#as the creation of two trans woman

[queer-whatchamacallit]

@ochrogasting has been making some awesome trans woman Carms, and I fell headfirst into obsession

[a-polite-melody]

I think a big sticking point about transmascs speaking on our oppression, especially online, is that people are way too invested in reducing concepts down to the smallest and most easy to consume and repeat sound bites they can, to the point that actual structural issues are no longer viewed in their entirety.

What do I mean exactly?

Especially online, people have decided that the whole of the system of patriarchy can be reduced to “man>woman”. This is because it is much easier to share in small, easy to process sound bites or snappy posts than it is to delve into the entirety of the system of patriarchy, and how its function is the creation of two highly policed roles, and that, yes, while man>woman is part of that, the policing of both of those roles leads to different gendered experiences of people depending on which role they were assigned and which role people expect them to fill.

It becomes much easier to insist that trans men and mascs have no unique issues coloured specifically by being men/mascs when you drop everything about patriarchy except for the easily repeatable “man>woman” part.

[the-cimmerians]

Imane Khelif, you may remember, is an Algerian boxer, one of two to be attacked during the Olympics as cheaters, as transsexual women, as men, and even as violent criminals — all of which was completely false. The two of them, the other being Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan, were relentlessly demeaned, mocked, and threatened, based only on how each woman had been — retroactively — excluded from an international competition last year by the International Boxing Association. Famous anti-trans politicians and personalities piled on, with Donald Trump, JD Vance, Megyn Kelly, and JK Rowling being among the most recognizable. Possibly because Rowling singled out Khelif and not Lin, the harassment of Khelif was even worse than Lin faced, and many have been wondering when karma might finally land the author in court.

The answer is … not exactly soon, but that doesn’t mean that nothing is happening. While in the process of winning gold under unprecedented pressure (as Lin did also), Khelif worked with a famous and well-regarded Paris lawyer, Nabil Boudi, to prepare a complaint about the harassment. It was filed on Friday, August 9, actually before the gold medal bout. Although many people in the English speaking world have misinterpreted this as a defamation lawsuit (Variety seems to have corrected the body of its article, but not its headline), in fact it’s a criminal complaint alleging “moral harassment,” and per Le Monde was filed with “the Paris correctional court's National Centre for Combating Online Hate.”

So what is ‘moral harassment’ and what’s next?

Moral harassment is a criminal charge that is typically of lesser severity, on a relative par with stalking laws in the United States. As with stalking, there are more and less serious versions and the penalties can vary, but the most serious can be penalized by up to three years in jail and a fine of up to 45,000 Euros. Most violations carry lesser penalties. It is generally defined as repeated acts that have the object or effect of injuring the rights or dignity of a person, harming their health, or impairing certain other specific activities (like the ability to perform one's job).

The Centre for Combating Online Hate is a subunit of the Central Office for Combating Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH) and a recent creation. It is empowered to investigate all acts of moral harassment (amongst other hate crimes and crimes against dignity) against persons within France’s borders, even visitors like Khelif and even when the online perpetrators are unknown or outside of France’s jurisdiction.

A number of prominent people within France participated in the harassment of Khelif, including Eric Zemmour, a far-right racist politician who most recently ran for the Parliament of the European Union with the “far-right Reconquête! party.” Yes, that “Reconquête!” means just what you think it does. Members of Rassemblement National also racked up millions of views for their sexist and cissexist tweets targeting Khelif. All of these figures, and more, could face a civil fine plus forced restitution (which would not prevent Khelif from also suing for defamation) or criminal penalties if prosecuted and convicted.

The scope of the investigation, however, is certain to include the tweets of Rowling and others outside France who participated in what the complaint labeled a campaign of harassment both “massive” and “coordinated.” Speaking to Le Monde, Boudi said,

“The investigation will have to determine who was behind this misogynistic, racist, and sexist campaign, as well as those who fueled this digital lynching.”

French prosecutors have authority to request documents and other evidence from foreign governments, but outside the EU they have no ability to require cooperation, only to request it. (Inside the EU their ability to require cooperation is limited, but not non-existent.) While other European countries often have hate speech and harassment laws that overlap with those of France, speech protections are stronger in the UK than in mainland Europe and even stronger in the US. Criminal prosecution of — just as an example — JK Rowling would be possible but more difficult than a French prosecution of Zemmour and his co-harassers. In the USA, prosecution is right out.

So why bother pursuing evidence against Rowling, Musk, Trump, and Vance?

OCLCH, the office under which the online centre is organized, has as part of its mission the support of victims in their attempt to access justice. As a result of this mandate combined with the scope of France’s law against moral harassment, the prosecution investigative service is empowered to gather evidence relating to the treatment of persons within its borders even when charges can’t be filed. The benefit here is that evidence collected by the government at the government’s expense can then be used by private parties in defamation lawsuits, allowing victims to collect monetary judgements even when the prosecutors choose not to indict or a person using the internet to harass someone in France is beyond the reach of French law.

Boudi, with a background in both criminal and human rights laws, undoubtedly knows this and how to exploit it. While his client has achieved fame in winning a gold medal, it’s unlikely she has the money to pursue defamation claims around the world (and against the world’s richest respondents). While many people in the US may find it shocking that sending a tweet can be made a criminal offense in Europe, the tools that this allows the French government to use to provide equal access to justice for rich and poor will likely be crucial in the certainly forthcoming Khelif lawsuits against Rowling and her ilk in the English speaking world.

Don’t expect that defamation lawsuit too soon, however. Boudi will undoubtedly be working closely with prosecutors to keep on top of all the evidence that they gather and will want to give them time to work before bringing the civil law to bear.

[moorishflower]

Eating Out (Dream/trans!Hob Explicit)

i heard we were writing trans Dreamling and then I saw that one ask someone sent @gabessquishytum and I blacked out for a few hours and woke up with this on my desktop please enjoy

Contains: FtM Hob Gadling, public sex, oral sex, free use/multiple partners, voyeurism, multiple orgasms, scent kink, hair kink, little bit of eldritch Dream as a treat

The club is almost violently loud, and the instant that Dream materialises within it he wishes to leave.

He could. There is nothing holding him here. Not even his new agreement with Hob Gadling, that they meet twice a month, holds sway here – they have already held their pre-arranged meetings for December, have 'caught up' with each other, as Hob calls it, though Dream always feels as though he has nothing to contribute. He tells Hob about the unceasing tedium of ruling a kingdom, of settling disputes between his creations, of shoring up the defences of the Dreaming such that it will be prepared for any onslaught, and it is all the same, always the same things over and over again for aeons, but Hob leans towards him and listens with the most fascinated air. He asks questions. He is interested.

Dream would much rather hear about Hob's life. His many lives, in fact, within the last two centuries. It seems as though Hob is always doing something: viewing art with noted professors on the subject, or attending poetry readings, or assisting in the building of various installations of a political nature at protests, or organising a play put on by trans youth from local universities. In this century he is highly invested in matters regarding gender and sexuality – which Dream supposes makes sense. His own gender would have been considered at best a novelty in his own time, and at worst an affront to God. These days, however, he lives openly and freely as the man he has always known himself to be.

It is all of these things, and more, that are the reasons why he is here tonight. The Dreaming is stable at last – there are no pressing matters for him to attend to this eve – but he is shortly expected to meet with Lucifer in order to renegotiate their ancient treaty of tentative peace, and he is, as Hob would say, not looking forward to it. He is, in fact, dreading the experience. He is certain that Lucifer has neither forgotten nor forgiven his brief foray into Hell when he retrieved his helm, and the humiliation they were forced to endure at his hand. He will freely admit that he was. Not as gracious. As he could have been, upon his triumph.

He does not want to think about it. And so he is here, looking for Hob Gadling.

It occurs to him, however, as he watches the ebb and flow of people around him, that Hob may not wish to be found this night. He had assumed, when he'd reached for Hob's presence in the Waking and drew himself towards it, that he would appear in Hob's flat above the New Inn. That is where he is most often to be found, this time of night, unless he has prior engagements.

This club, though...it is of a distinctly sexual nature. Its patrons dressed in leather and latex, and some dressed in almost nothing at all. There are sheltered alcoves with faux-leather seats where two or three or more humans whisper quietly to each other, and kiss, and touch sensuously; there are other stations that Dream recognises, but only from dreams: a St. Andrew's Cross, a whipping post, a wooden bench over which a young man bends while a woman dressed entirely in white lace strikes him with a thin crop, raising fine red weals on the pale skin.

Perhaps he ought to leave. If Hob is here to procure a partner for the evening, then it is no business of Dream's.

Except.

Except the thought makes him. Unhappy.

He examines this realisation with detached interest, because he knows if he allows himself to become invested in the idea there will be no going back. Hob is his friend. They have known each other for over six-hundred years. He does not want to ruin their friendship, burgeoning as it currently is.

Neither does he wish for Hob to be here, seeking something that he believes Dream cannot provide for him.

Is that the crux of it? The source of his displeasure? Hob has come here, seeking fulfilment, instead of seeking out Dream? He would have no reason to approach Dream. Their friendship has never had a sexual component.

Although.

He remembers the way Hob had looked at him in 1589, so proud of the largess he had provided, eager for Dream's approval. He remembers the slow up and down glance of 1389 when he had approached Hob's table, when he had still been a beardless ruffian, binding his chest with scraps of wool. He remembers, in 1789, how Hob had looked at him, how he had tugged at his ear, how eagerly he had come to Dream's defence.

Perhaps he had simply not been in the best position to notice any interest. Hob's, or his own. Too prideful. Too convinced that Hob was just like every other human, grubbing about in the dirt for power and acclaim. Too assured of his own high status – one such as he, friends with one such as Hob?

He knows better now. Knows that Hob has lived rich and varied lives, which Dream has, for the past several months, taken succour in, experiencing them through Hob's tales, learning more and more about his friend. Liking what he has learned.

This, he decides, is a new aspect of that learning. And perhaps a new chapter in their friendship, if Hob is amenable. It has been long and long since he has laid with a human – he spares a moment to thank the memory of his sister for withholding her gift from Hob, for it means that Hob is not, strictly speaking, mortal – and perhaps it would be wise of him to observe Hob in this environment first. If Hob is here, he reasons, then necessarily he will be familiar with the etiquette of such a place.

And if Hob is otherwise occupied with a lover already...

He decides not to continue that thought.

A path forward decided, Dream wends his way through the crowds. The club is densely-packed with people, all ages, all nations and creeds and genders, and of them all he is the least-appropriately dressed in his coat and t-shirt and jeans. He does not bother to change, and no one approaches him – he is as a ghost, drifting between the revellers, a visitor to this holy house of Dionysus and Pan, following the faint trail of Hob that guides him like a ball of twine. Gentle prodding at daydreams reveals that Hob was here at the bar, that he, also, had been dressed-down for this occasion, in a white button-up and a pair of loose trousers. Still, others had looked upon him and had, in gauzy fantasies, wondered what he would look like dressed in less. Had wondered what his stubble would feel like against their cheeks. Had imagined his hands – broad, callused, peasant's hands – on their hips, their thighs, their genitals.

Dream does not linger in these daydreams for long, but pursues his true quarry, slipping through the gathered throngs, enjoying, for the moment, the feeling of stalking his prey. It is only infrequently that he is allowed to feel this, the thrill of the hunt, the pursuit; he is, by necessity, a guardian of his dreamers, but he is dreams and nightmares both, and often he longs for an end to the mournful tedium of his duties. Longs for peaceful oblivion or, at the very least, something that he can sink his teeth into.

The club is much larger than he had initially thought, and Dream follows Hob's trail up stairs and down corridors, until he finds himself in a section of the venue that has been cordoned off; several security personnel stand stationed at pre-set points, keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings within.

There are significantly fewer clothes in this part of the club, Dream realises. And what is worn is designed for easy access.

It is less crowded here, but no less quiet – the air is filled with the sounds of pleasure, moans and squeals and throaty whispers, creating a chorus of rising debauchery that drowns out the thumping music below them. He remains unseen, untouched, as he slides through the gaps in the crowd, around amorous couples, ignoring the slick sounds of bodies entangled and flesh entwined, until, at last, he reaches the end of the trail.

Hob Gadling has arranged himself in a secluded section of the upper floor, where dark curtains have been set up to give a modicum of privacy, though the acts happening just beyond are still within full view of the rest of the floor. He is seated in a chair, one of the low, slightly reclined ones that pepper the rest of the club, though this one has been considerately draped in plastic sheeting. The reasoning behind this is immediately obvious: Hob Gadling sits with his thighs spread, revealing the hole that has been cut in the groin of his loose trousers, and there is a woman kneeling before him, with her face buried between Hob's legs.

Dream does not care about the woman, though objectively he recognises that she is beautiful, and clearly quite happy with her current position. His eyes are fixed on Hob, who has his head thrown back, sweat dappling his forehead, mouth open as he gasps and pants. His neck is pulled taut, revealing the tempting line of his jugular, and his shirt has been unbuttoned to reveal the thick hair on his pectorals, almost completely hiding the scars beneath. The woman between his legs does something that must be particularly pleasing, because Hob's eyes slip shut, and his hips rut upwards, and even through the music and the noise and the crowd Dream can hear the sound of his moaning, reaching a fever pitch as he climbs towards climax. When he comes, all his muscles strain at once...and then he slumps, panting, while the woman leans back and licks her lips. The entire lower half of her face is soaked in fluid, and Hob's thighs glisten with the same. It is clear that he has been here for some time.

There is a small sign, Dream realises, that has been set up beside the chair, and a few people positioned around it, reading its words, watching with interest. Some of them watching with eagerness. Eat me out, the sign says. Accepting all comers. Face-sitting offered for best orgasm. Beneath this titillating invitation is a short list of the things that Hob is not interested in. No PiV, says one, and, No S/M.

He watches the woman climb to her feet and then lean down again, whispering something into Hob's ear. It makes him laugh, whatever she says, a full-throated, beautiful display, his head tossed back as he guffaws. Then the woman kisses his cheek, and Hob takes the opportunity to pull her in for a generous hug. Dream has been on the receiving end of such hugs before, but he has never considered that he might be gifted them under such. Specific circumstances.

Then the woman moves away, and he is treated to the sight of Hob on full display. And Dream stops. And looks. And breathes.

Hob had been beautiful, with the woman between his legs, but now that it is only him he is even moreso. With no one in the way Dream is able to see the thick trail of hair on his belly, leading down to the dark thatch of his pubic hair, curls wet with spit and slick. The lips of his sex are parted, red and swollen from the attentions of Dream knows not how many, and here, too, he is wet and open and wanting, with his cock jutting proudly upwards. The plastic sheeting beneath his seat is soaked in his own fluids, and even as Dream watches a newcomer approaches, speaks quietly to Hob and, at Hob's cheery nod and grin, kneels down and begins to lick the plastic clean.

He could remain here unseen, Dream realises. To interrupt Hob's revelry would surely lead to a foul mood later on, but. But.

He wants.

For all that he is neither flesh nor blood, he responds as the form he has taken bids him to, his trousers growing tighter as his erection fills, his stomach clenching with desire, his heart beating faster. His mouth floods with saliva at the sight of Hob's hairy thighs flexing, the dark, spit-damp and abundant curls of his sex, the thin trail of sexual fluids that drips from his fluttering opening and is caught on the tongue of the man kneeling in front of him. And he feels a flash of jealousy, when Hob reaches down and pets the man's hair, and says something softly to him. He recognises the look in the man's eyes, one of fervent adoration, and knows that, were he in the same position, his own expression would be much the same.

He does not wish to ruin their friendship, but. But.

He must make a decision. To remain here, unseen, a silent watcher, is a violation of Hob's trust in him. To reveal himself is to potentially face Hob's ire, but he might take pride in the knowledge that at least he tried.

Dream inhales, breathing in the sharp smell of lust and sex, and steps forward, allowing himself to be seen.

Hob does not notice him at first, still murmuring to the man between his legs. After several moments, though, he looks up, and Dream sees the exact second that Hob spots him: his eyes go wide, and his legs reflexively clamp shut, nearly trapping the man between them, and his muscles shift as if he plans to launch himself upwards before his expression turns resigned, and he relaxes back into his seat. A quick word is had with the kneeling man, who shrugs and then clambers to his feet; he gives Dream a lingering glance as he takes his leave, as do several others of the assembled patrons.

"Dream," Hob says, raising his voice to be heard above the muffled music and the moans and screams emanating from other rooms on this floor. He is still sitting with his knees locked together. "What are you...I mean, far be it for me to judge what you do in your spare time, but what on God's green earth are you doing here?"

"Seeking you out," Dream says. He takes a step forward, and then another, until he has come to a stop almost directly in front of Hob. There is a pillow on the floor, he notices. He had not seen it before; it bears the indents of many previous lovers. He wonders how many have serviced Hob this evening.

He sinks down to his knees.

"Um," Hob says. His eyes are huge, the pupils so dilated that his irises appear as two drops of ink in white clouds. "Dream? What...?"

"I will leave if you wish me to," Dream says. He lifts his hands, letting them hover uncertainly over the heavy curve of Hob's thighs, but not yet daring to touch. He can feel the warmth emanating from Hob's body, more intoxicating than any wine or stimulant, and another wave of wanting crashes over him. Were he standing he thinks he would be staggered by it. "But. If you have no objections. I would very much like to stay."

"No objections," Hob says, voice rising to a squeak. His legs fall apart again, slowly at first, tentative, but widen with more generosity as Dream accepts the invitation, and lays his palms at last on Hob's thighs. They are just as muscled and warm as he had thought them to be, the hair on them coarse where it rubs between his fingers, against his fingertips, and there, at their centre, Hob's sex revealed to him once again. His cock still firm, jutting upwards, his labia still spread and glistening as Dream lowers his head to breathe in the scent of him.

"You smell ambrosial," Dream murmurs, and Hob barks a sudden laugh.

"I've come six times," he says. The tension is slowly leaving his body, allowing him to slump backwards as Dream strokes his thighs. "I smell like sweat and jizz, more like."

"As I said." And to drive home his point, Dream bends down and presses his nose to the sopping curls of Hob's cunt, inhaling deeply. Sweat, yes, and Hob's excitement, and the saliva of others, easily and summarily dismissed in favour of Hob's natural scent, and his friend's murmured, "Oh, oh fuck," as Dream lets his nose brush along the side of his prick. It strains towards him, twitching faintly with Hob's heartbeat. Impudent thing, Dream thinks, though not without a great deal of fondness, and he looks up at Hob through the wild fringe of his hair, blinking slowly.

"You know, I wasn't expecting this," Hob says. His hands clench at his sides. "I only come here maybe twice a year. I wasn't...You don't have to..."

"I wish to."

"...just because I'm. Here. What?"

"I am precisely where I wish to be," Dream says. "And if you truly have no objections. I wish to sample you."

"Jesus Christ," Hob says, and his head falls backwards, thumping against the cushions. "Yeah. Yeah, fuck. Do you know how long I've thought about this?"

"Since 1789," Dream says. He drags the tip of his nose along the length of Hob's cock, and then presses a soft kiss to the head of it, greatly enjoying the sound of Hob's muttered curses. The smell of him is growing denser, sharper, as fresh wetness drips from his cunt.

"Longer," Hob says. "Since the moment I saw you. Thought about bouncing on your cock later that night, even. I would've ridden you so fucking hard."

"Perhaps later," Dream murmurs, and then, for the first time, takes Hob into his mouth.

The effect is immediate, electrifying: Hob goes rigid, mouth opening in a soundless cry as his hips rut forwards, pressing his pubic bone against Dream's nose. His prick is thick, compact, perhaps three inches of trembling nerves that slide along Dream's tongue like silk. The taste of him here is not as strong as it would be directly from the source, but the musky salt of it delights Dream's senses, enraptures him. He lets Hob set the pace at first, trying to gauge how tired he is, how sore...though it quickly becomes apparent that six orgasms in an evening is not, apparently, his friend's limit. Hob does not cry off, nor beg for Dream to give him a moment, but sighs and moans and laughs as Dream sucks at him, first softly, and then with greater force, tracing the thin skin of Hob's prick with the tip of his tongue, then letting it fall free of his mouth so that he can instead lavish attention on the plump lips around it.

Here, he thinks. Here is where his mouth is intended to be, at the nadir of Hob's sex, where his labia are spread like flower petals and his cunt clenches and leaks. Dream hums to himself in delight as he laps a searing path from the root of Hob's prick down to his twitching, wet opening, kneading Hob's thighs with his fingertips as he does so. There is so much hair here that it is impossible to keep his face dry – nor would he want to, even if he could – and Dream leans in to taste, pushing his nose through Hob's pubic hair, committing the scent of him to memory as he licks and sucks at everything he can reach. His wild hunger makes him crude, inexpert, but when he glances upwards to gauge Hob's pleasure he finds his friend flush-faced and panting, his bottom lip caught between his teeth, one hand pushed back into his own hair. When he sees Dream looking he smiles.

"Do you know how gorgeous you are?" he asks. "Between my legs? I've imagined this for so long."

The encouragement is. Pleasing. More than he had thought it would be. Enough that it makes his own cock twitch as he basks in the pleasure of Hob's praise. "So beautiful," Hob says, and he lifts his hips slightly, demanding. Dream is eager to indulge him, and buries his face once more into Hob's sex, licking, now, at his cunt, pressing the tip of his tongue inside to where he is wettest and hottest, savouring the taste of him. The scent that has gathered in his hair, surrounding him now, filling Dream's nostrils, making him dizzy with lust. He cannot resist the temptation to bury his tongue deeper, and then deeper still, longer than any human Hob would ever have taken to bed. Muscles clamp down around him, and Hob makes a startled, thrilled little noise, and then begins laughing again, one hand at last stealing to Dream's hair. He does not clutch, but strokes, softly, like a favoured pet, and Dream purrs, mouth sealed around Hob's cunt, tongue buried in him until there is no more space for anything but Dream.

"You're a marvel," Hob says; Dream flicks the tip of his tongue against the opening to his cervix, soft, soft, and Hob's whole body goes as taut as a bow. "A fuh-hucking marvel oh God, oh fuck, Dream!"

A crowd has begun to form, Dream notes, though it is distant and unimportant information, useful only as much as these people may now see that Hob has chosen him, that Hob favours him. He is too focused on the task at hand to feel anything but the faintest hint of possessiveness – why should he, when he already has what he desires? – and he sets to it with relish, pumping his tongue in leisurely strokes, deep enough that Hob will feel him later, like a sweet bruise. Above him, Hob swears a blue streak, his neglected cock pulsing, prompting a sharp outcry of pleasure every time that Dream bumps the base of it with his nose. Eat me out, the sign had said, and Dream intends to follow it to the letter – there will be time enough, he hopes, to worship every other part of Hob later.

"Dream," Hob says, "Dream, I'm, I'm close, I'm–"

Dream does not wish to be warned. He wishes to be covered in the smell of Hob, drenched in him, and so he presses his tongue sharply up at the same time as he moves his hand to stroke Hob's prick with his thumb, humming in satisfaction as above him Hob shouts, thighs clamping hard around Dream's ears, a gush of fluid oozing around Dream's tongue as he works Hob through first one panting, keening peak, and then a second one just after, smaller, Hob squeezing rhythmically with his thighs, his cries of completion turning to whimpers and then to silence, just the sound of his breathing, like thunder, and murmured noises of appreciation from the gathered crowd. Dream slowly pulls back, and looks with satisfaction as Hob's gaping cunt, at the trickle of spit and come that drips from him, smoothing the curls there flat and sleek.

"Oh," Hob says. His voice is shaky, but inexpressibly fond as he reaches forward and cups Dream's cheeks with his palms. "Oh, I've made a complete mess of you."

He does not need a mirror to know that Hob's words are true. Dream can feel the warm air of the club brushing cold against the wetness on his cheeks, his chin, where it drips in thin lines down his neck. Hob smiles at him, his thumb stroking Dream's bottom lip.

"I think I might have one more in me for tonight, if you're interested," he says, and then with his foot he stretches out and tips over the little sign he had set up beside his chair. "But maybe somewhere where it's...just us? If there's no objections?"

His voice is hesitant. Searching. Dream gazes up at him, dazed, as he had known he would be, with how much he wants, and not only with how much he wants Hob's body, but his laughter as well, and his joy, and his time and his company. No, there are no objections.

"It would be my pleasure," he says, and Hob, still smiling, leans down and kisses the damp tip of his nose, and then the corner of his mouth, and then Hob's lips cover his own, gentle, and around them the club continues on in its revels but, for the moment, it is only them, and it is perfect.

[dragonstailbutch]

Hey sorry i am trying to like. find examples of what you mean when you talk about mra stuff and (trans)misogyny in forcemasc content and tumblr search has betrayed me once again, can you explain?

(sorry I normally wouldn't ask but I wanna make sure I'm not perpetuating anything!! Also fucking tumblr search!!! it is ridiculous!)

so ive been sitting on this ask for months since ive got it. i want to do it justice and try to take it at face value that its being honest in asking.

The thing is, theres this trend and a weird amount of effort to be like force femme, to be forceful and like its something to fearful of and give in to. But we cant do that, cause all that does is reinforce the idea that being a man is a toxic thing. I saw this post the other day where a transman talked about like, the whole "raised as a weapon" thing, the violence and horror of being a man and raised that way versus how they felt growng into it as a transman. How they wanted to reclaim that phrase or something? i could be misremembering.

But that was never the intent of forcemasc. It wasnt actually about being a dude, literally *forcing* someone who was unwilling into masculinity, none of the posts that i made that started the community (and yes i, a transfem butch woman, started and made this community and some of yall need to get over yourselves) were ever about that, it was intended to be a soft mimic or even a call to forcefemme.

i was all about making it soft and tender for a reason, cause if i didnt i was only reinforcing the toxic masculinity narrative, "men fighting in the mud" "men are dominant and cool" " to be a man is to be forced into masculinity and to be disgusted with the feminine" or whatever. When masculinity isnt about just men, and being butch isnt just being masculine. masculinity should also be sensitivity, not domination. i wanted it to be better, show a better side of what masculinity could be, what being butch is.

Ive spoken before a bit too, about the tags people used and added to forcemasc, and really maybe i was wrong in ever naming it forcemasc. people used and still use tags like autoandrophilia, autoandrophile, androphile, autogynephilia, androphilia, and autogynephile. Ive seen so many people with urls and tags and posts calling themselves transandrobros, literally calling themselves MRAs, as if that was something to be proud of, as if they dont understand that they arent fighting for their and our rights, they're fighting for cis-mens rights by using those names and terms, not transmascs/transmens rights. I can understand ignorance, but weve talked about how the words you use have history, especially those like the tags i mentioned and androphilia and androphobia and others, all of them have roots in deeeeeeeply misogynistic and transphobic people and history.

Literally all of these are awful and are phrases that arent and wont be reclaimed because theyre history is one of pain and hurting trans people, one of coercive 'help', literal forced detransitioning and reinforcement of MRA and terf narrative that men are both good and the worst creature alive and that to be a woman is to be disgusting and the purest thing all at once. That to be a transwoman is sick and we shouldnt be trusted.

Im trying to be very kind, not scream and rage, not because i dont desperately want to, but because if i do, as a butch transwoman, ESPECIALLY cause i claim being butch, people wont listen to me no matter how much of what i say is meaningful. one of the reasons why im doing this NO, instead of in anothr day or two, is that im coming to terms with the fact that the situation will just get qorse, not better without words.

Part of why im still sane is that ive gotten a couple asks here and there about how my posts and creation of the community has helped them and its so wonderful to see that, genuinely so amazing to see people recontextualize and love themselves. its wonderful and im so fucking happy about it.

i personally made this space so i could love myself, who i am as a trans person and my body, and i knew that other people needed and wanted that for themselves too and i wanted to help, share this love with more people. That to be hairy and chubby and masculine and butch was a nice thing. But to me it feels like it was coerced into being a thing for Men. A thing no longer for me or people like me who share the butch culture and name to no longer enjoy cause people unfamiliar with kink and tran history have decided that masculinity and butchness are the exact same thing. Id say people should go be a bear, but you wont learn their culture either and thats cruel and insulting to bears.

We deserve better You deserve better. Stop falling for the lies and hate. We beg you

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

Yeayeysyesyes! As someone who headcanons Charlie as trans I absolutely loveee Vaggie shaving her face as a sweet gf gesture 🥹

you headcanoning Charlie as trans 🤝 me headcanoning Vaggie as trans -> mutually supportive trans girlfriends 👍

if there is ANY way for two women to be intimate involving a sharp blade and prolonging loving looks of adoration then always assume im thinking about it. a lot.

Vaggie: "I am NOT using my angelic spear to trim your beard, babe."

Charlie: "BUT!!"

Vaggie: "No. No???? It could kill you!"

Charlie: "Not in your hands! Not that I'd mind!"

Vaggie: "Charlie."

Charlie: "Vaggieeeee pleassssse? The intimacy and trust could be EXACTLY what's needed to fix this fractured relationship!!"

Vaggie: "Our relationship is fractured?"

Charlie: "What? No no no! Not OUR relationship you and me- ours as in me and the sp-"

Charlie: "................."

Vaggie: "...you and the.... spear?"

Charlie: "......."

Vaggie: "Sweetie.”

Charlie: “WHAT.”

Vaggie: “Are you.. cheating on me with my spear."

Charlie: "No! You- You're the one who sleeps next to it!"

Vaggie: "And that makes you feel, what. Jealous?"

Charlie: "I feel like I wanna feel you run it's edge along my jaw and throat!"

Vaggie: "So a threesome."

Charlie: "NOOOOO! You just, you look the most COMFORTABLE and CONFIDENT when you're using it- and if you're gonna pay attention to the stupid spear anyway, then you could at LEAST be paying even more attention to ME while you- YOU DIDN'T HEAR THAT PART!"

Vaggie: "More attention to you- Oh."

Charlie: "Don't look at me like that! S-stop smirking!"

Vaggie: "Smirking? Me? I'd never laugh at my girlfriend having... relationship issues."

Charlie: "Vaggie!"

Vaggie: "You know I love you more than the spear, right?"

Charlie: "I- Never mind! Normal clippers is fine for shearing me, that's fine too, this is all fine!"

Vaggie: "Nothing in all creation is as fine as you.”

Charlie: (sigh) “I know you love me more.”

Vaggie: “But?”

Charlie: “….I love you a lot too, Vaggie.”

Vaggie: “Buuuut?”

Charlie: "..."

Charlie: “Could we TRY doing something with the spear? Just a little???”

Vaggie: “How about trimming the split ends of your lovely long mane?”

Charlie: (pout) “That’s nowhere near my face…”

Vaggie: “Right. Or your throat. So I won’t accidentally destroy the best thing in creation if my hand slips.”

Charlie: “You won’t!”

Vaggie: “I could though. That’s too dangerous.”

Charlie: “It’s so not dangerous- Your hand NEVER slips when you’re handling your spear!”

Vaggie: “The spear’s not the dangerous part here, sweetie, you are.”

Charlie: “I am???”

Vaggie: “You’re a very dangerous woman to be looking at, Charlie Morningstar. Hard not to slip up and get lost in your eyes.”

Charlie: “……”

Charlie: “Soooo, I’m more dangerous than the spear?”

Vaggie: “Way more.”

Charlie: “In a nice way?”

Vaggie: “In a beautiful way.”

Charlie: “Now THAT I can live with!”

Vaggie: “Great. Now sit still while I even out these last few runaways on your chin. I swear sometimes you smooth them down and let them grow just so I’ll trim them…”

Charlie: “HOW DID YOU FIND OUT- uhhh- that is DEFINITELY not something I do.”

Vaggie: “Sweetie.”

Charlie: “I don’t!!!”

Vaggie: “Babe.” (holds gf chin) “Hold still?”

Charlie: “Oh.” (breathless) “Right….”

Vaggie: “Thank you. I’d like to try matching the angle of the other cuts. If I can just…” (staring intently at gf)  

Charlie: “….”

Charlie: (inches hoof over) (gently knocks over spear)

The Spear: (falls)

Vaggie: (doesn’t notice)

The Spear: (is a spear)

Charlie: (smirks over at it anyway)

[thekeeperof-thefandoms]

TW: sensitive topics

Adam slowly becomes more tolerate and less misogynistic over time via osmosis but won't admit it and instead hides it.

Adam thinks women bitch too much about the pink tax until he's sent out to get period products for Reader and Lute, only to realise that his cost of his shopping just doubled in price from just one pack.

Adam thinks women bitch too much about not being welcomed to normally male occupied spaces until he's playing late night online and hears a woman join only to leave after five minutes because everyone kept harassing them.

Adam hounds a girl for her number, thinking that he's so smooth for getting it in the end, but then decided to lose it after watching a film with Reader and Lute where it showed a girl terrified of what would happen if she didn't give a guy her number and hears Reader and Lute, two very capable women, talk about how they've been in similar positions.

Adam has done a lot of thinking lately.

Personally, I'd like to think that Heaven, while flawed, is above some of the nonsense like the pink tax. I do still think catcalling and being harassed happens, probably mainly in result to a lot of men modeling Adam's behavior.

But once he gets with you and you start calling him on his shit, and therefore Lute gets more comfortable calling him out, and especially after the period simulator, he's more aware of certain things.

I feel like eventually he'd ask you if this is how bad it is now, what did you do when you were alive? When you had to work constantly, sometimes 2 jobs at a time, just to afford basics. That's when you tell him you didn't really have a choice but to suck it up. That you weren't allowed to get a hysterectomy, you couldn't take sick days just for a period, and that most doctors wouldn't believe you anyway.

Especially if you're a trans person this is a big foot in the door to explaining how poorly women and queer people are treated. Hit em with the fact that religious nuts use Adam and God as examples for their behavior and he's going to feel physically sick. I think he'd have to take a few days to just be by himself and really think about how he acts and how people interpret that.

From there it's a slow build up to correcting his behavior. And it's not always gonna be easy. He's going to be defensive, he'll tell you that you're overreacting and that him persistently following a girl around to ask her for her number repeatedly isn't bad, it shows he's interested. He's a nice guy.

Tell him that's what other men thought too until "insert any woman you can think of who was assualted".

Lute's more direct, she sits his ass down and has him watch as many true crime stories of women getting kidnapped, SA, tortured, and murdered as she can find. Usually she picks ones based off the names you drop. He really only has to hear 4 or 5 before it sinks in. (Tiktok reminded me of the girl who was tortured to death for 45 days and assualted with lit fireworks so, have that fresh horror in your minds).

Tell him about any personal experiences you had and how terrifying it is to be a woman or queer. Show him the responses to the man or the bear question. Let him fully realize how many people, people he knows as strong and capable, would rather face the bear because "the worst the bear can do is kill me". Or "Nobody accuses me of liking being attacked by a bear"

"No one asked me what I was wearing when the bear attacked"

"People would actually believe me if I said I was attacked by a bear."

"The bear sees me as a person."

"The bear lives in the woods, the man probably followed me."

Each answer is gonna send a new shiver down his spine.

Reforming Adam isn't an easy or fast process but it's fully possible because I don't think he's bad or a fullblown narcissist. I think he's been told his entire existence that he's a good guy, a pinnacle of creation, someone to be admired and obeyed without question.

You could argue he may be a bit controlling and narcissistic because of how he treated Lillith and requested a submissive wife with Eve. And I don't think he's ever not going to be full of himself and expect his ideal partner to be a bit more traditional in the sense that they're a housewife/domestic type. But he also likes people who go out and have fun, can get wild, and he definitely thinks it's hot if you can defend yourself even if it strokes his ego if you let him do it.

But overall, I think with enough time, patience, and exposure Adam could become a better person. Probably the type who would throw hands with himself if he could. Definitely becomes the type to start borderline hating other men.

[renthony]

���️‍🌈

(Drop a 🏳️‍🌈 in my inbox and I’ll respond with a queer media recommendation!)

Disenchantment is probably the least-popular creation of Simpsons & Futurama creator Matt Groening, but I think that's a damn shame, because it kicks total ass. I think everyone was expecting "medieval Futurama," but it very quickly developed its own, narrative-driven vibe. This show has a long-term story. I'm re-watching it from the beginning with my husband right now, and there are hints at the endgame from the very first episode. It's awesome.

The basic premise is that Princess Tiabeanie of Dreamland (called Bean for short) is trying to escape being married off for an alliance between kingdoms. Alongside an elf and a demon, she runs off and gets up to drunken hijinks before stumbling into a huge mess of magical destiny, family pacts with Hell, and invasion from a distant steampunk kingdom.

Here's the trailer:

As for why I'm recommending it as a queer show:

So many people had an issue with the line "gender is a spectrum" being spoken by a genderfucky griffin laying an egg in season one that they wrote it off entirely. I personally thought it felt more like "the writers tried to do something trans-inclusive but missed the mark a little" than "intentionally making offensive jokes", but a lot of people refused to keep watching after that, so they didn't see the show's other queer characters.

Princess Bean is canonically queer. She has casual hookups with men throughout the series, and she eventually also enters a relationship with a woman. The characters Odval and Sorcerio are in a romantically-committed gay relationship throughout the whole show, and they have mixed-gender swinger orgies for fun. The series ends with an on-screen MLM marriage. The happily-ever-after shows two different canon queer pairings (one MLM, one WLW) happy and in love. It's great.

If you gave up on it/didn't bother with it because it seemed like it would be just another offensive crappy adult cartoon, please give it another shot. The story has all kinds of wild twists, there are multiple hot evil women, we get to see a shitty father actively learn how to do better by his kids, and the show is led by a gender-nonconforming, awkward, angry young queer woman who does drugs and drinks and makes bad decisions and has mommy issues that are literally from hell. I fucking love her.

Ask For a Rec | Other Media Recommendations | Support Links

[poisonheiress]

Vivziepop and Queer Rep

As we all know, many fans and media reps alike have commented on the apparent "queer rep" seen in both Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel with many sighting their MLM relationships and use of Sallie May as proof of Vivzie's dedication to queer rep. Yet for how much this idea is spouted across social media, I cannot say that Viv truly cares about Queer Representation in her shows. The apex of this disagreement comes from phrase that man people seem to not remember when it comes down to queer rep: Representation for one is not Representation for all.

In her hyperfocus on thin, cis mlm relationships, Vivzie creates rep for only those relationships, leaving behind countless other queer identities and relationships that also heavily need queer rep. The largest dismissal of queer individuals/relationships in HH or HB appears in characters that fall into one of three categories, The Fat, Sapphic, and The Nonbinary.

The Fat

When some of you look at this, you may be confused as to what fatness has to do with queer rep, I would tell you that it has a lot to do with it. Fat people are not inherently removed from queerness and have been there since the beginning, the creation of the term Bear is proof of that. This is the first strike on HH and HB's records.

As many other creators have thoroughly pointed out, fat representation is abysmal in both HH and HB with either shows either lacking fat rep completely or having fat characters made using more fatphobic stereotypes than I could count. With this poor managing of fat representation, its no surprise that Vivzie pop ignores all possible avenues of queer rep with fat people involved. This also impacts her presentation of mlm ships with all those in these ships only appear as thin cis men, not a single bear or trans man in sight.

The Sapphic

The second largest and arguably most obvious strike against Viv comes in her disturbing lack of sapphic relationships in both shows. While HH has at least one sapphic ship (Charlie and Vaggie), HH has none to speak of. As a result, Viv's ratio of Sapphic to Achillean relationships is heavily one-sided.

It shouldn't take me having to say this for many of you to realize that you cannot claim to have true or complete queer representation when you ignore a whole side of the queer community. While this issue in sapphic relationships likely tied to Vivzie's smaller amount of women in her stories, this does not excuse it. Having one or two of these secondary characters be in a sapphic relationship (especially Sallie May) be shown or even mentioned in passing (not random background shoots) has having a girlfriend would fix this issue, but we cannot even get that.

The Nonbinary

The final strike against Vivzie's queer rep comes in both shows ignoring the existence of nonbinary characters as a whole. While we get some presentation for the binary trans community (even though most are background characters never seen again besides Sallie May), we have yet to see a single nonbinary character in either show's canon.

This is honestly fucking ridiculous. To ignore an entire gender identity because its easier or you simply don't want to is ridiculous and should strip any claimed queer rep media from their title. Nonbinary people have always existed throughout time in different countries and cultures. To think that they're wouldn't be a single nonbinary sinner or demon in hell after all this time does not make sense.

Trans people on the binary and nonbinary side have the right to representation equally, and even if we were to ignore the concerns about Viv's current trans rep, trans people deserve more rep than random background characters and a one dimensional trans woman.

The Finale

As I end this essay, I do want to say that I wanted to discuss HH and HB's treatment and ignorance of asexuality and aromanticism as they are both highly relevant to the discussion. However, I need to do more digging on Alastor and his ace situation first before I do so in order to prevent spreading misinformation.

But even without this section, I still stand on my belief that neither of Viv's shows should be paraded around as good queer media or as truly supporting queer rep. While HH has a little more leeway with Viv's only sapphic ship, HH and HB still ignore large sections of the queer community. It feels more like Viv is picking at the parts of the community she likes more, grabbing at the more marketable identities and appearances until she has enough to call her show queer.

I hope one day Viv will listen to her fans and critiques about this lack of other queer identities but I will not hold my breath. All that is left to say is that queer people deserve better especially in adult shows and in animation. Picking and choose what queer people you include in your media simply because you like one more is the farthest thing from queer rep.

[misscoolisback123]

Things I Find Wrong With Lore Olympus

1. Minthe

I'm just gonna address the elephant in the room when it comes to the webtoon with this one, so don't come bitching at me. When I first started reading LO, I was puzzled that Hades and Minthe were dating in the beginning, but since this was a retelling of Hades and Persephone and Greek mythology all together, I didn't think much of it. When I researched stories and articles about Hades and Persephone, she's not that big of a deal. Yes, she seduced Hades and was turned into a mint plant by Persephone, but that's just it. She's a minor nymph in Greek mythology. Someone on the unpopularloreolympus subreddit said that Rachel Smythe got offended by the Hercules cartoon series in which Hades and Persephone are father and daughter. It's most likely that she got offended by Hades and his affair with Minthe, and so she created a punching bag of a character. Not only that, but her skin tone is red because red is evil to her, yet Hermes is red. I'm not saying she has to be any shade of green but make it make sense!

2. Leuce

Like Minthe, she was created to be a punching bag character for the fandom. Not only is she not canon to Greek mythology, but she didn't exist until the 1500s by an Italian poet. Rachel probably got offended by this as well and did the same thing with her.

3. Misuse of Allusions

What is an allusion? The simplest answer is that it's a figure of speech that makes a reference to literature, people, places, characters, etc. An example of this is from the ABC show Once Upon a Time. Zelena The Wicked Witch of West basically became Persephone she and Hades fell in love. A couple of other examples of allusions of mythology are Naruto and Attack on Titan. Naruto uses Japanese mythology for their power ups and other things. Attack on Titan uses Norse mythology to explain the founding Titan Ymir. Lore Olympus, however, does this very poorly. It might just be a minor detail, but the biggest offense of this is Hera.

I was shocked when I saw that Hades and Hera had once been a thing and were madly in love. Then Echo came along, and Narcissus was nowhere in sight. Basically, Hera replaced Leuce and Narcissus. Leuce replaced Minthe. Morpheus was depicted as a woman or a poor depiction of transgenderism. The founding titan Ymir Fritz was an allusion of Ymir from Norse mythology. Ymir from Norse mythology was the creation God. Ymir Fritz was a little girl who died as a woman. Her three daughters are based on Odin and his two brothers. Ymir from Norse mythology was male. Morpheus from Greek mythology was male. If you're going to make a comic on mythology, then you should get the details of gods and goddess right.

4. Erasure of Sexuality

Lore Olympus was first posted onto Webtoon in 2018. This was during a time when writers of movies, TV shows, series, cartoons, and anime were turning canonically straight and asexual characters gay and lesbian. There was also a very biphobic and transphobic edge to it as well. This was done in order for the creator to appear progressive. This was done to Athena, Hestia, Hera, Echo, and Morpheus. Athena and Hestia are both asexual in Greek mythology, and Hera is straight. Again, Morpheus was male. Echo is also straight as she was madly in love with a man who was madly in love with himself. Athena and Morpheus are both poor representations of transgenderism. Especially Morpheus. They're not trans but the fact that their genders were changed is saying something.

5. Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss

Lore Olympus claims to be feminist but it's not. Others have explained this in great detail. Persephone before she was married to Hades was actually a much different person. She had her own goals and aspirations. She didn't want to be known as a nepo baby. She was trying to find her own identity. She even begged Hades not to gouge out Alex's eye, but Hades went through with it. But then she started dating Hades, and things went downhill for both of them. Yes, they are the healthiest couple in Greek mythology, but Lore Olympus doesn't depict it as such.

Hades basically became an abusive slave owner, and Persephone became an immature girlboss. When she ran into Alex at the mall and intimated him, she looked as if she would wait until his shift was over to stalk him, corner him, and beat him up. The same with Leuce.

6. Rooting for the wrong characters

From the beginning, readers are led to believe that Minthe is the antagonist. At least one of them. But then Persephone changed drastically for the worst, and soon, people found themselves rooting for her.

7. No other retellings of Greek mythology

Lore Olympus was advertised as being about Hades and Persephone. But the title alone sounded as if it was going to be about others' myths as well. The only retelling of mythology was Eros and Psyche. This is due to Hades and Persephone being a part of their myth. But both myths were dragged for far too long. Psyche revealing that she was turned into a nymph by Aphrodite didn't feel exciting. The same goes for Gaia telling Hades and Persephone that Persephone has to spend six months out of the year with her mother for spring and summer and with Hades during fall and winter. Both of these plots could've been easily wrapped up in season, and seasons 2 and 3 could have been about other myths.

[sag-dab-sar]

⚧️ The Gods & Gender ⚧️

Discussing Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminism and the views of the Gods is not "speaking for the Gods,"—it is looking at facts and information and drawing completely reasonable conclusions that squarely put the foundations of trans-exclusion in opposition to the Gods.

(definitely not audio proof read, sorry for the dyslexia)

🌿Aphrodite & Venus🌿

Aphroditos (or Aphroditus) is Aphrodite with male characteristics including a penis and/or beard.

A cult of Aphrodite included a bearded Aphrodite at Amathus, Cyprus on a high cliff temple. [Wikipedia citing Macrobius, Saturnalia III]

Her relationship with bisexuality (referring to being dual sex not sexual orientation in this paper), androgyny, and transvestism is also documented in Cyprus:

— Aphrodite in the Theogony by William Sale in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association Vol. 92 X

(Sorry for the shitty screenshot JSTOR did not want to work with me)

This worship of Aphrodite with a penis was also seen as equal to Venus:

There's also a statue of Venus on Cyprus, that's bearded, shaped and dressed like a woman, with scepter and male genitals, and they conceive her as both male and female. Aristophanes calls her Aphroditus, and Laevius says: Worshiping, then, the nurturing god Venus, whether she is male or female, just as the Moon is a nurturing goddess. In his Atthis Philochorus, too, states that she is the Moon and that men sacrifice to her in women's dress, women in men's, because she is held to be both male and female." — Macrobius (c. 400s AD), Saturnalia 3.8.2

🌿Hermaphroditos🌿

There is also the "intersex child of Aphrodite & Hermes" named Hermaphroditos.

I have seen many use Hermaphroditos as an excuse to wipe away the Goddess Aphrodite with a penis that the ancients worshipped. Which doesn't even make sense because I hate to break it to you— Hermaphroditos also opposes TERF ideology by its nature. A God existing as intersex/bisexed/dual-sex/bigender (however you'd like to word it) negates the idea that the Gods somehow support the ridged biological essentialism and gender binary that TERF ideology necessitates.

There are different accounts of Hermaphroditos' creation but one, Ovids, tells of him merging with a nymph and then asking his parents to make the water transformative causing men to have thr effeminate bodies like women:

Her prayer found gods to hear; both bodies merged in one, both blended in one form and face. As when a gardener sets a graft and sees growth seal the join and both mature together, thus, when in the fast embrace their limbs were knit, they two were two no more, nor man, nor woman--one body then that neither seemed and both. So when he saw the waters of the pool, where he had dived a man, had rendered him half woman and his limbs now weak and soft, raising his hands, Hermaphroditus cried, his voice unmanned, ‘Dear father [Hermes] and dear mother [Aphrodite], both of whose names I bear, grant me, your child, that whoso in these waters bathes a man emerge half woman, weakened instantly.’ Both parents hears; both, moved to gratify their bi-sexed son, his purpose to ensure, drugged the bright water with that power impure." — Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 28 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)

🌿More on Aphroditos vs Hermaphroditos read @theoi-crow's excellent post about them here.

Also some lovely statues:

Marble copy statue from a fresco at Herculaneum, Italy. X (left)

Statue from Pergamum, Turkey. X (center)

Statue from Nymph Sanctuary in Lacori, Italy X (right)

Statue from Pompeii, Italy X

🌿Inana & Ishtar🌿

From a hymn to Inana

To open up roads and paths, a place of peace for the journey, a companion for the weak, are yours, Inana. To keep paths and ways in good order, to shatter earth and to make it firm are yours, Inana. To destroy, to build up, to tear out and to settle are yours, Inana. To turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man are yours, Inana. Desirability and arousal, goods and property are yours, Inana. Gain, profit, great wealth and greater wealth are yours, Inana. Gaining wealth and having success in wealth, financial loss and reduced wealth are yours, Inana. Observation (1 ms. has instead: Everything), choice, offering, inspection and approval are yours, Inana. Assigning virility, dignity, guardian angels, protective deities and cult centres are yours, Inana. — A Hymn to Inana (Inana-C) ETCSL 4.07.3 in Lines 115-131.

This shows:

Inana has the power to change a person's gender/sex .... which means people can change gender/sex

This is listed among other normal things such as journeys, wealth, settlements so on. Suggesting that it wasn't super special, it was a part of Sumerian society that Inana was given power over.

This was written by Enheduanna High Priestess of Nanna, Ur's city God, and Inana. Inana was a popular Sumerian deity and Enhenduanna's father, Sargon of Akkad's, personal deity was Ištar. One of Enhenduanna's goals as a priestess was to conflate the popular Sumerian deity Inana with her father's Akkadian personal Goddess Ištar. Then raise Inana (and thus her father's personal Goddess Ištar) to an extremely high place in cosmology and explain just how much control she had in society— including over sex/gender.

Also from @sisterofiris's post on Inana's queer priests here.

🌿Nanaya🌿

In later times Inana/Ištar was equated with Nanaya but in earlier times they were worshipped side by side as separate deities. While Inana's hymn gives her rule of gender, a Nanaya hymn has her directly declaring she has breasts in Dadumu and a beard in Babylon. Leick also mentions here that Ištar was worshipped in both genders.

—Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology by Gwendolyn Leick. Page 125.

🌿Asūšunamir with Ereškigal🌿

In Ištar's Descent (not Inana's) Ea's plan to distract Ereškigal and get her to bring Inana back to life is to make a beautiful being. Ea makes an incredibly beautifully brilliant being that's mere aesthetic presence will make Ereškigal happy and let her defenses down. And Asūšunamir's beauty works..... and he is an eunuch, an effeminate male, potentially queer from the ancient's eyes. And yet he is so beautiful he distracts a Goddess.

— The Ancient Near East and Anyhology of Texts and Pictures, edited by Pritchard. Ishtar Descent translation by E.A Speiser. Page 80.

🌿Eštan / Ištanu🌿

The Anatolians (Hittite in particular) loved to both mix deities and keep them entirely dependent like 8 solar deities and 50 storm Gods. But sometimes Hittite, Hurrian, Hattic, Indo-European, Mesopotamian all meld together making the identification of gender ambiguous or even interchangeable.

Eštan is one example (who has numerous equatings):

—A Handbook of Gods and Goddesses of The Ancient Near East by Frayne & Stuckey. Page 105

You can also learn more about the Ištanu and the Sun Goddess of Arinna and her gender from @sisterofiris in a post here.

__

I'm sure there are more! But this was my quick round up and sources I could put together. To all the trans & non-binary polytheists out there, you aren't abnormal and the Gods see you for who you truly are.

Edit: Want some more? Learn about the feminine qualities of Apollo

[s-che]

who holds the mask? designing the Disguise

For the record, all of the playbooks in Beneath Pirate Flags are trans. Gay ass trans ass pirates. I mean, they don’t have to be — the magic of character creation means that you could make anyone, even (!!) a cis person, if your imagination can handle that. But they’re all more or less about being trans, or about types of trans people I know, anyway. Maybe none of them is as trans as the Disguise, though.

I don’t mean that, of course. The Disguise isn’t “more trans” than any of the others in any way that matters. What I mean is that the Disguise is maybe the most “obviously” trans, the most “typically” trans. The Disguise deals with a narrative that people see and go oh, oh, I know this—that one’s about being trans.

The Disguise is a pirate “on the run from at least two things,” inspired by tales of putting on a (you guessed it) disguise and escaping to adventure. There’s a lot of Jim from Our Flag Means Death in there, of course, as well as a good amount of Eowyn and not a small percentage of Alanna of Trebond. The Disguise is playing in a lot of tropes that make people conscious of the play of genders—which, for complicated reasons, reads as “more” trans than, say, The Hunk, The Dandy, or The Legend (even though all three of those are, to me, far more fundamentally drawn from my own trans experience).

One of the big things I wanted to do with the Disguise though, was offer more nuanced understanding of the work masks and disguises can do than we usually get in these types of stories. In the most traditional—the most recognizable—version of this narrative the Disguise is a cis woman who, frustrated not so much with her gender as with institutional sexism, takes on a mask in order to “play” as a man and trespass in the wider world (the historical erasure of transmasculine people into the cis feminist figure of “the woman in pants” looms large here). In this narrative, there comes a point where—as in Mulan, Eowyn, Alanna—she is unmasked but accepted as, to borrow a term from Tamora Pierce  “a woman who rides.” 

Here’s the thing: That’s a valid arrangement of what’s in the Disguise. There’s no reason the Disguise couldn’t be used to tell this kind of story—but I think there’s a more interesting version of this character out there, probably most clearly expressed (in popular media, anyway) by Jim Jimenez in Our Flag Means Death who, critically, does not return to their assigned gender after removing the “mask.” After all, there’s no reason to think that the mask must be something taken on (as opposed to, say, assigned). Rather, I like to think about the Disguise as playing across a border—dealing in multiple frames and knowledges, and trying to make space for themself between them. One day—if all goes well—they won't need the mask anymore. The playbook could equally viably tell the story of:

A cis woman under patriarchy, “playing a man” so she can run away and be a sailor (like Eowyn does).

A trans person, “playing” their assigned gender as they work to find out who they are really (like... most if not all trans people do, at one point or another).

A trans person, “playing” their true gender (or at least a new gender) as they build a new understanding of themself in a new context (this is the reading I think is closest to what happens with Jim, fwiw).

A person whose disguise has nothing to do with their gender at all—maybe they’re a prince in hiding, or they're pretending to be a prince in hiding, or there's something else.

There’s also no reason that the playbook couldn’t combine these stories—or even reach for new ones that haven’t occurred to me. The possibilities are endless. The core of the Disguise is not about secrets and falsehoods (although secrets and falsehoods certainly play their part), but rather performance and autonomy over your own presentation. The mask is a tool to control that presentation.

This brings us to the saddest part of the playbook—the ending.

Every playbook in Beneath Pirate Flags has three prewritten endings (although you’re naturally welcome to come up with your own). Each set of three has two happy endings and one sad one— sometimes bittersweet, sometimes tragic, and sometimes just bad. For the Disguise, that sorrow is all about the loss of control. The worst thing that could possibly happen—the most upsetting ending, which I want players to be aware of even if they aren’t interested in it—is not just the removal of the mask, but the removal of the mask without the Disguise’s permission or control. The world longs to control our presentations and, by doing so, control our lives. There is magic in a mask, and in the autonomy it provides—but there are people who want to rip both of those away. They want to hurt you, to control you, and to make you hurt yourself. That’s what we’re fighting against. Anyway, there you have it. Go hug a trans person—and check out Beneath Pirate Flags.

[whumpdreaming]

Crownchain - Character Intros

Hi! This is the introduction to the characters of my new series! Here's a little about the setting itself: it's not quite medieval-era, but not quite modern either, and obviously knights and nobility are the main focus. The system of knighthood works in a way very inspired by BBU; knights are typically taken at a young age (usually from poor/orphaned circumstances, becoming wards of the state essentially) and forced to go through very intense training (at a place called the Academy) that involves not just combat, but also promoting absolute loyalty to their charges.

Said charges are usually members of the nobility, those important/rich enough to warrant having a bodyguard or even multiple. Knights are legally considered property, not people, and belong to whoever they're supposed to be protecting, meaning there are zero legal repercussions for mistreating your knights. In fact, such a thing is highly normalized, and knights are taught to expect mistreatment in whatever form.

Some nobles like to decorate or embellish their knight's armor, often changing their appearance to match the noble's own, such as matching colors or jewelry. Duels are common and function more like underground cage fights, with a variety of types (the most common being "until incapacitation"). Knights are held to an extremely high standard and are expected to continue in their duties even when sick or injured, and it's commonly expected to punish them if they're not performing well enough.

It's called "crownchain" because typically, armor is designed with a ring around the gorget (the neck piece of the armor) or generally around that area. Often, it's used by itself to pull a knight around, or a leash of some sort is attached; this is called the crownchain (i.e., the person with the crown has chained them). If that makes sense and isn't stupid.

This world concept came about with help from @bamber344 and @seastarblue :) I plan to fill out more details about the world itself as I go, but here's the main cast:

picrew link

Kyrie, she/her, a young trans woman and knight, who's been "retrained" a few times now due to poor performance and is now in the ownership of Lady Avaline. She's good at what she does, but also happens to be extremely socially awkward and shy. Wouldn't know how to ask for help even if she realized that's an option. Very much a wet cat. This picrew is missing her brands (two below her right eye, signifying her status as a knight and then her ownership to Avaline's house) but otherwise is pretty accurate. She's also built like one of those shotput athletes because I love fat women.

Lady Avaline, she/her, a very outwardly carefree young noble eager to get her hands deep in court politics. Considered a veritable ray of sunshine by everyone she meets, but also well-known for her brutality and high standards. Uses Kyrie not just as a guard but also as a glorified handmaiden, and is eager to punish her for any and all mistakes. Frequently forces her to duel, but clearly must be doing something right because Kyrie is very successful, leading many others of the nobility to follow Avaline's example (unproportionally harsh punishments for mistakes; although not many seem to be as willing to do it so publicly.)

There's another character I have in mind named Juniper, but I'm not sure of her role yet. What I do know is that I'll be doing Hurtcember with these girlies, so watch out for that :)

As an aside, I'm very open to the idea of a shared-universe type deal where other people make their own stories in the setting if they so desire 🤔 Mostly I just want to gauge interest because it feels good when people are invested in my creations lol.

[talisidekick]

I wanna talk about how transmen are sexualized.

Transmen aren't Femboys.

Transmen aren't Sissys.

Transmen aren't for your sexual pleasure.

Transmen are biological women who have dysphoria.

You cannot change sex, you can change gender presentation and how your gender is perceived.

-Sincerely A transguy tired of being sexualized and misinformation

When people go out of their way to say "all trans men are" or act like all trans mascs are a specific thing only, like a femboy, or a sissy, it's transphobic because it's debasing people to a kink and not recognizing that these can be aspects of a person, but not their entire personality. When someone treats a kink like the default for a type of person, it's offensive. Gay men got reasonably upset when people kept expecting and depicting them to be effeminate because it was rightfully offensive as fuck. We shouldn't be debasing people to sexual roles and stereotypical presentations grounded in bigotry. In your examples, that's transandrophobia. Beyond this, I will disagree with everything except your sign off.

Transgender men are not 'biological women'. They're men. Medically, commonly assigned female at birth (afab). I say "commonly" because intersex transgender men exist and the term 'afab' isn't all inclusive of the biological reality we're dealing with. The term "women" is a social term, not a medical one, that relates a person to experiences of womanhood and defines them as a woman by proxy. This is incorrect. Transgender men are men, period. If you're talking biology, use biology terms. Social terms belong in social contexts. Conflating the two aids no one and instead walks right into the rhetoric fascists like the so called "radfems" and "gender criticals" use to associate sex with gender as falsely inseparable terms.

Also, no again to "you cannot change sex". That is a falsity in the reality of modern science. We can make functional penises for transgender men, this is widely documented, and modern science has procedures that would allow an individual to no longer be accurately medically classified as "female" and even "male". One such procedure is called SRS or Sex Reassignment Surgery, sometimes referred to under a broader category of Gender Confirming Surgery or GCS that covers the creation or removal of primary and secondary sex characteristics. Now before we get on the "what do I mean by functional" train, I'm deliberately not including sperm production or egg production in this statement because if that's your argument that it's not 'functional' unless it can be used to reproduce, you're an asshole that just said sterile men aren't men, and post-menopausal women aren't women, and fuck you. Men and women aren't defined by their ability to reproduce. That's bioessentialist bullshit that can fuck right off, this ain't the fucking 1960's.

I'm being highly specific here because I want to be very clear that the terms we use have impact, they're meant to be used in certain contexts and conflating terms with eachother doesn't help us make the points that we're trying to here.

The real meat of this though is that these sexualizations as femboys and sissy's being default used on trans masculine people in general is deliberately denying transgender men and mascs their masculinity. If a transgender man or masc chooses to express themself in such a way, that's their choice. But it's a choice an individual is making, not a collective. It doesn't matter what a transgender man or masc looks like, it matters how they want to be treated, and denying them that treatment to force them into a sexual role they don't agree with is a big fucking baaaaaaaaaaad move. We talk about sexual liberation in being 2SLGBTQIA+, and defining ourselves our way, but doing this to trans mascs is just reflavouring homophobia to attack a different group. Fucking stop it. Let trans mascs and transgender men be masculine. Stop default coding them as feminine.

[jazzy-flowerr]

That's it. I can't take it anymore.

I'm gonna say it.

Might get a bit of backlash from saying this. But I don't care. I'm tired of keeping this to myself.

-

-

I love these two. They're some of my favorite EXEs.

I'm so tired of all the hate that these two get.

If you don't like these two, that is completely fine. If you don't care for their creator due to the past allegations/drama. That is ALSO completely fine.

But the majority of the hate that these two get can be summed down to the following things;

1: Both of them are trans (Curse (left) is a trans man, NormalCD (right) is a trans woman)

2: Curse is a femboy

3: NormalCD is plus sized

Like, just say you're a bigot and go away. Don't make it everyone else's problem. Don't act like those parts of their characters are their entire character. That is not the case, that's just what you've made yourself believe cuz you're big dumb.

(also, let's not forget, the OG Sonic.exe canonically has a romantic obssesion for Sonic. LGBTQ+ EXEs are NOT and have NEVER BEEN out of the ordinary.)

And don't make the excuse "oH tHeY'rE nOt ScArY sO tHeY cAn'T bE eXeS sO tHaT mEaNs ThEy sUcK"

There are PLENTY of EXEs that (intentionally or unintentionally) aren't scary (I mean have you even READ the original Sonic.exe creepypasta????)

So no. They are EXEs. And they're some of my favorites. In a fanbase where the majority of characters created are either a Lord X, Faker, or NeedleM0use clone (and this is coming from someone who absolutely adores those 3, mind you), these two are some of the most original creations to come from the fanbase, and I love them so much.

Once again - say it with me now-

YOU 👏 ARE 👏 ALLOWED 👏 TO 👏 DISLIKE 👏 THEM 👏 AND 👏 HAVE 👏 YOUR 👏 OWN 👏 OPINION 👏

Just don't use your irrational hatred towards minorities as a justification for your disliking of them, okay? Okay. :)

Thank you for coming to my TED talk /j

[clonerightsagenda]

#recently read, Nov 24

Bipolar Bear and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Health Insurance by Kathleen Founds. A graphic novel about dealing with the health care system with a mental illness. Relatable.

This World Is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa. A married couple and their friend navigate jealousy on a planet determined to wipe out invaders - including them. *Cool sci-fi concept, metaphor worked well, was hoping for more when the back cover copy includes the phrase 'toxic polycule' but novellas are brief by nature.

The Volcano Daughters by Gina María Balibrera. Two Salvadoran sisters are brought together and then separated by the Martínez dictatorship, eventually finding each other again in California.

Honeymoons in Temporary Locations by Ashley Shelby. Speculative vignettes set in a climate-ravaged near future where climate anxiety has taken new, bizarre forms.

Antigonick by Sophokles, trans. Anne Carson. *Definitely an unusual and creative translation. I don't really get the illustrations though.

White Tears by Hari Kunzru. Two white record collectors are haunted by a blues musician whose work they stole. *A disorienting and multilayered commentary on appropriation; I understand the artistic rationale but you spend a lot of time in close first person with a very unpleasant protagonist.

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner. More musing than thriller, follows a woman paid to infiltrate an environmental activist group. *This is the third mainstream book in a year to take potshots at environmental activists, and while there's certainly a lot to satirize in activist culture I'm also kind of like. ok. Is the only literary-approved response to the climate crisis sadly smoking a cigarette and then sadly having an affair, and actually doing anything is deserving of mockery? Are you at least getting paid by Shell or are you doing this for free.