#stop falling for terf propaganda | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

scenicphoenix · 1 year

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I care for my sister a lot, I really do. But some of the things she says and does just makes me so upset. Honestly I would like to cut contact. But I only know two to three people in real life and my sister is one of them, and my sister is legally blind and needs help getting places. (Mom won't be around forever and she isn't showing an interest in getting to know other people besides me and Mom)

She has no idea what boundaries are, and is so oblivious that it seems like she's trying to be malicious. I know she's not doing a lot of what she does to me specifically on purpose, but there is only so much I can take. Especially when she just doesn't listen to me even when I am practically begging her to just stop. I have had to pull the Mom card recently to get her to stop crossing my boundaries. She listened to mom and her counselor before the person literally saying "fucking stop". She had to be told by two people, who should have had nothing to do with our fight, that she had completely crossed a line and did everything completely wrong she possibly could have done wrong. Instead of the person begging her to stop, to stop crossing the line, to stop talking, to just stop. What is it about me that she won't respect. Is it because I'm the little sibling, is it because I wasn't perfectly fucking calm. She called my anger irrational. I think my anger was perfectly rational. With the shit she was doing and saying. With her once again crossing my boundaries even though I have shown her where the line is. Even when I literally said stop and she continued anyway.

There is just some things me and my sister should not be talking about. Because we have different opinions. We have different morals. So some topics are off limits. She often ignores this. An example of a topic? She's a Terf. She's into a particular anime trope. I have told her not to mention that anime trope. She likes to say that the anime trope isn't transphobic because it's "only in anime". Hell some of her views on things are enough for me to want to try and cut contact. She's bigoted and falls so easily down far right conspiracy rabbit holes. She's listened to Fox fucking news over me and sources I've shown her. Her morals are very middle-class bigoted white woman, cares more about animal welfare than human beings, she's into eugenics no matter how much she denies it. Which I find confusing because both me and her grew up disabled in major poverty in the goddamned country. I suppose my sister is proof of how strong propaganda and misinformation is. How does someone in the country think shearing sheep kills them, that all animal farming is bad. And yet also ignores that slavery still exists. And the thing is that when I told her our morals are different because I care more about people and she cares more about animals, she didn't deny it. She wanted to, but she couldn't.

Why won't she listen to anything I say but will with others? How come she disrespects me more than anyone else? She has done this even before I was trans, so I know it's not that. She has even asked herself why she treats me differently than others. So she realizes that she does this but doesn't know why. My best guesses are: I am the little sibling I am supposed to be dumber. My mood disorders and overall mental health. My physical resemblance to our dad, she has BAD memories of that asshole. She's competitive. She wants things to be like "the old days" even though the "old days" she remembers never really existed.

#moral thing #personal vent #personal rant #personal post #personal #vent #vent post #long rant #rant #rant post #ask to tag #long post #family can be frustrating #if her morals were just bigoted that would be less confusing. but they are that flavor of fascist vegan morals.#as someone who grew up in farming country fascist vegan morals are just a veneer of being progressive over their bigoted inner core #a power trip to feel above others who don't do the and try to force it on people #I know this because my sister would often send pictures of bloody animals to try and get me to see the light. it's bullshit #vegans aren't inherently bad people. I can understand restricting your diet if eating meat weirds you out #I'm autistic I know that feeling with other foods. I despise zucchini. there is also health reasons and just because they can #the only vegans I dislike are the ones that send pictures of bloody animals and act like fucking Christian/catholic recruiters #ranting in the tags

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x0l0tl99 · 7 months

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byf

read or not, its your life, ill just block you if i feel unsafe

I am a minor!

pedos or pro-contact dni or face my laser death beam

adults can follow just dont be weirdos

if your 18+ and i follow you please message me or just block

i am an "anti" or neutralfic (believing that fiction affects reality a bit, but not fully)

that being said, if you send death threats to either side fuck off bullying aint okay

when i say "anti" i mean romanticizing incest, pedophilia, abuse etc. etc. where as i believe depicting it as a bad thing is okay. thats just part of writing.

i usually block proship accounts tho because I'm just not really into

golly, but what about [politics thing here]?

i believe that everyone should have a right to their homeland and self determination

i feel like people should educate themselves about the history of Palestine, and its history post ottaman empire.

zionism is complicated, i cant say im anti-zionist because zionism isnt one set ideal anymore. some may call me pro-zionism, some might not. I'm a goy who ain't skilled on these matters.

i just want the best for the poor civilians and the Jewish people fearing for their life

i just want people to be safe and happy. everyone deserves human rights. everyone. no matter how bad they are.

of course, im not perfect or whatever. i reblog bad things, and i fall for propaganda. i urge you to point out my failures or else i wont learn.

im an agender menace

terfs will be attacked on sight

neopronoun users are loved and respected.

transmeds will be B I T E N

if your one of those "i hate all men" people just leave now

if you merge non-binary people with women or are not normal about multigender people i dont want to see you ew

im omnisexual, aceflux, panromantic, and desinoromantic

battle axe bis will be attacked

exclusionists aint welcome around these parts

mogai support and love

i dont care if their identity is "contrary" (like he/him lesbians) ALL THE RULES ARE MADE UP!

i support disabled and fat liberation

cripplepunk is for physically disabled people. if you disagree cry me a river

thispo and a4a get therapy and stop using fat people as your vomit porn

pro recovery

i am never up to date on whatever we're canceling or whatever

im not gonna entertain random callouts in my inbox without proof like citing sources is not that hard!!!!

no i can't boycott this or sign a thing. sorry chief

if i for some reason reblog a thing from that one fandom or whatever you hate it is not a personal attack i swear

im am adhd and anixety singlet

people with "scary" disorders welcome. if i every use a word wrong or whatever correct me

pro endo in a sense that people can be plural in many ways, and fake claiming gets nowhere.

PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME

porn

images of nettles or vaccines

images of scorpions (at least without ample warning)

meanies and bigots will be blocked or mocked. if you have a problem with something i did send me an ask or message off anon or i will not take it seriously. Also, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN DNI, IF IM ON YOUR DNI LIST, DONT FOLLOW ME!!!!!

thx for your time! feel free to comment with more about yourself!

#xolotl💭lore #byf

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i-am-the-myrmidon · 2 years

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Begging you to not even joke about transphobes being in the closet simply for using pen names. Begging you to recognize "haha you're the thing you hate" isn't a good joke and hurts people actually in the group and in this case just reinforces the terf idea that trans men are just women trying to escape the bad parts of being a woman because she's literally just using a male pen name because she thinks it'll make people take her more seriously.

Hi friend. I’m a trans man making an off-handed comment about my opinions on my 12 follower blog. Bold of you to assume it’s a joke; I was expressing a long held frustration about the way it really feels like she’s displacing and ruining countless lives over it. I think she needs to ask herself some questions about why she returns to masc names. To suggest as such does not imply that all trans men are just trying to escape the bad parts of being a woman, it’s calling into question whether that’s the real reason she’s doing it. Yeah yeah, you shouldn’t assume peoples gender. A Crass statement on my part or not, it’s disrespectful to assume you know exactly what I meant from 12 words on a tumblr post and come onto my tumblr.hell blog and hush and lecture me about it.

I went through a period where I used male pen names and initials only because “u won’t get the recognition under a woman’s name” was the excuse I came up with because I wasn’t ready to confront my internalized transphobia. I don’t have to wonder why I really felt I wouldn’t get the recognition I wanted going by a woman’s name anymore. But someone saying that seems like a logical explanation when you’re young and in pain you don’t have the language for.

Block me if you don’t like it; If you don’t like someone’s opinions that’s fine but stop acting like you have the right to silencing and policing them. You can mind your own business. I have the right to talk about my experiences

there are trans men that fall into TERF rabbit holes and get gaslit out of accepting themselves or blocked altogether because it happened early. I want those men/man-adjacent people who have struggled with that (this even pushes into transfemme nonbinary territory too: anyone that identifies with masculinity can internalize an aversion to it bc terf propaganda and feel the dysphoria of being unable to connect with an aspect of your gender) to have a reference for that sensation. I want them to know that you are not alone in that struggle and to see people who have overcome that struggle. To know there may be another explanation for why they feel that way. I want them to know I am immeasurably happier now than I was back then.

#i suspect I have already blocked this person but to anyone else who comes poking #for being publically dramatic abt this #that’s my protocol for when I don’t like someone’s opinion #no need to make a fuss #don’t u have something better to do than harass trans people on the internet #why don’t you go lecture an actual terf instead #cant even have opinions on being a trans man as a trans man

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rombastic · 2 years

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I will never stop feeling sick to my stomach every time I see a terf or radfem with “dysphoric” in their description. These people have been convinced by an ideology to ignore the very real experience they are having, to cut them off from the people and ideas that would help them over come their dysphoria.

It’s true that cis women can and do sometimes have dysphoria, the human experience is very diverse and we shouldn’t discount their experiences. but radfems have convinced these people that they shouldn’t alleviate it, that doing so is tantamount to treason, that it is inherently misogynistic and self hating. trans and queer ideas give people space and language for their struggle with gender, it provides information and resources to help people who have dysphoria or gender incongruence or just want to play with their gender, no matter what gender they are. It just really hammers home to me how much radfems hate transmascs or anyone that wishes to transition is some way. they hate us and don’t want people to feel better in their bodies, they want them to conform to prescribed roles. I do truly believe there are people who detransition out of simply having their gender change or not actually being trans in the first place. but I highly suspect most people in radfem spaces detransition because they are convinced that they are evil for doing it, that it’s wrong and destroying their bodies, that it’s really internalized misogyny and they’re betraying their ““sisters””. and all the other ways terfs peddle their transandrophobic bullshit. Radfem idology can never help transmascs. Never. they believe that being male is evil, and testosterone is poison, and that can never be anything but hostile toward transmascs.

Radfems hate transmascs, and they don’t care about people with dysphoria, if you actually believe that they care about us, that they like us or want to save us, you are literally falling for their propaganda.

#transandrophobia #trans men #queer discourse #queer #lgbt #transmasc #transandromisia #trans #jay talks

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bean-na-farraige-agus-foraoise · 4 years

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Druids ain’t shit and here’s why.

Straight from the Pond- here’s a lesson from your friendly neighborhood historian.

It’s a long post so the history lesson is under the cut.

Druidic “history” (or pseudohistory rather) actually begins with early renaissance politics.

Basically Italy is dominating politics and religion by being able to call back to an ancient history that led directly into the formation of the centralized Catholic church. Surprising nobody who's familiar with European history- the German states want in on that action but they don't really have that direct line linking them to antiquity beyond their conquering by Rome- so, like any good 15th century academics, they create that link by just making shit up.

So they look back at ancient roman writings, and see mention of druids, and also realize that they actually don't know fuck all about them, there's no records of them beyond a few classical authors- and for the record, classical authors are NOTORIOUSLY unreliable, there are entire graduate level seminars dedicated to teaching people how to read through ancient Roman propaganda, almost every druid I have ever met has taken classical authors at face value, anyway I digress, they just start making up a history of the druids, German lands used to be populated by Celts, and they create these mystical druids who serve as the direct precursor to The Church in these areas, like they forge documents and everything so when Italy goes "oh yeah since when?" they have something to hold up as a "gotcha" - they fashion statues and hide them in crypts as further evidence. It’s wild.

So, France sees that the German states are becoming more politically popular within the HRE (Holy Roman Empire) because of these druid stories, and so they go "Hey Celts used to live in France too... we should have druids"- and they create druid stories. Scotland at the time is very close with France politically and they go "Hey us too, we're still Celts,” and then it spreads to Wales, and then England. Ireland is mostly staying out of druid nonsense- like in this period of the OG pseudohistories Ireland is like "this is disgusting we don't want druids" so like all the writings in Ireland in this period on druids are like "yeah the Church HATES druids"

Things quiet down for a little bit, because the stories are established, the cards have been played, whatever, but then Neo-Classicism and the Enlightenment- and now suddenly it's cool to have ancient history again - but like... Britain has "we got conquered by Rome" or "hey a few centuries ago people were saying we had druids?”; so naturally the more nationalistic go with druids....which is how we get, Iolo Morganweg. Iolo's real name is Edward Williams but he insisted on going by his "bardic name"- bc druids. Williams was a Welsh antiquarian- who is in some scholastic circles considered the father of “modern” druidry. Williams literally named his son Taliesin after the bardic poet behind the Poems of Taliesin which is frequently in association with the Mabinogi in Brythonic texts. To pull from the wiki on this asshole:

[he made] claims that ancient Druidic tradition had survived the Roman conquest, the conversion of the populace to Christianity, the persecution of bards under King Edward I, and other adversities. His forgeries develop an elaborate mystical philosophy, which he claimed as a direct continuation of ancient Druidic practice. Williams's reportedly heavy use of laudanum may have been a contributing factor

Yeah.... just... yeah. So not only did he forge like hella documents, which today in the 21st century, over 100 years after he was revealed as a fraud, are still more popular than the originals- but he also is the reason that ogham is like that. Williams created a ‘bardic alphabet’ based on combining Scandinavian runes and extant ogham - we are still wading through his bullshit trying to fix ogham.

And this brings us to the Celtic Twilight......

To quote @liminalblessings, “And a bunch of noodle fuckers decide "hey, we didn't bastardize the Irish enough for the last however long.... We should do more of that."” But for those of you not familiar with the term, it's a nationalistic pan-Celtic movement that wanted to like, make the Celts in vogue again? but like their idea of the Celts as "noble savage” - because the modern era was scary. At this point, Pan-Celtic Nationalism is starting to rise as pushback against British colonialism in Celtic nations. Unfortunately it's heavily reliant on the Druid myth as like.... A foundational shared cultural history between the surviving Celtic nations. The point largely is, though, "look at us. We should all be sticking together because we're the same / cousins / brothers". Which leads to a L O T of Celtic culture from various countries kind of getting.... molded into one singular idea- which is USUALLY what we think of today when we think of Celts. Basically everything gets branded as Irish because the Irish were “pure” and a “separate racial identity” as opposed to the Scots and Welsh. It took that idea of a pan-Celtic singularity, and then went ham with it mostly on Irish pre-Christian stuff, and as it occurred not too long after Williams’ fuckery, it really cemented those forgeries and psuedohistories in the cultural memory. And Williams wasn’t exposed as a fraud until after the Celtic Twilight had died down.

Now... Yeats, we all know Yeats- some people recommend his writings for learning about the fairies. DO NOT LISTEN TO THOSE PEOPLE. Yeats makes up an entire tree calendar, and also files all Scottish fairy lore under the “Irish” tab because he’s part of the Celtic Twilight and didn’t you know that everything Celtic is actually Irish? Fuck this guy. #yeetyeats

Enter... Robert Graves- destroyer of histories and all around fuckwit. Graves maked up an ENTIRE religious notion around a mother goddess and shit. And like, the irony of that is the people he supposedly went to originally were like lol dude you're a fucking idiot none of this is real. But he published it anyways and of course it got taken seriously. And then there's a lot of reverse etymology at this point which is just.... really bad linguistics. And because of Graves’ white goddess + said bad linguistics by others, you get Danu.(Danu is a whole thing, please shoot me an ask if you want a post about all of that nonsense).

So.... Gerald Gardener.... to quote @liminalblessings again- “didn’t have a direct role in druidism, except he kind of did.” See, Gardner had a good friend who was hella interested in the Celtic twilight. Said friend was hella inspiried by Gardner's "recreation" of old British trad witch traditions... But he didn't jive with the old British trad witch traditions. HE jived with Irish Druidry. So while Gardner's doing HIS thing, his friend's doing the modern Druid thing- heavily drawing from Gardner's own work but "making it more historically Druid" Except, as you may have picked up- there is no such thing as “historically druid” that can be reconstructed. Basically he can only pull from Williams, but because he had issues with with the old 15th century on stuff, up to the Twilight era (despite those being his sources) so he tries to distance himself from the earlier movements and leans hella heavy into Gardner's work as a result. Which is, if you've ever wondered, why Wicca and Druidry have such incredibly similar ritual structures and beliefs.

SO, this guy starts the Druid Order, decides that he’s gonna like pull his teachings from Williams- but he's also gonna say that Williams has nothing to do with his druidry because y'know, Williams has relatively recently been revealed as a fraud. This guy goes through the grueling process of ripping off his best bud gardner founding Druidry, right. So The Druid Order has this rebranding in 1951, that lauds the “history of the druids” as written by Williams but simultaneously rejects Williams saying “yeah we have nothing whatsoever to do with that guy.” Mix into this narrative, Gardener’s “burning times” bullshit, and now not only do we have mythical pseudohistorical druids, but a rewrite of Williams’ “the druids survived conversion” which then turned into - “The druids were heavily persecuted by the church and survived a horrible burning times but despite this there’s a tradition of continuous druidic belief.” Here begins the bullshit known as “vestiges of pagan thought”- which took actual historians not even a decade to disprove, and yet still circulates in pagan circles, because nobody picks up a fucking book. Theoretical Folkloric archaeology became very popular at this time, which postulates (incorrectly) that all folk traditions and folklore absolutely stems from Pagan times and is 100% the Christianization of pagan practices and thoughts- which is not at all true. (Not-so-friendly reminder that Eostre? DOESN’T FUCKING EXIST. STOP FALLING FOR A JOKE MADE BY A MONK)

Td;lr so far- the druids went from

the Catholic clergy before the Catholics existed

a religious group that survived conversion

druids survived an intense and violent persecution

And now? In this our 21st century?

Well.... druidic organizations today tend to still push these ahistorical narratives, that buy into the pagan persecution complex.... and several of these organizations also have known racists and terfs on their recommended reading lists. And while some organizations have made attempts to become more historically accurate- but the end result is usually.... bad. It tends to result in them using a source from like 1960 that’s been disproven 1000 times since by other historians to go “look a historian agrees with us!” rather than like... keep up with current research trends and academic standards. Druids also tend to be hostile to the syncretism of the Irish church which is just..... so fucking dumb. Don’t worship gaelic deities if you can’t accept that our lore are Christian texts about pagan beliefs.

So yeah..... druids ain’t shit and I can prove it historically. I am also more than willing to send anyone links to full length books on the history of druids if you want to learn more.

#anti-druidic rhetoric #druids #druidry #fuck druids #druidism #druid

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evilelitest2 · 4 years

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You keep saying certain trends need to be removed from the progressive movement, which ones?

1) Conspiracy theorists, this just fucking murders leftism, because it makes people unwilling to accept new information, which means they just inevitably slide into bad places. See also Rosanne. This goes for anti vaxxers, Truthers, people who get into the “Israel Lobby” too much but also just general conspiratorial thinking. I see a lot of people talking about “The DNC” or “The Media” in terms that are more conspiratorial than factual, and have trouble understanding literally how things work. Which not only makes people unable to really understand WTF is going on, it also feeds into Right wing thinking. If Sanders fans are already acting as if “The mainstream Media” is one single unified entity secretly controlled by a cabal of capitalists and so you can just dismiss what it has to say*, it is pretty easy for the Right to justify their own narrative that any media that isn’t Fox News/Brietbart/Drudge Report is a single unified entity with a liberal bias secretly controlled by Jews (or George Soros if they want to hide their true intentions)

* Their are certain biases and issues that are shared by the media, but these are more structural systemic issues rather than deliberate efforts by specific individuals. There are specific networks/newspapers which are purely propaganda piece but that doesn’t apply to the entire media. Or to put it another way. Jeff Bezos owning the Washington Post does influence its content, but they don’t just get their marching orders from him.

2) No tolerance for bigotry. This should be obvious but it is remarkable how people who are progressive in on issue (class, gender, race, sexuality) are super intolerant in other respects. In this primary we see this with the dirtbag left and their class reductionist tendencies where they are pretty left wing in regardless to class, but super racist/sexist/homophobic in every other respect. or how TERFs are pretty good in terms of fighting women’s oppression, but are vile when it comes to the rights of Trans people. Or Black Nationalists tendency towards antisemitism and misogyny, or Zionists tendency towards Islamaphobia. People who are marginalized often have a difficult time recognizing others who are marginalized, doubly so if it involves recognizing a certain privilege they do in fact posses (black men, white homosexuals, straight women the list goes on). The left really needs to get better at making intersectionality a reality of its practice rather than a tool of rhetoric.

3) Drop the romantic revolutionary Aethetic The Left gets really into these 60s images of everybody overthrowing the stodgy all establishment and embracing a new exciting world. And these always crash because its less about the practical reality of actually fixing problems and more about the image of rebelling. Its like how Rock n Roll did totally overturn the status quo when it first came into the stage, but very quickly became a form of conservatism in its own right.

Basically end the Leftist cool kids club. I’m really sick of leftists who seem to get into leftist thought primarily to give them a lenses to look down on people but not do anything about it, the Marxistdude bro approach

It also is self destructive because it leads to the left being like...reluctant to persuade people to our side which is just self destructive (see also Sanders 2020 campaign)

4) Stop stanning dictators and being nostalgic for autocracy. It is so very frustrating to see people outraged over the US use of torture (as you should be) but being apologists for Assad. I am very tired of seeing leftists argue against holocaust Denial and then being like “oh but Stalin wasn’t that bad actually”.

5) Fucking Moral Cholesterol nonsense, purity fixations are autocannibalism

6) No embrace of Gamergate tactics. Doxxing is wrong regardless of the target. Bullying, abuse, harassment is wrong even if the victim is an absolute shit head. Actually I take this further to murder and torture. We are the side who oppose police brutality, advocate prison reform and oppose war crimes, we shouldn’t be falling into this nonsense.

7) No anti intellectualism. The world is complicated, huge, and nuanced, there isn’t a single source of evil for everything wrong with the world, human beings can be bad in one element and good in another, and we aren’t following the narrative of a drama. The Right’s values are anti intellectuals we need to stop following their lead but just reversing the scripts

#ask EvilElitest #Leftism

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lesbiankermit-moved · 5 years

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start saying transmisogynist when someone is being transmisogynistic honestly bc terf has lost all meaning at this point, and further diluting it down to nothing helps no one. stop saying smth you don’t like for completely unrelated reasons is “kinda terfy”. its kinda trans exterminatory radical feminist-y? you can say smth is bio-essentialist or cissexist or transphobic but like again, yall are making this word lose all meaning. especially when you apply it to conservative men not at all linked to feminism, or apply it to just, any woman/lesbian you don’t like.

like i was harrassed by dumbasses who kept calling me a disgusting terf, because i said asexuals weren’t the main target of the holocaust. it didn’t matter that i was trans, or that my grandfather survived those camps and i knew they were full of shit, they just were angry at me for disagreeing with them and being a dyke. lmao and yet they went on to say they knew i was a terf because i “look XX”, which is fucking wildly impressive that they can see my chromosomes in a profile pic. but yeah they kept saying i was terfy for being “aphobic”, which makes no gd damn sense.

like again. stop using terf to mean anything other than “a radical feminist who centers her feminism on the exclusion and harm of trans people (or just trans women)” bc im not gonna let yall try to make terf mean “aphobic” now lmao ! it’s bullshit.

and this links back to my post about caring more about each other n shit too, if you think someone you know has some underlying issues with transphobia/misogyny or anything bad you know you can like,,, talk to them? like idk i feel like if we see people falling into exclusionary politic but not like fully There, it’s important to have conversations with them and let them see another world view, don’t push them away and further into that shit yknow. gd especially when u see like literal 14 year olds on here getting into that shit.

it’s like, when my sister started being really weird about vaccines i was so upset and i was just like. why is she this anti-vaxx dumbass! but she wasn’t yet yknow? she was confused and had a lot of propaganda thrown at her, and talking to her openly about why she was worried about vaccines and really listening but still providing her resources and reassurance and being honest about how there’s risks like anything but not getting vaccinated is the far riskier risk, and how they definitely dont cause autism bc that guy was full of shit, like all that was really important to help her change her worldview. like i didnt write her off as my dumb anti-vaxx sister i went wow my sister and i really need to have some chats.

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crossdreamers · 6 years

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Transphobic propaganda and the myths of desitance and regret

The great majority of transitioning trans people do not regret their decision to live as their true gender.

It is interesting to see how transphobic, lesbian, "radical feminists" (TERFs) use the exact same arguments that were used to invalidate and marginalize lesbians.

The most common one was that homosexuality was an acquired sexual perversion caused by the propaganda of the homosexual movement. If you could protect children from the gay movement, there would not be any lesbians.

This is obviously the same argument that is used today to stop lesbians from adopting children. Lesbian parenting is unnatural, will hurt the children and make them gay and so on and so forth.

The desitance-argument

The desistance-argument forms the foundation of the TERF argument against the the identity of transgender people. Since so many gender variant people, in the end, do not chose to transition, the TERFs assume that none of them are really of the gender they claim to be. They have been duped by trans activists.

This is a completely misleading reading of the research available, as it mixes up gender nonconformity with gender identity.

Variation in gender expression is used as a way of exploring both identity and sexuality among straight, gay and queer people. You will find “butch”, “femme” and “androgynous” people among all of them.

The majority of these people are not gender dysphoric. They do not experience a severe misalignment between their gender identity and their assigned gender, or between mind and body. They simply express masculinity, femininity or any other aspect of cultural gender in a way that feels right for them.

Misleading research

Unfortunately the previous edition of the American Psychatric Manual (DSM-IV) had a too wide definition of what was then called a “gender identity disorder”, including people who were not gender dysphoric. This has been fixed in the current edition, but some researchers have used the old diagnoses.

Brynn Tannehill has written a good summary of the debacle here. She writes:

“For starters, the most cited study (Steensma) which alleges a 84 percent desistance rate, did not actually differentiate between children with consistent, persistent and insistent gender dysphoria, kids who socially transitioned, and kids who just acted more masculine or feminine than their birth sex and culture allowed for. In other words, it treated gender non-conformance the same as gender dysphoria. Worse, the study could not locate 45.3 percent of the children for follow up, and made the assumption that all of them were desisters.”

When Dr. Steensma went back in 2013 and looked at the intensity of dysphoria these children felt, it turned out that it was actually a very good indicator of which children would transition.

The medical establishment has actually caught up with the new understanding of transgender identities, as reflected in the DSM-5 and the new WHO health manual, the ICD-11. They both accept gender dysphoria or gender incongruence as real phenomena. Experiencing another gender than the one assigned by birth is not considered a mental illness, and the categories do justify medical intervention and support.

In other words: If we stick to the distinction between the larger set (gender nonconformity) and the smaller set (gender dysphoria), the TERF argument falls apart.

Accepting the continuum

That being said, this new binary (gender nonconforming vs. gender dysphporic) causes new problem, as it may be read to mean that there is a clear boundary between the two sets. There is not.

During the process of self-discovery some transgender people (in the wide, umbrella, sense of the term), come to the conclusion that they can live and present as their assigned gender. Others, who used to swear that they belonged to their assigned gender, find out that they did not.

Some find that neither of the two genders fit their experienced identity. They are non-binary.

Others do not experience gender dysphoria, as defined by the DSM-5, but do experience gender incongruence, as described by the ICD-11. There is room for such transgender and non-binary people as well, in both manuals.

Less than two percent regret transitioning

Some people do regret transitioning. Given the complexity of sex and gender, that is to be expected. It could be that they misunderstood their own feelings at the time, or what transitioning would entail. Or it could be that the pressure of living up to the gender stereotypes of a transphobic society is too much to bear.

That being said: The idea that there is a large number of regretters out there that proves that transitioning is wrong is complete nonsense.

The research indicates that no more than some one to two precent of those who transition, regret their choice. A recent Dutch study found that only 0.6% of trans women and 0.3% of trans men experienced regret.

In any case, the very existence of people who decide to detransition – for whatever reason – cannot be used to invalidate the reality of the gender identity of trans people.