food prices have skyrocketed but all of us must remember that we're all getting paid half as much as all of us should be, or less

people could support a family on a $7 minimum wage in the 70s, today that minimum wage has barely gone up a few dollars, if it kept up with productivity and inflation you'd be getting at least $35/h working at mcdonalds

Anti-transmasculinity as epistemic injustice/oppression

Reposting a thread I translated that a friend wrote on Twitter cause it should be here too.

I generally speak of anti-transmasculinity as transphobia towards a transmasc subject, but today I would like to address another definition that is more precise and also more specific to transmasc experiences: anti-transmasculinity as epistemic injustice

Considering transmasc people as occupying the same social class as women (cf. TERFs) or cis men (cf. Beaubatie) is too simplistic. Especially since the anti-transmasc will both describe us as crazy and pathetic girls (psychoanalysis) but will also deny us access to queer and/or feminist spaces because of a supposed acquired "male privilege" (cf. excerpt from the FTM Newsletter #41 below (the tone is sarcastic to mock the TERFs + anti-transmasc + exclusionists)

The only constant to explain this reversal is to understand anti-transmasculinity as an epistemic injustice preventing transmasc people from placing themselves as experts of their own experience.

1) The first form of this epistemic injustice, the philosopher Miranda Fricker calls "testimonial injustice" which consists of denying the credibility of a subject because of one or more of these social attributes. She takes the example of non-white people judged less credible and more suspicious by the police. In the context of anti-transmasculinity, transmasc people are considered less credible to talk about gender discrimination (even their own!) because women (rather cis) are considered unique and the only experts in gender discrimination matters. Relegating transmasculine people to the rank of those who would only watch from afar, as women have "women's" problems. Jack Halberstam explains, in "Female Masculinity" that in huge sections of radical feminism "woman" is the exact synonym of "gender minority" so to imagine a "man (even trans)" oppressed by the regime of sexual difference is more than unthinkable, it's heretical!

To illustrate this form of testimonial injustice that undermines the credibility of transmasc people who talk about gender at all and especially of their personal experience, consider this anonymized Mastodon post excerpt below as you can see, the person liked the video, but it instantly loses credibility because it was written by a trans guy. Here again, the idea returns that trans men are outside of feminist struggles on the same level as cis men.

2) The second form of epistemic injustice is "hermeneutic injustice". This injustice is more structural because it is the impossibility for a social group to make sense of its social experience due to a lack of collective resources. For this second case, the philosopher Miranda Fricker takes the example of victims of sexual violence. In addition to protecting perpetrators, rape culture prevents victims from organizing, or even realizing what has been done to them. In the context of transmasc people, I would quote the people who are able to tell you outright "anti-transmasculinity/transmisandry does not exist" Not "this term is not the most appropriate, here is another one", not "here is a criticism at a specific point in your analysis". No, just “it isn’t real” “there is no form of transphobia specific to being transmasc and/or trans and cafab”. I don't think people realize the extent of this form of violence. To "prove" that anti-transmasculinity should not exist, we often make the false equivalence between talking about anti-transmasculinity and being a masculinist (see threads here) Or it is claimed that any and all transmisogyny benefits trans men and vice versa.

Under these conditions, transmasculine people must formulate their specific forms of discrimination in terms of "misogyny", "collateral damage" or even "general transphobia" but never directed specifically against transmasculinities. While we have seen that this kind of analysis had its limit at introduction. The false equivalence between trans guys & masculinists leads to situations like us being specifically targeted by the far-right offensive & instead of having media-trained organizations standing up for our specific interests we have isolated individuals who here and there have to be spokespersons for a community that does not really exist (see Ali Aguado on the Quotidien set) or even forums which (the height of irony!) relegate transmasc people in the background of their feminist and trans alliance (because the arguments are "trans women are women (cis like the others)" and "transphobia also affects cis women") If you claim to be in favor of trans liberation you can't leave half of the community vulnerable like this and paint those of us who attempt to have our specific concerns acknowledged as anti-solidarity. We are all vulnerable and we need each other.

The two forms of epistemic injustice (testimonial and hermeneutical injustice) are not mutually exclusive as they work hand in hand. When one is judged as not credible as a producer of knowledge, one cannot manage to make sense of one's own social experience and we constantly need the approval of "real experts" to express ourselves. In conclusion, I dedicate it to transmascs/men. You have the right to make sense of your social experience as something specific (not the carbon copy of "female/male socialization"). You can use your own words. You don't need endorsement from anyone to invent new words, new practices. On the contrary, get organized! You don't have to love yourself, just get organized! Let's get organized!

I've seen a fair few tags like this so (and if i'm wrong someone please correct me) the DDoS attack does not compromise accounts or passwords or anything of the sort, it just makes the servers so busy that Ao3 shut down

i will never care about the met gala beacuse i know in my heart if you gave a drag queen 45$ and three days they could make something completely out of this world that out every single celeb to shame

i can answer this! the met gala is the main source of funding for the metropolitan museum’s costume institute, which houses something like 30k pieces of surviving historical clothing, shoes, accessories, etc. dating all the way back to the 15th century. the costume institute is the only department of the met that has to fund itself; ticket sales and donations are the institute’s only other sources of funding. the met gala brings in millions of dollars to the institute

i know it seems like just a bunch of rich people flaunting their wealth, but it’s actually what’s paying for the upkeep of all of these pieces of fashion history and keeping them available for public view, instead of in private collections. plus we get to laugh at rich people who don’t know how themes work

the exaggerated threat of “not like other girls” circling back to just vilifying women who don’t conform to femininity. but this time it’s #feminist to ridicule them bc they’re the real misogynists for not liking makeup and pink

Anti-technology people who insist they're not ableist crack me up. What about people who rely on machines to breathe, eat, keep their heart functioning, or otherwise stay alive? "Well not that technology, obviously!" Ok what about AAC users, people who use hearing aids, or otherwise use technology to interact with the world in ways they otherwise couldn't? "Not that technology, obviously." Okay, my mobile phone is my memory, my sense of time, my sense of direction when I get lost, my ability to contact someone when I need help. It is my personal freedom because without it I would need full time care and supervision. But yes, that technology, right?

I hate how technology is made and utilised under capitalism as much as the next guy, but to pretend that technology doesn't greatly improve the lives of countless people, or even allow them to continue being alive, is to be willfully ignorant to the existence of disabled people. A world without technology is a world where a lot of disabled people don't get to survive. Capitalism is the problem, not the technology. Technology can (and should) exist just fine without capitalism.

The relationship between technology and the disabled is complex and multifaceted and I think it's doing the subject a disservice to implode that complexity into "technology improves the lives of countless people", maybe even doing it a disservice to implode it into "capitalism's use of technology is what's bad".

There are absolutely disabilities that existed before technologies that now exist which would produce worse quality of life or inevitable early death before those technologies. I don't want to discount that; many disorders of childhood development, many medical problems, are like this. There are also technologies which are mandatory parts of modern existence which by the fact of being ubiquitous, engender disability. Not even in the sense that, you know, the typical lifelong injuries of car and train accidents were uncommon before cars and trains - in the more fundamental sense that before things like mass literacy and adoption of electric light, a wide range of diversity in human existence was non-disabling which due to those technologies is disabling. I am not arguing for a return to the world before the written word, certainly. But take dyslexia as a simple example; in preliterate societies, the kinds of brains that are dyslexic in literate societies were certainly present (we know this because their descendents are literate and include the dyslexic) but experienced life no differently from "non-dyslexic" brains. What would uptake of technology look like if the disabled had a stake in mass adoption, rather than being ignored or told "it's for your own good"? This is a question I would encourage you to answer before modern existence in the global north by necessity includes things like "direct computer access to your brain" or "long-distance travel in microgravity" or God knows what else. Also please ask yourself: would you feel differently about this if it did and all of a sudden you were regarded as a cripple or "ten years of research, we promise" away from living a full and dignified life?

For those with homes built to keep heat in, not let it out: aluminum foil your windows, shiny side out. Cover the window, tape up the sides, maybe tape cardboard behind it to help insulate from the heat outside and absorb heat that gets through the foil.

Love, a former Californian, whose had to keep houses cool without any electricity.

P.S. this is a method endorsed by FEMA and the Department of Energy, so if you need more than anecdotal evidence, there ya go.

Leona's post is here.

Her YT video is here.

Please spread Leona's story, and her evidence, as much as you can. She has a mountain of evidence proving Bethesda/Zenimax a hostile work environment for trans women, and she deserves to be heard and to receive justice for being forced out of her job.

people used to send me gore in the hopes of upsetting me but when I was an idiot teenager I wanted to be a forensic pathologist (lol. lmao) and read so many textbooks and saw so many dead bodies that images just don’t really faze me.

anyway one time someone sent me gore and when I didn’t react they used “is not upset by gore” as a bullet against me in a callout post. sorry for not being easy to trigger…?

“ruh-roh! this dangerous psychopath failed to be sufficiently destabilized by my attempts to traumatize them on purpose! stay safe guys xoxoxo”

“Tumblr has also always had a good relationship with Reddit from what I can tell. They're not the type to come over here to argue”

really curious what version of this site some people have been on

none of you were women of colour popular in leftist circles in 2013-16 regularly getting graphic death threats, rape threats, and attempts at doxxing flooding your inbox because a post of your’s was posted on /r/tumblrinaction and they had no requirement to censor urls.

actually this happened to a lot of people I knew often enough that we just abbreviated it to “tia,” we all knew what that meant. “inbox off for now because I got tia’ed” (for things including “thinking something is racist that that subreddit disagreed was racist” to “asserting that trans people exist”)

Reddit is like 4chan or kiwifarms to me

“Reddit has also always had subreddits dedicated to keeping up with tumblr nonsense since forever, sharing a lot of our popular posts over there”

yes, for reasons ranging from “a sensible chuckle at a post they think is good” to “inciting people to sexually harass and suicide-bait people en masse for having blue hair and pronouns”. this is revisionist history *bangs gavel*

r/tumblrinaction used to take my posts (I was like 14-16 years old) and post them making fun of me and then I would get a flood of sexist/racist/homophobic hate on tumblr lol people really forgot this happened??

also, not to derail this post, but r/fakedisordercringe and r/systemcringe both reposted tumblr users all the time. They ostensibly have rules about covering up usernames but... never do. Part of why i left tumblr honestly was those subreddits. 

If anyone’s wondering, yes, apparently there are ddos shenanigans against AO3 going on today. Supposedly Anonymous Sudan has claimed credit. Unclear how substantiated that actually is.

I know SS aren’t always reliable, but this is what someone in a server I’m in sent re: Anonymous Sudan

Again, take it as you will, but this is what I know

Yeah. Could be legit. Could be someone stirring the pot for whatever reason.

Yeah, even the volunteers and experts ain’t taking this as legit.

Yeah, it’s definitely suspicious. That group normally goes after major infrastructure, doesn’t it?

LMAO-ing. Saw this on Reddit.

AO3 Status haven’t posted anything yet. Like that’s going to happen.

Joke’s on them. Not only is payment extremely unlikely, but having AO3 down for a bit will make people appreciate it properly.

i’ve seen people theorize this is a false flag by ao3 fans but this seems like folks who just want money. 

this man is out here announcing to the world he sees women as sex objects and doesn't think absolutely anything of it lmao

im reading this manga abt this divorced woman who falls in love with her neighbor and i really love the artists style because the way the artist draws her makes it apparent that theres not only something deeply wrong with her but it veers into looking like a horror manga at points

this lady has a schoolgirl crush and is a total crybaby and she looks like a creature from a junji ito manga

kind of a milf. reblog

tip: when you get sick of crossdressing, transition and then crossdress in the other direction. spice it up

another tip: every 'dressing' is crossdressing if you're transsexual enough about it. follow for more