It’s been my impression that radfems and trans ppl broadly agree that gender is bullshit; it’s just their responses that differ.  In this way it’s similar to the way libertarians and marxists agree that capitalism is bullshit, but libertarians respond by leaning into all the shit that makes capitalism bad in the first place, while marxists want to flush the whole system and start anew.  In both cases, one focuses on the individual, while the other focuses on the collective.

By: Chloe Cole

Published: July 28, 2023

Might as well call her a murtad and kufr.

"The medical industry mutilated me, maybe don't mutilate other kids," shouldn't require bravery or renouncing an ideology.

Reminder: A minor under the age of 18 is too young to agree to a cellphone contract. 🤦‍♀️

ellen page is just sad to watch, especially so because she’s trying to incorporate “trans joy” into her brand. a lot of people can’t get past her not having long hair and makeup, but even accounting for that it seems like she’s gone through a lot of aging in a short period, and/or looks quite tired even when prepped for appearances. also, she’s got her “proof i am a man” book coming out which appears to largely consist of, “i am an androgynous lesbian who was raised in a family that made it clear they all hate me. i have also been regularly threatened, sexually harassed and assaulted because i am a lesbian by people i work with, and i can’t say who it is. I have a longstanding poorly treated eating disorder and self harm problem, as well as serious depression. while isolating myself and struggling to cope with this, i abruptly decided to undergo radical cosmetic surgery and refashion my entire identity to be appeal to the people who have hurt me my whole life, because nobody will help me.“ the fact that an industry that was sexually abusing her for being a lesbian was willing to edit every public mention of her name almost within hours of her changing it, and it’s given her much more prominence than she had before, does support that.

I'm so proud of her!!!

Seeing a lesbian journalist break from her employers and speak the truth make me extremely happy.

pls read this thread what happened was absolutely horrendous

The uk is a dystopia

Yeah I just saw this here's the notes from the Twitter thread

Johnny Depp fans pay $3k to unseal court documents to get dirt on Amber Heard, but ended up unintentionally exposing Depp and information he tried to keep private.

2.Johnny Depp attempted to use revenge p*rn against Amber Heard by submitting her nudes into evidence along with information she briefly worked at a strip club before fame— all while knowing the trial would be televised

3.: Johnny Depp actually submitted manipulated photographs of his “injuries” with altered metadata.

4.: Johnny Depp intentionally manipulated audio tapes of arguments between him and Amber, and refused to provide any recordings that weren’t edited or altered. The metadata also confirms they were manipulated.

5.Here’s a sample of missing pieces of audio from the infamous Amber Heard tapes that were leaked by Johnny Depp’s team. (The deleted portions are in red)

6.Johnny Depp fought to have expert testimony from a renowned psychiatrist denied, in which she concluded “Amber was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of Mr. Depp”. Amber revealed to her during a session WITH Depp that he was abusing her and that she would fight back.

7. The most damning piece of evidence that Johnny Depp attempted to have sealed— his declaration that Amber Heard did NOT cause him any “specific physical or mental injury”.

Much more damaging evidence can be found via:https://archive.ph/OMjhk

Johnny Depp is the abuser. Amber is a victim of abuse and global DARVO

"Women surgeons are doing something right – we have to find out what it is and address it," study co-author Dr. Angela Jerath told USA TODAY.

hi radfems what are your favorite novels? i’m trying to read/reading mostly female authors but my shelves are still looking very male

The last thing I read that really stands out is Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Her writing is so good.

If you like YA Libba Brays Great and Terrible Beauty series is good. Victorian girls school, magic, betrayals, wlw.

Holly Black is more YA but fun if you like urban fantasy (I do think a lot of her books have het romance shoved in but the world building is rad)

Blood Water Paint is really interesting so far tho I’m only like half in. It’s an almost poetry almost diary like writing from the pov of famous painter Artemisia Gentileschi.

A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibbons is another I’ve just picked up but already love. Dracula’s brides pov, very lush language, bisexuals everywhere, sensuality and death galore.

All time favorite books are The Secret Life of Bees, The Red Tent, and House of The Spirits. All written by women, all very much stories that focus around women and their relationships to each other.

I am reading the power by Naomi alderman and idk it’s not my fav but I do enjoy the general concept. Also I gotta recommend Emily dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington (collection called Open Me Carefully). Also anything by Shirley Jackson is a winner to me. Also oh yes tell it to the bees by Fiona Shaw is great.

Try The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley. Badass women, cool sci Fi concepts, and not a male pronoun to be found.

Announcing the Rad Lesbian Separatist Discord!

if you’re a lesbian who’s a radical feminist (or at least leans that way) who’s looking for a lesbian-only space, this just might be the place for you!

Themyscira, named after the infamous women-only island, is a discord server created after the latest separatism-is-evil discourse in radfemblr a little while back, when the homophobia really jumped out. I made it for those of us who wanted a space where we could discuss both political and not topics without having to deal with homophobia, or general hetero bullshittery.

this blog is new and specifically made to advertise, as my personal blogs are all “stealth” and would be impossible to advertise on, but I’ve been a part of radfemblr for a good 10 years now. users such as:

@appropriately-inappropriate

@hidetothink

@lilith-apologist

@joanofrad

@nervousfeminist

can all vouch for me if needed.

we have all kinds of channels all nicely organized for your convenience!

we have:

recommendation channels: for all your fave movies/books/anime/TV shows/ext

nerdy channels: D&D, gayming, sci-fi, even a bot for catching Pokémon!

labor of love channels: crafting, art, writing, language learning, even cooking!

after dark channels: adult(18+ only), spooky, and plenty of spilled Tea~

(note: you do not have to be 18+ to join, all 18+ channels are locked for those under 18)

we do have some ground rules.

first, when you join you’ll automatically be placed in arrival, where you will wait for ether myself or one of my mods to approve you. simply let us know who you are and who gave you the invite link so we can ether approve you there or confirm you’ve already been approved.

once you’ve been given the member role you’ll be able to see the rest of the server and officially join us!

the rules themselves are pretty straightforward.

*rad-leaning actual homosexual women only. you don’t have to actually consider yourself a radical feminist. many of us don’t after dealing with a large amount of homophobia from radical feminists, with things like “political lesbianism” being seen/treated as a core belief, separatism treated as an evil ploy by vindictive lesbians out to make hetero women miserable, ext. I stopped identifying as a radical feminist a while ago, but this channel is for actual homosexual women who recognize biological sex, oppression based on sex, ext, and you don’t have to actively consider yourself a radfem to know these things.

*no abuse. all debates, should you have them, need to be kept civil and friendly. we are free to agree to disagree, but if you feel a belief or opinion of another member is beyond that, inform a mod or myself. personal insults, harassment, and Mean Girls-esque cliques are prohibited. we’re all friends here.

*no slurs. it’s one thing to refer to yourself with a slur you’ve reclaimed, but do not do so for someone else without their permission. this also includes the use of words such as tr*nny and f*ggot. these words have a history of bloodshed and oppression and regardless of modern politics should be avoided. modern words such as “troon” have no such history and pretty well only refer to modern bullshittery and therefor, for now, are acceptable. if you feel a word may be questionable, ask ahead of time.

rule of thumb: if you replace the comment with the slur with another minority group, if it sounds like something someone on fox news or the 700 club would say (ex: “the tr*nnies are targeting our children!” -> “the f*ggots/q*eers are targeting our children!”) you need to rephrase it. your point may be valid and entirely factual, but if your wording is hateful it will get you nowhere. if it is truly valid and factual and without hate, it can be reworded to reflect that. if it can’t, it may not be as factual and accurate as you think it is.

*no bigotry. things like racism, ableism, ext are not acceptable. and yes, that does include actual transphobia. many may think that’s obvious, but as we tend to see in radfemblr, it isn’t always so obvious, so I gotta say it anyway. treat your sisters the way you’d like to be treated; do no harm but taking no shit. and if you see some shit, flag down a mod or myself. flame wars help no one. don’t waste your time once you realize what you’re dealing with.

*for these reasons, users such as toppdyke and those who associate with her or act in a similar manor will not be accepted. ya’ll are absolute drama lamas at best and I’m not having that shit in my server. sorry not sorry.

if you’d like to join us just like/reblog this post (if only advertising/signal boosting please say so in your tags) or send me a message, along with any questions you might have!

I hope to see you there!

I am so interested! Please send an invite when the queue opens up.

Boosting for my lesbian homies.

SO MUCH YES!!!

@realphilosophytube I am an actual Black African woman here. Nigerian to be specific. That is me in my profile pic albeit distorted bc I thought it was funny.

So that should dispel any rumors of me being a “secret white woman”.

Here are the reasons why it is not only racist, but misogynistic and outright offensive to compare the plight of Black/African women to trans women.

1. Black women were always seen as women.

-Black and African women were never questioned about our womanhood.

Our humanity was denied. But never our womanhood.

So lets dead that shit right there.

2.) Soujourner Truth’s “Ain’t I Woman” poem was specifically about the sex based plight and racism black women faced.

- Here she talks about how she saw almost all 13 children sold to slavery.

A very popular tactic that was used to produce more slaves was to have Black enslaved girls start reproducing children as early as 12 or 13 years old. Not women but girls. On some plantations the more children you had the better chance you had at gaining freedom.

A sex specific form of sex based oppression that intersected with race.

Here black women’s biology was used against her, to breed more enslaved black children.

An astute example, Black women were seen as women. But not as human beings.

Sojourner Truth

Specified right here in her own poem. Black men who were also enslaved right side along with black women said “women can not have as much rights as men”.

Sex specific based oppression that shows even though black men were oppressed by white people. Black men were still able to oppress black women.

It is offensive to compare the plight of Black American women who were raped, abused and beaten. Saw their own children sold right into slavery, to a bunch of white men who feel they are women because of a fucking feeling.

3. Jim Crow laws were created to further deny the humanity of all black people.

(I do not know the history of bathrooms in Britain, So I will focus on the history of American bathrooms).

In the United States the first female public bathroom was not created until 1906, in Massachusetts. Then in the 1920’s did other states begin to follow Massachusetts. Not all states had a public restroom for even white women at this time.

It was not until the 1950s did it become the new normal for states to have public restrooms.

Then in the 1980s did it become required by law for every public establishment to have both female and male restrooms.

Prior to the 1906, women regardless of race were restricted to their home. There are tons of good feminist writings on the Urinary Leash. That restricted how far women could travel.

4. Doctor J. Marion Sims.

-Doctor J. Marion Sims specifically used the bodies of enslaved black women whose NAMES ARE ANARCHA, LUCY & BETSY. There is said to be 16 other enslaved black women he used in his experiments but they never survived.

Dr. J Marion Sims would perform hysterectomies (removal of the uterus), cesareans, abortions, and more on these women over and over and over again

Even after anaesthesia had been discovered. Some women could not take the torture so they killed themselves.

But how do you think these abortions were done?

By forcibly having other enslaved black men rape these black women repeatedly until they got pregnant. So Dr.Sims could continue his sick gynecological experiments.

It is funny how “black women were not seen as women?” But their forced sacrifices and their FEMALE/ “not seen as woman” bodies provide the basis of ALL MODERN GYNECOLOGY.

Funny how “black women, were not seen as women” but our bodies were woman enough to breastfeed the Slave Master’s children with.

Funny how “black women were not seen as women”, but when the Slave Master was horny, our “not seen as woman” bodies, were good enough to fucking rape.

Not only is it fucking racist and misogynistic to compare the historical and current oppression of black women to you a white trans “woman” and other trans “women”. It is fucking offensive.

Get it straight.

BLACK. WOMEN. ARE. THE. ORIGINAL WOMAN. THE BLUE PRINT.

All life started from Africa. All life started from a BLACK WOMAN.

There is a reason across all tribes, different languages and different religions in Nigeria and across Africa Birth, fertility, life and nature is associated with BLACK WOMEN.

We black women are not your fucking mules.

We are not your fucking footstools to use as a pedestal to prop your rickety narcissistic identity/ movement on.

I see the racist and outright fucking bullshit you are trying to do.

Black women’s womanhood is not up for debate. ✨Black women were born female. We are the original woman. The Mitochondrial Eve. We are the givers of life. ✨

Do not come for us because your daddy gave you the inferior Y chromosome. Do not come for us because you were born with a dick and pair of balls or active SRY gene.

That is not our problem, or our issue.

Your own biology gatekept you from womanhood. Not me, not terfs, not any “perceptions” from how people see you. It is your biology.

💖✨There would be NO womanhood without black women. We are the original woman. The epitome of woman and womanhood is THE. BLACK. WOMAN.💖✨

You are a sad copy. Know your place and keep black women out your thin lipped mouth. Thank you. 😊😊😊

Watching videos of “celebrities that ruined their careers in 2020” and they deadass put JK Rowling as number 1 lmao, the guy before her was an accused sexual predator, others called the police on their black co-star and some have had old websites with nazi imagery but she’s the worst? The whole thing is a joke

i mean. she’s a whole ass idolized transphobic asshole whom compared trans related stuff to conversion therapy and has written books under the pen name robert galbraith who’s, in fact, a shrink that experimented with conversion therapy and used prisoners to conduct experiments with bulbocapnine -to induce stupor- and LSD. 

considering these things and how much influence she has/powerful friends she has, the impact she had(has) on pop culture, and the amount of trans people being attacked and/or murdered still, on a daily basis,,,,, yeah, she definitely deserves to be on that fucking list. 

She’s compared trans people saying that lesbians and gay men can be attracted to the opposite sex to conversation therapy rhetoric (which it is) and she’s explained the name. You know not everyone knows American history right? She’s British, why would she choose an American homophobe to name herself after?

She said biological sex is real and important in women’s rights and gay rights and y'all lost your shit

she compared surgeries and hormones to conversion therapy, so. no.

and it’s kinda hard to believe that it’s just a massive coincidence that somehow, her idol and a character she created years ago somehow ended up making the same name as a homophobic shrink, but let’s say it actually is accidental. alright. doesn’t change the fact that she’s speaking about stuff she doesn’t know shit about and is offending trans people. she cant comprehend nor live in a world in which we say People who Menstruate so as to include everyone, lmao. She’s an asshole.

You do know surgeries and hormones have historically been used as conversion therapy and still are in a lot of places right?

It’s not that huge a coincidence. Her childhood fantasy name was Emma Galbraith and Robert came from her political hero Robert F Kennedy. So she merged them. Again, Robert Galbraith is not common knowledge outside of America.

She’s talking about stuff she knows, it just pisses you off. Biological sex plays a huge role in homosexuality and misogyny as well as our bodily functions (only females can mensturate, and adult human female is called a woman). She’s just not letting you silence her and it’s pissing a lot of you off, she’s standing up for women and gay people

It’s also ironic that she’s on the “celebrities who ruined their careers” when her book sales went up 10.9%. She’s doing just fine

And JKR is such a franchise and an eponymous name that even if every single publisher on the planet refused to stock her new novels, she could just self-publish as e-books, charge 9.99 and keep 70% of the royalties.

As opposed to the 10-20% she’s probably getting now.

Fun fact--When Rowling was first published, she never sold the ebook and audiobook rights to Harry Potter. She outright owns them and could theoretically publish them on her own website for 100% of the profits*. She doesn’t--she pays her publisher a portion of the royalties to handle ‘marketing and promotion’. Technically, she already is self-publishing. And Jo? Gets a HECK TON more than 10-20% for each ebook sold. 

That woman’s business savvy as a writer? Legendary.

*OK it’s a tiny bit more complicated than that, because her publisher probably has first right of refusal and they own things like the cover art and US ‘translations’ and other related things, so she could theoretically run into legal trouble. But she has waaaaay more control than 99.9% of traditionally published authors out there.

As it turns out, journalist Kim Wall was not dropped off on shore by Danish inventor Peter Madsen, nor did the 30-year-old accidentally hit her head on his submarine’s 150 pound hatch, causing her to “bleed violently” and ultimately die.

Rather, Wall, who had thought she would be doing “a fun interview with an eccentric Danish inventor who built his own submarine,” was dismembered and decapitated, then tossed into the ocean in a bag full of pipes, in order to make her body sink. Madsen’s DNA was found on her body, as well as stab wounds (in particular, multiple mutilation wounds to Wall’s genitals) and stitches, which were sewn into her torso.

It did not come as a surprise to me when investigators announced that Madsen had “fetish videos” of women being tortured, decapitated, and burned alive on his computer. It was also reported that the 46-year-old frequented “fetish nights” and “sex parties.” Indeed, Madsen attended nights put on by a collective called “Kinky Salon,” which claims to want to “make the world a better place, one pervert at a time.” The website explains:

“Behind this door you can unlock community, creative expression, and sexual liberation, becoming part of a movement to change our culture’s unhealthy attitude towards sexuality.”

Kinky Salon describes their parties as “arty, playful, fun, [and] sex positive” — a “safe space” where “all kinds of people and all kinds of sexuality are embraced” and where people can “explore their sexuality without fear of judgment.”

While blaming fetish parties for men’s decisions to kill women may sound like a stretch, the notion that BDSM porn and the sexualization of violence that is acceptable (encouraged, even) in the “kink community” is harmless strikes me as a dangerous lie. When anything goes and when anything that turns an individual on is celebrated without critique, where is the line? If violence is harmless sex, the idea that violence is sexy becomes an accepted part of “sexual liberation.”

Indeed, the term “violence against women” is never mentioned in Kinky Salon’s “don’t” section. How could it be? “Shaming” individuals for their sexual desires is said to be a repressive practice by those who second wavers referred to as “sexual liberals.”

In the kink community, no fantasy is off limits. From Seattle to Toronto to London and Los Angeles, Kinky Salon explains they are “queer friendly, body positive, accessible, and inclusive,” advertising a “safe space for ALL to pursue the fantasies they seek.” It has become unpopular to suggest there should be limits to the kinds of fantasies people indulge in. The common perspective taken up by liberals, queer activists, and third wavers (echoed by Kinky Salon) is that sex is the thing that will liberate us and that the only possible response to sexual repression is to indulge in anything and everything that comes to mind, free of shame. “Consent” is emphasized, to be sure, but the idea that “consent” can transform an abusive or violent practice into something positive and “liberating” is a questionable one.

No progressive person today would argue, for example, that if a black person “consents” to slavery, slavery can be empowering or liberating. It is irrational (and dangerous) to claim that imagery depicting the torture and murder of women can be “sex positive” so long as the women featured on camera have signed a contract. Fantasizing about torturing women should be viewed as unhealthy, at least, and a sign of an abusive man at most.

Polly Whittaker (AKA Polly Superstar) is the founder of Kinky Salon, and calls herself a “sex culture revolutionary.” In a video taken at her book launch, a number of her guests explain that a “sex culture revolutionary” is someone who “fights against the system that tells us who we should be at the expense of our happiness.” It’s a strange, rather juvenile, certainly hedonistic way to fashion one’s politics, as it centers one’s own personal pleasure over absolutely anything else. It’s also dangerous.

Indulging narcissism is not going make the world a more ethical, equitable place. It is not going to change systems of power or address systemic problems like poverty, sexism, and racism. Positioning our personal desires and pleasure above all else means we can justify anything at all and even politicize indulgence because, according to these “sex culture revolutionaries,” “fucking can change the world.”

The mantra embraced by sexual liberals and articulated by one woman interviewed in Whittaker’s video, that “there is nothing wrong with pleasure” and that it is “all good for you” is not, in fact, true, as many people take pleasure in extraordinarily sadistic practices. Sometimes those practices are harmful to others, sometimes they are harmful to the individuals themselves. Sometimes the practices are harmful to society as a whole. Pornography that depicts incest, racism, and abuse, I would argue, is not good for society, if indeed we wish to live in a society without those things. It is neither “good” or “healthy” to draw no lines between what is ethical and what is not, simply because the thing is pleasurable. Building a society wherein living things are treated with respect will not come from encouraging people (men, in particular — as they are the people who are in a position of power already and socialized to view women as things that exist to provide them with pleasure) to indulge in any and every fantasy they have.

Those of us who consider ourselves to be ethical, progressive people should discourage and condemn the sexualization of violence, regardless of “consent,” just as we have condemned practices like child marriage, sexual assault, pedophilia, slavery, and domestic abuse. When a woman chooses to remain in an abusive marriage, it does not mean the abuse is acceptable, nor do sweatshops become ethical the moment a person agrees to work in one. There is no reason why sex should be the exception when it comes to our ethics and politics, particularly in a world wherein women and girls are sexually abused (and killed) by men every day.

Last week, an indictment against Brendt Christensen was upgraded, alleging the 28-year-old intentionally killed Yingying Zhang, a visiting scholar from China, in “an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner.” The new indictment contends her death involved torture or serious physical abuse and that Christensen kidnapped and killed Zhang “after substantial planning and premeditation.” When investigators searched his phone, they found Christensen had visited a forum on FetLife, “a Social Network for the BDSM, Fetish, and Kinky Community.” Theforum, called “Abduction 101,” hosted threads like “Perfect abduction fantasy” and “Planning a kidnapping.”

This is not the first time FetLife has been implicated in allegations of abuse. Yet, according to an article in The Atlantic, the site has a policy that prohibits users of making “criminal accusations against another member in a public forum.” It sounds like the ideal place for a man to go not only to indulge his violent fantasies, but to expand upon them, find victims, and learn new ways to torture and abuse women.

Violence against women happens everywhere, but removing our ability to name it as violence is dangerous. The fact that we, as a society, have labelled things like torture and abuse a mere “fetish” should alarm us, but instead these practices are defended time and time again by third wavers, liberals, leftist men, and the queer community. Any space or community wherein men feel safe and supported in indulging in violence against women needs to take a deep look at their so-called politics — ethics and women’s safety should precede any individual’s sexual pleasure. That men have learned to put their pleasure first has created a world where sadistic men like Madsen and Christensen not only fantasize about hurting women, but make those fantasies a reality.

This is exactly what trans activists should be doing instead of forcing their way into female only spaces- everyone deserves to be able to go into their own space surrounded by people with similar experiences and feel safe and accepted.

Excellent project. Shelters like this should be set up for trans youth across North America.

Awesome! Hope this project excels.

I was a resident at a place similar to this several years ago. It was started by a transman and his wife, and they were incredibly helpful and compassionate people. They would teach interview and job hunting skills, do work exchange for rent while you were getting on your feet, had weekly get-togethers for the trans community, and helped a lot of people find a place where they felt like they belonged.

They gave it up after several transwomen residents caused problems and spread rumors because they didn’t like the house rules.

idk if you’ve noticed but a lot of detransitioned women have dropped off the internet lately, here’s a video about it

so back when I was on testosterone and incredibly frustrated at my inability to cry, I did some research on what exactly testosterone does chemically and biologically to make the physical act of crying so hard.

aside from inconclusive data (”yes, testosterone inhibits crying but we’re not sure how”), I did find that men’s testosterone levels fluctuate when hearing babies cry depending on how they interpret those cries. basically, testosterone decreases when men sympathize with the baby and try to address the cause of their distress, whereas it increases when men just think of the cries as annoying.

also, if you’ve ever met someone who’s a nurturing grandfather but was apparently a terrible father, you can be 99% sure their decrease in testosterone levels throughout time has something to do with it.

Considering PMS is a more of a social construct than something that can be proved to be caused by women’s hormones, I’m going to call this all BULLSHIT.

The evidence concerning testosterone and increased aggression in men is inconsistent and inconclusive. Personally, based on research, I do not believe testosterone causes aggression in men or people in general, because it could be that aggressive acts simply cause elevated amounts of the hormone and not the other way around.

To say that men cry less frequently in our western culture because of hormones or based on an essentialist perspective is really over simplifying the issue. Men’s testosterone levels actually increase or decrease when hearing babies cry based on if they have control over soothing the child or not? The study was conducted with those robot babies from sex Ed classes and the men who could soothe them had decreased levels of testosterone. I haven’t heard about other studies about their perception on children in general having an effect but im sure they’re outliers. Just like how reports on pms symptoms vary between cultures, so does the frequency of how people cry. Men are raised in our western culture to always have control over their emotions EXCEPT anger because they are encouraged to display dominance and to be strong, which somehow equates to being violent and angry. Women… not so much.

Women, from the time they are born, are encouraged to display their emotions. Girls are told that it’s okay to cry but boys never should unless under certain circumstances. The differences between genders can be explained by Social Learning Theory. Kids learn how to act based on their gender through modeling and reinforcement/punishment based on the social construction of gender.

To say that hormones somehow dictate how men and women behave is completely stripping people of their agency and accountability for their actions.

Maybe just MAYBE men are more authoritative caretakers later in life because of something called experience? Maybe they’ve learned that they don’t have to adhere to strict gender roles and can just be warm with children without being called Feminine and having a negative stigma around it? Don’t just let men off the hook for being shitty parents during their early-mid adult years because of something they can’t control like hormones…when really we all have more agency than to be sold short like that.

All in all, the American psychological association has touched on several correlations concerning hormones in their articles, but the one I buy the most is socialization tbh. Think about this people, do hormones determine behavior or does behavior influence hormones?

I never said hormones dictate how men and women behave. I’m talking based on my experience as someone who literally injected testosterone into themselves and observed changes in their mental and emotional reactions to situations. that doesn’t mean I had no agency over my actions and shouldn’t be held accountable for them, it just meant that my initial responses were objectively different given varying hormone levels.

I never said men are more nurturing later in life exclusively because of hormones, just that I assume hormones have a role in their emotions when parenting and later on as grandparents. how large of a role they play, I don’t know, but it’s not nonexistent.

it’s nice to think it’s all about socialization, but I repeat: I filled up syringes with testosterone and injected them into my muscles and saw an objective difference in my emotions. that’s not something I’m going to ignore.

As another woman who used to take t, I know what a impact hormones can have on the mind. I also found it a lot harder to cry after taking t. I experienced many psychological changes while on testosterone. Many of them I didn’t like and that was one of the main reasons I stopped taking it.

Both socialization and biology shape how people turn out and dismissing either of them is dismissing reality. Taking t didn’t cancel out the years I spent growing up as a girl but it sure did change how my mind worked while I was on it. Hell, it might have even had permanent effects but I can’t know that for sure since no one’s doing research on shit like that.

I can see the appeal of thinking that all differences between the sexes are due to socialization but I don’t see enough evidence to back up that theory and my own lived experience contradicts it. An interactionist perspective, where biology and environmental forces influence and shape each other to create differences between people, makes more sense.

Another woman who used to be on t chiming in. I’ve never been a big crier, but for the entire two and a half years I took t, I didn’t cry. I didn’t even tear up. I don’t believe it increased my aggression, but it most certainly decreased my patience a lot. Gave me a ‘shorter fuse’ if you will. Furthermore, it hugely affected my attention span. 

After quitting t, I can cry and I am much more patient. However, I’m still dealing with problems relating to attention span and executive dysfunction that were a direct result of taking testosterone.

Also, as someone with a non-sex-linked hormone disorder, I can doubly confirm that hormones have a very real effect on our mental and emotional health. While the emotional differences between men and women are heavily influenced by social factors, we cannot write hormone influence off. 

On this day 3 years ago Mike Brown died because a trigger-happy cop thought that Black lives didn’t matter. The Internet is still filled with nasty racists trying to justify the murder of Mike. And what is even worse they’re also all around us in the outside world.

You will never be forgotten, Mike. 

#HandsUpDontShoot   #MikeBrown   

#PoliceBrutality

Passing Tips From Gender Youth Group

Submission by: @e-cryptid 22, United states of America

“First of all, you need to pick a new name. Then you’ll need a binder and maybe a packer but make sure it’s not too big of one. That’ll give you away. Try wearing button ups but not if they’re flannel. That’ll make you look like a lesbian. Layering shirts helps, too. Buy bulky shoes and boot cut jeans. Maybe shoe lifts because you’re kind of on the short side for a guy. Keep your hair cut longer on top and shorter on the sides. Square off the hair in front of your ears. It’s too feminine to have it be triangular. Shave those little translucent hairs off of your face. Only women and children have them. You can wear a single earring or a leather bracelet but no other jewelry. Nothing rainbow because, again, that’ll make you look like a lesbian. Use only the lower ranges of your voice. You can find vocal training videos on YouTube if that’s not good enough. It’ll also help to speak in more of a monotone and try to mimic other guys’ speech patterns. Study the way they walk, too. Sit with your legs spread or one crossed over your other knee. Either way, take up plenty of space. Bulk up but only certain muscle groups. Don’t talk when you’re in the bathroom. Use less exaggerated facial expressions. Try not to qualify your statements. Cross your arms over your chest, not under it. Don’t skip. Don’t giggle. Don’t cry.

It’s going to feel so good to finally get to be yourself.”

Hey… to anybody reblogging this and not understanding that this is a detransitioned woman sharing her experience of being pressured into acting and performing, please read a bit more carefully and compassionately. That last line, “It’s going to feel so good to finally get to be yourself!” is absolutely heartbreaking.

Anyway, I feel very privileged to hear stories of detransitioned and reidentified women. It’s an experience I don’t have and that I think is important to listen to and feel compassion for.

Being pressured to act in certain ways or be revealed as what you don’t want to be is something that reminds me of being closeted. Analyzing every movement you make. So this experience isn’t mine, but it breaks my heart to see this kind of pressure coming from a youth group–probably people younger than me when I came out.

This blog seems like a great place for detransitioned women to see others with their experiences and to find community. I haven’t seen it before, but I’m going to be following, because these are voices we should be listening to.

If you’re going to talk the talk that female people matter to you, you better walk the walk.

Everyone who’s reblogging this is missing the fucking point and I’m gonna lose it!!! Thank you @hmsindecision for taking the time to clarify for people.