think maybe this person wasn't trying to report anything at all!

I think they just saw the word "gender" and got uncontrollably angry and then felt a compulsive need to say words about it!

(Crazy how widely applicable this meme is)

Honestly though, that image up there is a good reminder of how to report content if you need to. Oh, and don't forget: Tumblr now requires people to log into leave anonymous asks, so if you get some vile nonsense in your inbox with no name on it, don't just delete it - report it first!

And while we're at it, don't forget to report the ladybots with no content on their blogs who are suddenly following you again. It's not a waste of time - appropriate reporting helps the moderators do their job. In my experience, they genuinely do want to make our little hellsite a safe environment for everyone.

Even if their use of the word gender makes your eyes roll back in a rage fugue.

Update: op reblogged with a long-winded explanation that essentially boils down to "the word 'gender' isn't exclusive enough and protects too many people". Which I suppose kind of makes a sort of sense, if you view "biological sex" and "gender identity" as two idiots trying to knock each other off a log, I guess. Or like the Highlander, where they can be only one?

She mentions that she has apparently had mixed results when reporting things to Tumblr moderators, which I suspect might have less to do with the moderators' receptivity and more to do with what she's trying to report.

If she reported someone for having a penis, or liking a penis, or knowing someone who knows someone who likes penises in general, like as an abstract concept, because she didn't want to have to look at them or interact with them or think about their existence at all, and the moderators didn't immediately go to that person's house and arrest them for felonious weiner possession with intent to pee standing up, then I'm sure she's upset. But that's not oppression or harassment; that's refusing to enable her oppression or harassment of others.

Essentially, it sounds like she's mad that she can't use the posted rules to leverage any preferential treatment. Maybe to her, the moderators refusal to follow her orders on the basis of her "biological sex" is them choosing "gender over sex" - when they're actually just choosing the rules over her agenda.

But that's not what the moderators are for. They're there to address actual hate speech, and actual threats - and even actual concerns about suicide or self-harm, and here's how to report that in a way that I promise does not get anyone in trouble:

But they are not there to cater anyone's bigotry. They're not there so you can pull an Amy Cooper on someone you don't think deserves to be in your space. (Pro tip: there's already a way to keep people out of your space! You just can't keep them out of all the space!)

So if that's what she's trying to use them for, yeah, I bet she's disappointed.

To mark the occasion of National Honor Our LGBT Elders Day, just a handful of the out authors and books that have helped to move us all forward to a better day:

Corydon, by Andre Gide, originally published (in French) in 1920.

Stone Butch Blues, by Leslie Feinberg, published 1993.

Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin, published 1956.

States of Desire: Travels in Gay America, by Edmund White, published 1980.

The Mayor of Castro Street, by Randy Shilts, published 1982.

Rubyfruit Jungle, by Rita Mae Brown, published 1973.

A Queer History of the United States, by Michael Bronski, published 2011.

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, by Audre Lorde, published 1982.

Gender Outlaw, by Kate Bornstein, published 1994.

All of the books on this brief list are still available.  Know your history, and where we’ve come from, and honor those who made our lives possible.

Avatar

Me: Did you know that medieval cathedrals weren't actually supposed to be dark and rundown places with only stained glass as color? They were bright places full of light... the reason they look like that now is because of the centuries of accumulated grime and dust, here look at this restoration of the Cathedral of Chartres in France:

It's based on actual paint from the times, and when you think about it, it makes a lot more sense, after all a church is supposed to be a bright place of hope. Yet when we think about the middle ages we think about grimy and dark cathedrals. I wonder how much of our conception of history is shaped by our current visions of historical buildings.

My Goth GF: listen, I don't think this thing between us is working,

Nice that we can’t report the promotion or incitation of violence against us on the basis of our sex 🙄🙄🙄

[edited for space: 'explanation' of how Tumblr will "side with gender over sex every time", which "erodes sex based protections"; what either of those statements mean remains unclear]

Etc.

You know, I'm starting to think that maybe.... just maybe...

... I'm starting to think maybe this person wasn't trying to report anything at all!

I think they just saw the word "gender" and got uncontrollably angry and then felt a compulsive need to say words about it!

(Crazy how widely applicable this meme is)

Honestly though, that image up there is a good reminder of how to report content if you need to. Oh, and don't forget: Tumblr now requires people to log into leave anonymous asks, so if you get some vile nonsense in your inbox with no name on it, don't just delete it - report it first!

And while we're at it, don't forget to report the ladybots with no content on their blogs who are suddenly following you again. It's not a waste of time - appropriate reporting helps the moderators do their job. In my experience, they genuinely do want to make our little hellsite a safe environment for everyone.

Even if their use of the word gender makes your eyes roll back in a rage fugue.

Anonymous asked:

Female skeletons literally have a wider pelvis than male skeletons so a baby can pass through it. Its ridiculously fucking easy to tell. You're just spouting bullshit. No amount of buzzwords will make you right, sweetheart.

"Female skeletons literally have a wider pelvis than male skeletons so a baby can pass through it."

OK, where's the source for that? If you're going to accuse me of spouting bullshit and using buzzwords, at least cite a credible source for your claim, sweetheart.

Avatar

Absolutely nothing about the human skeleton is ridiculously fucking easy to tell!

I'm sure we've all come across some transphobic asshole going on about "skeletal sex", or whatever the haterese lingo is today. But I've got good news for everyone: that's not a thing! Even the concept of "biological sex" at all is way more complex and amorphous than terfs want to think! I feel pretty confident guessing that the anon who sent this ask has never actually seen a real human pelvic bone in person!

Skeletons don't have two standard sizes like they were mass produced from the fuckin Gap; due to a whole bunch of complicated factors, the range of individual variance is way too wide to definitively identify, say, a skull or a pelvic bone just by looking at it. And anyone who claims they can is full of shit and not practicing good science.

Actually, when archaeologists dig up just a pile o' bones with no grave goods or any other in situ clues, they have tools that can tell them that person's age, race, place of origin, diet as a child, level of radiation exposure, how close they lived to the ocean growing up, how far they traveled, probably their last meal and possibly how they died, how long they've been buried and whether they were moved at some point, what chronic conditions they may have lived with, and even what tasks or chores they regularly did... all more easily than they can tell what that person's genitals may have looked like.

And, of course, what a person's genitals looked like obviously wouldn't tell archaeologists anything about how that person identified, because trans and gnc and intersex or twin soul people - or whatever names their societies had for them - have existed in literally every group of humans forever. In fact most ancient cultures were way cooler about the spectrum of gender expression than Americans are now; our Bronze Age Mongolian steppe sisters would be ashamed of this bullshit.

Anyway, sorry bigots: there's absolutely no science out there to back up your stupid butt phrenology cult