#i dont necessarily consider that Evidence or anything but its neat and its not nothing imo

[dateamonster]

revisiting this for just a quick sec to say ive received a lot of.. lets say criticism for this post, mainly from t.erfs who claim mary shelley was some historical radfem icon (just because a famous dead woman is cis and white doesnt make her a t.erf but whatever), christian conservatives who claim mary shelley wrote frankenstein to decry the evils of godlessness (she and her husband were atheists but whatever), and terminally online fash looking to troll (funny how much these groups have in common at the end of the day huh!)

honestly, i dont know that much about mary shelley or her politics. never met the gal. for the most part i really didnt feel that mattered since i was originally referencing the large number of relevant themes and trans readings of frankenstein that there are and not like the authors actual intent. because who cares about that fr. but recently i thought hey! why dont i do some googling on shelley? did she really have any opinions on transness way back in the ol 1800s?

tbh i didnt expect to find anything, and for the most part i didnt, but i did actually learn something interesting

i dont personally approve of like.. retroactively assigning someone a gender identity, because what gender even means is shifting constantly and theres no way to know if someone long gone would identify with one term over another, but i do think its interesting that mary shelley was apparently close companions with an assigned female writer who lived under a male identity, walter sholto douglas, to the point where she helped him and his wife obtain false passports so they could travel to paris as mr and mrs douglas

im not saying this necessarily means shelley would be like a trans ally if she were alive today or anything, and im not looking for an argument (never was as a matter of fact!), im just saying i somehow doubt she was out there telling this guy he was spoiling his natural feminine purity or just looking for attention or siding with the evil penis’d oppressors. and more importantly, im saying some of yall talk at me with a surprising amount of confidence for someone who apparently didnt even finish reading her fuckin wiki page.

cant post a thing about mary shelley without getting mass reblogged by transphobes and weirdo gender essentialists like GIRL you think FRANKENSTEIN was made for YOU? frankenstein belongs to the transgenderereds im sorry u are confused