#category: agabs

[mortelum]

Assigned Fungus at Birth (AFnAB)

[ pt: Assigned Fungus at Birth (AFnAB) /end pt ]

[ id: a rectangular flag with four evenly-sized horizontal stripes, in the following colors, from top to bottom: off-white, light dirty yellow, muted light brown, and medium brown. /end id ]

[ id: a divider made up of mostly pixelated roses of varying sizes. There is an animal skull in the divider as well, sitting amongst the roses. /end id ]

AFnAB: A neoAGAB for when one has been assigned a fungus at birth.

@radiomogai / @neoagab

Divider Credit

[revenant-coining]

ACoAB

(pt: ACoAB /end pt)

ACoAB; a neoAGAB where one is assigned confused/confusion/confusing at birth!

for anon!

tagging; @radiomogai

[nataref]

Been thinking on it more recently, and.. I'm so sick and tired of AGAB language and its substitutes. I'm sick of AGAB being used as a cudgel against transwomen, I'm sick of division and binaries, I'm sick of seeing people misattributing traits/behaviours to the genitals you are born with instead of attributing these traits/behaviors to societal structures and to the individual as a *human being* not "AMAB" not "AFAB" just human. Just a person. Because that's all any of us are. The only meaningful difference in human sexual dimorphism is how it impacts your reproductive capabilities & healthcare needs.

A transman is abusive or toxic? Cool, thats because hes an asshole. Not because hes a transman. Anyone can be abusive or toxic. Its not attributable to his AGAB/Transition history/gender. He would be shitty either way.

A transwoman is sexist? Cool, its because shes a woman who happens to also be sexist. Alot of women are. It's not because of her gender, or her AGAB, or any other aspect of her gender identity. Guess what? Anyone can be sexist, it came free with your worldwide systemic misogyny. To single out a transwoman as being sexist *because she's trans* is transphobic. Shes sexist because shes a person who is sexist. Thats it thats the whole story case closed, can we all stop with this ridiculousness now?

My point being, the toxic traits and bigotry, whatever they might be, are NOT STORED IN THE GENDER. It is stored in the person. The individual, and the larger sociopolitical structures which enforce these ideas. The toxicity is stored in the human person in front of you, to try and endlessly argue otherwise betrays a tendency to dehumanize, degender, and categorize (usually trans) people. To see their behaviour as a reflection of a group rather than the reflection of that person, you know, the full human being you are talking to/about.

I just... I hate this. I want people to put their money where their mouths are and understand that gender being understood as rigid categories that largely dictate how a person behaves, looks, and feels, has always been the fucking root of the issue (transphobia, sexism, misogyny, intersexism, etc). I'm sick of boxes I'm sick of persistently being told who I am, and who other people are, because of AGAB. I'm sick of it in every form it takes. So sick in fact I've honestly decided from now on I'm never telling anyone who doesn't already know my AGAB what I was assigned. Because it doesn't fucking matter. It's never mattered.

And maybe, just maybe, if you don't get to pry that information out of me- and other trans folk- at every possible opportunity anymore, you'll start seeing me as a person first, and transgender second. A person with flaws and strengths, a person who is whatever way I am *because I'm me* and not because I'm part of whatever category you want to shove me into. And maybe, just maybe, it'll make some of you stop and actually seriously think "why do I even want to know so badly?"

Thats all rant over goodbye 🚶

[moe-broey]

.

[burinazar]

recently i've switched back to browsing the twitter feed of my old main acct since i had the impression the accts i followed there were more serious/political and would have more gaza info. and weirdly that isn't true? for some reason currently the feed on my fandom account (which has become my main at this point) has a lot more?....but what they *do* have on the old one's feed is tons of gender discourse stuff that make me feel stressed and bad

[vampiremogai]

[Image description: Two identical images, both a rectangular flag with four equally sized horizontal stripes. The colors in order are beige, violet, soft crimson, and dull navy.

The third image is a pale pink lace-like horizontal divider. The fourth image is a pale pink dashed line horizontal divider. End ID.]

[PT: AVAB.

AVAB / Assigned Vampire At Birth: A xeno agab for those who were assigned vampire at birth.

Rq'd by anon. ^^ Don't tag as xenogender!

Please read my rentry before interacting! Don't repost! End PT.]

( 🎀 ) :: ❝ AVAB ❞

— ❝ AVAB / Assigned Vampire At Birth ❞ :: ❝ A xeno agab for those who were assigned vampire at birth ❞

( 🎀 ) :: Rq’d by anon ^^ Don't tag as xenogender !

Please read my rentry before interacting ! Don't repost ! ♡

[hiiragi7]

Reminder that y'all should just say what you mean instead of "AFAB" or "AMAB".

If you are referring to penises, say penis.

If you are referring to having a period, say the word period.

If you are referring to being raised female or male, say that.

If you are referring to the ability to get pregnant, say that.

And so on, and so on, and so on.

The terms "AFAB" and "AMAB" do not tell you anything about a person's reproductive, hormonal, or chromosomal profiles. It does not tell you what body parts they have. It does not tell you anything about their life experiences or what gender they were raised as.

Using "AFAB" and "AMAB" as if they are synonymous with [perisex] "female" and "male" excludes intersex and trans people. Using the terms "AFAB" and "AMAB" in this way is only recreating the sex binary of female and male but masking it as more progressive when it really isn't. Just say what you really mean.

There are trans people who have the same equipment as a cis person of the "opposite" assigned sex. There are intersex people who were assigned a sex at birth while having completely different internal reproductive organs or hormones, or who were raised as a different gender than the sex they were assigned at birth.

There is no such thing as "AFAB" or "AMAB" experiences. AGAB language only describes what you were assigned at birth. It says nothing about your body or your life experiences.

I know that people tend to shy away from using direct language when talking about anything related to sex (even as it relates to biology and not anything actually sexual) but using the actual terms for these things isn't bad. It's extremely counterproductive to movements to view sex as a fluid and broad category when you use AFAB and AMAB as if they are anything more than a sex designation given at birth.

[cyprozombiegirl]

The Truth About Biological Sex: It’s made up and the three things they use to define it are whack

So obviously your gender is whatever the fuck you feel like it is. But also it’s important to remember biological sex is just a made up category and not only is it made up but it’s made up of 3 determining characteristics: chromosomes, genitalia, and hormones. Chromosomes are initially very important in sexed development because they function sorta like a map for the direction your body figures it is gonna take. But that’s all they are, a map, a plan. There’s a reason no one really checks them, because why would you, they only tell you what the body was initially intending to do, and you can see what the body has done right in front of you so why would you need to check what it intended to do. Second is genitals, which are changeable and very similar to each other. They’re important in child creation but beyond that they’re largely swappable and made of the same tissue etc. Then there is hormones, these MFs are important, cause they basically regulate ever other sexed aspect of your body and even can make that oh so unimportant chromosomal map change its course. Because of this, many many countries correctly, or at least sorta correctly (more on this in a minute), realize that after awhile on HRT most people’s bodies begin functioning on a microscopic level like the gender they are, and not their AGAB, and that treating them as if they still are the sex they used to be is medically dangerous and inaccurate. Thus these countries let you change your sex on your health information (and other info). However it is worth noting that while this is absolutely medically necessary, it can feel weird saying that it is which hormones your body is currently processing that determines your sex, since they’re are so many aspects to hormones that feel very detached from some definition of sex. Like does my sense of smell being better or being more sensitive to physical touch really have anything to do with sex? Isn’t that just hormones? Which is why I said it’s only semi correct for these countries to say that hormones make sex, since they do so much more than sex too, making it really seem like nothing is actually biological sex. It’s like looking under a ghost’s sheet and finding nothing at all. But regardless, it is very clear that if anything is sex it is definitely not chromosomes and if it is anything at all, which I don’t really think it is, it is hormones.

[pingintech]

hell yeah man i do in fact reject those binaries as well trans and cis are not immediate black and white separate ends of a spectrum trans is a self identifier th funny thing about self identifiers is you can choose not to identify with cis and also choose not to identify with trans plenty of nonbinary people do exactly that and while its true that nonbinary falls within the broader umbrella term of transgender many nonbinary people choose not to identify that way and ergo are NOT trans and hell yeah imma argue against the idea of mammals vs everything thats not a mammal *Especially* because most of all animals are fish

when i say we should all be working to dismantle binaries as default in our own lives i mean all aspects of our lives its frankly downright unscientific to pretend that the natural order of things is a or b

what better ways are there to talk about transmisogyny in the trans community??? by not assuming there even are trans people unaffected by it by literally just centering the convo around transmisogyny instead of creating two imaginary distinct groups that are in competition with each other and wherein one group is more oppressed by the same forces that affect all trans people

oh youve got me i used the word point instead of category but the people arguing we shouldnt be heavily reliant on agab are in a political category its called being trans being a trans person by default means you inherently exist in a political category and dont pretend that your point wasnt more that you think people saying we shouldnt rely heavily on agab terminology are living in a non political fantasy world i was pushing back against that idea because the people arguing against terminology like this are also coming at it from a political angle they are also fighting for ideals and for a movement

and sure there are intersex ppl who identify as tma just as there are trans women who are also terfs but dont pretend there isnt a real strong gender bent to who you think is or isnt tma or tme especially since tme isnt a term people self identify with as much as it is a term people label others with there are clearly a lot of factors at play when we imagine someone in the trans community is unaffected by transmisogyny up to and including passing politics and stealthing but if agab wasnt so very obviously also heavily part of what most people consider tma/tme its explicit when you include agab usage and tme/tma politics in the same sentence your stance is near outright stated and when your argument HEAVILY hinges on agab you know who youre excluding from the conversation??? intersex people because in discussing agab v socialization intersex people FUNDAMENTALLY do not have the same experiences and hence it is completely unhelpful to discuss gender in that way as it relates to intersex people

imma take a moment to break all this shit down actually ive already made this response real long but imma keep yapping bc you know what this has been bothering me for a real long while now

okay so lets say your afab youre trans masc you pass and youre stealth guess the fuck what??? transmisogyny affects you even if no one else in your life knows youre trans you know youre trans and being stealth you have to listen to alllll the shit people say about trans people when they assume trans ppl arent around your gender is still always called into question in the way most cis mens gender is often called into question and any sign of weakness of hint of femininity is enough for someone to call you a girl guess the fuck what thats trans misogyny

is your average non passing non stealth black trans woman gonna usually have it a lot worse yeah definitely but it is SO not useful to say that she is affected by transmisogyny and he isnt

and dont pretend when you say tme you mean cis people because then the more effective way to talk about it would literally to just talk about cis people and even then guess what cis people are affected by transmisogyny in fact you see it in pop culture all the time female celebrities being judged for being too manly male celebrities being judged for being too feminine no one is immune to transmisogyny and the far right q anon types who like to believe anyone they disagree with is trans are evidence of this because they will actively go out of their way to scrutinize behavior and appearance of cis people for any perceived hints at gender ambiguity and tear that person down for not being peak performance of their gender

saying there are people who arent affected by transmisogyny is as dumb as saying that women are the only ones affected by the patriarch and that feminism is only for women a rhetoric that is in fact VERY common amongst terfs the parallels between the rhetoric is undeniable and its a HUGE part of why whenever i see people talk about tme/tma i get so mad youre literally letting ourselves be radicalized by the same exact fucking talking point but applied to trans people this time watch new era trans terfs add two extra letters to the acronym tmeerf

Genuinely, the reason why so many discussions about transgenderism end up the way they do (in addition to the overt transmisogyny) is a complete unwillingness to view gender (and sexuality) as political categories, instead viewing them exclusively through the lens of "personal identity"

"Why do people use agab/tma? Is not the point of being trans to escape the shackles of your agab?" I cannot stress this enough but I am not the one doing the shackling, society has invented the shackles and I am using language to describe them and how they affect me

In a hypothetical future situation where society is no longer (trans)misogynistic and the patriarchy has been fully dismantled, these terms will have no real use. But it's important to recognize what is current actual material reality and what is simply idealism and hypotheticals

I would love to live in a world where tma vs tme is not a meaningful distinction. But that world doesn't exist (and also you are not helping make it so it does), and so those terms remain useful

[mortelum]

Assigned Mushroom at Birth (AMushAB)

[ pt: Assigned Mushroom at Birth (AMushAB) /end pt ]

[ id: a rectangular flag with four evenly sized horizontal stripes, in the following colors, from top to bottom: medium muted red, off-white, light brown, and medium brown. /end id ]

[ id: a divider made up of mostly pixelated roses of varying sizes. There is an animal skull in the divider as well, sitting amongst the roses. /end id ]

AMushAB: A neoAGAB for when one has been assigned a mushroom at birth.

@radiomogai / @neoagab

Divider Credit

[revenant-coining]

AAltHAB

(pt: AAltHAB /end pt)

AAltHAB; a neoAGAB where one is assigned alterhuman at birth!

for anon!

tagging; @radiomogai

[faint-petrichor]

gender/sex abolition is a very worthwhile thing to aim for, but it cannot be done by wishing it away--it is done through the full dissolution of the patriarchal system. based on that statement it sounds like we are far away from that, and that is indeed the case. and more crucially, it means this cannot be achieved by wishing it away and pretending it does not exist. transmisogyny, for example, is an institutional force that we are faced with every day. this is the exact value of tme/tma as terminology--not to reinforce a sex binary, but to describe an oppression by literally naming it directly.

i sympathize with the desire to be rid of amab/afab as labels. in a certain context there is value to this, where those labels have been used to repackage biological determinism. but discarding them fully is bound to fall short, because we are still bound to systemic (rather than biological) circumstances based on our agab. that is the arena of this terminology. if we were to discard them, we would discard a piece of essential language towards understanding the oppressions trans people face. to put it another way, whether we like it or not we are bound to these categories by hegemonic society, and to that end it is sometimes useful to name them. and while tme/tma is not a synonym for afab/amab, it exists for the same purpose. and all the same, if we did not have it we would be lacking a critical piece of language to describe oppression.

so when trans women use these terminologies to have critical discussions about transmisogyny, we aren't trying to reassert the gender binary or biological determinism. we are trying to have critical discussions about transmisogyny! something we cannot solve by pretending it does not exist.

[genderqueerdykes]

i met some new trans folks through a mutual friend who sounded like they may have room for me at their new place. while getting to know each other, one of them posted a selfie, and then asked to see one of me. after posting mine, this person asked for my agab as opposed to my identity. they asked me "afab on T?" and i never felt so angry and uncomfortable in my life. it's one thing to be asked that by cis people, but another trans person, it feels like getting hit with a brick

i let them know that i'm intersex and that in my ultrasounds and up to and shortly after my birth, i was confidently announced to be amab, then something caused that to change, then puberty hit and any chance at fitting into amab or afab went out the window.

this made me feel like they looked at my body and tried to figure out what i 'originally was' or 'started out as'. it made me feel like they "assessed" me for what kind of genitals i have. as if that was important information on how to treat or assess me, or had anything to do with how i identify. it made me feel objectified, like a piece of meat.

it made me feel dysphoric for the first time in years. it made me feel like i was being shoved into the binary i've been trying to escape all over again. i felt like i was being shoved in to one of two strict categories that i didn't want to be placed in.

even if this weren't the case and i weren't intersex, this would still be an extremely invasive and disgusting question to ask another trans person before you even know how they identify. trans people should never do this to other trans people. please do not ever ask this of anyone unless they are willingly offering up information about their agab or offer to tell you first.

this is not how we should treat each other.

this will never be okay, intersex, trans, or cis. never ask a stranger about their genitals. EVER. casual transphobia and intersexism will never be okay. learn to spot it when you see it, and eradicate it on sight.

[a-polite-melody]

“AFAB trans women can’t exist and the fact that people are bringing up intersex people to counter that shows you think that intersex people can’t have been AMAB.”

Plus, that this argument is even being tried does actually show, by nature of the argument itself, that you think that the sorting of intersex people into AGAB categories should determine their ability to be trans in certain gender directions, which is one of the things intersex people are trying to get across is happening.

Like. The argument quoted at the top of this post implies that of intersex people, only AMAB intersex trans people can be trans women/fem, and then also that only AFAB intersex trans people can be trans men/masc, and that AFAB intersex trans women’s and AMAB intersex trans men’s very existences or support of their existence means you think the other isn’t a type of intersex person or doesn’t exist.

Stop shoving biological determinism onto intersex conversations around gender and how that intersects with transness as some sort of “gotcha” to shut them up.

[bananonbinary]

less angry talk, but i would actually posit that trans people of all genders are not "socialized" as men OR women. we are ALL treated as "failed" genders. thats why we arent supposed to go in the public restroom that matches our presentation OR our agab, because both "Men" and "Women" are categories that society bestows on people, but only so long as they Do It Right*. you also see people of color, fat people, gay people, and disabled people getting slammed for "failing" to be their Correct Gender, and when that happens, you don't get assigned to the other category, you just fall out of the rankings entirely and into the category of "freak."

*im not saying that's ALL that "manhood" and "womanhood" are, but it is how society treats those categories. they can be revoked at any time

[revenant-coining]

AFaAB

(pt: AFaAB /end pt)

AFaAB; a neoAGAB where one is assigned fandom at birth!

for anon!

tagging; @radiomogai