Posts tagged trans*

sanityscraps:

deaf-aspie:

Anonymously Submitted:

As a disabled (Autistic) trans* person who has talked with other trans* people about it and read “transabled” theories and narratives, I’ve got a bunch of opinions. They aren’t particularly nice. The fact that there’s an underlying phenomenon that causes distress doesn’t forgive any of the following:

• The term “transabled” was invented not as an innocent mistake but as a deliberate attempt to deceive people (themselves and others) into thinking they belonged in the trans* community. This is fucked beyond belief.
• Using the “trans” prefix/adjective to mean “wish-I-was” is damaging and cissexist. Since they appropriated it deliberately, I’m not going to sugarcoat this in the slightest. This has got to stop yesterday if not sooner.
• The entire body of “transabled” theory is appropriated. I’ve read articles on it where I am convinced I understand the theories better than the person who wrote the article did, because they copied down trans* theory and scribbled out “gender” and wrote “disability” with complete disregard for how disability is unlike gender.
• The group consists of a combination of appropriative fucks who believe that identifying as disabled when you aren’t is ok and people with actual mental health conditions who subscribe to theories where they believe they are moral equivalents to the appropriative fucks. If they’re unwilling to separate the appropriative fucks out, I won’t do it for them and I will quite happily call them all appropriative fucks.
• I’m going to be charitable here and assume that some parts of some “transabled” people’s experience are in-line with parts of trans* experiences (body dissonance, not identity) and don’t just sound that way because they’ve been force-fit to an appropriated theory. Even these parts are 1) misinterpreted in the context of the rest of the theory, and 2) are only applicable to certain disabilities.

I’m highly suspicious of someone who “wants to be autistic” (for good reason), and wanting to be autistic certainly has nothing in common with any trans* experience. I’m willing to grant that it is possible that someone may want to be cured of their allism, though. Just, they really need another word for it (reverse curebieism?) and I’m going to be suspicious of them until they prove that they aren’t basing this on bullshit ideas of what we are.

Also, curebies don’t appropriate trans* language for their curebieism. There are way better ways to express that you wish you were something without appropriating language someone else invented to describe their struggle to do it, especially since trans* people recognize and build our theory around the idea that we don’t want to be something we’re not; we are instead something other people have consistently tried (and in many cases still try) to force us not to be.

While there are analogous situations in disability, the way the concept is used by “transabled” people is not one of them. People who actually experience these situations and recognize them for what they are don’t feel the need to appropriate other people’s language for it because inventing language to describe it flows naturally out of recognizing it.

(Source: )

kiriamaya:

[warning for cissexism]

The Fundiegelical: “You may think you’re ‘happy’ by wearing the clothing of the opposite sex, but you’re living in sin and you’re going straight to hell! Jesus loves you.”

The “Enlightened” Liberal: “But gender doesn’t even matter, because deep down, we’re all the same. So why is it such a big deal what I call you?”

The TERF: “By embracing a gender role opposite your assigned sex, you are reifying gender/privilege and thus making it that much harder for us to smash gender. I know that sounds contradictory but, if you’d been a feminist for as long as I have, you’d understand.”

The Proto-TERF: “Of course I don’t have anything against trans people, but abortion/sex work/breast cancer/ovarian cancer/whatever is and has always been a women’s issue! Why do you want to take it away from women?”

The Ungendering Fetishist: “Hey, I don’t have anything against sh*m*les! I think you’re hot! I watch sh*m*le porn all the time.”

The Clueless Oppression-Olympian: “Transness is just a white/abled/Western issue, so why should I care about it?”

The Incrementalist: “Look, people just aren’t ready to accept trans folks yet. So instead of arguing about what pronouns to use for you, we should focus on something we can actually accomplish, like [insert other tenuously-related SJ cause here].”

The Genital-Focused: “I totally respect and support trans people, but I would never date one. Because ewww.”

The Broad-Stroke Painter: “I once met a trans person who was selfish/mean/creepy/bad in general, so you’re all like that and I won’t respect any of you.”

The Inveterate Essentialist: “But… you can’t be a woman, because you have a PENIS! And chromosomes! And… a PENIS!”

The What-About-Teh-Cis Whiner: “I know my refusal to call you ‘she’ hurts you, but you have to understand that your demand to call you ‘she’ hurts me, too. What about my feelings?”

The Pig-Headed “Skeptic”: “Do you have actual evidence that you’re really a woman? No, of course you don’t, because it’s impossible by definition. No, shut up; I’m right and you’re wrong, PERIOD.”

The “Free Speech” Whiner: “Don’t you think that, in the spirit of free and open discussion, you should listen to my side of things instead of just dismissing it out of hand as ‘bigotry’?”

The Devil’s Advocate: “I’m not saying prejudice is right, but, to be fair, it is a little weird for someone to present as a woman and yet have a penis.”

The Self-Proclaimed “Ally”: “How dare you say I’ve been cissexist? Don’t you know how very supportive I’ve been of you and your causes? Why aren’t you grateful?”

The “Edgy” Comedian: “Look, it was a joke. I’m sorry you’re too unsophisticated to understand why it’s funny; I guess I’m just too edgy for you. Maybe one day, when you grow up a little, you’ll stop trying to censor humor.”

(Hint to cis people: don’t do any of these things.)

This is quite a useful rant.

Nobody wants to be be that cis person.

(via feministrobot-deactivated201203)