#bettering my intersex activism

[perennialkarmaofficial]

I want to be a better ally to intersex people, and I want to actively do better to accommodate them, and to uplift and respect the terminology that was coined by the intersex community.

Instead of referring to myself as afab, should I instead use the term perisex ftm? Would that be a better way to describe myself?

I love you, intersex people, you have a place in this community. I want to do better by y'all, and to be a good ally. I wasn't in the past, but I'm growing and maturing. From here on out, I will do my research, ask appropriate questions, and advocate by uplifting intersex voices, and allowing y'all to be heard rather than trying to form my own ways to uplift.

[renthony]

In which I'm angry about intersexism from trans people. Again.

"AFABs don't experience [thing experienced by intersex people of all assigned genders]!" is getting really fucking old. People re-inventing the sex and gender binary through their weird fucking fixation on "are you AMAB or AFAB? Are you TMA or TME?" is exhausting.

I'm tired of existing in trans spaces as a trans person, only to realize how actively hostile those spaces are to intersex people. I don't bother to go to the local trans support group, because my experiences there when I first tried to attend were fucking rancid. Trans people of all assigned sexes and all genders act like I don't belong there, and I hit my limit on that shit real fast. It's exhausting, it's alienating, and it's fucking miserable!

Trans people, you have got to fucking stop acting like intersex people don't exist. You have got to fucking stop acting like you own the concept of sex and gender based violence. You have got to fucking stop acting like transfem and transmasc are a set, incorruptible binary. You have got to fucking stop acting like your fucking bullshit in-fighting isn't affecting people who aren't you.

I'm tired of intersex people discussing our own experiences only to get shit all over by perisex trans people who want to put everyone in a binary.

I'm tired of watching intersex people get treated like shit by terfs and transphobes, only for perisex trans people to accuse us of "appropriating trans struggle" when we talk about it.

I'm tired of talking about my experiences as an intersex trans person only to get constantly hit with endless variations on "shut up, theyfab" or "um, you're TME."

I'm tired of talking to my transfem friends and partners, us relating to each other on our similar experience, and then having random other trans people on the internet decide that, actually, I'm a raging transmisogynist who doesn't value trans women and is trying to "appropriate" their struggle. Never mind how many of my own experiences I've been able to articulate thanks to the support of trans women in my life.

Perisex trans people, do better. Y'all fucking suck! Y'all fucking treat intersex people like total shit! Fuck you for using us as rhetorical devices against transphobes and then ignoring our actual needs and struggles!

I go outside and people call me a tranny with a freak ugly beard. I get targeted by all the same bathroom bills and public policy trying to force trans people out of the public. I get people asking me if I have a dick. I get people aggressively calling me "sir" in public. I started getting called a "he-she" when I was a child. When I started developing breasts, a family member told me they weren't "real titties, just extra fat." I have had total strangers tell me I "look like a fat man" when I got upset at being misgendered. I get "helpful advice" from strangers about how to shave "properly," even though I didn't fucking ask, nor do I intend to shave my beard. I've had people tell me I have "tranny feet" and tell me to "try the drag queen shoe store" when I talk about how hard it is to find women's shoes that fit me. I have been the subject of nasty rumors about what's between my legs and why I "try to look like a woman." I'm not a woman, mind you, but I still get treated as a "wrong woman" by society.

But when I talk about all these things? When I seek support? Trans people of all genders call me a TME theyfab who is appropriating transfem struggles.

I still don't understand how I'm the one "appropriating" when it's the outside world calling me a tranny he-she freak.

But whatever. I guess I just have to accept that intersex people are subhuman to perisex people, even the trans ones. 🤷‍♂️

[sodomit]

TRANSUNITY

Transunity is a political theory that was actively talked about on Tumblr a couple of years ago, but has since fallen out of the public spotlight. And this is unfortunate, because it could have really improved a lot of the discourse around gender.

There exists a blog under that name ( @transunity ), but it has been inactive for a year. I am not affiliated with that blog anyhow, I never had any personal contacts with its mods, but I want to get their general ideas to circulate again, so I'm trying to bring this back up in a semi organized fashion. My take on transunity is just my take, if you're one of the original coiners, and you disagree, I encourage you to talk about it, because we still have much more in common with each other than different.

GENERAL VIEWS

I believe that one of the fundamental ideas more trans people need to understand is that we're all more or less in the same place in the eyes of the society (when other factors, such as ethnicity or disability, are considered). To be trans is to fail the gender role system, from the point of view of cis people we can no longer be proper men or women. All kinds of trans people regardless of identity are affected by misogyny and misandry (not a type of marginalization by itself, but turns into a vector of oppression when overlapping with a different marginalization), which forms the foundation of transmisogyny, transandrophobia, and exorsexism*. These types of bigotry are not exclusive and unique to specific gender identities either and may be applied to any trans person for as long as it's convenient to the oppressor.

Trans people do not have gendered power over each other, and intra community bigotry is better conceptualized as a form of lateral aggression.

Gender assignment and sex are never strictly binary (especially with inclusion of intersex people, who belong in gender conversations even if they don't identify as trans) and need to be understood as much more fluid and not strictly correlating with one's actual position in life.

WHAT WE NEED TO REDUCE

The following things should be discussed more critically:

- "Powerjacketing" - implying someone has gendered privilege as a means of delegitimizing their words, while in reality they do not have this privilege;

- Malgendering - forcing trans people to choose between being gendered correctly and speaking up about their mistreatment (e.g. questioning trans women's womanhood on the basis of them aggressively defending themselves or trans men's manhood on the basis of them asking for help) or implying there's something wrong with them in a way that reinforces gender stereotypes;

- Assuming that some trans people are exempt from some forms of oppression on the basis of gender assignment/sex (e.g. by calling all trans people who were assigned female "tme"** or claiming trans people who were assigned male are inherently incapable of understanding fear of sexual assault);

- Assuming that oppression of trans people is rooted in gender assignment/sex (such as, calling reproductive oppression "sex based oppression"***);

- Gatekeeping certain identities, such as "transmasc", "transbian", "femboy" as exclusive to any gender assignment/sex;

- Creating a duality out of "transsexual" and "cissexual", where not medically transitioning trans people are assumed to have some kind of a gendered privilege, or to not be trans in any meaningful material way. Various transmed ideas about dysphoria and transition go there too;

- Accusing trans people who take inspiration from each other of appropriation (trans headcanons, kinks, drag culture, etc).

SYMBOL

The following image is the official transunity symbol developed by the original transunity bloggers. Sorry about the glitch effect, I wasn't able to find one without it.

* Transmisogyny, transandrophobia, and exorsexism are not exclusive to specific identities, although they do primarily target traits associated with these identities. They can be conceptualized as bigotry and oppression towards people who are recognized as incorrectly entering respectively womanhood, manhood, and a status beyond gender binary (for the latter no normative form exists****). However, it's not wrong to use them to mean "oppression of trans women" and so forth, for as long as you're not claiming it's exclusive.

** Labels like "tma" and "tme" still may be used, but solely in a self assigned manner. I believe that an individual trans person is capable of evaluating whether they're affected by transmisogyny and in what way, and they should be trusted on this. However, no gender assignment and no current gender identity makes anyone inherently tme.

*** "Sex based oppression" instead of "reproductive oppression" reinforces the idea that people who share a specific body part (e.g. an uterus in context of conversations about abortion) are inherently of the same sex. This type of essentialism is desperately needed by terfs in this discussion, as they're trying to sell the ideas of "sex based oppression" and "sex based privilege" to people they want to recruit in their ideology. Invoking the idea of "sex" as something trans men and some nonbinary people are oppressed through is not the correct way to respond to people who say we don't experience any gendered violence besides "just transphobia", it has shitty implications and helps shitty people.

**** Lack of existence of normative nonbinary gender does not mean that these genders are not recognized by the society as a deviant, marginalized identity, and that binary people cannot be pushed into this zone.

[doberbutts]

you don't actually get to cry "ally yourself with trans women" while actively talking over trans women whose traumatic experiences with transmisogyny are wildly ignored in favor of how hard transmisogyny is on the cis women. like why don't trans women get to say privilege plays into how much transmisogyny affects people?

do we not characterize white privilege as being what protects white americans from the systematic racism that permeates the US?

again, what is the preferred way you would have us refer to that privilege? because I am right here telling you that privilege is a part of the construct of tme/tma but you don't really care that trans women are more affected.

like it's crazy that you seem to think my problem is with the transvestigation playing out against a cis woman and not the way everyone pays attention when it happens to cis women but ignores the rampant transmisogyny when it happens to a trans woman. like you don't even pause to look at why there were no trans women at the olympics to transvestigate in the first place so they turned to the next marginalized option, intersex and women of color, when discussing how trans women deserve better.

Hi I'm the trans woman I deserve better from you specifically

To be completely honest this is looking less and less like a good faith discussion and more and more like you simply accusing me of stuff I didn't say.

You say I am actively talking over trans women. How so? How is "we need to address transmisogyny at its root if we want things to be better" ignoring the plight of trans women?

How is it that I have *repeatedly* acknowledged that there is privilege there, and yet apparently I am ignoring it?

if you want to use the race example: white privilege exists. Racism also affects white people. If white people want to stop being affected by racism (welfare regulations, the war on drugs, low income housing, social programs for community aid, to name a few) then maybe they should ally themselves with people of color because the root of what's causing issues with these things is racism. That doesn't mean white privilege doesn't exist just because a system of oppression affects everyone under said system. It doesn't even mean that the primary target has changed. It's just what makes this a system rather than an individual occurrence.

Never once have I said that cis women are more affected and, in fact, in followup posts I have stated that it *is* quite annoying that people have only been talking about this because this year's Olympics included approximately 0 out trans women. I have been saying that this was the clear end result, once they were rid of the trans women they'd go for whatever cis women they could feasibly get away with, and this time it seems they overplayed their hand.

Castor Semenya is a cis woman who only found out that she is intersex due to being transvestigated. She is, by definition, TME. Except she's not, is she, considering the same rules that apply to trans women apply to her. That's why I brought her up! And- correct me if I'm wrong- but out trans women still competed after she was forced to leave the Olympic running. That is why I'm saying that things maybe are not quite so clear cut as "have" and "have not", because I can point to an example of someone that the definition labels as "has privilege" that according to Olympic ruling bodies no longer counts as a woman either despite being afab TME cis.

If you want to continue to put words in my mouth, then we're out of things to say to each other, and it becomes clear that this was never intended to be a good faith discussion in the first place.

[hiiragi7]

If you genuinely think intersex people are safer or more widely accepted than trans people, you do not know anything about intersex people. Being so incredibly blind to intersex oppression that you would say things like that (especially if you're someone who gets defensive over it when intersex people try to educate you) makes you a poor ally to intersex people and actively feeds into silencing our oppression and sweeping it under the rug.

Telling people you have a sex variation or a hormonal condition is not safer than telling people you are trans. It is callous to attempt to use us as a shield and then claim it doesn't harm anyone. So many of those in the queer and trans community know nothing about intersex oppression or how we are being killed too and it hurts.

I am both intersex and trans. These communities are siblings. Watching one sacrifice and then neglect the other over and over pains me. We are siblings, yet you use the intersex community when you think it suits you, and then you are silent when intersex people are screaming for our rights and for help. We have been fighting our oppression all this time, and it feels so often as though we are doing it alone. It especially hurts when the trans community, the sibling to the intersex community, claims the great harm we are facing either does not exist or that it is "not nearly as bad as what the trans community faces". Or, worse, erases us entirely by calling us "cis people with a disorder" rather than intersex.

When you claim to be intersex "for safety", you actively participate in erasing the unsafety we as intersex people face every day. Claiming you are intersex is no safer than being trans, and when you say it is safer, you erase how my community is being slaughtered, the laws that are pushed against us, the intersex babies that are mutilated at birth, the constant harassment, the high risk of sexual assault or violence when someone learns you're intersex, the medical malpractice and forced medical procedures, the way we are isolated socially, the insults, the mockery, the fetishization, and so on, and so on, and so on.

I understand the need to feel safe as an oppressed minority. However, saying that you are intersex "for safety" is not actually any safer at all. And when you claim it is, it harms my community. It works against the visibility of intersex issues that we have been trying to bring up for decades.

The harsh reality is that there is no way to be completely safe as a queer person in this world as it is right now. Telling others that intersex people have it better is a lie. We are all unsafe, all oppressed. Whatever illusion of safety you get from the lie that intersex people have it better is not worth the damage it does to intersex activism.

[bonefall]

This is a genuine question! Would Moonpaw in your world be Intersex? And how would the clans view it? I worry due to how in canon, the clans can seem...sexist towards female cats, and I don’t know how they'd react to a intersex cat.

BB!Moonpaw is going to be intersex yes

It's actually seen as very special! Clan culture's concept of gender is Trinary. There are THREE genders, and none of them match completely to the US/UK's concept of gender roles.

1. "Woman"/Molly/Yaow.

Given to AFAB cats by default. This gender is expected to have an active, argumentative role in the Clan. They are socialized to have a domineering and active role in their personal relationships, while also doing the emotional and physical labor of taking care of their camp and kits.

The "Bailey" to a tomcat's "Motte." They are supposed to be the secondary, smarter, more deadly line of defense against threats.

2. "Man"/Tom/Ssuf.

Given to AMAB cats by default. This gender is expected to be passive but protective, giving ground to a molly or a gib who "understands the nuances of camp better." They're socialized to spend more time out of the camp and do more hunting and patrolling than their counterparts.

The gender is named for the sound of spraying, as marking territory is what Ssuf cats are most associated with.

In these genders, being trans is more normalized than not living according to the roles. They have a different idea of being queer compared to us!

"Third Gender"/Gib/Meewa.

This doesn't translate into English very well. We would call it nonbinary by our standards, but this is a full gender role to Clan cats.

Gibs can be assigned at birth when they display sacred signs, such as closely resembling a dead nyams, having extra claws, being perfectly identical twins, or having intersex traits. It is a role associated with wisdom, conflict resolution, and long-term planning.

They are often socialized to be more intuitive and spiritual, but from a young age they might get given more responsibility than they're ready for. Especially if they're silver or gray, a color associated with wisdom.

I usually keep using the pronouns from canon because of 1. Simplicity since the whole fandom is used to them, 2. The fact that Clanmew doesn't use gendered pronouns anyway, and 3. It helps keep my xey/xem drops more special. But a LOT of cats are actually meewa in-universe.

Gray Wing the Wise

Yellowfang

Deadfoot

Ashfoot

Whitestorm

Spottedleaf

Blackstar

Waspwhisker/star

Duckfur

Kestrelflight

Cinderheart

Poppyfrost

Jayfeather

Dovewing

Shadowsight

There are also cats who have transitioned away from being Meewa. This is how both Hazeltail and Mousewhisker, identical twins, are transfem and transmasc respectively. I am planning for Frostpaw to ALSO transition out of the meewa gender, she will be transfem.

So Moonpaw, with xeir half-moon face, intersex traits, and connection to the moonpool? That is a DEAD RINGER for a meewa-gendered gib. The only thing she's missing is any amount of gray. I am going to use She/Xey for her going foward.

(I can see her receiving something silvery as a gift someday. Probably from one of her parents-- I'm currently leaning towards FlipBay or ShellFern PRETTY hard, and Flipclaw or Fernstripe would do something like that I think.)

(Fern would be more of a trader though I think. I feel like she's not very dexterous, but WICKED smart. Flip is discovering a talent for toymaking.)

This is actually a part of BB's Clan Culture reworks I play a lot more loosely than other bits, but it's still a lot of fun!

[intersex-support]

Hi! I'm probably not intersex, and recently I've been trying to educate myself as much as possible on the intersex experience, entirely through reading posts from intersex people here on Tumblr.

I was wondering if there was any chance I could get some guidance on how I can best be supportive of intersex people both online and out in the wild! I try a lot to reblog everything I see on here and in general just treat everyone the same way, no matter if they're intersex or not, but I can't help but be worried I'll say something wrong out of being still on my journey to being educated.

So I thought I'd come here and just... ask?

What can I do to be the best ally I can?

In the same vein, do you happen to have any suggestions on sources I could use to educate myself further?

Thanks in advance!

Hi anon! Thanks for wanting to be a better ally.

I would recommend checking out the sources shared in this post.

I'd also specifically highlight that I think it's really important for allies to learn about intersex justice. Intersex justice is a specific movement and framework created by intersex people of color from the Intersex Justice Project that looks at intersex justice as a part of collective liberation, understands the important of cross-movement organizing, and recognizes the way that systems of power based on white supremacy and colonialism shape and enable intersex oppression. The seven principles of intersex justice are:

Informed consent

Reparations

Legal protections

Accountability

Language

Children's rights

Patient-centered healthcare

These are really important values to center your intersex allyship around.

I'll also share some miscellaneous tips for things to think about in your intersex allyship:

Listen to intersex people about our experiences, not doctors! The medical system plays a huge role in our oppression, and is not the expert on our experiences.

You're going to have to unlearn a lot more biases and myths than you might think you have to. Intersexism/compulsory dyadism shows up in a lot of small ways, like the fact there's only M and F boxes in forms, jokes about micropenises, beauty standards about body hair, and more. Keep an eye out for all these ways our society props up the sex binary, even though it's a myth.

Avoid DSD terminology, referring to "male" and "female" bodies, calling intersex a "third sex" and never use the h slur. Other terminology that isn't always bad, but often gets misused that can be good to keep an eye out for: AFAB/AMAB, biological sex (when people say that gender is socially constructed but sex is biological).

Research if there are intersex organizations in your country and join their email list! That's a great way to stay informed about if there's any current initiatives, protests, legislative proposals, or other forms of activism you can get involved in.

Speak up when you see intersexism in every space you're in, whether that's people advocating for normalizing surgery, using the h-slur, or otherwise talking in ways that dehumanize or isolate intersex people.

Figure out a way to bring intersex awareness to the spaces that you're in! Whether this is putting up posters for Intersex Awareness day in October in your neighborhood, work, and community spaces, hosting an event at an organization or club about intersex topics, watching an intersex film with your friends, even something like making intersex pride stuff for the Sims if that's a hobby of yours--those are all great ways to introduce more people to intersex topics.

Listen to the intersex people in your life about how to support them! A lot of intersex people have a lot of very different experiences, needs, and wants. We don't have universal experiences and there are many different opinions on things in the intersex community. A lot of us are also multiply marginalized and our intersex identities are shaped by that.

If other intersex followers have tips, please feel free to add on!

[starless-nightz]

Could you do Jinhsi x fem!reader where jinshi basically just gets jealous? (request from Sprout06_ on wattpad)

Jealous! Jinhsi HCs

note -> Oh my god i haven't written from WUWA since July wtf—anyways yall i am not caught up with the new quest so pls dont send me requests with it, I just hadn't had the time to watch it since I quit playing the game some time ago! Bro I really miss the intersex! Jinhsi series😓

warnings -> none.

content includes -> fluff, jealousy, she feels guilty for being jealous, cuddling, slightly possesive.

Jinhsi doesn't often get jealous, but when she does she feels a bit guilty about it, she knows that you wouldn't cheat on her and she trusts you, but she doesn't trust the other person (unless they are someone she's close with).

She doesn't say anything about it and pushes her feelings aside, she doesn't intervene unless the person is making you uncomfortable or actively flirting with you, if it's only a friendly conversation she would leave you two be

Jinhsi would talk to you about it later that day, she makes sure that she actively communicates with you, telling you her concerns and worries, the two of you would end the conversation with a mutual agreement before cuddling together.

After that conversation she would feel much better, she would still feel a sting of jealousy but she would never think too much about it, she trusts you and she knows that you are able to take care of yourself, the only time she would ever intervene as before is when the person is harassing you.

While Jinhsi tries her best not to be jealous, she will show her jealousy from time to time, specifically if its a foreign diplomat flirting with you, she knows her people wouldn't try and make a move on you, they respect their Magistrate too much, but she can't say the same for foreign diplomats so she shows them that you are her partner.

[dumpsterdivingpossums]

I made an M.J for Hobie’s universe

here some info on them

Their intersex, they like going by they/them pronouns since it’s more comfortable for them but they definitely do not mind others referring them as something else

Their full name is

Milani jeen wiltz, but either go by Mil jeen or M.J

Their grandparents went to start a better life however after  a few decades after their parents went out to live in Britain due to economic reasons and also spread the word of the black panther party. Mil would be 7 around this time (I did the math, since Hobie is either around 20 or 19 and the date he was arrested in was around 1978 in one of the flashbacks to his intro. We can assume that he was born around near the end of the 50s so I made Mil’s date if birth 1959.)

Mil is of Haitian descent and is fluent in creole so half the time they’ll be speaking in creole

As I mentioned their parents are activists due to them being in the Black panther party, Mil did develop this trait from both of their parents and became involved in activism as well, mostly protest art and civil rights. 

(Originally I was going to make them the prowler for Hobie’s dimension but I decided against it but I will put subtle hint here and there to reference that when I make art of them.)

Around the time Hobie became Spider punk is when they met Hobie. A few months after he killed osborn. They had become a big fan of him after the incident and looked up to him a lot, kinda freaking out Hobie due to the fact he barely became Spiderman.

However they started hanging around eacj other more, going on little platonic graffiti dates. He did eventually reveal his Identity to them and they immediately fell in love with him. And 4 years after they’re still together, and are both still dumbasses 

Fun facts:

 Mil is Polyamorous but like quad dynamics more (ahem *taps on mic* is involved with spider noir and possibly my spider sona as well. Blame Hobie.)

They love making arts and crafts and do love engineering as well. Mostly helping Hobie with his new invention ideas. 

They own a daisy rock heartbreaker guitar in hot red, since the brand came out in 2000 logically this wouldn’t be possible without Hobie’s dimension hopping watch, so due to this Hobie went into one of the peter parker dimensions to get this for them for an anniversary present.

They do not live with Hobie however do live near the docks to be closer to Hobie’s house boat.

They love different genres of musical c and fashion mostly being punk,goth and earthy/bohemian music. 

Main colors of emotions are mostly pink, grey, yellow and purple. Most of these are due to the one around them. Pink and Purple are mainly because of Hobie or Spider noir Peter parker.

Love roller skating around places and even put in wheels in their mary janes

That’s all for now, I’m still deciding some of their personality traits but yeah.

Also baby them.

[luxiomahariel]

Trans people in my country are fighting for better rights for ourselves. We have trans activists of all genders. People trying to raise awarness about non binary people even existing, having any access to possible transgender affirming care and rights of intersex people which has no made any progress since over 20 years of activism.

Trans man decided to sue the govermnet for all trans people to be able to determine our gender and not be forced into castrations. Which was finaly declared unconstitutional but still not legislated. (one example)

But trans men do not do anything for transgender rights?

Online biggots declare shit like trans men do not contriobute to our liberation yet they recycle same biggotry over and over again. I have seen transphobes denying contribution of all trans people and reducing our history. Mysoginistic men claim women to be inferiour and no contribution to our society.

I wonder if there is a pattern to see in that???

^

[technocheese]

Happy pride! Made with gouache, ink, and gel pens.

This is a project I've been working on for a while for an anti-hate campaign. I chose to rebut the argument that homosexuality and non-cis gender identities are "unnatural" by providing examples of animals that are regularly seen to exhibit these so called "unnatural" behaviors with no human influence. What's more natural than nature itself?

Since the majority of animals have no concept of gender and many do not exhibit romantic attraction (namely reptiles, but just solitary animals in general), it was really difficult to specify what animal might fit in what category, especially gender-wise. This was definitely a thinking exercise, lol.

Here are my explanations for everything. I wish I could write this out a little better, but I've been working on this all day and my brain is completely fried but I wanted to get it out before pride month ended. I also have footage of the process I need to turn into a timelapse but its like 15 hours of video and it's going to take forever to render. I'll probably link it here eventually.

--------

Lesbian: Mourning geckos are an all female species of gecko that reproduce asexually through parthenogenesis. Even though they can lay eggs alone, they engage in pseudocopulation with other females, which seems to trigger ovulation.

Female koalas engage in all female "sex sessions," attempting to mate with each other prolifically. They reject males during this time.

Gay: Penguins have been observed to form same-sex partnerships, even going as far as hatching eggs and raising chicks together.

Male giraffes exhibit striking amounts of homosexual behavior. In one study, sexual activity between males made up 90 percent of all observed mating attempts.

Bisexual: 18-22 percent of rams are bisexual. They also seem to exhibit asexuality, in addition to homosexuality. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2668810/

Transgender: Hens will sometimes stop producing eggs, grow spurs, have increased wattle growth, and begin exhibiting male specific behaviors, like crowing.

Clownfish are born male and become females later in life if no other dominant female is present. They are sequential hermaphrodites.

Intersex: The gene that gives calico cats their coat pattern is linked to two X chromosomes. Male presenting calico cats will have an extra X chromosome, and can be considered intersex. (Sorry that the cat also has white, it's hard to color a calico with only two colors lol)

Asexual: Bees and naked mole rats both live in communities where only the most dominant matriarch (and patriarch, for mole rats) breed. Both male and female mole rats exhibit this behavior. The nonbreeding individuals benefit the community by gathering resources and rasing young.

Aromantic: Reptiles, as a general rule, feel no romantic attraction. Tortoises are solitary by nature and do not form bonds with their mates.

Pansexual: Lovebirds can be non-discriminatory with the mates they choose, and it is not uncommon to see individuals match up regardless of sex.

Agender: Ochre sea stars show no sexual dimorphism at all. Most animals have no concept of gender, but they are especially genderless. The only way to determine their sex is to examine their internal gonads.

Genderfluid: Gobies are one of the few animals that change their sex multiple times in their life.

Nonbinary: African land snails are hermaphrodites. They have both male and female sexual organs.

[doberbutts]

(Different anon here.) I'm intersex and I DESPISE the TMA/TME terms. Transmisogyny and transandrophobia are both useful terms, but neither is "worse," and neither is somehow exclusive. I know trans women who get mistaken for trans men, I know trans men who get mistaken for trans women, I know nonbinary people who get mistaken for both, I know other intersex people who get mistaken for whatever pisses people off the most in that moment.

I get called both a dyke and a faggot from car windows, despite being neither WLW or MLM. I get called a tranny every couple of days, despite the fact that I identify as intersex, NOT transgender!

Nobody CARES what my actual identity is, they just know I've got a body that doesn't "look right," so I'm fair game to harass and abuse. Do I get to call myself TMA despite not being a trans woman? Am I somehow TME despite the fact that I experience what is objectively transmisogyny? I'm not a trans man, I'm not a trans woman, I'm not transmasc, I'm not transfemme--I'm intersex!

Watching perisex trans people play these weird pissing contest games where they try to decide who's most oppressed, while all of them are throwing intersex people under the bus...ugh. Perisex people, do better. Why are trans spaces so fixated on preserving the fucking sex binary?

Out of all of the asks I got, that's pretty close to my frustration with the whole thing honestly. Perhaps because I also am intersex and thus my experience is a bit different than others as well, but I've always been really aware of what lines I have to toe in order to not get hatecrimed in broad daylight. The lines were recently redrawn due to my transition but the learning process has been... rough... as things that I used to have to do are now things that actively create danger for me, and visa versa.

I have another ask in my inbox about the binary thing and I mentioned it when I first joined this discussion about how not every trans person easily fits into "trans fem" and trans masc" and I'm wondering not only what this arguing thinks of trans neutrals and multigender people but also how left out they must feel in this entire thing. Forcibly assigned one way or the other despite fighting to not have to deal with that, or altogether erased and silenced from the discussion.

In my refusal to allow trans men to be erased from conversations that affect them, I need to be careful not to erase mascs, neutrals, and more. I'm not always the best at it, but I think it is important that the effort is there.

[yeetspace]

It's crazy how people don't realize that patriarchy ISN'T just "when men"

Cuz like no. That hypothetical trans guy isn't entering the patriarchy because he's trans, he IS HOWEVER experiencing multiple layers of intersectional trauma from existing in a society that enacts violence on anything that isn't seen as masculine from before transition AND you actively trying to say he has some kind of magical invisible privilege that has never been there because you can only conceptualize someone transitioning into what you've been lied to assume is "the enemy" as being done as a power move, because you transphobically assume that someone's doing it for any incentive other than that person's happiness.

Like my gamer that constant accusations of having that so-called patriarchal privilege is ONE of those intersectional aggressions, separate from the overt acts of violence that already happens to trans people, now additionally being downplayed because of some perceived privilege in their cases a lot of the time. This is some "Republicans actively Go out of their way to remove all possible ability to do stuff for us, and then once people start getting desperate and just killing themselves over it they point to that as the reason why they took that stuff in the first place" type argument. Like it becomes obvious it was meant and done so in a "I finally did it kind of way" but being pointed out like a "think of the children" kind of way cuz it's real easy to lie to people when you say think of the children first, in this case "think of the victims of patriarchy" while actively stepping over people who are direct victims of the patriarchy.

I know it's a crazy concept to get through some of y'all's heads, but like multiple groups can have multiple different AND same delineating pieces of like information. There can be intersectional terminology AND intrasectional terminology.

Cuz no bitch, a trans man talking about HIS PERSONAL LIFE and the SPECIFIC TRAUMA HE FACED as someone who was forced to experience the inherent traumas that come with being socialized growing up as someone societally seen and presented as female, is not him "trying to make you feel bad for someone who's privileged". Because he doesn't have The Patriarchy™.

Patriarchy is when the homogeneous concept of a straight white guy is going to have as much leeway as he can possible in the systems and in terms of getting proper justice and treatment. Because patriarchy isn't when men, patriarchy is when the societal standard of "whiteness" & "man & woman" is upheld.

A standard that in its own right is completely arbitrary because any delineation of human, other than just "Person" is needless categorization or at the very secondary aspect the main part, the fact that that's a person first, as the existence of intersex people shows, what's considered the standard of sex even Is just random characteristics people who either didn't know better or could benefit off of making sure people thought about it this way, had decided are "the correct ones" amongst a sea of what is actually just how reality works; no two people's bodies being the same, just the same as no two people's unique existences are, and each individual strand of DNA is unique.

And this is coming from a trans girl. Because I'm on that intersectionality shit. No one's free till we all are, it's pretty simple. The best way to do that is to not try and get angry at someone else for... *Checks notes* sharing their personal life because they used terminology that applies to them as well, that you personally didn't want to hear used that way even though there is no reasoning why it shouldn't be as it also can apply to him too

and also separately because for some reason that's a different problem but from the same crowd, it's not making up a new word if you don't want people to be using what you've decided Is "your" terminology, and either way what even do you mean by "making up a new word" all of them are fuck you. Because it's just people trying to be bigoted from within which is FUCKING WILD TO ME. LIKE???

[xmimikyuusx]

Breaking my oath to not post myself, because I'm really feeling it lately. But it's frustrating how much of the anti-transmasculinity and anti-transandrophobia arguments hinge on this weird world of exclusivity.

I've been admiring lately how on the positive side of things, the transandrophobia discussion also brings to the table the discussion of other marginalized groups who are often dismissed or actively pushed out of the conversation because it doesn't fit the white cis feminism that people have been clinging to (and reinventing to include Trans women in the most surface level way). Bringing up the issues that cis MOC face, or disabled or intersex men and many others, we are not the pioneers of these conversations whatsoever but the discussion of the marginalization Trans men and mascs face is an open door to these other conversations. (I.e relating across identity lines, seeing other groups and acknowledging their suffering and looking for solidarity)

On the other side of this, denying transndrophobia or even the idea that a Trans man/masc can face marginalization, whether be it even from his masculinity or his transness, is a closed door. No one's suffering matters except their in group. If you're not a woman or woman aligned in some way, you simply cannot be important to the conversation, because you're the bad guy. You're the oppressor. You're too uninformed and stupid to understand what oppression REALLY looks like. You need to shut up, even if it's on your own post, your own blog, words out of your own mouth, because speaking about your experiences, when those experiences don't line up with women being the victim and men being the perpetrators, is just another sign of how evil you are.

Or iterations of this. It hurts me even worse when it comes from another Trans man /masc. I remember a post a while ago in the tag, from a Trans man retelling a story about how a Trans man in his community was brutally murdered, dismembered, and he attended his funeral. And in the same breath, he was telling us how even when this attrocity has happened, we just do not have it as bad as a woman would. We just would not understand.

It boggles my mind. How much worse does it have to be? What does worse look like after sky high rates of murder, sexual assault, abuse, and suicide? And why does it have to be this bad before it's recognized that there's a problem?

Community doesn't come from exclusions. It doesn't put Trans women's oppression in jeopardy if a Trans man is also struggling just as much. Comparing how much one group is struggling, in these abstract ways, to try and prove a point, to try and drive a stake between genders like it'll somehow matter in the end, is pathetic. It's not helpful. Unfortunately, it's some people's outdated, vitriolic version of feminism that is very difficult to distinguish from a terf or a radfem. This unhinged reactionary jump we get from any corner of the community to protect their status as the victim, that someone else's suffering somehow diminishes their own, it's disgusting.

I don't want to rant anymore, but I know the day when we move past this will be amazing. We deserve better than trying to destroy our own community from the inside out.

[genderqueerdykes]

how can someone be a lesbian and a man at the same time? and a traswonan and transman too

hello! thanks for your question!

while people broadly interpret the term lesbian to mean 'woman who loves women', there is a far broader nuance to the identity and label that goes beyond a simple description.

lesbians have a nuanced and complicated experience with gender. butches and femmes both have unique experiences with gender and presentation. nobody likes to talk about us, but some butches *do* identify as men. there are a lot of trans men who start out in lesbian spaces because they are safer, and don't want to leave the community and live as lesbian men. drag kings also are often lesbians. genderfluid lesbians, polygender lesbians, multigender lesbians, genderqueer lesbians, all types of trans lesbians are lesbians regardless of whether or not they are men all the time, or part of the time

lesbians also have a complicated relationship with nonbinary identities and a lot of us find that we fit somewhere under that umbrella. many lesbians find that pushing the boundaries of gender and expression are necessary for survival. i would recommend reading stone butch blues by leslie feinberg to gain a better understanding of lesbians who live this way, or, you are free to visit my lesbian and dyke tags!

as for your second question, i am an intersex person, meaning i was not born with a body that fits into the strict "male" or "female" binary. after i hit puberty i was routinely told i wasn't a "real girl" by someone then told i wasn't a "real boy" by someone else. i was completely stripped of the ability to be gendered correctly by anyone because my body has such a strong mixture of both "masculine" and 'feminine' traits like growing a full beard, having broad shoulders, buff chest, flat breasts, big arms, etc. and an hourglass waist and long shapely legs, high pitched voice, etc.

i am trans "both" or sometimes trans 'everything' as i call myself. my ability to identify as a boy or a girl was completely taken away from me and i am resisting that actively every day. i am a boy and a girl! i'm some type of nonbinary creature, sure, but i am in fact a woman and a man at the same time, but i've had to fight and claw tooth and nail to be seen correctly due to things that weren't under my control.

HRT was kinda my big power move. after i get top surgery and find a good quality packer, i think people will finally understand me and how i identify, but basically, the answer is intersex people, and some other folks can live experiences that make it so they can be both transmasculine and transfeminine at the same time for a multitude of reasons. my experience is just one of many, but it is possible, and we exist!

hope that answers your question! if you need more help, feel free to ask again! take care, stay safe!

[semi-imaginary-place]

Story is identical twins got circumcisions and one of them was messed up so badly there'd never be a "normal" penis. Fuckwad psychologist (why is it always these old cis white men psychologists that are the worst) decided to use this chance to prove his hypothesis that gender identity is entirely learned through social conditioned and tried various abusive and medical ways to make David a girl including reproductive surgeries, feminizing hormones, socialization, and whatever the fuck this is:

"Money theorized that reproductive behaviour formed the foundation of gender, and that "play at thrusting movements and copulation" was a key aspect of gender development in all primates. Starting at age six, according to Brian, the twins were forced to act out sexual acts, with David playing the female role—Money made David get down on all fours, and Brian was forced to "come up behind [him] and place his crotch against [his] buttocks". Money also forced David, in another sexual position, to have his "legs spread" with Brian on top. On "at least one occasion" Money took a photograph of the two children doing these activities.[24]

When either child resisted these activities, Money would get angry. Both David and Brian recall that Money was mild-mannered around their parents, but ill-tempered when alone with them. When they resisted inspecting each other's genitals, Money got very aggressive. David says, "He told me to take my clothes off, and I just did not do it. I just stood there. And he screamed, 'Now!' Louder than that. I thought he was going to give me a whupping. So I took my clothes off and stood there shaking."[24]"

"Both David and Brian were traumatized" no shit.

Anyways it failed. And the psychologist went on for years touting this case as proof that he was right despite every bit of evidence point to him being wrong. David continuously insisted in childhood that he was male and lived as male in adulthood after being suicidally depressed because yeah between the everyone telling him he's a girl, the forced body modification, and the sexual abuse by dr. ego. And the trauma carried through into adulthood he killed himself at age 38.

Now this is just one case if this happened to 1000 identical twin pairs maybe some of them would have identified as female what's more important is how even though David was not intersex his case highlights many of the struggles of intersex and transgender people. I mean he was assigned a gender shortly after birth and raised as that gender but always felt it was wrong and the people around him did everything to make him female. Is that not the trans experience. Gender is complicated and this case rejects dr. fuckwad's single souce explanation. Gender arises from the interplay of internally derived gender identity, gender presentation and performance, and social interplay. Gender is complicated and it's components and relationship with a person are unique to everyone. There's a lesson here too on forcing unnecessary medical procedures on intersex infants and children without their consent or sometimes against their wishes all to better conform them to a binary when even among non intersex people there is amazing diversity among bodies. And it's important that those same procedures forced on intersex infants from gonad removal, to genital reconstruction (making genitals and sticking them on), masculinizing or feminizing hormones, are the exact ones often denied to transgender teenagers who want them. Even as adults it's hard and sometimes practically impossible to get gender affirming medical care. But the right has never cared about being hypocrites only about making the world worse for the greatest number of people.