#CW Discussion of transphobia

[iamnmbr3]

sorry, I'll phrase it better in the future.

Ok what do you think trans girl harry would change things? Dumbledore would definitely have Thoughts, and probably not 'approve.'

Canonically we don't know what any of the characters' thoughts on trans people are since it's not something JKR discusses at all in her writing. Certainly JK Rowling would not approve and if we take authorial intent into consideration we could then say that Dumbledore, who often takes on the role of author proxy voice of reason, in the narrative also wouldn't approve. Conversely, from an in-universe perspective we could surmise that given that Tonks has powers that make her able to choose her gender and given how easy changing your body or gender presentation would be with magic, being trans is so accepted that it's not even worth remarking on because changing your assigned gender is as simple as dying your hair a different color.

Though we could also argue from an in-universe perspective that the reason trans issues are not discussed in the books is due to such topics being considered highly taboo due to pervasive bigotry. Ultimately there's not much to go on so it all really falls into the realm of headcanon and whether in a specific post or fic the writer wants to explore transphobia in the wizarding world or not. You could do lots of cool stuff with trans Harry who faces no transphobia or with trans Harry who does. It's up to you.

[moongothic]

I love the crocodad theory a lot but I fear that the fandom will start misgendering him or respect the character less because of transphobia.

Oda have written queer characters before who are respected by the fandom such as Bonclay but for Crocodile its another story. He is their alpha male badass character and adding queerness to his character might make them mad. Not that I care about those bigots feelings but its already not easy to navigate this fandom without queerphobia being thrown in your face.

Ppl can digest a queer character who fit in the stereotypes but once they dont, its another story.

Same, people are weird as fucking hell and gross about Crocodile maybe being trans already, we can be sure it would get worse if him being trans was confirmed in the story, there would be absolutely no avoiding it

But at the same time...

Transphobes are gonna be transphobes regardless, and I don't want that to become a reason for any storyteller to not create trans characters. I don't want Oda to bend over backwards to please the transphobes when they're the ones in the wrong. If anything, I want Oda to just go all the way with the message of queer liberation and freedom in One Piece. Like it's not perfect, but it's already there, but it's so subtle many queerphobes have been able to ignore it this whole time and I don't want Oda to let them ignore it anymore. I want him to rub it into their faces so hard they'll start complaining about "Oda going woke"

And like, let's be real. If Crocodile was trans and Oda pulled it off just right (without falling into certain pitfalls that he's be stumbling with this whole time with queer rep), that could unironically be like. Great not just trans rep but trans masc rep in particular

Like maybe it's just the media I've consumed but trans masc rep is typically very non-existant and/or very much like Yamato, who, while valid as hell, might not be how many trans masc people want to be seen as by others (as in, "confused girls")

We've known Crocodile as a character for 23 years at this point, and for the first 8-9 years of that he was very much seen as A Manly Cis Man (like you said) without a hint of a doubt (until Impel Down). If it turned out he had been trans this whole time, that would force people to rethink how they view trans people.

As just regular fucking people

That person you knew for years turned out to be trans? So what? What does that actually change about them? It's still the same person deep down. Those are the things Oda could force people to think about.

And honestly? If that helped convert even just a single transphobe, or educate someone without an opinion on trans people, to just letting trans people live their lives in peace, I think it'd be worth it

But like, yeah. The transphobes are gonna be loud regardless. It fucking sucks, and I hate the fandom for it. But, damned if you do, damned if you don't, there's no avoiding it. And I think the potential positive impact would outweight the already festering negativity.

[tenitchyfingers]

This is SUCH a good video

[metamatar]

Zionists love to ask me, "How would you fare in Gaza?" to which I love to respond, "How would I get to Gaza?" This first question, like many transphobic heckles that I have received from Zionists, is an Althusserian hail. According to Althusser (1971), the hail serves to interpolate the individual into the subject, to bring the individual into ideology. The noble identification of "gay friendly" Tel Aviv's gift to all queers is a hail—an interpolation of the transgender body into an always already indebted subject position, one enmeshed in a "cycle of debt." Under the Zionist economy of gratitude, the transgender subject is perpetually indebted to capitalism and the West for allowing her to exist. The properly delimited space for the transgender subject within this ideology is essentially one confined to an apoliticized space of pride parades and gay bars, but never the front lines of an anti-imperial or anticolonial project. It is a queer/transphobic assault against those visibly queer bodies who refuse to be properly disciplined neoliberal queer consumers—and transgender bodies are often the most visibly queer bodies and hence the ones singled out for attack. As one cannot return the gift to the one who gave it (in this case because the Zionist disidentified from his own queerphobia), the transgender subject is forced to pass it along—to Palestinians. Hence, the queerphobic Zionist can pass the gift of his racist colonial phobia as well as his queerphobia on to the transgender subject. The projection allows the Zionist to disidentify from the transphobia inherent in his hail. This is particularly important, since it is precisely the violent transphobia—"what are you?"—that is an incitement to vulnerability. I am supposed to feel vulnerable, afraid, attacked by this hail, in order that I may pass on that gift of death to the supposedly transphobic Palestinian.

Papantonopoulou, Saffo. “‘Even a Freak Like You Would Be Safe in Tel Aviv’: Transgender Subjects, Wounded Attachments, and the Zionist Economy of Gratitude.” Women’s Studies Quarterly 42, no. 1/2 (2014): 278–93. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24364930.

[mormonmew]

So my older brother shared this with my family's group chat:

It's a relatively recent update based on the date at the bottom being this year. Honestly reading through this just... Makes me sad.

People that have transitioned can't be assigned to be teachers, when I imagine so many of them have just as much insight on the gospel as any cisgender teacher in the church. Trans people can't fully participate in overnight mixed-gender activities and can only go to activities that match their assigned sex at birth, even if they would feel more at home among those whose gender matches the one they transitioned/want to transition to. And that's just the beginning of where they can still be part of the church but not fully part of it.

Maybe some bishops will receive spiritual guidance that will make things different for the trans people in their wards than what this outlines. But I imagine that will be the minority of situations...

[wishmaker-astra]

Also, you'd think that having complete body replacement would change how bigots treat you compared to those who didn't have the cosmos do their surgery. You'd unfortunately be wrong. And even if did do it differently, they'd still do it in novel ways.

Expect me to have low tolerance for you guys fucking around with this. Just kung pow penis him and move on if you absolutely must interact with him. Stop platforming him by replying to his shit in a way he can slip anything more in. He WANTS that, as those vulnerable to his shit are more likely to see it, and you aren't going to convince someone to stop being biggoted with online arguments, especially when they're in a position of privilege.

Ostracize him and let him rot in his hole like the pathetic sack he is.

[shu-of-the-wind]

this is the third fuckin time today i've seen people throw the "queer people were killed during the holocaust too shut up" shit at jewish folks so i will say it ONE MORE FUCKING TIME because i am TIRED OF THIS: the reason queer and trans people were targeted by the nazis is because the nazis were antisemitic. the nazis believed that any and all societal "degeneration", including queer people, was caused by jewish people and judaism in general.

cw nazism, shoah, discussions of shoah, transphobia, discussions of mein kampf and hitler's worldview, discussion of nazi legal theory, etc below the cut

the entire fucking reason that queer and trans folks were targeted by the nazi regime is because they were seen as a direct representation of the impact of jewish people on aryan society. magnus hirschfeld, who founded the institute for sexual science, was a jewish man. that is not a fucking accident.

hitler believed that the world was solely ruled by the quote-unquote law of the jungle; that is, people had to suppress any tendency for mercy or compassion in themselves and take what they wanted to survive. carl schmitt, a nazi legal theorist, believed that "politics arose not from history or concepts but our sense of enmity; our racial enemies were chosen by nature, and our task was to struggle and kill and die." (quote from black earth by timothy snyder.) hitler believed that jewish people who "introduced the false distinction between politics and nature, between humanity and struggle. . . . [that] ideas of political reciprocity, practices in which humans recognize other humans as [human], came from jews." (id.)

to the nazis, recognizing trans people and queer people and queer identities was a distinctly jewish idea. which is not to say it's not impossible that nazis would have targeted queer people without the antisemitism component, but their rhetoric was always interwoven with antisemitism and antisemitic racial hygiene arguments. you cannot separate the murders of queer and trans people during the holocaust from antisemitism. that violence was born from it.

[neechees]

Speaking of racist authors who's scalp I want decorating my home, but Rowling literally keeps pulling that thing where she backtracks the alleged meaning & intentions of her own work by saying "well actually I meant THIS the whole time" in the books to try make it look more politically "savvy" (in her mind) or steeped with meaning than it actually is, because she is literally too stupid and short sighted to actually write those things, & usually its also to try get out of some sort of criticism, & she's done this at least 3 times.

Like first was the whole "Gandalf is gay" shtick when this was her shallow, lazy attempt at trying to look "diverse". Second time was when she was like "well actually Hermione wasn't WHITE, I think she was Black" which, absolutely wasn't true considering she describes all her Black characters as being "tall" and athletic (which, Hermione is not) and she would've given her a stupid, obviously racist name if she always intended this.

But the most recent time was her allegeding that she based the death eaters off of trans activists? This obviously isn't true since she's already repeatedly talked about the specifically nazi & fash influence on the death eaters, and then when people critisized her for her antisemitism & lack of logic on how the death eaters operate, she attempted to "prove" this wrong by tweeting about visiting the auschwitz memorial museum (in relation to, again, it's specific influence on death deaters) to try insist she was sensitive to what she was referencing. If she intended this from the beginning, she would've brought attention to it because she literally just so stupid & knows it but tries to "prove" otherwise. So the whole thing example NOW is just her appealing to her fash t/erf clown crew to try seem more intelligent than she is.

[seth-whumps]

Hi Seth! So you've mentioned before that Morri has very androgynous features and can easily present as masculine or feminine, and it seems like they're pretty chill about how someone refers to them too (like with "Tin Man")

So I want to ask: Have they ever been misgendered, and if so, how did they react? And if JJ was present, how did he react?

also as a bonus, same questions for JJ because why not

oh good question!! i love this ask!!! discussion of transphobic/homophobic behaviors under the cut as a warning:

Morrigan's not picky with gender presentation. However, they prefer using they/them unless specified differently. There was a moment, at a champagne event, where they were very clearly presenting as female--gorgeous slim dress with JJ as a masculine plus one--and a select few kept referring to them as he/him, rudely and on purpose.

JJ may or may not have spilled several glasses of wine on their clothes, champagne on their shoes, cake frosting on their backup suits, and candle wax down the front of their shirt (that one was legendary). Of course, it was all a terrible accident that they had to leave the party. (Morrigan was snickering in the corner to cover up how honored they were.)

JJ however is relaxed with pronouns but pretty consistent with presentation. He wouldn't mind being called she or they on occasion, and he does look very pretty in makeup or a skirt, but it's mainly because gender isn't as important to him as it is to Morri. If he were to get misgendered, he would laugh it off--if Morri were present... well. You know those videos of trans people who talk about their parents misgendering them, and it makes their parents look crazy? Morrigan turns around and questions their very mental state. It's an impressive show.

--

thank you so so much for the ask!!!!!

[moongothic]

i would love trans crocodile but im very cynical that oda would write him in a respectful manner. thats not even thinking of how horrible that one portion of the one piece fandom would treat him

Yeah the fandom sucks and I'm going to strangle everyone (including the cishets who claim to be trans allies and then use "Crocomom")

But with Oda it's weird because like. The more I think about it, the more I'm like... 50/50 about Oda being able to actually deliver good, respectful trans masc rep.

Like I've posted about this before but One Piece does have this on-going theme of having characters "stuck in wrong bodies" or "having one's body changed" (sometimes reversably, sometimes irreversably; sometimes against their will, sometimes consentually). Which, in theory, in my mind, does kind of signal that on some level Oda understands the idea of being "the wrong sex" (whether or not that's a good way to explain The Trans Experience™ is a whole different subject but it's an old fashioned explanation that Oda would probably be/is familiar with) But at the same time, while the concept pops up again and again in One Piece, Oda doesn't really dwell too deep into the idea of what that's like. Like, emotionally. How it feels like to like, get turned into a toy or be a child who gets aged 20 years or to get turned into a cyborg or a giant child or have parts of your body permanently turned into animal parts (sometimes with a will of their own) etc

And like. Part of me understands why, Oda does tend to want to focus on writing a story he thinks teenaged boys would be interested in reading, and he has often stated he wants to have fun with his story too (like that's partially why Luffy's a Rubber Man, because Oda thought giving Luffy a ridiculous ability would make him more fun to write and draw long-term, which is valid as hell) This is why for example Oda has avoided doing any romances in OP, and while there are dark themes in the story, often he has done his best to avoid making them too blatant, as some things would be too mature for his youngest readers (like, for example until Kuma's backstory, it was never explicitly stated what would happen to the slave wives of the Tenryuubito, even saying it was "implied" would be pushing how that subject had been treated until now)

So like. Because of that, I understand why Oda hasn't dwelled into The Feelings™ part much/at all despite the "stuck in the wrong body" narrative appearing time and time again

Either Oda thinks it'd be too boring either for himself or his readers, or he hasn't dwelled into it because he doesn't really understand gender dysphoria and can't relate to the experience (despite how often it shows its face in OP). Or it could be both, even

The thing is though, as OP has gone on, while I wouldn't say Oda has "broken his writing rules", Kuma's backstory alone has pushed them to a new limit with the love-that-never-was story and the all-but-explicitly-stated storytelling.

So a part of me wonders, if Crocodile is trans, could Oda actually like... take a slightly deeper look into his feelings and explore his queer experience? ('Cause god knows, if Crocodad Real, then there really would be a literal coming out-story built into his backstory that would be extremely unavoidable, and as I've mentioned before, the fact that we haven't gotten to learn almost anything about his backstory yet is Kinda Fucking Sus)

Also I do want to mention how... like Oda gets a lot of bad rap when it comes to queer rep in One Piece, but the more I think about it, I think it's more an issue with the terminology and how translators have gone about either localizing it, or more often than not, leaving it unlocalized 'Cause like. Yes the "okama" would be horrible trans rep but... really... they're not trans representation. They're representation for draq queens. Piss poor draq rep, but still, they're draq queens. And just like our very real life drag performers; some of them are cishets. Some of them are gender non-conforming gay men. Some of them are nonbinary*. Some of them are trans women. Obviously lumping all of these people into one group is kinda offensive (which is why "okama" is (as far as I understand it) such an unpopular term even amongst queer people in Japan), and the way Oda often chooses to draw these characters looks no different to how gender criticals choose to present trans women in their propaganda.

*Like Bon-chan, who explicitly states they are both male and female. And Iva-chan, who switches between boy-mode and girl-mode from time to time, could arguably be called genderfluid (though any specific terminology is up to debate). Both are nonbinary draq queens.

And yet, despite all that. It can not be understated how if you put aside the nameless background gag-characters, Oda does treat the actual, proper queer characters with respect. Everyone would agree that Bon-chan is an absolute hero, we would all die for them. Iva-chan (and Inazuma too) is explicitly presented in a heroic light, seen as someone who helps people and fights for justice (with the Revs)

And then there's the first binary trans characters we've actually gotten, Okiku and Yamato. And I'm pretty sure we would all agree Okiku is 10/10 perfect trans fem representation (I am not entirely serious, I'm not trans fem so I can't speak for trans women here, it's just that I can't see anything Horrendously Wrong with how Okiku is presented within the story- not actually perfect but all things considdered, damn good). She is stunning, people around her (INCLUDING SANJI!!) don't just view her as a woman but would go out of their way to date her (as in, she is seen as "desirable", and not as some kind of a disgusting freak to avoid), she is heroic and sweet and kind and just. IDK I love her And while I'm sure many trans mascs would agree Yamato may not be how they want to be seen by the world (though having Yamato ID as a man while having the biggest moobs is surely validating for a lot of people, including anybody who might not want or be able to get top surgery and/or HRT), again, he is only presented as heroic within the narrative and respected by the characters around him, Luffy especially, which is by far the most important part; the protagonist going out of his way to be respectful of trans characters does represent the values of the story.

And like.

Think about how Oda has treated Crocodile so far.

Like, although we're all having a bit of a laugh over the whole Cross Guild thing, Oda is still treating him as a cool character whom he presents seriously and treats with respect. Like Oda wants the readers to see Crocodile as at least a little bit cool. So I can't imagine him pulling a full 180 with how Croc would be treated in the story if he was revealed to be trans, especially when the potential foreshadowing for that was laid out in the story years ago already.

All this to say; Oda is not perfect at all, but considdering the things he has gotten right so far, I think there is hope he could pull it off. Because Oda is for Queer Liberation.

Really, my only concerns would be whether or not there's a risk Crocodile could get somehow detrans'd during the story (I'm praying the Haki theory isn't an option, really Doc Q might be the only true risk here), if he's stealth and that got presented as "a wrong thing to do" (which I'd hope not, like our previous queer characters have been okay with being openly queer but that may have been more for the readers than anything else. At least, I hope, god knows if Crocodile is and wants to be stealth trans then that's his right and he shouldn't have to out if he doesn't want to, and yeah, I don't want him to be demonized within the narrative for being stealth (if he's stealth, for all we know he could be out)) and like, most importantly, what'd end up being Crocodile's "motivation" for transitioning in the first place

Like. God. I just. I don't want there to be a twist where Crocodile transitioned because "being a woman was weak" or because he "wanted to be acknowledged by Whitebeard" ('cause WB doesn't take women into his crew) or "the scar in his face made him so ugly he decided he should be a man instead" (seen unironic Redditors suggest that. Almost lost my mind) or something

Like I hope someone's at least tried to explain gender dysphoria to Oda. Like the man does have actual queer friends in real life (some of whom inspired characters in OP), so I'm hoping at least someone's tried to explain the feelings that come with The Trans Experience™ to him so that, if Crocodile's trans, then Oda can actually try to base his reasoning to transition on those feelings instead of any stupid "reasons" that no actual queer person would relate to

But it all just boils down to... Is Oda willing to actually dwell into those feelings and explore them in the story.

It... it really could go either way with Oda

So yeah. Anon, I'm with you, I'd be lying if I didn't admit I was at least A Little Worried. But also... I want to be hopeful. Because I do believe there is reason to be hopeful.

Only time will tell how it'll go

[dogboyboyshorts]

i think the foundational problem that the transandrophobia crowd cant get past is that transphobes literally dont see us as men. they dont. they dont hate us because of our “manhood” they hate us because we dont conform to the gender binary. 

like yes transphobes dont see trans women as women either, but the way that transphobia affects them is by abusing them for not conforming to standards of female desirability, ie their bodies make them “disgusting” and “unfit for society”, so in the transphobe’s eyes the only other option trans women have available is to be perverts; which is nearly identical to how garden variety misogynists treat cis women (if they’re ugly, they’re a whore, etc). transphobia against trans men doesnt harken back to a wider societal ill against their gender the way transmisogyny does. we aren’t abused for being men, we’re abused for trans men. and since society doesn’t hate men, then, well, we’re really just experiencing transphobia. 

it seems like such a simple equation to me. like if a trans man were cis, he wouldn’t experience any bigotry for being a man. he may get hit with homophobia/toxic masculinity, sure, but his being a man isn’t something society is out to get him for, it would be his “inadequacy” at being one. if a trans woman were cis, she would still experience bigotry for being a woman. because society views women as less than men. NOT THAT DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND!

[zaritarazi]

also, i really need people putting their foot down about this, at the end of rule of wolves, hanne fully comes out as using he/him pronouns. he fully says he is transmasc. 

please do not use she/her pronouns for him. please do not draw him in women’s clothes. they/he is fine, but i was discussing this with your favorite transmasc doll superfan @clefclefairy and they very succinctly said “no one can use they/them until a trans person wants to wholly use she/hers or he/him and then everyone can use the singular they all of a sudden.” 

like can we please be more conscious of this. hanne gets so little content, it’s really gross that most of the content he has misgenders him.

[roxtron]

oh no i'm about to talk about trans representation in a way that might annoy some people. Obviously this discussion should have context, so, within the context of people arguing if Gwen is or isn't trans.. I saw this.

To summarize for people who don't want to/can't read what's in the screenshot, the basic point of this person's argument is that it would actually be better for the LGBT+ community for Gwen to be an ally.. And that it would somehow be worse if she was trans herself. So naturally I'm gonna make an entire post ranting about it for as long as I want to, because this is bullshit. First off, I don't think there is ever going to be a scenario where trans people themselves will be more happy to see a character as a trans ally than to see a trans character. That's just.. no. Second off, even if we're following the logic of the comment, that allies voices and representation are somehow more important than trans people's voices and representation- Simply by the fact that allies are viewed as more 'normal' by society- I can't even write this as one solid sentence, it's just such an awful point. I thought we've gone through this enough times that you're not inherently special for being an ally, you don't need ally representation more than trans people need representation, it's literally just "congrats! you're not a transphobic asshole and are doing the bare minimum to being a decent human being." I think the community has already had enough of cishet allies trying to insert themselves into the community solely because they're allies. (Example, people trying to claim the 'A' in 'LGBTQIA+' is for 'Ally.' Obviously it's not. There's multiple identities that start with A that the acronym is for. Asexual, aromantic, agender, etc.) Either way the point about allies being better voices simply because they're only allies is just making the problem worse. The only reason the community needs allies voices in any way is because transphobes won't listen to trans people themselves. They'll only listen to the voices of allies, if they bother to listen at all. Giving more ally voices isn't going to have the same impact as making trans voices louder. They're not going to stop seeing us as freaks just because you say we're not, they're just going to be annoyed with you too for 'siding' with us. As good as allies may have intentions they can't and shouldn't speak for our experiences. And if only the voices of allies are heard, there's going to be a huge piece missing during discussions like this. But even beyond that, who says representation has to be for getting transphobes to accept us anyway? Why can't we just have representation to make us happy? Why is furthering fighting transphobes more valuable than making trans people feel seen and understood? I just wanna end this by saying: I'm tired of seeing takes like this. You claim to be allies, but if you are, why does the thought of Gwen being trans make you that upset? Why is it such a big deal to some of you if she is?

[alertarchitect]

I genuinely do not understand The Discourse around Palworld. Now, for full transparency, I don't really particularly care about the game, I've not played it, nor do I plan to. I'd rather stick with my FPS games and metroidvanias. I'm probably the closest to being a neutral party on the issue you can find in the gaming community. That being said...

Stop with all of the "[Megacompany X] needs to call their lawyers!!" nonsense. Yes, they have designs that look like Pokémon. Yes, they have designs that look like Monster Hunter monsters. However, I have one important question here...

Why the hell do you care?

First off, we're talking ripoff designs of IPs owned by companies that make profits in the billions. These companies, especially Nintendo, have - or at least have access to - very good lawyers. Do you really think Palworld - a game made by a company based in Japan, the SAME COUNTRY as the companies I see people saying are having their designs stolen, meaning this theoretical lawsuit would be 100% domestic instead of bringing the headaches associated with an international suit - would have made it to release if Nintendo, Capcom, or any other company had standing for a plagiarism lawsuit? Especially when Japan doesn't have fair use laws? That, to me, already tells me these designs are clearly in the "legally distinct ripoff" category, and that's okay. Obviously plagiarism isn't a good thing, but if this was close enough to be considered such under laws that don't include fair use provisions, it's FINE. Even if it's not the most ethical, ripoffs and bootlegs are gonna happen. This one is just has more publicity than most.

Second, these are - again - billion-dollar companies that make more money than most people can even truly comprehend. Why are you defending them so much? No matter how much I may like the older Pokémon games, such as Platinum, we are talking about one of, if not the single most profitable franchise on the fucking PLANET. Not only does it not need Random Schmuck #582183 to defend it online, the people behind it likely don't fucking CARE. The Pikémon Company is like 50% or more owned by Nintendo, which is a company that - as we've seen time and again with their takedowns of passionate fan projects with 0 profit incentive such as AM2R as well as their draconian YouTube content policies for creators - doesn't care about their fans at the best of times, and is actively hostile towards them more often than not. Why do so many people defend these large corporations like doing so is going to get you a "thank you" letter from Miyamoto? Why are you supporting massive billionaires like your life depends on it over some 3D models that, as previously established, are more in the "legally distinct ripoff" category than anything else? Are you so invested in their corporate wellbeing that you feel the need to try and do their PR & legal teams' jobs for them?

At the end of the day, Palworld is a game made by a team that seems genuinely passionate about their craft, that has been a fun experience for many people across the world. Let those people have their fun. And if the designs being ripoffs is such a problem for you, just don't buy the game. Simple as that. If you're that worried, let the notoriously litigious companies like Nintendo handle it. Don't try to be an ass to people just having fun in a video game. Hell, if you're so convinced this is a case of direct plagiarism, just stop supporting the people making stuff about it like we did with the people who played the Shitty Wizard Game. Obviously this issue is nowhere near as bad, as it's just a case of ripoff designs instead of people financially supporting an anti-semitic, racist TERF who sees financial support of her franchise as support for her ideals and uses the platform that gives to call for things like trans genocide, but the principle is the same in practice - just don't support it or anything to do with it, and chill the hell out.

[knightotoc]

The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Mary Pickford, a 25-year-old Canadian, plays a 10-year-old New Yorker thanks to the power of silent movie magic. At one point, she lashes out against her miserable upbringing and is punished by being force-masculinized because of her dad's own gender trauma.

She quickly embraces the costume (there's even a very 2018 "it has pockets!" moment), and gets into a mud fight with the street boys. Of course, she is soon punished again, and cries with grief for her brief moment of cross-dressing class-traitor freedom.

The scenario isn't "good lbgt representation" (none of these are), but it is a bizarre glimpse into turn-of-the-century gender roles. The entire film has a tonal dissonance you don't see anymore (whimsical proto-Wizard-of-Oz dream sequences include one of her dad committing suicide), and this subplot in particular seems especially tragic and cruel from a modern point of view.

The Dream Lady (1918) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Rosamund Gilbert becomes an independently wealthy woman and decides to move to a cottage and make her neighbors' dreams come true. Sydney Brown makes a "bold request," to spend her vacation as a boy, and Rosamund sets her up in an adorable dress-up sequence.

Sydney makes friends at da club with James Mattison, and they walk around arm-in-arm as boys do. But when her vacation is over, Sydney retransforms into a woman, prompting "pal" James to say, "I've seen people go through changes in their life, but never anything like this!"

There is another movie from the same year but from Germany called "I Don't Want to Be a Man," in which this I-thought-you-were-a-guy romance subplot is the main plot (and there's hilarious drunk makeouts). I recommend both movies since they are just lovely and very funny, even though it is sad about the cisheteronormativity. It isn't too much of a reach to interpret that these couples would consider themselves trans and gay in their private lives, even as they present straight in public.

There are 6 more movies on my Letterboxd list with this theme, so I might add them on to this post. Even though these movies were made later in the time, they aren't necessarily more progressive.

[deer-trees]

I do truly hate this topic but I will not lie as a Jewish person the level of jokes being made by some ppl abt the antisemitism in a certain local terf author's video game are just feeling like they wanted to make references to every possible antisemitic dog whistle and joke that the game is doing it, and I'm here like "haha very funny guys how many of you are also actually jewish 🔪" bc this many goyim saying "heehee the devs would prefer a rating of 14/88" does NOT sit right with me at all!!! Shut the fuck up!!!!!