bigstuffedcat

the continuously transgendering hy libre!

@bigstuffedcat

  • she/her, they/them, sie/sie/ir, ask

dyke, poetess, games writer, &cet.

wow! this lesbian can pierce space and time!

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bigstuffedcat
@bigstuffedcat

this is an extreeeeemely long shot but here goes:

ime there is a phenomenon where more "venerated" trans people (self-appointed Queer Elders, those who pass particularly well, those with greater rhetorical proximity to Womanhood, or generally on some other fuzzy queer micro power dynamic) commit a specific kind of transphobia against other trans people. This transphobia is an entitlement to "correct" the victim' body or parabody (e.g. their chosen name, gender label, pronouns, style)

tbc im not talking about "yeah contra needs to touch grass cause she says queer people shouldn't reclaim bloobo"; im talking about e.g. "[trans person] was putting individual pressure on her partner to change her name to something more feminine"

does anybody here know what im talking about; if so does anybody have resources on it? even if it's just "this shit happened to me and im going to turn it into an essay and post it on the anarchist library"

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in reply to @bigstuffedcat's post:

brookehorse
@brookehorse

this is... probably gonna get rambly

i don't know if this phenomenon has a name, but i think i have some thoughts on things adjacent to it that could be helpful?

so part of what i'm thinking about is neoliberal trends within trans communities that emphasize self-identity overall, but also the persistent policing (idk if policing is the right term here) of identity that underlies the power dynamics within those communities

so something like "everyone is valid no matter what you identify as!!" but then bodies and behaviors and people that fall outside of the overton window of gender get pressured out of spaces because while there seems to be an extremely welcoming community, there's no effort being made on being welcoming at a group level, just vague affirmations blasted out for people to share and feel good about being in a welcoming community, all while pre-existing power dynamics rebuild themselves within these spaces (along axes of not just gender but race, class, ableism, etc)

and to speak specifically to what you're talking about, these behaviors are pulling back the curtain a bit. the pressuring individual wants her partner to fit into these dynamics better, and appealing more to hegemonic understandings of gender and its presentation would be better for that. it's a way for them to go from underlying forces in a community to direct influence on an individual and the relationships they hold

if you are gonna write an essay about it, i'd love to read it ::>

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