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#bad that someone said Mouse Yaoi Real. for the record. taking a playful approach to jargon-heavy topics like the differentiation of
the-trans-dragon · 2 months
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https://www.tumblr.com/mousegirlheart/712995877228298240/mouse-yaoi-real
Idk it seems ciscentered, trans excluding to treat “male mice” like a coherent thing — rather than some construct we assign to them like how we assign it with amab people — and then further to conflate 2 male mice together as being yaoi and gay… it reinforces being “male” (amab) as a biological thing not something to do with gender and identity.
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Hmmm... I can't seem to see things from your perspective. Is the only issue that it says "mouse yaoi real"?
I reblogged because it's incredibly cool that it happened! It helps dissolve our rigid ideas of sex, in my opinion. One of the biggest trans-exclusionary arguments in my current culture is "women are women because they can bear children," which ties into the ever-present homophobic argument of "homosexuality is wrong because it cannot produce offspring."
The ramifications for this sort of thing are still "up in the air," so to speak, since experiments with mice cannot always be replicated in humans. But the ability to create a viable offspring from a same-sex pair of mammalian model organisms is still a big break-through, especially because of the implications of creating an egg with two X chromosomes from a male skin cell with only one X chromosome! As the CNN article itself explains,
"The proof-of-concept research, the culmination of years of pain-staking lab work, could expand the possibilities for future fertility treatments, including for same-sex couples, and perhaps help prevent the extinction of endangered animals. "
The ability to create viable offspring from "male" cells is a direct wound to the idea that "male" is a rigid characteristic. If I allow myself to daydream, I can ponder other possibilities: could you turn "male" skin cells into other cells? Could a trans woman one day have her own cells used to grow a uterus? Growing entire organs is a wholly different feat, compared to creating a single gamete, with difficulties such as incorporating it into a pre-existing organism (eg, even if you could grow a uterus, could you get it connected to the circulatory system?). It's a far-off daydream, thanks to the current culture's fear of research that questions it's rigid ideas of sex and gender. But it's a daydream that comes closer to being reality when science achieves breakthroughs like this!
I am being overly hopeful. Science is very slow to make progress in regards to sex. Progress is discouraged and poorly funded, and can even be destroyed, such as with the Hirshfield Institution. But seeing science make progress like this, despite the hostile culture, gives me hope in itself.
It's unfortunate that our current vocabulary is inadequate and rife with bias that assumes everything is cisgender, heterosexual, and perisex. In our efforts to understand the unbiased nature of sex, it's important to examine our views for these issues. Does "mouse yaoi real" contribute to cis-centric, trans-exclusionary biases? I dunno. No. Yeah. Sure. It doesn't matter. Or maybe it does.
Anyways, the science is really really really really cool. I have other thoughts on the matter, but my vocabulary feels inadequate to verbalize them, and instead I am just taking a moment here to talk about the science a little, explain how it can be utilized as a step towards trans healthcare, and emphasize the importance of celebrating these things.
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