#and the gender essentialism.

[rjalker]

anyways do you think Martha Wells will write about any kind of oppression that is not literally just "dangerous people are oppressed because they're dangerous" in her new book, Witch King????

Because this has been the whole basis for the oppression in:

The Murderbot Diaries

The Books of the Raksura

The Fall of Ile-Rien

City of Bones

and that's just fucking racist.

Murderbot is distrusted and feared because it's got guns in its arms and could crash a space station into a planet in twenty seconds if it felt like it. It's literally confirmed that it can hack even high security government systems without a single moment of trouble. It spies on everyone around it at all times, even after it's no longer forced to.

The Raksura are distrusted and feared because they literally evolved to mimic other species so they could sneak into their cities and eat them once they'd gained their trust. And also they look exactly like their cousin species, which still does literally mimic other species to eat them!!!! The Raksura are stronger and faster than any other sentient species they meet. They don't need weapons because they have razor sharp fangs and disembowling claws and even spines on their backs. Not to mention they could just pick you up and drop you.

In The Fall of Ile-Rien, wizards are distrusted and feared because most wizards literally just use magic to be evil and torture people. People who have spells cast on them are shunned and ostracized (except when they're not because Martha Wells forgot about her own rule) because a lot of the time, the spells cast on people are fucking curses to make them kill people and go out of control. Including curses that takes years to take effect.

In City of Bones, the main character's people were literally genetically engineered to replace everyone else after the apocalypse.

Martha Wells has written oppression to always be "dangerous people are oppressed because they're dangerous" and that is literally just fucking racism and so many other forms of bigotry it's not even funny!

Real fucking people are not oppressed because otherwise they'll fucking kill everyone around them.

Her work also relies very heavily on biological essentialism, and gender essentialism.

[ablueberryblogs]

I don't know what trans man need to hear this but you're allowed to be angry. It doesn't make you evil. You are allowed to experience all possible emotions without apology and still be a good man.

*this is about trans men specifically, do not derail. You are free to make your own post*

[fagdykeposting]

Some of ya’ll just traded bioessentialism for gender essentialism and called it a day.

You are not progressive for your bigotry against trans, gay, and other queer men.

[donutdrawsthings]

When I went into Classic Who, I didn't expect to meet the silliest Billy there ever was.

[degenderates]

“women love inherently different from men...oh but btw trans women are still women and included in this!!:)))” you are still boxing people into 2 distinct immutable categories

[cardentist]

people fixate on bi-lesbians as being problematic despite bi-gay men existing (as well as any and every combination of sexuality and romantic attraction you can think of) because terfs and radfems deliberately don't want bi women to associate with lesbians and are deeply invested with framing attraction to men As Bad. a sentiment which has invaded queer culture inside and out, intentionally And incidentally.

people fixate on straight cis aromantic men when straight cis aromantic women exist because framing aromantic people as inherently predatory and dangerous by the simple nature of existing is easier to do when you intentionally force the association with predatory dangerous behavior displayed by (and associated with) misogynistic men.

people are still bigoted against bi-gay men and woman aromatics (and any flavor of trans within these groups), but pay attention to the way these conversations are Framed and it's clear the way gender essentialism is being used as a tool to control the narrative.

radfems' gender essentialism says you're supposed to think men are inherently scary, inherently take advantage of women, so Naturally (it is assumed) a man who is sexually attracted to women but not romantically attracted them Must Inherently be predatory and scary. and now you're being asked to take that feeling of unease you've been manipulated into feeling and associate it with the entirety of a sexuality.

bi-lesbians are threatening to radfems because they want to draw inherent lines between these two groups. insist that attraction to and with a man is inherently dirty and dangerous. the same reason why "gold star lesbian" is a radfem concept. if it turns out that the lines between sexualities, between identity as a whole, is blurrier than they want it to be then that Must be framed as inherently dangerous.

if a single Kind of a marginalized group is being singled out to convince you that this group is dangerous or that they don't belong It's For A Reason. they're trying to manipulate you based on Biases (their biases and the ones they hope you have). the reaction to this isn't to abandon the type of person they're convinced are the worst of these groups, it's in solidarity.

aromantics who are men aren't any different from aromantics who are women, bi-lesbians deserve to live in peace just as much as bi-gay men. don't let people control the narrative Either by cutting down vast array of experiences that exist within any given identity, Or by convincing you that particular kinds of people within your communities are lesser than.

[biracy]

In general quite fascinating how "boys who liked bionicle are girls now" is called "gender essentialism" by like Radqueer Terfs DNI posters but "the thread of Girlhood Uterus Vulva Trauma connects all (cis) butches and trans men, so that's why I can reblog photos of trans men to my men dni blog in my #dyke tag" isn't. Lmao

[tepli-mravenci]

The other day I was on a walk in the evening with two of my friends (both girls) and we were talking about how safe or unsafe we feel in different places at night and one of them said she always carries a pocket knife with her and the other one said

"See now I feel pretty safe, you have a knife, I'm tall and" she turns to me "your gender presentation is weird enough to confuse a potential attacker."

I've never felt more gender validation in my entire life.

[emotional-moss]

”bi girls stop bringing your boyfriends to gay clubs” “just saw a man in a lesbian club” “keep seeing straight girls in lesbian groups” “why was there a man in the womens support group” how did you know they were men. oh it’s because they looked like men! that’s a completely valid reason and totally not indicative of any transphobic opinions! quick question how do you feel about butches and transmascs and trans women who don’t pass

[lesspopped]

unintentional subtext is not queerbaiting. intentional subtext is not queerbaiting. queercoding is not queerbaiting. queer themes are not queerbaiting. queer themes in works by cishet creators are still not queerbaiting. writers of any gender identity/sexual orientation seeing fans pick up on queer themes and intentionally playing up those themes as much as they can get away with are not queerbaiting. chemistry between actors is not queerbaiting. chemistry between actors who then decide it’s more interesting that way and lean into it is not queerbaiting. a real cishet person behaving in ways that do not perfectly and completely fit with your idea of what cishet people of their gender are supposed to be is not queerbaiting. I am going to scream

[genderisafuck]

Gender essentialism is still cringe if it is directed against cis people btw. Ive basically had someone say to me that cis people are biologically incapable of understanding less normalized gender identities because "their brains work differently". If anyone has this opinion please come forward now so i can block you thank you. The reason cis people dont understand gender in the same way trans people do is because trans people are naturally more exposed to the discussion about gender because we have to think about it a lot. Cis people, who have never doubted their identity, obviously dont think about it as much, if at all.

Cis people arent inherently more stupid than us, or less capable of talking about gender on a biological level. What would that even look like???

[thee-radio-host-is-a-kookaburra]

seeing ppl on this website unironically put shit in their bio like "i'm very wary of transmascs" or "i only follow transmascs who actively deny transandrophobia" like yeah bro you're totally not transphobic you're definitely not regurgitating radfem gender essentalism at all

[necarion]

I'm curious the extent to which Robert Jordan intended this (I think he probably did), but the in-universe narrative of "men and women cannot possibly understand each other" is deeply undermined by the fact that you, the reader, are extremely likely to identify as male or female, and are capable of understanding the motivations of both male and female characters.

The reason I think Jordan knew this was not only the effort made to have the characters motives be explicable when you're in their heads, but to have these communication difficulties go away the second the characters talked to each other and explained what was going on with them.

I think more than that, Jordan feels like he thought a lot of culture around masculine/feminine mystique was silly and harmful. Not only because it hinders good communication (Jordan does not agree that "not explaining stuff" is generally a good thing), but also because it leads to other harmful behaviors being swept up in the umbrella. Think of the number of times Elayne, Nynaeve, and the Aes Sedai are being awful to Mat, who treats it as "this is women being awful and inscrutible" when it's really them just being arrogant and awful. Or Mat being flippant and a jerk (in part as a defensive thing) being generalized to an "all men are like this" when it's really "Nynaeve and Mat get along like two cats in a sack that is on fire".

Does Jordan have some weird gender essentialism in his books? Definitely. But he also has far less than people credit to him, if you listen to the characters and not the subtext (or even text).

[bitchqueenofthebitchsquad]

I don't know exactly why fan artists always make Carmy taller than Sydney but I have a guess and it starts with gender and ends with essentialism. Our good sis Ayo Edebiri is either the same height or she's got an inch or two on Jeremy Allen White. Let her have her inch.

[starsifter]

Stupid ass reply to this post but hey sure I'll bite. No. I don't. Because I have neither of those things and I'm manly as fuck. Nananabooboo and all that.

Like I said, all terfs are fucking stupid.

Anyways hello to all my manly men with breasts and no facial hair and no penises. Hello to my feminine trans men and trans guys with high pitched voices. Hello to all trans men, love you guys, I am one of you and we're manly as fuck. Pre-op, post-op, or no-op. HRT or no HRT. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise.

[soraka-in-warhammer40k]

Recent grimdank memery has reinforced my belief that the only reason BigE did not make any Lady Primarchs (that we know of) and subsequently Lady Astartes was that he was genuinely scared of them.

Imagine an entire legion of people like Calladayce Kesh or Bayezara Aggonades. Either they wipe themselves out on the spot or become the most dangerous force in the galaxy. One insane transhuman woman is an individual outlier. Two insane ones are hinting towards a pattern...