#and like i know that rtd was making a very conscious effort to use inclusive language in the ep

[bucklikethedollar]

all the critiques of the “male presenting” bit in the star beast are valid and true (patronizing, kind of bioessentialist, etc) however i think we’ve been ignoring the funniest part of the whole thing which is like. he was a woman like three hours ago. you don’t need to give him a lecture about What Women Are Like. he knows. and even when he was a woman he still bottled shit up so your argument is moot anyway

[rjalker]

#and like i know that rtd was making a very conscious effort to use inclusive language in the ep#which i appreciate!! congrats on Baby’s First Trans Allyship!!#but the way they phrased it as ‘male-PRESENTING’ people don’t know how to express their emotions was. weird#i mean if rtd went out of his way to include ‘presenting’ in there then he’s clearly at least somewhat aware that presentation and gender#aren’t the same thing#i’m fairly male-presenting (at least i try to be) but i’m not a man?#lots of butches could be considered male-presenting (oversimplification but you know what i mean)#there was probably even a time in rose’s life when SHE was male-presenting!!#i appreciate the attempt at inclusivity but like. this doesn’t make sense rtd aldjdbaqldk#bucky’s thoughts#doctor who#the star beast#tenth doctor#fourteenth doctor#tentoo#donna noble#rose noble

Okay, I know RTD has fucked all of this up by using the words "male-presenting" in this way, but male-presenting is NOT a synonym for "looks like a man" or "wear's men's clothing".

Saying that butches could be considered male-presenting is just. flat out wrong. That is not what these terms mean.

You can IDENTIFY yourself as male-presenting or female-presenting. You cannot assign those terms to anyone else, which is one of the major things RTD did wring with this scene!

No one asked the Doctor how hea identifies, everyone just went "well you're played by David Tennant now so you look like a man so that means you're purposefully presenting yourself to the world as male" and that's not how this works! At all!

Trans women not being out or able to socially transition doesn't mean they're male-presenting.

"male-presenting" is not a synonym for "looks like a man" or "assigned male at birth" or "wears mens clothes".

It is not something you get to assign other people, it is strictly a self-identification term, saying that you are choosing to present yourself as male, or masculine, or whatever descriptor is being used.

And I'm not even going to bother getting into the whole "the Doctor was a woman (because Jodie Whittaker had the role) five minutes ago" because again, that's literally not how gender works. Looking like a woman because a woman is playing the character does not equal "the character is a woman now" when it's just been established in this episode that the Doctor is nonbinary.

You can, and should, point out the biological and gender essentialism in this scene. But you shouldn't be ignoring the fact that the Doctor is being misgendered by being assigned male-presenting by people who have not asked, and are literally just deciding that for themselves because they think the Doctor looks like a man.

Do not use "x-presenting" language for other people --including fictional characters, which as we can all see from the fallout from this scene makes people think they can do this to real people-- unless it's something that person self-identifies as.

Calling anyone "male-presenting" or "masculine-presenting" or "female-presenting" or "feminine-presenting" without them first telling you that's how they identify is literally just misgendering people but pretending to be progressive about it.

Which is the most fucking damaging impact of this scene. And I'm getting really tired of having to explain this over and over again when people have been talking about why these terms are not okay to assign to other people for years now. Russel T Davies just came along and fucked it all up by making people think this kind of misgendering is okay when it's not even remotely.

all the critiques of the “male presenting” bit in the star beast are valid and true (patronizing, kind of bioessentialist, etc) however i think we’ve been ignoring the funniest part of the whole thing which is like. he was a woman like three hours ago. you don’t need to give him a lecture about What Women Are Like. he knows. and even when he was a woman he still bottled shit up so your argument is moot anyway