#Most but not all. I don't read John as trans but he for sure was gender non-conforming

[mayasaura]

hi, may I ask where John being gender non-conforming and his only known family dying of pneumonia happened/was mentioned in the books? I probably just straight up missed it and would like to look back at it, thank you!

Hi!! You certainly may! Sorry I'm answering this bit late, but better late than never right?

So narratively speaking, the John verses are where the story establishes John's background, yeah? They're very deliberate in the details, and we can deduce a lot from what they mention .... and what they don't.

The only family John ever mentions in an active capacity is his Nana, his mother's mother—his mother comes up once, but only in the context of objects she left behind. More on that in a minute.

What happened to his parents is unknown; they just don't show up in his 'saga of me, confused destroyer of worlds'. Whatever the story is there, their omission suggests they weren't present in his life, at least in any stable capacity. Nana and her little dog are his only known family.

Nana died of pneumonia when John was "a teenager", so between the ages of thirteen and nineteen. Odds are extremely good that happened while he was at Dilworth, which houses students aged eight to eighteen.

As for gender non-conforming, well. Not very gender conforming of him as a little boy to pick Hollywood Hair Barbie as his favorite toy, while letting the dog chew on Ken because, quote, "[Ken] was a creep." Very masculine of him to hold that in his heart as a cherished memory well into adulthood.

Most of the little boys like that I knew grew up to be women.

[variousqueerthings]

FINAL THOUGHTS ON MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL! UNPACKING ALL OF THAT!

this guy, his girlfriend, and their third, the most stunning woman you ever saw who brought the picnic basket

So I was saying as I was watching that this is an odd duck for several reasons, the main gist of it being that it's at once kind of blander than I have a feeling the book is (or indeed the real events were), but also stunningly weird to watch in 2024:

kevin spacey as a rich dude who shoots a young, vulnerable (but also extremely volatile) hustler under somewhat mysterious circumstances, given we don't actually know too much about their relationship beyond the facts given to us by this rich guy and a couple of brief snapshots of the final night -- and he gets away with it (and then he immediately has a heart attack and it's suggested it was the ghost of the young man getting his revenge... alas not all meta is reflected 100% in reality....)

a movie that features a trans woman, who's playing a version of herself, because she was at the original events, but she's also just giving the best performance in the movie + it lowkey ends on the three of them kinda bein a thing (that is, a romantic couple and she is also there and she's the one who brought the picnic basket!) -- which like. you barely see anywhere and certainly wouldn't expect to see in a movie directed by clint eastwood

this not 2024-specific in its interest, but its general depiction of a community which is clearly so interesting in its contained ways, allowing a myriad of people to simply be, whether it be a trans woman or a suggested wider queer community (although for sure that acceptance is Conditional and not held by all), or a guy who ties live horseshoe flies to himself with string, or a guy who walks an invisible dog, or its respected practice of voodoo (i cannot speak to how well this film depicts voodoo, only that it does and as a part-time american gothic, also highly suggests the ghosts are alive and amongst us)

on the flipside of this we've got:

feels like almost all the leads are fully phoning it in. john cusack is truly the fish out of water in that he just doesn't belong here, nor is it clear why he's so interesting to anyone (why do y'all wanna have sex with this man???) -- and he's in practically every scene, yagotta... yagotta have someone you want to follow for two and a half hours here......

the pacing is meeessy, in that "oh yeah this was based on a book and didn't know what to keep and what to leave out and generally how it would work onscreen" kind of way, which ultimately does very few characters a service (except, again, for The Lady, for she pops up, has a great time, and then we wait around for her to pop up again). it does make me want to read the book!

it also just. should have revelled more I think. this is partially casting, partially scripting, but also I think cinematography and directing, it's so at arms length most of the time, like it doesn't really know how to present this community or the gothic parts of the story, so it ends up being a bit hammy and a bit point-at-the-weirdness and go "well that's weird." AGAIN the exception truly is Chablis, she's the realest character in the story, and AGAIN I'd hazard it's because of the fantastic decision to have her in the film playing herself, all the camera needs to do is point and shoot, she's got the rest on lock! the car conversation! the emceeing! the dancing! the courtroom Ensemble! the showing up with a picnic basket! but yeah, the rest of the film seemed a bit... the word that's coming up for me is timid. a bit dull. a bit lacking in guts

ultimately really happy I finally watched this one, I wonder if it would be possible to do a tight edit that cuts off roughly 30-45mins (keep all the Lady Chablis parts, naturally), but I do think it wanted also to just be more open and possibly also to make some more concise decisions on how it wanted to present this story, because I get the feeling the screenplay didn't know how to engage with the original book + it's got some serious 90s "This Is A Movie" elements to it

there's a part of me that thinks this one is actually worthy of a remake (Angelica Ross anyone???) but also what would that be without at least a cameo from The Lady herself? maybe we just need more American Gothic Crime Dramas with trans women doing cool shit in them. the answer is always more!

some highlights beyond The Lady Chablis

the garden itself -- the graveyard that is -- was quite eerie, especially in the opening and closing scenes

the opening and closing generally I was very into, that vibe wasn't sustained so much by the rest of the movie unfortunately

I liked the scene where the rich guy dies, it was a really cool Moment, especially the way jude law smiles -- he got what's coming to him

I did like parts of the courtroom drama part of it, I think that part was relatively well-paced

I liked the woman in the graveyard, who also bookended the whole thing. I liked the minor characters generally

good times! that time clint eastwood gave us the opportunity for one of the most sympathetically and interestingly portrayed trans women in a mainstream movie i guess???

[malottie]

1, 6, 12, 39

get asked things, dork (affectionate

welp, get your reading glasses out everyone

1: 3 things that shaped me into who i am

-1: luck. from the classic things like being born in a wealthy western country, being white (not inherently lucky but made me privileged/safer), having a relatively nice familly with no financial struggle, etc, to smaller stuff. like, it's a miracle i was never bullied in school. if it wasn't for that one person, maybe i would've died. i had free access to the internet since i was like 9, and somehow never stumbled on stuff that was inapropriate for my age

i consider myself quite lucky, despite all the hardships

-2: being trans. sorry to the people who think it's cringe when we make it our whole personnality, but it is litteraly so important. so central. i cannot fathom what i would be like if i weren't trans. that's just not the same person

-3: having weird ass parents. by that i mean that they're almost not like parents, more like... people i lived with that cared for me? i of course mean that in the sense that i don't have any special emotional attachment to them and all, but also that it doesn't feel like they raised me because they transmitted so little to me. my way of seeing the world, my hobbies, my fears, my political opinions, my general knowledge, my understanding of myself and others, my skills, i got them from, well, not them. the internet school, my friends, but not my parents. truly, i don't really know these people

6: best and worst part of being online

i've been here most of my life, so all the bad is just part of it. yes, that's where all the haters are. sure, all of the horrible things in existence can be found here. but that's also where my friends are. that's where community is. that's my only way of accessing at least 50% of what makes me happy. it has taught me so much about the world and myself, has held so many fulfilling experiences for me

if i had to choose 1 worst, i'd say transmisoginy i guess? i dunno, girl, i'm not even popular enough to get hate mail

12: a piece of advice i'd like to give

like i said in a previous post of mine i'm just 18. i'm like a baby. i feel like the least qualified person on earth to be giving advice. but i'll say one thing: advices are kinda bullshit. in essence they're opinions you think will be helpfull to someone else. but in my experience, they rarely are, especially when talking about life choices, mental health and the such. i watched hundreds of hours of self help videos, listened to people, went to therapy, and i felt like a fucking moron. i knew all the things, i had the advice, but it wasn't working. in the end, what helped me crawl out of the pit is time, love, and a bunch of stuff i'll never know about. find what works for you and ditch what doesn't; it's not because a piece of advice is true that it is helpful. searching for your solution will probably work better than just trying to apply the solutions others found

39: a youtuber i'm obssessed with

hard and specific

brennan lee mulligan? absolutely obssessed. a youtuber? not really

thegreatreview (he's french)? amazing youtuber. so fucking talented. obssessed? not really

dougdoug? obssessed by his entire cinematic universe for a while now. a youtuber? maybe 50%? it's all twitch streams highlights

john and hank green? ok i'll stop there

let's settle for brian david gilbert then, the man so nice they named him thrice. please buy his bed.

most well known for his Unravelled series on Polygon's channel, like the one about the sonic bible or the one about the smash bros osha violations, his personnal stuff is simply perfect, sometimes whimsical, like "i wish that i could wear hats" or "Pumpkin Cowboy", sometimes horrifying, like the one about the american healthcare system or "Teaching Jake about the Camcorder, Jan '97", often a mix of both, like "we like watching birds" or "earn $20K EACH MONTH by being your own boss". his comedic genius is at its best when it is also at its weirdest. he's also the guy who made the sibling dance song, i guess

[plum-postmodernprometheus]

ive seen a take on frankenstein thats truely baffled me. it's connected with 'radfems' (depressed women who hate trans people), and it seems to stem from both a misunderstanding of the text and projection.

the following will discuss spoilers for Frankenstein <3

i've screenshotted the most recent item which game on my dash (however i have seen it elsewhere, such as john green's analysis of frankenstein):

I should first note that 'Sady Doyle' is Jude Doyle. He is a transmasucline person (he/they), but at time of writing went by the former name. Do I think this terf poster actually cares about this? No. The way this poster is using this to back their own radical feminist beliefs. I do disagree with Doyle's argument simply in the wording, and especially how this reading can lend itself to terf arguements.

One thing I believe this analysis misses is that Frankenstein is also about discovery, both in science and in exploration. The reason why Walton exists serves to underline this. This discovery is patriarchal, yes (this is why Walton writes to his sister, not a brother), but to simplify it to just a story about creation is doing a discredit to the narrative.

I also disagree with the statement that Victor imposed his will on the dead flesh. I find that Victor is a parallel, not a foil, to motherhood. It is more about the fear of both child (who they might turn out to be) and that of a parent (are you good enough for the child/can you handle it). Frankenstein is a worst case-scenario. Victor cannot handle it, not because he is a man and their is something inherit to the gender which renders them unable to be parents, but because he is young (as Shelly was), recently lost his mother, and was isolated from his family. I don't think Doyle is arguing this (as a father themselves with a husband), but that seems to be the interpretation this poster has from reading it (and others have drawn).

If Shelley was arguing that without mothers, children were lost - she might have made the monster into more of an animal like creature than human. But she didn't. She made sure to highlight his human qualities.

I'm not saying that this book is not feminist, especially considering who her mother was. The Monster does not inherently want a wife or mother, just company. With the cottagers it is then he is shown that wives bring joy and light. He begins to see as women as objects that bring happiness. It is not inherent to men, as radfems such as this poster suggested, it is a learned behavior that exists within the roots of our society. It takes Victor months to even begin to think of the brides own free-will. Elizabeth, who is the same age as Victor, does not get to go to college. She instead takes care of Ernest and William (and likely Alphonse). Elizabeth, depending on the version (whether a cousin or adopted sister) was raised to be Victor's wife. He is not happy with this, but patriarchal society has made this okay, and thus suppressed any misgivings he might have. Society has taught these men, the Monster and Victor, that they need and should want wives and that these wives should be subserviant and be the sole provider of joy. Radfems seem to believe that no, there must be something in Men's brains that make them hate women, which is simply not true (nor supported by Mary Shelley!)

Mary Wollstonecraft, mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, argued that women only seemed inferior to men because they lack proper education. I believe Shelley takes this further. Men are just as hysterical, needy, and idiotic as women can be. Because - guess what! We're all human. Who knew.

[seeingteacupsindragons]

I totally agree with you, I still can't believe what I read in this chapter.

I always told myself that sherliam is canon (in my heart) and that it will always be implied until the end, I never imagined that there would be something so explicit about them.

Sure, Bond is in the series, and Bond is trans. But queer characters are not unique to Yuumori, shonen also have queer characters. But a gay couple. Even more, that the main couple is gay. That's unheard of.

Overall, what I find most impressive is the reaction of Sherlock, who denies absolutely nothing. However, the same situation happened to him with Irene, where Hudson and Wiggins imagined things, and each time, he denied all with great vehemence. This time nothing at all. Yuumori never fails to shock me.

Sherliam has always been written and portrayed as a romance, and I've written about how that works with specifics that a bunch of times, which is why I just linked to my Meta Masterlist earlier.

Did I think they were ever going to make that explicit? Er. Well. No. Not even as explicit as it has been. Even if I've been insisting Sherlock has been canonically queer since he told John, "Unfortunately, I'm not interested in women. That's more your area,” in regards to his potentially be attracted to Adler. But Sherlock being queer and single and Sherlock being queer and...not...are very different things to portray.

That said, I don't want to say it's unheard of. First off, I'm not as well versed as I'd need to be to make that declaration...but second, Nabari no Ou is shonen, and while Yoite is intersex, he also appears to be a boy, and he and Miharu are at least as difficult to read as completely platonic as Sherlock and William. I'm sure there are more.

I think it's more a Shonen Jump thing more than it is a shonen thing, and while Jump SQ is a Shonen Jump magazine, it's also true it's targeted at an older audience and has a number of series edging on seinen like YuuMori. So, I guess I can see that.

I love YuuMori. I'm very impressed with it. But we don't have to say what it's doing it unheard of and unique to appreciate what it's done.

Anyway, it's very interesting that a big part of what the creators said in that Manga Dojo interview was that they specifically designed these character to avoid the common portrayals of them because they wanted to stand out, even if it was risky. I think you can see that through a lot of choices they've made in the series.

Including what they've done with Sherlock and William's relationship.

I'm excited to see what else they have in store for us.

[gaykingslayer]

Thoughts on Will? I know you talked about him plenty already but I would love to hear some unpopular opinions/headcanons/thoughts you haven't gotten to talk about in general

this man literally altered my brain chemistry and I'm 100% sure that if I had never read RA I would be a whole different person. Cracking open those books at the age of 9 unleashed all that pent-up autism and I was so so unhinged about him and that entire series. I wanted to be him so badly and gods I tried to be, took up archery, my parents gave me knives and I shamelessly walked around with that ranger cloak my mum sewed (fun fact on Helloween I always go as a ranger because its the only costume I own). Yes, I was the Weird Kid, but my love for that man gave me the confidence to be obsessively weird about anything I liked. And I'm so happy about that because otherwise, I think I would be so hobbyless and afraid to be cringy about anything. In other words, I love him.

I made my trans!will headcanon clear a bunch of times already so we're going to dive into my headcanon for that headcanon.

I like to think that as time passed and will got more comfortable in his identity that he stopped cutting his hair short. He cut his hair short because it made him feel more connected with his masculinity and it felt like something he needed to do because it was something a lot of men did. So when he started growing it out he was finally at that point that he realized that he doesn't need to go out of his way to change things he liked just because other men were doing it (HE LOVED HIS LONG HAIR!!!). In my heart, his hair got almost as long as Alyss's and he cut it off after she died because she often brushed, braided or tied it back for him and having to do it himself was too painful. Will rocked an almost bald head for a while before he started growing his hair out again, but he never let it get too long.

When john said will is short he meant it. That man is not taller than 165m (5'4) and it's a fact because I said so.

One of the headcanons I live most fiercely by is that will was a fucking mean asshole in the TRR. I know it's a children's book and all but I feel so robbed of will being mean. I've 3 wips set in TRR (ish) and I love making him say stuff that would have you laying awake at night staring at the ceiling if someone said that to you. Why isn't he so tired of being nice, why doesn't he want to go apeshit???

for unpopular opinions...this might get my homo card revoked, but I actually don't like hill. *sirens go off, bombs fall on my house, my family is dead*. The concept is nice but I'm just way to obsessed with willys to see him with anyone else. I do like myself some hill content but I'm happy john doesn't do gay people because I don't think it would've worked in canon.

[autumnsup]

There are probably a million other (and better) lists out there like this, but for Pride Month and my own documenting purposes, here are the LGBTQ+ "classics" I've come across over the past several years of reading. My taste tends toward older literature and slash, so most of them center on gay stories and are somewhat dated in terms of general societal attitudes, but I know there are many other classics out there that are just as good and hope to get around to them eventually.

To be clear, my definition of "classic" is how often they crop up in various "best of" lists I've found on the internet (including this one), and who recommends them, as well as how long they've been around. For example, many of the titles here are based on the renowned gay author Edmund White's list of "representative freaks," which I haven't yet read through myself. (His books are interesting too, although they contain a lot of difficult themes, and are not always fiction or centered on gay characters). They are not necessarily recommendations, as I struggled with some or found them not so memorable, but I wanted to take note of them nonetheless.

The rest I've listed are books that I've just happened across, usually at a library or through a friend. I haven't included the YA books because in my mind they exist in their own category (although I'm happy to rec them to anyone who cares). Most, if not all, are written by authors who identify as LGBTQ+. And lastly, they are all in English because it's my first language, although I'm sure there are more I haven't yet discovered that originated in different languages.

So here they are, in no particular order:

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin - I loved the first book, although I haven't yet read the series that followed. It represents all sorts of queer lives and experiences in 1970/80s San Francisco, including a truly memorable trans character.

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters - a picaresque love story set in Victorian England. Not slash, although there is some gender-bending between the lesbian characters.

A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham - The Hours was a much more popular book of his, but this was the first book to introduce me to the idea of a polyamorous/throuple situation, including two gay characters.

Memorial by Bryan Washington - a searching look at a modern interracial gay relationship and its strengths and flaws.

Gay Bar by Atherton Lin - not fiction, but a very engaging sociological read, about the history of gay bars and the author's present-day experience of them.

The Merry Spinster by Mallory Ortberg/Daniel M. Lavery - I read this at the beginning of my deliberately queer literature journey and liked the dark gender-swapped versions of fairy tales it contains. The author transitioned while writing this book, supposedly.

"Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx - heartbreaking but good. Gods help me if I watch the film again.

City of Night by John Rechy - I didn't manage to finish this one because the style is very much of the Beatnik era, but I may attempt it again. It inspired the script for the film My Own Private Idaho (another queer classic).

"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg - also challenging to read unless you're in a stream-of-consciousness poetic mood. He does have mind-stopping imagery though, and was considered quite risqué for his time.

Burning Your Boats by Angela Carter - dark, sensual, borderline horror. Not all slash, but inclusive of different sexual orientations. I particularly like her retellings of fairy tales in this collection.

London Triptych by Jonathan Kemp - a breath-taking (and spicy) narrative that interweaves three different eras of gay culture.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - probably the best known classic of the 19th century, although I don't remember if it's overtly queer or just contains subtext. Haven't read it in years.

Maurice by E.M. Forster - honestly it's been ages since I read this one too. I love everything else by this gay author though, so I will probably reread it some day.

Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman - I tore right through reading this one after watching the film. A simple yet engaging coming-of- age story. I haven't read the sequel yet but will do so eventually.

The Spell by Alan Hollinghurst - I wasn't quite sure what to make of this one. Basically none of the characters are especially likable, although the story reveals interesting dynamics between them and their sexual escapades. I'm curious to read more by this author.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - this book rocked my world when I was a teenager. I've since come to question how representative it is of the intersex experience, seeing as it was written by a seemingly heterosexual cis man, but it was the first time I'd ever been introduced to such a rich and unusual character in literature, and she stayed with me for a long time after (re)reading.

As for the future, here are some titles I intend to read (among many more):

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood (story that the musical Cabaret was based on)

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

Pageboy by Elliot Page

Nevada by Imogen Bonnie

Here's hoping I've managed to add a few of these to my personal list by the time Pride Month rolls around again. 🤠 And of course, if anyone else has books/stories to recommend, do share!

[ewzzy]

I haven't made a real list, but since I spend all my time reading comics here's a top ten for 2022. (no particular order) First up is Kyle Starks' I Hate This Place. Kyle is always the best and a couple inheriting a farm only to find out it's haunted by ghosts/aliens/demons/cyptids/everything is a great hook.

Next up is the new Amazing Spider-Man series that brings back writer Zeb Wells and artist John Romita Jr. They're two of the best to ever do Spider-Man and as they tend to do they drag him through the mud along the way.

Adjacent to Spider-Man is Jed Mackay doing more Black Cat stories. He's writing the Moon Knight, Black Cat, and Dr Strange series and has proven to be one of the best and most prolific writers in the Marvel bullpen. Here's a bit from Mary Jane & Black Cat: Beyond.

Too bad for Jed but this was the year Chip Zdarsky hit homer after home with so many great series. Daredevil, Stillwater, Public Domain, and two Batman series that are all comic of the year level. It's been crazy watching the comedy guy known for Sex Criminals become the most prized writer at the big two. Nobody but Chip gets to write Batman and work for Marvel at the same time.

I've been going on and on about writers but the recent Poison Ivy series is all about artist Marcio Takara. I normally wouldn't give a series like this a chance but it's a beautiful horror comic where a lot of folks get torn apart by fungal spores.

I also wouldn't have touched a Harley Quinn series but Riley Rossmo's art will get me to read anything. He just started a new Robin series where Tim Drake is living in a boat house and working as a private eye. So far so good!

I don't care about the Eternals or Avengers and keeping up with the X-Men is exhausting but the A.X.E. Judgement Day event was great. Basically the superheroes create a new god and it decides to judge everyone on earth individually. If it does the math and we're mostly bad the earth goes bye bye. Captain America is the first to get a thumbs down and everyone collectively goes "oh so we're fucked right?" Then when the Eternals wake up some old war machines one reads the whole internet and becomes the secret admirer of a single human writer.

As I said X-Men is exhausting, but it was worth it to get all the jokes in X-Men '92 House of XCII which retells the last few years of X-Men comics as if they were adapted to the 90s cartoon.

A much clearer X-Men comic was Giant-Size X-Men: Thunderbird. He was the first X-Man to die for the cause and now that mutants can be resurrected he's back and not sure he wants to be a part of it anymore. It's co-written by trans native-american pro wrestler Nyla Rose and I was expecting very little but it's great.

Guess this is my last one. I have been shocked by how good the Punisher: King of Killers series is. Writer Jason Aaron and artists Jeus Saiz & Paul Azaceta bounce between two art styles & times. The present where Frank Castle is worshipped as history's greatest killer by ninja assassin cult, The Hand, and the past where we discover he first killed at age 10 and how his family dying was never what made him the Punisher. It's also an allegory about how The Punisher isn't cool and you shouldn't like him and anyone who would use his skull logo unironically is dumb.

Sorry TMNT Armageddon Game, One-Star Squadron, Superman The Warworld Saga, X-Terminators, My Bad, Billionaire Island: Cult of Dogs, World's Finest, and everyone else from this year but I've run out of time and space. Look forward to Spider-Man/X-Men Dark Web on next year's list alongside both of Ryan North's new comics Secret Invasion and Fantastic Four.

[rosiewitchescottage]

I've heard this mentioned around the place.

Because at 7:30 Mr Rogers explains his song lyrics

Boys are boys from the beginning. If you're born a boy then you stay a boy.

Girls are girls from the start. If you're born a girl then you stay a girl.

Of course there are people going ballistic.

There are those saying that this is just used as fuel for transphobia.

And I'm sure that there are people who are doing so. I don't excuse them.

But It Doesn't Mean That What Mr Rogers Said Isn't Right or Good.

Because there's a wide difference between countering gender theory with biological facts, and being transphobic.

Either being trans is rooted in biological facts, or it isn't real, because gender theory is just that, an idea to explore.

If Gender Dysphoria makes maleness therefore manhood or femaleness therefore womanhood unbearable.

Then I can absolutely understand the male living as a woman to distance herself from maleness, or the female living as a man to distance himself from femaleness.

That is rooted in biological reality. The male is a trans woman, not a woman, the female is a trans man not a man.

And this is perfectly OK.

There's no lesser than or greater than. There's just the acknowledgement of biological reality, and how it works.

Mr Rogers is making it clear that whilst a boy will always be a boy, because he's male and his sex won't change.

Whilst a girl will always be a girl because she's female and her sex won't change.

That doesn't mean that the child can't become whatever he/she has the ability and passion to become.

Because he/she most certainly can.

Mr Rogers is just making it clear that we shouldn't be telling children things about their bodies that isn't true.

A feminine or androgynous boy is still a boy

A masculine or androgynous girl is still a girl.

In 1980 we were playing around with these ideas. But they were still a long way from being mainstream.

All this is merely biological fact versus gender theory.

And unless one aims to deny all trans people their rights, then this isn't transphobic.

As the beginning of gender theory came from a monster named Dr John Money, who both lied that his excuse for a failed experiment was a roaring success, and sexually abused both his subjects, who later committed suicide.

I'm not sure whether Mr Rogers would have any truck with it.

Yes. John Money had a terrible childhood, and no doubt Mr Rogers would mourn that.

But the man still decided to behave in this diabolical manner, causing suffering in others on the way.

There have been proper transgender studies. But they were a whole other game of marbles, meticulous care taken off the subjects, the strictest insistence that there be no mental health issues, history of abuse etc, that might otherwise be affecting the young person's self perception.

Plus, those who carried out the study are livid that their work is being used in such a cavalier manner.

They know that the hormones they used are not to be handed out lightly.

And certainly not without making sure that they and not something else entirely, aren't want the patient truly requires.

[ineffmoth]

index of works

works published under my name:

Only Fools - Borderlands | Handsome Jack/Rhys | Contains Explicit Content | 47k | Complete

In which Rhys attempts to steal one thing from Handsome Jack and finds himself with another.

ummmmm.... the definitive ineffmoth work i guess lol ^_^

Macaroni - Borderlands | Handsome Jack/Rhys | Contains Explicit Content | 40k | Abandoned

Sequel to Only Fools Rhys gets a job. Angel gets the girl. Jack gets a clue. Well. He’s getting there.

it moves its slow thighs - Borderlands | Handsome Jack/Rhys | 9k | Complete

John’s not sure what possessed him to willingly get into a car with his clearly insane boss, the CEO of Atlas, but it’s probably too late to turn back now. He just wishes Rhys would stop calling him Jack. Written for the 2019 Borderlands MiniBang.

one of my favorite fics that i've written. contains beautiful illustrations.

the road to heaven, as paved by bad intentions - The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System | Shen Yuan/Luo Binghe | Contains Explicit Content (it's literally just porn with a flimsy excuse of a background plot to justify its existence) | 29k | Complete

Luo Binghe formulates a foolproof plan to get revenge against the high school teacher who almost ruined his life by banging said teacher’s younger brother. OR Shen Yuan unintentionally and unknowingly uses his ass to reform an Imperial-grade douchebag.

the plot writing in this one is Not Good and i get really embarrassed when i think about it all the time but i had a lot of fun writing it and making fun of luo binghe.

Genuine Article - Naruto | Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara | Contains Explicit Content (there's no plot, this one's just porn) | 3k | Complete

Madara makes a discovery about Tobirama. And immediately jumps to the dumbest conclusion possible.

i couldn't make tobirama trans in controlled burn even though i really wanted to because it would have meant having to explore ten million transphobic side plots that i absolutely was not interested in writing. so i was like sigh fine i'll just get it out of my system. i don't really intend to write explicit sex in cb atm so this can probably just be considered a cut scene from that fic.

A House Made of Fire - Naruto | Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara | Contains Dark Themes | 7k | Complete

Tobirama observes Madara and his new wife from the secluded confines of his hidden chamber in the manor attic.

attic wife!tobirama. inspired by all the gothic lit i've been reading recently. i would consider this tame compared to a lot of classic gothic lit but i also think the monk by matthew lewis would deal lethal psychic damage to most twitter users so. make of that what you will. words can't express how badly i want someone to talk to me about this story always all the time every day.

[furiousofpanda]

A LITTLE ABOUT ME!!!

18 • Demisexual • Genderfluid • INTP-A

Hello! I am Wake, your local shapeshifter and jester harboring immortality at it's finest.

I go by any pronouns besides feminine aligned ones (she/her/etc) and I'm somewhat okay with neopronouns as long as you aren't being weird about it.

Because my sexuality and gender are under huge umbrellas, I jokingly use umbrella terms or similar at times (non-binary "non-biney", Trans, Asexual, Gay, Lesbian, Saffic) I'm still figuring out what to alighn with for what I'm attracted to but lets just say... Women

My internet Mascot and Sona is Wake, who is a hyperfix of mine

My favorite games are Portal 2, Bioshock (1&2 only), Stanley Parable and Viva Piñata: Party Animals

I love older or more obscure games that were once popular but I don't watch any television at all or read any books, if I watch TV it's anime or a cartoon series pfft

Particularly 8-bit rpg's, old Xbox 360 games or Friend sims (dating Sim style gamed where you can't or don't have to romance the/a character)

I am part of the closed species fandom. By textbook definition I am a furry and I have a fursuit + draw furry art, but I do not interact and am oftenly severely disconnected to the fandom. If anything the fandoms I interact the most with unironically have been the tf2 and Undertale Fandom even though I'm way too jaded and not all that interested into Undertale anymore.

My username is the same on all platforms, though if your unsure if a platform is actually me, feel free to message me, it's a really long list of how many websites I have accounts on.

My favorite Genres are Horror, Surrealism, Action/Adventure, RPG/Simulators, and whatever genre ENA and Yumi Nikki fit into

I do also like some games for their characters despite not liking their tropes, for example John Doe (from John Doe game) has kinda occupied the back of my mind despite hating the yandere trope and having been stalked before n the trama from it

He's a special kind of cluelessly wholesome aight? I can't describe it :/

I own several original species listed below, some I made, some I've gotten ownership of over time, I'll make posts on them eventually

All except Spinks and nakimi are open species

Nakimi and Spinks are "open" meaning you can make em without asking but they need to be approved by me to make sure they follow anatomy.

Spinks

Nakimi

Ucheraros

Quoins

Feirnix imps (Fluffy imps)

And a few more that are still in development

I ran out of image space but I also have 200+ ocs and about 152 or so on my sales account over on toyhouse! Same user ofc

So yeah I'm chill, this is me, howdy I exist.

I don't judge people unless they do something outrageous stupid that isn't funny, so feel free to message me whatever, I need friends y'know-

[dreamylyfe-x]

Your trevor meta is making me realize how weird it is that the writers and cast were so insistent that mickey wasn't coming back, because I don't think theyve ever really known what to do with ian's story without him. They put him in these lukewarm relationships and tell us they're so much better and healthier, but then have ian straight up admit that he still loves mickey and nobody else has made him feel the same way. How do they set that up and then have him go back to trevor? They set up ian moving on with "I'm not that person anymore" and follow up with season 8. It's like okay...who he is now is gay Jesus? Lmao. He's always been the shows forgotten middle child and after they wrote mickey off "for good" they could have taken him in a million directions but they chose one so shitty it basically made cam leave lmao. Sometimes it feels like fan insistence kind of forced mickey back but in actuality, the seasons where he's gone just hammer home that he was always the inevitable end to ian's story. So bizarre how little the showrunners understand their own story sometimes.

Ok. I’m going to be a little more Doylist here than I usually am, because we’re talking about what the writers are thinking. And I’m also going to take this opportunity to share this fascinating article from the AV Club in 2016: When Fan Engagement Goes Wrong. Everyone beware, it contains significant spoilers for The 100. But it’s also largely about Gallavich, the fact that online promotion of Shameless leaned hard into the popularity of the couple, and were up against it when Noel left. I’ll quote: 

“[Supervising Producer Shelia] Callaghan’s choice to be honest and straightforward when engaging with fans is admirable, and yet also on some level futile. She can’t tell them exactly why Fisher chose to leave, she is (logically) unwilling to spoil future storylines outright, and she can only speak her own mind as part of a collaborative process over which she holds only some influence. So while many fans respect her effort to maintain the connection to this now marginalized community, others attack, reinforcing that attempting to manage these situations is a full-time job that no one has been properly trained for.” 

This article links some tweets and the one I find the most interesting is this one:

“But the actor left.  So...what to do? Have them just break up?? Felt way less true to me than a forced separation!” 

That tweet is from Krista Vernoff, who wanted to convey that they tried really hard to come up with what they do with Ian now that he’d lost Mickey. And I’m sure they did try really hard. And.... People hated it. Mostly. 

Here’s what I think, based on what I’ve read and the interviews I’ve seen, on deleted tweets and Tumblr rumours and YouTube clips: The show didn’t want Mickey to leave the canvas. At all. Noel wanted more money. The show could not come up with both that money and the money they needed for everyone else. The show let him go. And hoped they could solve the creative problem their budgetary problem had dumped in their lap. 

I actually think Ian’s story in season six is decent. I miss Mickey, of course. I find the last scene with him really painful -- but it’s not painful because the show is trying to diminish him. They write and then cut together a scene where Mickey is DEMONSTRATIVELY still deeply in love with Ian. He’s carved his name in his chest. He is looking at Ian like he’s the most beautiful creature ever given breath. And Ian can barely meet his gaze. They tell us Mickey is being sent away for 16 years but when we see the last of Mickey Milkovich in season six I think “God, this is so sad. They love each other so much and this is so fucked up.” 

I do NOT think “We are NEVER EVER EVER getting back together.” 

The show always knew what it had with Ian and Mickey. They leaned into it promotionally. They gave meaty storylines to the characters, particularly given that Ian was the fourth lead on a family dramedy built around six children. John Wells replaced Aaron Sorkin on The West Wing. He knows how hard it is to follow a phenomenon. 

The more I think about it, honestly? I don’t think they tried. I think they knew that they couldn’t bring in Mickey Milkovich, the sequel in season six, so they brought in Caleb. And maybe they meant for him to be a LITTLE more viable than he was... but I think there’s a pretty good chance they were just throwing something at the wall to see if it stuck, while being fully aware that the important storyline in season six was getting Ian from despair to a fulfilling career. Caleb was just there as a catalyst. 

Season seven if more interesting, because Trevor is brought on and it’s very much... “Hey, let’s do something new. Let’s bring on a transmasc character and put him into a relationship with Ian and explore those complications.” 

“Great! Put it up on the board!” 

“Also. Let’s call Noel Fisher’s people and see what we can work out because we can do better with Mickey’s send off and people are yelling at me on the street about it.” 

Quite honestly, these are not equal tasks for his writer’s room. You have one story -- Create a whole ass new character. The only thing we know is that he’s trans. Figure out the romance from there. You have six episodes to get them together as an established couple. 

Then: Bring back the well-established and beloved character for an epic romantic two-episode arc where he reunites with his true love and they run away together and then ultimately realize it cannot be, and say goodbye and it all feels like I Will Always Love You should be playing in the background. They actors worked together for five years. They have a great professional partnership. They like working together. They have a ton of history so there’s lots of juicy subtext. The longing and sexual tension comes pre-established. See what you can do. 

HOW do you make both those things work out so that they are equal? You need lightening to strike. And that already happened on How I Met Your Mother. They squandered their good luck and now there is none left for Shameless. I do not disparage Elliot Fletcher at all when I say that for Trevor and Ian to really work he’d have had to have come with scorching chemistry with Cam, rich material that really gave them a good opportunity to build rapport between the characters, and A wizard standing by to cast spells in the wings. They had SIX episodes, a pretty average connection between the actors, and the “these are the LGBTQ+ people in your neighbourhood” scene. 

I just can’t believe that someone with as many years of TV writing under his belt as John Wells has expected that to work. He hoped the Trevor story might be good, and was certainly going to break some ground in terms of telling trans stories. And the Mickey story was going to be the highlight, because he knew people wanted it and he also knew that they’d had something pretty special to start with. Which is why people were yelling at him at Comic-Con. I DO think he hoped it might placate fans a bit. But... he wasn’t going to completely close the door on Mickey this time, either. 

So... I don’t really think the show every intended to write Mickey off “for good”. I think they wrote him off “for now, and we’ll see what happens...” -- and they did that with Karen, Shelia, Jody, Steve and Fiona, too. They only brought a few of those people back... They brought Mickey back three times. They ended Gallavich FOUR times. Noel is in ever season except eight. I don’t think they wanted Mickey gone -- but I KNOW the fans also made it pretty hard for them not to know his value, so absolutely I think that played a role. But when you create something people love and you get that lightening in a bottle like they did with this story, I think writers are always going to be excited to get that back. They like praise! They like people to be excited about their show. And Gallavich was always one of the things that got people excited about Shameless. 

I think they also wanted Gay Jesus to be a great story. But that’s why the lightening in the bottle is so valuable. You can’t just get it anywhere. 

[tokaywineandcheese]

Hi! For the writing ask game (no surprise here xD): 2 for Rian, 6 for Pineandmints, 13 for Ten Sons, 14 for the whole HQ if you don't mind?, 17 for Andy-Tommy, 23 for Kakhar, 22 for trans magicians. Sorry it's a lot and thanks in advance ^^'

hi ily dim this isnt a lot (and also im crying over having to retype all of this im KFSDKJ)

2. pick one sight, smell, sound, feel, and taste to describe the aesthetic of your novel.

uh. hm.

sight: dark swirls yes

smell: gunpowder.

sound: the click of gears

feel: (I assume this means touch?) wooden planks

taste: ....blood? sweat? tears?

6. are there any former titles you’ve considered but discarded?

Well, technically the "official" title is The Wild Hunt. But I usually just resort to pineandmints cuz it's cuter. This story doesn't even have an actual title anymore cuz idk what to stick with so uhhh???

13. sort your characters into harry potter houses!

YELLS. I assume this means the Hogwarts HP houses.

Slytherin: Lucian (duh). John. Eleazar.

Gryffindor: Seth. Fang. Wolf.

Hufflepuff: Alkaline. Pike. Flint.

Ravenclaw: Bane (cuz...ya know). Stanley.

14. which character’s name do you like the most?

Uhh, I MEAN, I would say Xan's? Because,,,I kinda took his name lolol? But other than that um....idk? I'm so fond of traditionally masculine names. Maybe....Lucian Threfin? Zekel Ketori? London? Derek Voyage? Mecko? Wait. Maybe Mecko?

17. pick a color to represent each character.

Andy: red. He's just full of anger.

Tommy: a cool blue-green. Maybe closer to gray, like his eyes? Like, a light color. He's fun and chill, but there's a sorta storm brewing underneath, his underlying chaos.

Laura: This one's hard. Maybe brown? She's, like, THE most normal of the crew and often has to ground them and keep them on track like idk why the brothers can't stop arguing and why Andy is just zoning out again. Also Dalton stop smoking you're gonna start a fire yeesh.

John: dark blue. Like his brother, he gives off blue vibes. But he's a darker kind, more tired and less optimistic. A dark blue-gray, maybe?

Dalton: a light gray, closer to white. Like smoke. Cuz he smokes. Get it? But on a more serious note, he's like a clean slate. He doesn't really have a direction or know what to do, kinda lost. But he doesn't have the complete innocence of an empty canvas, marred by his the trauma of his youth.

22. which character swears the most? least?

.....Dylan swears the most HA HA. Mostly because Lucy and Penny are younger and are unsure about swearing in front of Dylan xD. But....adult Dylan and Lucy? Lucy for sure. Dylan likes to grumble but swears less. Lucy just swears just because. Penny swears the least. And if we add grandparent into this....they swear plenty, but less with Penny and young Lucy because they're like, these are kids I must set an EXAMPLE. Grandparent probably falls somewhere in the middle?

23. which character has the best handwriting? worst?

Hm. I feel like, Eden has the best handwriting? He had so much leisure time in his pre-Kakhar days. He often just sat at his desk and just practiced his penmanship. Lance, Kasper, Bane, and the rest? They grew up in the real world, where they had more important things to do than care about their handwriting. Worst handwriting....admittedly...probably Bane LOL. He never really needed to have a good handwriting, as long as he can read it--the other ten sons weren't really gonna read his writing and he mostly took notes for himself. Moving to Kakhar and teaching there though....he learned to straighten out his handwriting xD ("Professor Bane, I can't read what you wrote :(" )

[bandersnatchbandwidth]

Can I come here for a place to talk about John/June? So like, I think everyone having a great time with June is awesome! I love that headcannons are a thing for people to connect with characters and have fun as well. And I like June but I'm not fully on board? It's not like I hate it but I really don't want hussie to actually make it cannon. I guess cause I can't see it but I don't understand trans issues so I can't say it's not possible. [Part 1]

[part 2] I guess it’s the fact it’s different from trans man John where it’s still John ya know. But June feels like an entirely new character? Like we completely changed the character away from cannon so it doesn’t feel like a headcannon, more like an AU? But I don’t want to come off as transphobic cause i can’t see it being cannon. Is it wrong? I’m honestly worried it might be horrible of me to not support it as cannon.

I don’t think it’s terrible to not like a headcanon. I can talk about this to the best of my ability but I haven’t been here for too long and don’t have as well-made opinions on Homestuck and the characters in it as others do. I understand not being able to see things as canon and even if Hussie *says* it’s canon, it doesn’t change what’s already written. So you can read John’s story as that of a trans girl (or trans woman, in the case of the epilogues), or you can not do that. To me it seems a little comparable to the hdc I’ve commonly seen of all the Strilondes being trans - I can read that into the story, especially as a trans/NB person, but that doesn’t mean it was *supposed* to be there.

It makes sense to feel like June’s a new character, because she kind of is? It’s a little like when at the end of Meat, Roxy started using he/him pronouns. It’s different, it feels weird to some people and right to others. However, I think you should probably examine specifically why you’re not really on board with June. Is it the fact that she feels totally new to you? Why does she feel like that when basically the only change is pronouns and name? Sometimes you need to critically think about stuff like that, especially if you’re not trans. Is it because you met the character as John and June feels like that character got taken away from you? Why does trans man John feel fine but trans woman doesn’t? I’m not going to automatically say you’re transphobic for not liking a trans hdc, but please, *please*, think about why you don’t like it. You don’t have to like it! But you need make sure it’s not because of transphobia. (which it may be, if you’re cis. Make an effort to start noticing patterns of thinking like that, in that case, and try to think critically about them. It’ll help.)

All this to say, I don’t think it’s automatically horrible not to support trans John, just like it isn’t automatically horrible not to support trans Dave, or Rose, or Kanaya, or Dirk, or Roxy, or basically any of the other trans hdcs. But you still need to figure out *why* you don’t support it. (you seem like you’re generally on board with trans hdcs, but still be careful about saying you do or don’t support them, bc specifically not supporting trans hdcs is,, kinda sus) And realize that most of those hdcs are around because trans people can read their experiences into the story. You read the characters as cis because that’s your experience and how the characters are presented. 

TL;DRYou’re not horrible but take some time to think about why you’re not on board with June. You’re probably fine.

[anissapierce]

this is apropos of nothing uve posted, i was just blog hopping and needed to share the utter hilarity of ppl trying to redefine the term QB so it applied to canon-gay they're not interested in: a show's gay ship isn't the central focus? QB. a show's gay rep is 'easy'? QB. a trashy show has gay rep? Omg don't you know that's WORSE than no rep at all?? QB. and the kicker? they're all the same st*cky/d*stiel ilk(with the occasional-

- h*nnigram bc that's Proper gay-rep) like it's painfully obvs they want to make themselves Look Better for shipping Basic white m/m, so they throw around words and terms to de-legitimize the rep we're seeing more of bc they're stuck in m/m 'subtext' fandom and instead of moving forwards: tear down out of bitterness instead(plus i just generally disagree with the notion that all gay-stories have to be Good, fuck that we can have trash-garbage fun too, it's Equality)-

- it's just funny to see these ppl writing long-winded posts about why x-Clearly Straight media is actually somehow some Perfect bastion of queerness bc they can't admit they've been kidding themselves for 10+ years, it's both funny and really, really sad. oh and s*n/m*u fans mocking other silly media? lmao, yeah like those are anything other than mid-tier trash-fun and in s*n's case: has only gotten worse over the years and is now ur bog-standard soap opera lvl of quality--

for me QB is a term that fandom in general has watered down too much and gets applied to any m/m ship that gets popular but isn't canon. like no, they're friends and you read too much into it, it IS in fact that simple(and ofc, as i've seen u post, characters/ships that actually would twig fandom's QB!! radar if they were two white guys are never included in these histrionics) but anyway, sorry to descend into ur inbox, i hope ur having a good day or evening :)

_________________________________________

Oh yeah for sure qbait has been watered down ? 110% and this is unrelated to anything I've said tonight but I constantly harangue of the fact tht fans never bring up instances of qbaiting (for humor !) Used in Scrubs,Common Law,Psych,Almost Human, iZombie, Community,Big Bang Theory . Where a man of color (three cases here its south asian men, but most listed here involve black men) is being presented as gay* and the joke is positioning the man as too close to his friend or others assuming their gay or him and his friend emulating a couple. And like occasionally bbt gets brought up as a footnote for those articles but like .. it doesnt deserve academic regur to the subject but it's kind of needed?

And yeah fans deluding them is so fucking true like I complain abt white man worship disease (Google's keyboards next suggested word was 'disease' btw) n thts truly wht it is and also wht causes lesbians to headcanon all these shitty white Canon cishet dudes as like trans women ....bc they feel guilty. When rlly like .... Diversify your pallet. And lol I haven't seen supanastyworld fans do nething bc like entirely different Spheres but the idea of them mocking ne1 is so... And yewh this all just reminds me of ppl praising Neilman bc thts the fandom tht I occasionally bump into now and putting transphobic and homophobic potrayals on like lists of lgbtq rep tht he's contributed to

And i agree w u Abt trashy tv too like I've watched many a websrs bc it had gays of color or just gays n most had subpar quality but that's Fine. Ppl don't appreciate the art of shitty corny trashy gay art nemore.(not to sound like john waters)* (which is different but connected than the trope of the effeminate asian/brown guy where the joke is him not adhering to Western masculinity ideals, bc I could add parks and rec to this along w a bunch of other shows).

[epic-games-official]

Thanks for answering my ask about biological sex. I saw an intersex person's post earlier she said intersex ppl don't have different chromosomes than X or Y or different gametes than ovum or sperm so like that makes sense too I guess I don't understand why bio sex is now fake instead of just complicated??? sex=/=gender why does this matter to being trans we're trans we're not intersex

Yea, I’m happy to give a detailed explanation of this.

There is an estimate that about 1.7% of the population is intersex. However, a very large portion of that number (1.5/1.7 = 88%) is from a condition called “late-onset congenital adrenal hyperplasia,” which involves a mutation on one of the chromosomes (not X or Y, can’t remember which but I think it was 12 or 5?) that causes issues with translation of the enzyme 21-hydroxylase. (look at this pic) Because of the lower concentration of the enzyme in the adrenal glands, the reactant 17 alpha hydroxyprogesterone builds up, which inevitably goes along a different pathway to become testosterone. In the end, the person has an excess of androgens. In the early-onset cases, this happened extensively during prenatal development, and the baby often has ambiguous genitalia, as well as severe health problems related to salt wasting. In the late-onset case, the child will just go through puberty a little earlier (beginning to grow hair around 7 or 8 years old) and be hairier and shorter. In boys they might also have a bigger dick. In girls, about 10% will be infertile. 

So essentially, the idea that “most intersex people don’t have different X or Y chromosomes” come from the inclusion of LOCAH in that statistic, where they make up 88% of the statistic. Yet, hardly anyone would ever consider LOCAH to be a form of intersexuality, except perhaps in the 5% of cases where it caused infertility. Otherwise it just seems like genetic variation in the population.

There are other forms of intersexuality that are caused by things other than different combinations of X or Y chromosomes, so I’m glad this is brought up. It’s actually sometimes argued that scientists shot themselves in the foot a bit by naming those chromosomes differently and calling them the “sex chromosomes.” In reality, those two chromosomes mostly code for biological sex, but they are not solely responsible. I’ve explained above how another chromosome codes for an enzyme responsible for conversion between hormones in the body. There are more of those, and there is a handful of forms of intersexuality with similar causes. 

On the topic of “what is biological sex?” I’ll repeat what I said in that answer - there isn’t really a clear, single, satisfying definition, just the same as there is still no clear definition of “life.” The current definition of “life” has many flaws to it, and is still highly disputed. Same goes for sex.

Most sexually dimorphic traits exist along a bimodal distribution, like so:

Where on the left, you have most men falling within some range, on the right, you have most women falling within some range. But of course, you do have some women on the left and some men on the right. This is true for height, voice, etc.

This is even true for genitalia! That’s precisely what is meant when people say “ambiguous genitalia.”

Here is something called the Prader Scale, which shows you the degree of virilization that an XX female can have on her genitalia. At some point, she will basically have a non-functioning penis.

Here we have a case of a woman with predominantly XY genes in her body being able to give birth. What this should demonstrate is how it is not always going to be straightforward that XX will allow for typical female fertility and XY for typical male.

Also, I really disagree with the line of reasoning some people use, that because these are rare cases they don’t count. Sure, you can have a model that works 99% of the time. But if it doesn’t work 100% of the time, it isn’t a completely accurate description of reality; it’s just an approximate model. This is fine for the Layman discussing these things, but it isn’t for the scientist who is trying to be precise. For scientists, these exceptions disprove the rule.

So what I think makes sense is the following:

* You can define a binary in terms of gamete production and fertility for the sake of reproductive models. These models certainly have their uses in some fields of science.

* However, when describing the biophysical reality of sexual development, it benefits you to take a systems biology approach. This means considering sex to be the combination of multiple factors - genes, what hormones are present & at what ages, what hormonal receptors are present (does the person have an insensitivity?), has the person had anything done to artificially change aspects of their sex, such as SRS or HRT?, etc.

What the latter description means for trans people is that it’s impossible with current medical science to change your sex completely from one end of the spectrum to the other, but it is possible to medically induce androgyny. The silver lining is that one can do this in such a way that socially they appear to be completely on the other end of things, so they “pass” and everyone can just think of them as being that gender for simplicity’s sake.

So tl;dr I agree with you that sex is just more complicated, but not non-existent. Although I think “sex does not exist” or “sex is a social construct” is a linguistically messy way of attempting to say the same thing (that it’s more complicated). So I think the issue is more that they are trying to say something but they aren’t phrasing it correctly, which demonstrates a lack of clear understanding of the topic. You aren’t wrong for criticizing this.

Lastly, on that point “sex =/= gender,” I want to just say that the word “gender” is really ill-defined. Before the 1950′s, it was used exclusively for nouns in foreign languages. In the 50′s, sexologist John Money began using it to mean.. well, a weird mixture of ‘gender identity’ and ‘gender roles’ (he didn’t separate them well, because, y’know, 50′s values). Over time the word took on multiple adaptations within academia. 

Feminists use it to mean ‘gender roles/expression,’ hence Judith Butler’s idea that “gender is socially constructed.” If you read on that idea, the discussion pretty much always surrounds nature vs nurture of gender roles. 

Psychologists and trans activists use the word ‘gender’ to mean ‘gender identity.’ 

Biologists and, to be honest, most of society use the word to be synonymous with ‘sex.’ This is pretty much why trans people so often get obnoxious responses to saying like, them: “I’m female to male transgender, my gender is male” response: “But you have a vagina!!!1″ The person responding obviously defines the word to mean ‘sex’ (because that is how it was used in the middle & high school biology classrooms!).

tl;dr All around there’s a lot of confusion and everything is a mess. 8)