#gender issues

[potnialabyrinthoio95]

This is one of the things I love of “Revolutionary girl Utena”: I wish more media acknowledge this fact as I hate how abusive men are romanticized.

It isn’t healthy and it perpetuates misogynistic ideals that harm women and society.

Honestly, I prefer to see abusive men depicted as the villains they’re in real life and certain male archetypes associated to the fantasy of the “alpha male” treated as annoying or as butt-monkeys who end up always being ridiculed as this kind of men are just pathetic idiotic losers in real life.

akio is so funny to me because in any other story he would have been a sexyman or edgy antihero or possibly straight up the protagonist lmao. i love rgu

[queerism1969]

[necroticghost]

We need to talk about gender options when filling some forms!

Because why can we only choose between binary genders and "I don't want to talk about it"?

I DO want to talk about it. A lot of us DO want to disclose it, even if it's different from the cis female and male. It's not that we do not want to share it, and it's already messed up that most forms don't even offer a third choice, but if they do offer one, at least it could say "Other".

[palatinewolfsblog]

"Labor is like motherhood to most of our political leaders: a calling so fine and noble that it would be sullied by talk of vulgar, mundane things like pay."

Barbara Ehrenreich. Happy Mother's day, y'all!

[oilbirrks]

I actually have some helpful things to say if you would like to read them.

Firstly is what you think of men. As a trans woman you know what it's like to be treated as a monster for being born a certain sex. As you said, other women avoid you because of your masculine appearance.

So shouldn't this let you in on how the men you avoid because of their appearance feel? You are indeed very biased like you said. But realizing that is the first step to improving cause then you can work on the issue.

Using terms like 'most men' in the way you do is actually very harmful and inaccurate. Imagine if a man said most women are insecure and stupid? Wouldn't look well. Saying heterosexuality tends to be harmful is a ridiculous claim in of itself. No sexuality is automatically harmful from fault.

I did a reread again and that last paragraph about men being sick, twisted and manipulative was very hurtful to read even though I'm not a man.

There are so many men who want a general connection to a woman to love. But when they are constantly described as manipulative assholes that will just abuse and use others, it's hard.

And with all I just said, I don't know your experiences with men. It's hard to get rid of these biases especially if they are tied to traumatic events but I promise you its possible 🧡

You know. Misogyny in society always does horrify me.

It's disgusting how systemic it is.

You know. I am not really social with any of the men in the college I go to because they're just. Men. Simple as that.

Kind of hurts how my appearance is so masculine as I am pre-transition. Tons of women here seems like they would be interesting to talk with and what not but like. I can tell most people don't trust me because my appearance is that of a man. This can result in insecurity, but it's just a tough pill to swallow that appearing this way sort of binds me to the deeply misogynistic general identity of what men are.

It's like. Most men have biases. Getting insecure over women's indignity kind of speaks to this.

To be honest. I can't help but feel insecure over rather simple statements, but that is mostly due to my lack of understanding. Someone can make a statement that while rude, is one I come to agree with, but my first instinct is being rather confused and sort of upset. I think this could speak to how I think as a person. Maybe the biases sewn into me, or maybe it's a sense that I do not belong? That like. Despite my wishes to be a woman I will be on the outside.

Really it's complicated.

Bottom line is that feminist thought should be more widely distributed so people have less misunderstandings and actually like. Listen to women while they are speaking.

Like. Heterosexuality tends to be harmful because most men want to have power over a woman. Just look at how men don't search for partners or meaningful intimacy, but more so a "girlfriend" that they wish to assert power over. I feel as though that's how it is. A lot of men don't get into relationships for love, and even when they do love, it is twisted. Concepts of social domination twist the entire thing. So yes, Lesbian and Heterosexual attraction to men can very much be very different. Also. To acknowledge points that can branch off from this, no. I am not demeaning sexuality as a general concept. I am relaying the answer to a general discourse that has been happening.

Anyways this post is just the thoughts of some amateur pre-transition transwoman.

If anybody wishes to expand on what I said or give me a more informed take, you are more than welcome to.

[soleminisanction]

I got a bee in my bonnet and spent last night crunching these numbers to confirm a long-held suspicion of mine, and now I'm going to do something with them even if it's only interesting to me. So.

I went through and tallied up all of the fics AO3 currently (as of 3/27/24) has under the tags "Trans Tim Drake," "Nonbinary Tim Drake," "Genderfluid Tim Drake" and "Genderqueer Tim Drake," since I figured that cast a wide enough net without committing myself to reading every fic vaguely tagged Trans Character to figure out which character they were talking about.

I then did the same for Dick, Jason, Damian and Bruce and, after comparing those numbers against each other and against the total number of fics each character has under their general tag, followed up with Duke, Babs, Cass, Steph and Kate, and then Kon, Cassie, and Bart for good measure.

The results confirm the suspicions I was going into check and are really interesting, to me at least:

Despite having far fewer stories overall than Jason, Bruce or Dick, Tim has by far the most stories tagging him under the trans umbrella (653 out of 58,395) and is the only member of the Bats for whom at least one full percent of his stories fall under that category (1.12% to be exact.) He actually has more total trans stories than Jason and Damian combined (308 out of 71,120 and 255 out of 42,607, equaling 0.43% and 0.59%, respectively) and outstretches the 2nd place ranker, Dick, by over a hundred (who clocks in at 438 out of 79,057 -- 0.55%). Bruce amusingly has by far the most stories overall (90,305) but the fewest trans stories (185) for the lowest percentage among the boys (0.2%).

The only one who comes anywhere close to matching Tim percentage-wise is Bart, who has far fewer stories to his name but a ratio of 62 out of 5,717 for 1.08%. I was thinking maybe Young Justice might have a higher percentage than the Bats due to their strong queer fandom but that only really proved true for Bart, with both Cassie and Kon coming in at only 0.2% and 0.28% trans umbrella percentage respectively (actual count 6 out of 2,874 and 39 out of 13,746).

Cassie's numbers correspond with the fact that women just, do not get a lot of these stories, at all, even compared to the general lack of attention they're paid by fanfiction spheres in general. Steph and Kate both clocked in at falling 0.17% under the trans umbrella (29 out of 16,638 for Steph, 5 out of 2,897 for Kate); Cass got 0.13% (21 out of 15,769) and Babs only 0.07%, the lowest percentage out of anyone I calculated for (11 out of 15,785). Duke's showing was a respectable 0.55% (34 out of 6,166) which puts him about even with the rest of the boys.

All of which I just went through to confirm a gut instinct I've had for a while: even in light of the noticeable trend in fandom towards increased visibility for trans and other queer-gendered people over the last decade and a half or so, it's a notable Thing for the DC comics fandom to explore with Tim Drake in specific.

And that doesn't even take into account things like the over 200 "Tim Drake is Catlad | Stray" fics, which almost always have some element of queered gender or at least femme'd sexuality to them, far outstripping any of the other Robin boys' spins in that AU (those counts stand at, respectively: Damian - 11, Dick - 33, Jason - 79, Tim - 242). Or the 11 fics logged under the "Tim Drake is Batgirl" tag, a category that doesn't even exist for any of the other male Robins.

(What makes that last one extra hilarious to me that most people don't know one canonical version of Tim has been a member of the Batgirls.) Part of me wants to use that parenthetic detail as a segway to ramble about the various canon snippets I think probably contributed to this, from Tim being presented as "the pretty one" who most often gets the "looks like his mother" comments to the fact that he is the only male Robin who's ever cross-dressed for an undercover mission and even though it only happened once the Internet will never forget Caroline Hill.

But this post is long enough as it is and I don't really have a point beyond I think this is interesting and cool so I'm going to leave off here for now and put my numbers under a cut so people have the raw data to look at if they'd like to.

TL;DR - Based on the numbers, the internet believes Tim Drake is more likely to be trans than any other member of the Bat-family or Young Justice, and I think that has interesting implications about his character and fandom. It's neat.

Data Taken: 3/27/24

Tim Drake: 58,395 Trans Tim Drake: 513 Nonbinary Tim Drake: 46 Genderfluid Tim Drake: 89 Genderqueer Tim Drake: 5

Dick Grayson: 79,057 Trans Dick Grayson: 399 Nonbinary Dick Grayson: 15 Genderfluid Dick Grayson: 23 Genderqueer Dick Grayson: 1

Jason Todd: 71,120 Trans Jason Todd: 286 Nonbinary Jason Todd: 17 Genderqueer/Genderfluid Jason Todd: 5 (4 have both tags and are the only ones tagged Genderqueer Jason Todd)

Damian Wayne: 42,607 Trans Damian Wayne: 215  Nonbinary Damian Wayne: 37 Genderfluid Damian Wayne: 3 Genderqueer Damian Wayne: 0

Bruce Wayne: 90,305 Trans Bruce Wayne: 180 Nonbinary Bruce Wayne: 5 (2 also tagged Trans Bruce Wayne) Genderfluid Bruce Wayne: 1 Genderqueer Bruce Wayne: 1

-

Total Trans Umbrella Tim Drake: 653 Total Trans Umbrella Dick Grayson: 438 Total Trans Umbrella Jason Todd: 308 (313 if you count the GQ tag separately) Total Trans Umbrella Damian Wayne: 255 Total Trans Umbrella Bruce Wayne: 185 (187)

Percentage Trans Umbrella Tim Drake: 1.12% (1.11825) Percentage Trans Umbrella Dick Grayson: 0.55% (0.55403) Percentage Trans Umbrella Jason Todd: 0.43% (0.43307 or 0.44010) Percentage Trans Umbrella Damian Wayne: 0.59% (0.59849) Percentage Trans Umbrella Bruce Wayne: 0.2% (0.20466)

----

Duke Thomas: 6,166 Trans Duke Thomas: 20 Nonbinary Duke Thomas: 14 Genderfluid Duke Thomas: 0 Genderqueer Duke Thomas: 0

Barbara Gordon: 15,785 Trans Barbara Gordon: 11 Nonbinary Barbara Gordon: 0 Genderfluid Barbara Gordon: 0 Genderqueer Barbara Gordon: 0

Cassandra Cain: 15,769 Trans Cassandra Cain: 15 Nonbinary Cassandra Cain: 6 Genderfluid Cassandra Cain: 0 Genderqueer Cassandra Cain: 0

Stephanie Brown: 16,638 Trans Stephanie Brown: 27 Nonbinary Stephanie Brown: 2 Genderfluid Stephanie Brown: 0 Genderqueer Stephanie Brown: 0

Kate Kane (DCU): 2,897 Trans Kate Kane: 4 Nonbinary Kate Kane: 0 Genderfluid Kate Kane: 1 Genderqueer Kate Kane: 0

-

Total Trans Umbrella Duke Thomas: 34 Total Trans Umbrella Barbara Gordon: 11 Total Trans Umbrella Cassandra Cain: 21 Total Trans Umbrella Stephanie Brown: 29 Total Trans Umbrella Kate Kane: 5

Percentage Trans Umbrella Duke Thomas: 0.55% (0.55141) Percentage Trans Umbrella Barbara Gordon: 0.07% (0.06968) Percentage Trans Umbrella Cassandra Cain: 0.13% (0.13317) Percentage Trans Umbrella Stephanie Brown: 0.17% (0.17429) Percentage Trans Umbrella Kate Kane: 0.17% (0.17259)

----

Kon-El | Conner Kent: 13,746 Trans Kon-El | Conner Kent: 19 Nonbinary Kon-El | Conner Kent: 19 Genderfluid Kon-El | Conner Kent: 1 Genderqueer Kon-El | Conner Kent: 0

Bart Allen: 5,717 Trans Bart Allen: 40 Nonbinary Bart Allen: 20 Genderfluid Bart Allen: 1 Genderqueer Bart Allen: 1

Cassie Sandsmark: 2,874 Trans Cassie Sandsmark: 4 Nonbinary Cassie Sandsmark: 2 Genderfluid Cassie Sandsmark: 0 Genderqueer Cassie Sandsmark: 0

-

Total Trans Umbrella Kon-El: 39 Total Trans Umbrella Bart Allen: 62 Total Trans Umbrella Cassie Sandsmark: 6

Percentage Trans Umbrella Kon-El: 0.28% (0.28371)  Percentage Trans Umbrella Bart Allen: 1.08% (1.08448) Percentage Trans Umbrella Cassie Sandsmark: 0.2% (0.20876)

[typhlonectes]

[weird-little-gremlin-thing]

Omfg I fucking died anyway here's some gender swap eyeless jack I did for a friend. It's less bad then what I've posted

[faelapis]

(gender)-only spaces are not a helpful idea. they are a way to avoid the problems of patriarchy rather than solve them. this is true not only because terfs are shitty non-feminists who don't actually care about women's liberation, but because "separate spheres" type-societies have never actually solved the problems of women's power imbalances, or indeed, the power imbalance of any gender minority. they have often reinforced them.

felix, what brings you to talk about this random topic today?

because i'm transgender and tired. for instance, i'm tired of fellow trans people's half-measures of trying to include us in the "right" sports categories rather than dismantling the idea of gendered sports altogether. i'm even more tired of terfs and other dumdumbs endless crying over the mere concept of sharing such spaces.

if you accept trans people, you should understand that the idea of "vast differences" between men and women is a Lie. there is no reason sports can't be organized along more objective measures, like strength/weight classes, rather than outdated gender models.

if you don't accept trans people, EVEN THEN, you should be critical of this notion that the only way to "save women" is to safeguard them like jewelry in glass cases. it has been tried in many different societies. somehow, it never leads to full liberation for women. unless you think ancient models wherein women were not to interact with strange men was Peak Feminism.

by the way, exclusionary spaces has never saved LGBT+ people, either. at most, its a supposedly "safe space" to vent. but even then, its usually not safe for trans people who either aren't out or don't perfectly conform to gender roles. it has only ever been "safe" for a certain "type" of cis LG person (if you're bi, you're definitely seen as suspect).

anyway, the real way of dealing with misogyny is to dismantle patriarchy and work towards equal socioeconomic power. the real way of dealing with transphobia is to give trans people equal rights and dismantle cisnormativity. both work towards the larger goal of dismantling gendered expectations and discrimination. good talk.

[bloodbruise]

your guess is as good as mine at this point

[jiangshinigami]

The most annoying things when dealing with people talking about they/them characters:

"This character is always referred to with they/them"

"Erm, we don't actually know [Character's] gender, [Character] isn't non-binary"

"i wasn't talking about gender i was talking about pronouns..."

[contemplatingoutlander]

America has legislated itself into competing red, blue versions of education

This is an excellent article in The Washington Post about how our school systems have begun to reflect the political divisions in our nation, with many red states legally banning discussions on racism, sexism, and gender issues, and many blue states legally requiring those kinds of discussions. This is a gift🎁link, so anyone can read the entire article, even if the don't subscribe to the Post. Below are some excerpts:

Three-fourths of the nation’s school-aged students are now educated under state-level measures that either require more teaching on issues like race, racism, history, sex and gender, or which sharply limit or fully forbid such lessons, according to a sweeping Post review of thousands of state laws, gubernatorial directives and state school board policies. The restrictive laws alone affect almost half of all Americans aged 5 to 19. [...] The divide is sharply partisan. The vast majority of restrictive laws and policies, close to 9o percent, were enacted in states that voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, The Post found. Meanwhile, almost 80 percent of expansive laws and policies were enacted in states that voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

The explosion of laws regulating school curriculums is unprecedented in U.S. history for its volume and scope, said Jonathan Zimmerman, a University of Pennsylvania professor who studies education history and policy...states have never before stepped in so aggressively to set rules for local schools. [...] [A] nationally representative study from the Rand Corp. released this year found that 65 percent of K-12 teachers report they are limiting instruction on “political and social issues.” “What the laws show is that we have extremely significant differences over how we imagine America,” Zimmerman said. [...] In practice, these divisions mean that what a child learns about, say, the role slavery played in the nation’s founding — or the possibility of a person identifying as nonbinary — may come to depend on whether they live in a red or blue state. [...] Almost 40 percent of these laws work by granting parents greater control of the curriculum — stipulating that they must be able to review, object to or remove lesson material, as well as opt out of instruction. [...] Another almost 40 percent of the laws forbid schools from teaching a long list of often-vague concepts related to race, sex or gender.

[...] At the college level, among the measures passed in recent years is a 2021 Oklahoma law that prohibits institutions of higher education from holding “mandatory gender or sexual diversity training or counseling,” as well as any “orientation or requirement that presents any form of race or sex stereotyping.” By contrast, a 2023 California measure says state community college faculty must employ “teaching, learning and professional practices” that reflect “anti-racist principles.”

Some experts predicted the politically divergent instruction will lead to a more divided society. “When children are being taught very different stories of what America is, that will lead to adults who have a harder time talking to each other,” said Rachel Rosenberg, a Hartwick College assistant professor of education.

[viktheviking1]

Trying to figure out my Gender Identity and expression

It makes me feel like both the chimpanzee and the scientist studying myself

"It seems that the specimen will avoid wearing the binder, not because they don't like it, but because they feel they must save it for only really bad body dysmorphia days as they only have one and they don't want to do laundry constantly.

However, when given the option they will avoid wearing the new underwear altogether. We must try a new type to determine if it is texture discomfort or an overall distaste."

[sweaters-and-vertigo]

so if children don’t need gender affirming care, maybe they don’t need gender roles either?

[gregoriaofnyssa]

"Did God Make me Wrong?"

I was born with a handful of, on their own, minor defects. But grouped together, and because they were left untreated, I have what amounts to a hormonal intersex disorder-- the main symptom of which is many, many times more testosterone than a healthy woman. I produce slightly more than normal the amount of estrogen and progesterone. My symptoms are somewhat similar to that Algerian boxer, though I (and no other person besides apparently her and her doctors) do not know the details of it.

It was left untreated because I have XX Chromosomes, my periods are regular, and I am not infertile. It is my conviction that no doctor bothered to treat my condition, bothered to treat my hirsutism, acne, and bone deformation, because I was not a very pretty preteen to begin with. The doctors did not consider my appearance something worth saving. It was not good enough to begin with.

So now I am stuck with deformed bones and a hairy face. This one time, I was in a bathroom at a rest stop in West Virginia, and a woman stopped me, and told me she was going to get her state trooper on me, "for being a tranny in the bathroom". No doctor wanted to save me from that kind of fear and humiliation.

I shave constantly, but I know people still notice. They notice the razor burn on my face, certainly. If I waxed, I'd have to let the hair grow out, which I cannot take in public. My friends notice it. My fiancé notices it. I am deformed and I feel it, every single day.

I ask priests, sisters, and better Christians than me, "Why would God allow me to be born like this?" If God Loves beauty, how could he allow such ugliness?

You get the regular, "Oh don't say that :(" "We never notice!" "God doesn't care!" which are horrible lies. But every once and a while, I get, "Your condition is a product of the Fall," which is the only true response.

But how awful is it to have the Fall of Man and the sinfulness of the world written into your bones and growing out of your skin, like a monster.

The only thing I want in the world is to be pretty, and God will not give me it. What is the purpose in this?

[animentality]