#and the culturally specific transfemininity of the west

[catgirltoes]

The fact that "trans woman" is in the present world the term for both a culturally specific and a generic transfeminine relation to gender troubles me. It casts the transfemininity of the imperial core as the default, and as the standard by which all other expressions of transfemininity are measured. This is deeply chauvinistic! Why should my womanhood be seen as more legitimate than the womanhood of another transfeminized person, purely because she did not have the privilege of being born in the imperial core?

Gender, while it follows similar patterns around the world, is culturally mediated. Which is to say that my gender, that of a white trans woman living in Canada, is a cultural gender in exactly the same way as the gender of a hijra is a cultural gender. And I can look at these women, and see that they are like me, and I am like them, and that we are the same. And I can see that they call themselves women, too! We are the same!

Yet there are those who would claim that we are not the same, that a hijra is not a trans woman like I am a trans woman, but something else, something different. They will claim that these women do not even consider themselves to be women, but some distinct third category. They do not just deny that hijra are women. They fully deny that hijra call themselves women at all.

This is epistemic violence reserved for trans women of the global south. While my womanhood will still be widely denied, it cannot be denied that I consider myself a woman. The same cannot be said of many of my sisters. I spoke of hijras specifically here, but this applies to any other culturally specific manifestation of transfemininity; all are denied womanhood, and instead characterized as effeminate males or gay men or literally anything but people who very much consider themselves to be women.

[hydralisk98]

Why we celebrate Halloween / Samhain like a silly parade of costumes and candy trickery

Hey fellow nerts, guess what time it is?

It’s "Helluva Boss" talkshow time on here, the thing you were awaiting for by far it seems. Sorry for the delays.

Anyway, you may need some context here:

I commissioned a Etsy email letter impersonating Stolas (real or fake correlation, at this point I don’t care.) to provide some comfort reading to myself, my family, my friends and you online observers over my passions.

And from said letter he asked a interesting question worth researching over. About the why / how we came to celebrate this Holiday like a silly pride parade with candies & costumes.

So here I am diving into such a response out of my genuine curiosity and care of all free-will gifted sapients. (not kidding over that monster club attitude)

As for most things we humans did and do in this reality, it comes down to historical traditions, games/questions and the overall social & playful core vibe of Homo Sapiens Sapiens as a species. (for most of such anyway, and no the constant is not that directly "Love" you hopeful romantics, that will be worth talking about another day...)

Turns out if I am to add to Halloween with insight from the contemporary relevance of such celebrations in the last century or so, it is a twisted way (derived from Celtic Samhain and other iron age traditions) from our ancestors to celebrate the dead, deter nefarious Hell's entities (or rather agents as I like to call each individual with free will and a sole body) from making Faustian / Mephistophelian bargains / pacts (you are doing fine enough Stolas, not everybody here are worth catering to...) or animistic tricking to encourage the respect of social etiquette guidelines (which is also worth pointing that it serves some axial age safety purposes too and ain't exclusively a anti-demons matter).

And as far as why I still decide myself to attempt disguising myself into the custom dark academia studious demon lady dress-up of my very own for this year's edition of Halloween? Well, first the Helluva Boss YouTube cartoon show trend obviously, the last few generations of young adults (mostly Gen Z but could apply to Millenials and the generation in between both to which I belong) overall tinkering alot with cultural prejudices as to celebrate pride in novel ways due to how radically right-wing and Wilsonistic-ally Fascist the status quo in the West became as of the last decade to fail at discourage deviation amongst more matters... But also because I do like to show my sympathies to other sapient phenotypes and make advantage of mundane plane's life on my very own terms (but not insulting others ofc) as well as the spiritual autistic transfeminine human I am.

Hopefully you all get a better glimpse at the human biases we have and to Stolas specifically I hope that is a enjoyable read with pertinent trivia information about this reality's human culture.

As for Octavia, I will be happy to provide her the safe-space she needs as we both learn and exercice the esoteric arts in a relatively remote rural environment. Caring is sharing and I am sure a constructive relationship is best for all parties involved here, no matter what specific reality we inhabit. Also applies for whoever polite enough to respect that mutual agreement.

The actual letter written from Etsy store indie seller "LettersFromTheWeb" at ( https://www.etsy.com/ca-fr/shop/LettersFromTheWeb ) if you are wondering:

Until we meet (again? Maybe in the flesh and bones perhaps?), farewell to you all and hoping that things get better for all of us.

[taliabhattwrites]

Yeah, that'll do nicely.

So firstly, I'm glad that even while making this equivocation, people were able to admit and acknowledge the discrepancy between the two, even if only in terms of recency. 'Theyfab' is indeed a more recent linguistic construction, while 'shemale' is not only older, it's also preceded and coterminous with terms like trap, futa, and similar constructions that position transfeminine bodies as fetishized objects for consumption, while--and this is key--degendering us and refusing to acknowledge either our personhood, or our womanhood.

Let's have a quick think about that.

The core aspect of transmisogyny is third-sexing, the denial of recognition of both our humanity and the simple reality that we navigate society as women. Hyperscrutinized, hyperfetishized women, yes, women who are treated as inherently disposable due to our inability to be reproductively exploited, but that doesn't change the violence or the brutality of the sexualization and misogyny we experience.

Another thing being obfuscated through the invocation of recency is, well, cultural penetration. (Pun only slightly intended). Your most offline, detached conservative will still have an idea of t-slurs as "men in dresses", "degenerate perverts", and know an assortment of choice invective to degrade transfems with. There are many men outside of the West who are familiar with these slurs as porn categories, our bodies having been reduced to dehumanized items on a menu, while you will likely only encounter 'theyfab' in specific anglophonic online circles.

So consider the weight of entire cultures and hegemonies, across space and time, reducing your entire existence to "worthless fuck object that can't even make babies", being equated with other queer people being mean to you. The word is an insult, and it's definitely mean-spirited, but "slur" is a term with some weight to it.

Though while we're talking about this ...

This isn't an old post by any means. I saw it in the wild and responded to it not days ago.

So consider that the phenomenon of fellow queer people denying that trans women experience meaningful aspects of misogyny, and justifying that denial on the basis of sex, is an extant phenomenon, not even a relic of the past, that happens with regularity, but is not nearly as censured.

This results in an interesting climate where trans women are frequently subject to others' ideas of how we must not face certain patriarchal violence due to our sex, and when we try to point out this pattern of denying us the epistemic authority to speak on the misogyny we experience, on the basis of sex, we are the ones accused of transphobia, "reducing people to AGAB", and reactionary behavior, for naming the harm done to us.

Now, not everyone is going to write out "denial of epistemic authority". Sometimes, people will get frustrated and call you mean names because you're vomiting the same thing that Gender Conservatives have been echoing for a while now, but considering yourself progressive or even a trans liberationist while doing so.

So the question becomes: are you going to instrumentalize an insulting term to repeatedly ostracize, vilify, and demonize transfems who aren't perfectly articulate about the heinous mistreatment they experience at the hands of transmisogynistic communities, while doing nothing to stem the tide of "you don't really experience misogyny, shemale"?

Because that behavior speaks for itself, I think.

Okay, on a very fundamental level I *need* people to be able to articulate and understand the difference between "theyfab" and "shemale". I know that you know there's a difference, and I refuse you believe that you straightforwardly, non-maliciously consider these two terms to be equivalent and identical.

So, floor's open.

[lagfestningto]

my point wasnt that the “yaoification” is explicitly connected to the transfeminine headcanons, i should have made that clearer. i also have nothing against the headcanons, i am sure they are great for the people who enjoy them. i am just sceptical of the characters people choose to use transfem headcanons for, and why it is so rare (this is pretty much the only one i have seen in the tf2 fanbase, while transmasculine ones are super common, obviously because a lot of transmasc people enjoy tf2). to be honest i think at the core of everything i am bitter about the way americans (and others i am sure) treat european characters. a lot of people rely on stereotypes when writing them, and i find that very annoying, ESPECIALLY in the case of spy who i think is a refreshing take on the common “annoying rich french character”. also yes i do think spy is masculine. he wears a full suit every single day, how is that not masculine? he is very much portrayed as a womaniser. people tend to think “the west” - specifically north america and europe- have the same norms when it comes to expression of gender. they do not. and at the end of the day i think this all boils down to the fact that we have different ways of consuming this specific piece of media. i know it is unpopular to view tf2 through a serious/“realistic” lens, but for me personally that is the way i often like to engage with the characters. (i am not saying trans people are unrealistic by the way, i know people always assume that when this is brought up. i am not making an argument like «uhh trans people didnt exist in the 60s actually»). people are allowed to engage with it in any way they want, and i am glad people enjoy the characters in their own way. but i am also allowed to criticise people when i see that they portray a character in a way that i view as a little bit problematic. some good question to ask might be: if i dont personally, through my own cultural lens, perceive this man to be masculine, does that mean that he is not practicing what in his own culture is viewed as masculinity? and also, even if a man expresses femininity, does that have to mean that he is trans?

One more slash srs opinions post for the archives it is Really Really weird how often people make Spy super super pale in their fanart

[thefemmesdaily-blog]

Trans Women and Liminality

There is a stark cognitive dissonance regarding the perception of transgender women in this world. Across cultures, they are simultaneously regarded as spiritual guides and reviled as unnatural frauds. Since ancient times, trans women have held the statuses of leaders and priestesses, known for inhabiting a physical and spiritual liminal space. In Native Cultures, the transfeminine was a sacred occupier, one that was almost center in the way the tribe lived. These two spirit transfeminine individuals were able to partake in war and live domestically in their homes where they carried out household duties. 

Another similar concept is Hijras, transfeminine individuals that reside in parts of South Asia. Their history has largely contained well-known roles within subcontinental cultures, part gender-liminal, part spiritual and part survival. Their communities are very organized and specific; however, there is a deep resentment by those who are not part of these communities. They are shunned in the public city streets, beggers for money as there is no job position available for them. Hijras take in sheltered boys who, too, suffer the repercussions of a consuming poverty. With no other jobs available in the market, majority of Hijras engage in sex work as a means of survival.  

Trans women in the West are more different. There is a certain “illusion” that is bestowed on many trans folk, specifically trans women who are said to be imitating a barred womanhood. The West implodes a rapid and dangerous homophobic and transphobic culture that shames men who might just fall in love with a trans women. These shames are often internalized and it is exerted through violence, often times leaving a trans woman in harm for her life. In anthropology, liminality is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of rituals, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the ritual is complete. During a ritual’s criminal stage, participants “stand at the threshold” between their previous way of structuring their identity, time or community, and a new way, which the ritual establishes. It is a gray area that many trans women find safety. There is a pride that is inherent with their womanhood and it relishes them with empowerment as they lie in a crossroads where their beauty is viewed as an unmarked rebellion.