#gender is a colonial social construct

[rollercoasterwords]

I think I remember you mentioning you studied post colonial theory? (sorry if I remember incorrectly) Did you have a specific topic/area you researched in this field? Like music, culture, feminism etc.

I'm just really curious. Have a great day!!

hi yeah kinda! as an undergrad i focused mostly on latin america & the u.s. & a lot of my research centered on borders, migration, and how gender became imbricated in nationalist discourses. as a grad student my focus has shifted somewhat and i now focus more on 20th century caribbean history & imperialism, still mostly looking at how gender becomes a key factor in imperialist projects

[kabbalicgay]

Motherfuckers got embarrassed when they were being called ''SJWs'' in their teens or early adulthood that you all stopped reading any sort of theory or political work that encourages us to stop and think about what mechanisms and structures are a part of society that influence the way we see ourselves and the people around us - which includes patriarchal and euro-centric standards of beauty and appearance - so now you're too busy arguing over if a child wanting to make her "big nose" less big is progressive and #feminist or not.

[thanksiloveyou]

literally as long as there are human beings on this earth, many of them will be transgender. we will always survive, we will always know, even if we don't have the words for it

[lufirel]

Not Too old to be Trans

I’ve encountered this subject on Reddit several times over the past few weeks and I wanted to address it here. These threads are frequently made by people in their thirties although sometimes they are as old as fourties or fifties and sometimes as young as twenties, and the gist tends to be that this “older” trans person is feeling isolated and/or doubting whether it is worth it to come out as trans when most of the community seems to be so much younger. Now as a trans person who has lived a few decades and whose egg is fairly recently cracked I sympathize with where these posters are coming from, and so I want to say a couple of things;

First off it is my solid and unchanging opinion that you are never too old to be yourself. Your life is yours and no one else should get to dictate what you do with it. We do not owe society, or any individual for that matter, the performance of our assigned gender, and we are not letting anyone down by being ourselves. Now I acknowledge that I speak from a position of privilege on these matters. Not everyone is in a secure enough position to safely be themselves, and I say that’s a fucking crime. Fucking colonialism has so deeply entrenched this idea of two opposing genders that anyone who deviates from it is deemed a radical. But it is fucking colonialism that this system is based on, not objective reality. The two gender system is a human construction, and in a fair world we should be under no obligation to adhere to it.

This brings me to my second point which is the implicit ageism of the concern that one is “too old.” Now it’s no secret that American society is deeply ageist. We value youth, beauty and productivity and once you’re beyond a certain age these qualities are presumed deficient and society starts to want you invisible; tucked safely into some miserable 9 to 5 job feeding the corporate machine all while surrendering your passions to capitalism. It’s not dissimilar to how trans people are allowed in public so long as we stay in the closet. So my question is why give them what they want? Society says being trans is shameful, but we know that’s not true. Society says that being old is shameful, but everyone who is lucky enough to live grows old. And the reality is that most younger trans people seem quite thrilled to hear about their elders thriving.

Ultimately the problem, I think, is the narrative. Trans people are supposed to be young and suffering and tragic. When we’re not that people don’t know what to do with us. But the way to get more cis people to understand and sympathize with us is to humanize the trans experience. We are not a singular childhood trauma. We are a multifaceted community each of whom has our own journey to identity, and the age at which that journey occurred is completely erroneous. It’s just another way of dividing us and keeping us down.

[gurucave]

The Colonial Mindset and Modern Relationships

Relationship dynamics have long been influenced by historical contexts, particularly colonial history. This history, infused with Eurocentric perspectives, has inadvertently shaped the expectations men and women have of each other, as well as their respective roles in relationships. Case Study: Marriage Dynamics in the U.S. A recent study conducted in the United States illuminated a notable…

[transmutationisms]

[trans psych anon] yeah i get what u mean, i didn't word it properly. could you point me to some works about gender and psychiatry / how psychiatry acts in tandem with other hegemonic institutions to construct and enforce gender then? tyvm

Metzl, Jonathan (2003) Prozac on the Couch: Prescribing Gender in the Era of Wonder Drugs. Duke University Press

Akihito Suzuki (2022) Psychiatric hospital, domestic strategies and gender issues in Tokyo, c. 1920–45. History of Psychiatry (pp. 308-318).

Cassia Roth (2020) The Degenerating Sex: Female Sterilisation, Medical Authority and Racial Purity in Catholic Brazil. Medical History (pp. 173-194).

Coleborne, Catharine (2012) Insanity, Gender, and Empire: Women Living a “Loose Kind of Life” on the Colonial Institutional Margins, 1870--1910. Health and History (pp. 77-99).

Amy Milne-Smith (2022) Out of his mind: Masculinity and mental illness in Victorian Britain. Manchester University Press

Millard, Chris (2013) Making the Cut: The Production of “Self-Harm” in Post-1945 Anglo-Saxon Psychiatry. History of the Human Sciences (pp. 126-150).

Jessie Hewitt (2020) Institutionalizing Gender: Madness, the Family, and Psychiatric Power in Nineteenth-Century France. Cornell University Press

Reeder, Linda (2012) Unattached and Unhinged: The Spinster and the Psychiatrist in Liberal Italy, 1860--1922. Gender and History (pp. 187-204).

Slijkhuis, Jessica; Oosterhuis, Harry (2013) “Paralysed with fears and worries”: Neurasthenia as a Gender-Specific Disease of Civilization. History of Psychiatry (p. 79).

Thifault, Marie-Claude (2010) Les stéréotypes sexuels de l'enfermement asilaire au Québec, au tournant du 20e siècle. Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin Canadienne d'Histoire de la Medecine (p. 27).

Phillips, Laura L. (2007) Gendered Dis/ability: Perspectives from the Treatment of Psychiatric Casualties in Russia's Early Twentieth-Century Wars. Social History of Medicine (p. 333).

[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!

[blackstarlineage]

Thomas Sankara (1949–1987) was a revolutionary leader, military officer, and president of Burkina Faso who became an iconic figure in African politics for his commitment to self-reliance, social justice, and anti-imperialism. Born on December 21, 1949, in the then French colony of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Sankara joined the military in his youth, where he rose quickly through the ranks. He was influenced by progressive and revolutionary ideas, particularly those of Pan-Africanism and socialism, and sought to transform his country into a model of independence and development.

Sankara came to power in a 1983 coup d'état, overthrowing the government of Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo. At the age of 33, he became president of Burkina Faso, and immediately set about implementing radical reforms aimed at eradicating poverty, corruption, and dependence on foreign aid. He changed the country's name from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, meaning "Land of Upright People," to reflect a new national identity based on dignity and self-determination.

Sankara’s leadership was characterized by bold, progressive policies. He launched large-scale public health and education campaigns, promoted gender equality (appointing women to key positions in government and supporting women's rights), and emphasized environmental sustainability through reforestation projects. He also spearheaded the construction of infrastructure and took a strong stance against foreign influence, particularly the exploitation of African resources by Western countries. Sankara's government was anti-imperialist, and he worked to reduce Burkina Faso's dependence on foreign aid, promoting self-sufficiency through initiatives like domestic agriculture and local production.

Despite his popularity among many Burkinabé people and in Africa as a whole, Sankara’s policies and bold reforms created enemies, both domestically and internationally. His strong stance against corruption and the privileges of the elite alienated many, and his efforts to challenge the influence of the West led to tensions with France and other former colonial powers.

On October 15, 1987, Sankara was assassinated in a coup orchestrated by his former ally, Blaise Compaoré, who had served as his close confidant and vice president. The circumstances surrounding Sankara's death have remained controversial, with some believing that it was a conspiracy involving both internal and external forces. Following his assassination, Compaoré took power and reversed many of Sankara’s policies, leading to a period of greater reliance on foreign aid and the return of more traditional political structures.

Thomas Sankara's death was a tragic turning point in Burkina Faso’s history, but his legacy endures. He remains an enduring symbol of revolutionary change, self-determination, and the fight against imperialism. His vision of a united, self-sufficient Africa continues to inspire activists and leaders around the world. While his life was short, his ideals and his commitment to justice have cemented him as one of Africa's most influential and admired leaders. 🇧🇫

[genderkoolaid]

I'm sorry, I don't understand how gender liberation and gender abolition are different. Isn't the goal of both to get rid of all gender stereotypes and masculinity/femininity and let everyone do what they want? /gen

So first off I wanna say these are my subjective understandings of these terms; some people agree with me but I've seen others who use both "liberation" and "abolition" interchangeably.

My definitions:

Gender abolition = getting rid of gender entirely, creating a completely genderless society Gender liberation = ending gender as a tool of control, allowing people to engage with it on their own terms

Gender abolitionists view gender as being inherently harmful, while gender liberationists view gender as being neutral and capable of being used in positive ways. An abolitionist standpoint may be that nothing should be considered masculine or feminine; everything should be gender neutral. A liberationist perspective may be that while nothing is inherently gendered, people can self-define "masculine" and "feminine" (or anything else) as long as they are not forcing others to live by those definitions. I started identifying with liberationism instead of abolitonism because I felt that abolitionism can easily end up as a form of cultural colonialism. I feel that when we understand gender as a social construct, we can take control over that construction and shape gender in more healthy and liberating ways. The beauty of being a sapient person is that we can reflect on our cultural creations and consciously construct and re-construct ideas like gender as we learn more about the harm of genderism and sexism.

I think both kind of have a "do what you want" mentality, but abolitionism looks more like "nothing is masc or fem, so you can do whatever and not think about gender" whle liberationism looks like "anything can be masc or fem or literally anything else, so you can decide how you want to engage with gender." Both would probably reject gender stereotypes like "men do x/feminine people do y" since both acknowledge that gender isn't an inherent trait (although inherent traits may lead people to identify with a certain gender).

Its hard for us, right now, to imagine a version of gender completely dissociated from the harms of genderism and sexism. But I believe that it is possible for gender roles to exist in a post-gender world, where someone engages in these roles not out of habit or expectation but because they have Seen The Truth (that its all made up) and decided to play with it anyways. Either way, a society based on gender abolition or gender liberation would have a fundamentally relationship with gender and sex than we do, so its hard to say exactly how these may look when put into practice- ultimately I think that it would depend on whether or not the people in a given community have the collective desire to continue constructing gender.

[opencommunion]

"My analysis challenges a number of ideas, some mentioned above, common in many Western feminist writings:

Gender categories are universal and timeless and have been present in every society at all times. This idea is often expressed in a biblical tone, as if to suggest that 'in the beginning there was gender.'

Gender is a fundamental organizing principle in all societies and is therefore always salient. In any given society, gender is everywhere.

There is an essential, universal category 'woman' that is characterized by the social uniformity of its members.

The subordination of women is a universal.

The category 'woman' is precultural, fixed in historical time and cultural space in antithesis to another fixed category—'man.'

... Merely by analyzing a particular society with gender constructs, scholars create gender categories. To put this another way: by writing about any society through a gendered perspective, scholars necessarily write gender into that society. Gender, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder. The idea that in dealing with gender constructs one necessarily contributes to their creation is apparent in Judith Lorber's claim that 'the prime paradox of gender is that in order to dismantle the institution, you must first make it very visible.' In actuality, the process of making gender visible is also a process of creating gender. Thus, scholarship is implicated in the process of gender-formation."

Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses (1997) ~

"Feminist anthropologists of racialized peoples in the Americas tend not to think about the concept of gender when they use the term as a classificatory instrument, they take its meaning for granted. This, I claim, is an example of a colonial methodology. Though the claim that gender, the concept, applies universally is not explicitly stated, it is implied. In both group and conference conversations I have heard the claim that 'gender is everywhere,' meaning, technically, that sexual difference is socialized everywhere. The claim, implied or explicit, is that all societies organize dimorphic sexuality, reproductive sexuality, in terms of dichotomous roles that are hierarchically arranged and normatively enforced. That is, gender is the normative social conceptualization of sex, the biological fact of the matter. ... The critique of the binary has not been accompanied by an unveiling of the relation between colonization, race, and gender, nor by an analysis of gender as a colonial introduction of control of the humanity of the colonized, nor by an understanding that gender obscures rather than uncovers the organization of life among the colonized. The critique has favored thinking of more sexes and genders than two, yet it has not abandoned the universality of gender arrangements. ... Understanding the group with gender on one’s mind, one would see gender everywhere, imposing an order of relations uncritically as if coloniality had been completely successful both in erasing other meanings and people had totally assimilated, or as if they had always had the socio-political-economic structure that constitutes and is constituted by what Butler calls the gender norm inscribed in the organization of their relations. Thus, the claim 'There is gender everywhere' is false ... since for a colonized, non-Western people to have their socio-political-economic relations regulated by gender would mean that the conceptual and structural framework of their society fits the conceptual and structural framework of colonial or neocolonial and imperialist societies. ... Why does anyone want to insist on finding gender among all the peoples of our planet? What is good about the concept that we would want to keep it at the center of our 'liberation'?" María Lugones, "Gender and Universality in Colonial Methodology," in Decolonial Feminism in Abya Yala: Caribbean, Meso, and South American Contributions and Challenges (2022)

[angstydevil]

The map is not the territory. In regards to geopolitics, this means a map of the world is a representation, not reality itself. Borders change. Landmasses change. The words used to label depictions of certain regions reflect temporal motivations. The landmasses labeled North America and South America are named after an Italian mapmaker and have not been named as such for many millennia. The names on the globe reflect historical ideological movements.

The concept of a world map entirely covered in nationstates with well-defined borders is relatively new. This reflects a particular ideology in which states are things that occupy landmasses and contain people, rather than material realities constructed by social agreements between individuals.

Even satellite maps are photographs: they are representations of reality, and they are distinct from the real world in various ways. If satellite maps are presented as the most cutting edge and accurate way of depicting Earth as it really is, that too reflects a bias toward seeing what the world “really is” in a particular way.

The map is not the territory. In regards to psychiatry, this means that a catalogue of behaviours maligned as syndromes written by clubs of predominantly white western cisgender men is not a holy almanac of extant neurological deviations from some universal standard of reason.

Psychiatry is a violent institution at its roots. The concepts of sanity and madness are inextricable from racism and colonialism. American psychiatry emerged from the practice of allowing slaveholders the “right” to have captive people they held in involuntary servitude declared “mentally unfit” or “insane”.

Psychiatry remains a violent institution. It is an extension of western fetishization of “rationalism”; it rationalizes unpersoning. It holds that madpeople are without “reason”, a notion that for many intents and purposes is a sanitized synonym of soul, and therefore madpeople must be caged. It offers a “scientific” and “rational” dogma of “degeneracy”.

Psychiatry is interlinked with the prison industrial complex and is one of the principal institutions to which the term “institutional racism” applies. American psychiatry diagnoses black bodied people with oppositional defiant disorder, antisocial personality disorder, schizophrenia, and cognitive disabilities at higher rates than white bodied people, simultaneously villainizing and constructing blackness as a social and material reality, villainizing and constructing particular categories of disability as categories to be marginalized and medically neglected, and perpetuating racialist ideologies while frequently aligning with eugenicist initiatives. Psychiatry is a part of a system that determines who is free and who is unfree, and that system serves and protects inequalities as its foundational purpose.

Psychiatry creates an idea of mental illness that's very attractive as a pejorative among liberals and conservatives, e.g., Conservativism/liberalism should be considered a mental illness (and therefore conservatives/liberals should be unfree). This kind of thinking also appears on the auth-left, e.g., I think money should be considered a delusion (and therefore capitalists should be unfree). Psychiatry constructs, enforces, and regulates categories of “undesirables”.

No one derives rights and validity from the DSM. American queer people did not feel protected by homosexuality's status as a diagnosis in the DSM, and they rioted and organized until it was removed as a diagnosis in 1974. Trans people deserve freedom and rights because everyone deserves freedom and rights, not because the American Psychiatric Association recognizes gender dysphoria as a diagnosis.

Psychiatry does not champion the rights of people it diagnoses. In the words of Frantz Fanon, “Psychiatry is an auxiliary of the police.” Psychiatrists police communities, and they do so with the same violent racist, sexist, cisheteronormative prejudices endogenous to police departments.

Psychiatrists, like police officers, have the right to arbitrarily detain people. Psychiatrists are gatekeepers between people and inalienable rights to medicine and drugs. Psychiatrists participate in the othering and erasure of people who experience trauma, especially generational and societal trauma. Psychiatrists actively construct a colonial narrative in which there exists an ideal (white, sane, able bodied) rational human standard from which there is (“degenerate”) deviation. Psychiatrists kidnap and imprison people. Psychiatrists swear oaths to kidnap and imprison people. Psychiatrists rarely face charges or even lose their licenses to practice when their abuses are well documented - and, in general, most abuses are not well documented.

Psychiatry’s existence as an institution opposes absolute rights to bodily autonomy. Psychiatry prohibits poor, sick, and disabled people people from accessing lifesaving medicine. Psychiatry disproportionately denies people of color access to treatments entirely by applying “untreatable” diagnoses.

Medicalist gatekeepers are bullies shilling for a cruel establishment. They routinely accuse their harassment targets of faking disorders, being delusional, and having personality disorders, and they routinely invalidate people using a variety of slurs originally directed at people diagnosed with psychosis, autism, cognitive impairment, and paraphilias as pejoratives.

All these pejoratives are associated with diagnoses in the DSM. Medicalist gatekeepers use them to invalidate and harass others because they’ve integrated the beliefs that psychiatric propagandists peddle: that belonging to those diagnostic criteria makes you ontologically worth less and less “rational” than a sane, abled being; deserving of unfreedom; “degenerate”—without “reason”.

At the crux of their arguments, they say, you’re not like me, you’re like those bad madpeople – or, even more insidiously, I don’t believe what you say about yourself as much as I believe what psychiatry says about you.

If you find yourself thinking, “well of course we have to have an objective viewpoint to really understand this phenomenon - people like that aren’t fully rational!” then you believe unpersoning propaganda.

[butchscientist]

From Queers in Palestine (here is their website, queersinpalestine is their instagram):

"Since October 7th, we have been witnessing an accelerated genocide unfolding in the Gaza Strip and in all parts of Palestine, blatantly and publicly declared on numerous occasions by Israeli governmental and military figures. The brutality and lethal magnitude of the atrocities committed by the Israeli state and its supporters produce increasingly harrowing conditions for those who remain alive in Palestine, every day, everywhere. This brutality has been sustained through the continued economic, military, diplomatic, and political support of world leaders historically and presently. We note, document, and narrate the hundreds of catastrophic massacres for the past 75 years at the hands of the annihilatory wrath of the Zionist regime; from Deir Yassin to the Tantura Massacre (1948) upon which Israel’s foundation is based, to the Kafr Qassem Massacre (1956) to Sabra and Shatila (1982), and this is just to name a few. There is no possibility of any liberatory political and social movement to achieve life and dignity if it is aligned with the genocidal death machine of Israel. Israel is founded on blood and is sustained through blood.

During these times, and in line with its long-standing exploitation of liberal identity politics, Israel has been weaponizing queer bodies to counter any support for Palestine and any critique of its settler-colonial project. Israelis (politicians, organizations, and “civilians”) have been mobilizing colonial dichotomies such as “civilized” and “barbaric,” “human” and “animal,” and other dehumanizing binaries as a discourse that legitimizes the attacks on Palestinians. Within this settler-colonial rhetoric, Israel seeks to garner and mobilize support from Western governments and liberal societies by portraying itself as a nation that respects freedom, diversity, and human rights, that is fighting a “monstrous” and oppressive society, illuminated clearly through the declaration of the Prime Minister of Israel “There is a struggle between the children of light and children of darkness, between humanity and law of the jungle.”

While these blatantly racist genocidal declarations take the stage, activists in Palestine and internationally are being silenced, harassed, detained, criminalized, workers fired from their jobs, and students suspended from universities. International feminist and queer activists, in solidarity with Palestine, are facing attacks and harassment by Zionists under the premise that those who support Palestine will be “raped” and “beheaded” by Palestinians for merely being women and queers. Yet more often than not, rape and death are what Zionists wish upon queers and women who stand in solidarity with Palestine. Zionist fantasies of brutalized bodies do not surprise us, for we have experienced the reality of their manifestation on our skin and spirit. Yet they never seize to accelerate in their explicit vehemence. It becomes evermore absurd when such framings are constructed against Palestinian society, in light of countless testimonies, reports, and documentations of sexual violence Palestinians have been facing throughout Israel’s 75 years of military occupation. From the thousands of Palestinian prisoners, men and women, who are subject to sexual torture and rape since Israel’s inception to this very day, to daily and escalating settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, to Israeli “civilians” filming themselves torturing kidnapped Palestinians as a TikTok trend, and the most recent harrowing footage published on social media platforms by Israeli soldiers which document the lengths of torture and sexual abuse soldiers and settlers inflict on our bodies regardless of their sexual orientation and gender – all forms of violence, including sexual violence are systematically and structurally part of Zionist domination over Palestinian life. And yet Israeli society continues to weaponize queerness for the purposes of justifying war and colonial repression, as if their bombs, apartheid walls, guns, knives, and bulldozers are selective of who they harm based on sexuality and gender.

We refuse the instrumentalization of our queerness, our bodies, and the violence we face as queer people to demonize and dehumanize our communities, especially in service of imperial and genocidal acts. We refuse that Palestinian sexuality and Palestinian attitudes towards diverse sexualities become parameters for assigning humanity to any colonized society. We deserve life because we are human, with the multitude of our imperfections, and not because of our proximity to colonial modes of liberal humanity. We refuse colonial and imperialist tactics that seek to alienate us from our society and alienate our society from us, on the basis of our queerness. We are fighting interconnected systems of oppression, including patriarchy and capitalism, and our dreams of autonomy, community, and liberation are inherently tied to our desire for self-determination. No queer liberation can be achieved with settler-colonization, and no queer solidarity can be fostered if it stands blind to the racialized, capitalist, fascist, and imperial structures that dominate us.

We call on queer and feminist activists and groups around the world to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their resistance to displacement, land theft, and ethnic cleansing and their struggle for the liberation of their lands and futures from Zionist settler-colonialism. This call cannot be answered only by sharing statements and signing letters but by an active engagement with decolonial and liberatory struggles in Palestine and around the globe. Our unequivocal demands are as follows:

Reject Israeli funding, refuse collaborations with all Israeli institutions, and join the BDS movement.

Strike: Silently or publicly, refuse that your exploited labor be used for the silencing of Palestine activism or the funding, support, and endorsement of military settler colonization and genocide.

Do what anti-colonial queers have done for decades, reclaim the narrative, and set the terms of the conversation, this time about Palestine. What is happening in Palestine is Genocide. Israel is a Settler-Colony. Palestinians are a Militarily Occupied and Colonized Society. Under international law, Israel Does Not have the right to “defend” itself against the population it occupies, while Palestinians Have the right to Resist their occupation. Demanding Ceasefire is the first step in holding Israel accountable for its crimes against humanity. We must also demand to break the siege on Gaza and the dismantlement of the Zionist settler-colony.

Contact your local representatives to pressure them into defunding the genocide, ending their military, diplomatic, and political support with Israel. Speak up against the ongoing and complicit criminalization of solidarity with Palestine and the colonial and Islamophobic projection of European Antisemitism on Palestinian and racialized voices, as we are witnessing particularly in France, the UK, the US, and Germany.

Shut down main streets. Organize a sit-in in your local central station. Interrupt the flow of commerce. Complacency is a choice.

We, queer Palestinians, are an integral part of our society, and we are informing you: from the heavily militarized alleys of Jerusalem to Huwara’s scorched lands, to Jaffa’s surveilled streets and cutting across Gaza’s besieging walls, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

[communistkenobi]

also I know I’m strolling in seven years late to Horizon’s representation problems but I feel like these games are an instructive example in how the liberal imagination understands “good representation.” the game seems to take a lot of care in demonstrating (what the developers understand to be) a fully post-racial society by way of universal racial integration - every society or ‘tribe’ or group of people you encounter is almost uniformly racially diverse. Being generous, I think this is an attempt to avoid any possible racist implications in the fanciful costumes and outfits that Horizon is known for; there is a lot of focus in representing the different people of Horizon’s world through what they wear. You can immediately tell an Oseram from a Carja, not by their racial makeup, but by their clothing. This means that, if you meet a particularly ‘savage people’ (a term characters in the game use semi-frequently) who wear ‘exotic clothing’ and face-paint, the diverse racial makeup of the group prevents (or is intended to prevent) a racist conclusion about that group. 

Likewise, the game presents a world free from systemic homophobic prejudice - Aloy is notably gay, but also her asking people about their partners, or assuming other people around her are gay, generally passes without comment. Horizon is presenting a fully ‘integrated’ social world, one whose conflicts are not meant to map onto ‘modern-day’ racism and homophobia.

But the underlying logic and structure of racism and homophobia (and binaristic, oppositional gender) are left intact. Humanity in Horizon is still presented as fundamentally separate from nature, moving overtop of it, extracting what they need from it, but never part of it as such. And this construction of nature as separate from “man” is not problematised, “man” just gets universalised into “human,” and “human” gets universalised into a non-racial category. This is completely side-stepping the history of this construction of nature as a white supremacist, colonial, capitalist construction, an understanding of nature as something colonial Europe is meant to hold dominion over through the dehumanisation of non-white, non-European people, converting them into non-human labourers and pests who live atop the land Europe is attempting to colonise and enclose. “Nature” in the modern western understanding is a fundamentally racial concept; nature is a ‘scientific, rational, biological’ container meant to house everything non-human about the world, an object to be studied and exploited by the one true subject of history, Mankind - and who is considered part of mankind is a question of whether you belong to the white European ruling class.

I think Aloy in particular represents this problem well - her access to and understanding of pre-apocalypse technology makes her universally suspicious and dismissive of any religious or ‘spiritual’ beliefs she encounters in other groups, frequently getting into reddit-atheist-adjacent quibbles with the ‘unenlightened,’ ‘primitive’ people of the world about the fact that the machines that harvest food for them and take care of the land are not gods, silly, they’re just machines! Her only real counterpart in terms of technological understanding is Sylens (a Black man), who is an antagonist. Like despite the game’s attempts at neutralising race as a coherent category, it is kind of unavoidable to notice that the protagonist is a white woman who’s only equal is a Black man engaging in constant deception for his own benefit lol

And Aloy’s anti-religious sentiments are deeply funny, because the game’s narrative itself has a theological relationship to technology - humans destroyed the world with technology, yes, but salvation of humanity is only possible through technology, specifically a globe-spanning technological system meant to be an environmental steward to the planet, repairing the damage caused by previous technological catastrophes and human wars. Human beings themselves are insufficient to the task of taking care of the planet, and “nature” itself is incapable of self-governance or regulation. And the way this technological system is made to function properly again is, hilariously, unlocked through the genetic code of a white woman, a perfect clone of the technological system’s original creator. the solution to Horizon’s central conflict and threat is, ultimately, a white saviour 

And so the appropriative elements of Horizon - calling the Nora ‘braves,’ the abstracting of hundreds of north american Indigenous cultures into mere aesthetics and symbols, the invocation of words like savage and primitive, and so on - are not surface-level problematic elements of an otherwise anti-racist game, they are indicative of a liberal anti-racist imaginary, a place where we’re all equal human beings whose main problem are vague sectarian grudges, without looking at or dealing with any of the underlying ideological frameworks that produced race or gender in the first place.

So I think Horizon is, despite attempts to imagine a post-racist world, nonetheless very limited in how it represents this post-racial world because it understands racism as prejudice against particular phenotypic characteristics, not an underlying logic that renders “nature” and “human” as fundamentally racial concepts in history

[dailyanarchistposts]

The Construct Called Civilization

There is a great deal of uncertainty over the word civilization (that even a little research on Wikipedia could start to clear up). People who live together in groups/communities/societies are not necessarily a civilization. People who live, for instance, as herders and not as hunter-gatherers are likewise also not necessarily a civilization. A civilization has unique characteristics.

Civilization is characterized as a complex society in which social and material living conditions are enabled through scientific and technical progress and created by politics and economy. With civilization it always ultimately always comes down to the formation of governments, states, and borders. Through the newly established hierarchy arises social classes, division of labor, and inequality. A civilization universally possesses an ideology containing a belief in progress as well as the conviction that particular groups are superior to others.

With civilization the worst evils broke out among us: empires, expansionism, colonialism, capital accumulation, police and military, prisons, the gender binary, and with it heteronormativity and patriarchy, wars for resources and land, the rise of classes, fascism, technocracy…

In short: a civilization centralizes power among a few people to expand long-term control over other people as well as nature. It is the absolute opposite of anarchy. Stop defending the civilization construct by defining it falsely. Civilization stands in the way of a good life for all. It is nothing other than the biggest prison in the world.

When we support the current liberation movements throughout the whole world, we should remind ourselves that truly egalitarian and just anti-authoritarian lifeways are not just possible but have existed far longer on the African and other continents than the young phenomenon of tyranny and oppression.

[dayscapism]

Brief review of the Imperial Radch trilogy (highly recommend) - no spoilers

My Rating for all books: 5/★★★★★

With book one (Ancillary Justice) my mind was blown and still swirling years later. At many points it felt like when you're learning the different interpretations of quantum mechanics and you're trying to think of which one might just be *it*. So yes, this book was a bit hard at first to get into, and it was breaking my brain many other times, but it was worth every page. It's a little slow and confusing at the beginning, but the finale, how everything comes together and the sequels are well worth it.

Book 2 is definitely my favourite, but Ancillary Mercy is a solid finale to the trilogy and made me love the characters even more. The ending was unexpectedly filled with a lot of humour and heartwarming moments. Also, our protagonist is such a badass.

And apparently, I have a soft spot for books about AI constructs and sentient ships.

This series just solidified why I need to read more sci-fi. Leckie kept leaving me speechless again and again throughout the story with the theme discussions and political intrigue. The series has very interesting things to say about identity, personhood, colonialism, capitalism, fascism, gender as a social construct, class, and human connection with other people; while also having wonderful characters, great writing, an expansive world and an exciting plot. It's unexpectedly hilarious, too! Which is something I always appreciate in books.

I will need to re-read it again one day because it has many layers and stuff I would like to revisit.

(I was going through a terrible reading slump too when I read the last book, so it took me a while to finish and I think I missed a few things as I was reading it very, very slowly. But not the books' fault! It actually helped me with the reading rut; pulled me right back into the story by the end and they became favourite booksf for me.)

Yes, this trilogy is just as good as its reputation. It deserves so much more love and fame. I want everybody to be talking about it.

[serpentface]

sex and mating systems in qilik species.

(the word 'cock ' is used in tjis post a lot bc its birds so be prepared)

faeder hen, and cock. (these individuals are of a White Sea ethnicity of the eastern forest qilik subspecies)

All qilik species have three distinct sexual morphologies. Hens are largest on average with more powerful builds and dull coloration. Cocks are smaller, with brighter feathers, fan shaped tails (in those with forest qilik ancestry), and bare skin that flushes blue during the mating season. About 10-20% of male qilik (faeder) develop size and coloration typical of hens, being entirely indistinguishable apart from inability to lay eggs and ability to produce sperm.

A rare but highly visible intersex condition in which a qilik has dull hen and bright cock coloration split down the middle of their bodies (bilateral gynandromorphy) is ubiquitously culturally significant (most prominently associated with the Czekl god Vissh, and often given religious connotations)

an individual with bilateral gynandromorphy, posing

Recognition and cultural significance of other intersex conditions varies, typically only being recognizable by variance in plumage.

The mating and childrearing habits of behaviorally modern qilik vary extensively, but all have roots in a common mating system of their pre-sophont ancestors.

Proto-qilik reproduced seasonally to time hatching with spring. During the mating season, they would congregate in colonial nesting grounds, with each cock creating an appealing nest in a small territory (about 20 square ft) in which they perform and drive out rival cocks. Cocks performed an elaborate set of displays for hens, advertising their health and strength with dances and dueling rivals with their claws.

Hens would copulate with several cocks per season, and lay an egg in the nest of each male they mate with. However, they were choosy and have control over when eggs get fertilized, and usually only reproduce with one or two high quality males- the rest are given offspring of no genetic relationship.

The faeder, outwardly indistinguishable from hens, would travel freely among the territories of other males to sneakily mate with hens. They would not build nests of their own, and their offspring is ubiquitously raised by other males.

After the mating season, hens and faeder would take no part in the raising of the offspring, and form social flocks with one another. Males incubate the eggs and raise the young chicks. Intra-male aggression would decrease as the mating season ended, and (so long as resources were sufficient) form loose flocks where they cooperatively raise chicks. Male homosexual pair bonds were very common, often originating when one cock loses its brood.

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This sex and mating system translates in varying ways in modern qilik cultures.

Generally speaking, qilik construct gender as a trinary or binary. Qilik have no external genitalia and mate via cloaca contact, meaning there is virtually nothing to physically distinguish faeder from hens. Thus, binary qilik cultures often make no distinction. Trinary cultures do distinguish the two, but generally conceptualize the latter in similar terms to hens (social norms and taboos applied to hens extend to faeder as well).

Cocks being the primary child-rearers is basically ubiquitous, with the level of hen/faeder involvement in childrearing varying by culture. Hens and faeder often have significantly weaker parental instincts than cocks, and tend to take instructive roles rather than parental ones. Most qilik do not mate monogamously or form permanent sexual partnerships, with most long-term bonds being homosocial. In cultures with permanent sexual partners in the form of marriages, it is most common for one hen to have several husbands as mates who rear her children.

Qilik form intimate bonds with their flocks, and will typically form an especially strong bond with one or two other people, considered a form of life partnership. These partnerships are almost always same-sex (or between hens and faeder), very rarely between hens and cocks (to the point that such partnerships attract stigma in certain contexts.)

A partner is a close relationship that combines and goes beyond friendship, siblinghood, and romantic love. Partnerships between males may be the closest to common human conceptions of romantic love, as male pairs raise children together. As it is almost never reproductive in nature (and largely or entirely nonsexual), incest taboos are rarely applied and blood siblings semi-frequently form partnerships.

Some aspects of their pre-sophont mating behaviors have translated into cultural practices and artforms. Qilik cultures almost ubiquitously have activities where cocks showcase beauty in dances, and compete with other males in dance-fights (often called flower-duels) where the objective is to pin the rival to the ground while also being sooo pretty and masculine.