#i genuinely dont understand people like this

[meepmoopmaap]

as a Hellenist who says oh my gods, YEAH THAT SHIT IS SILLY AND GOOFY AS FUCK. I LET OUT A LITTLE CHUCKLE TOO.

....damn i might start saying goodsbye though, i do need to be sillier imo.

I dont really understand why people are calling this "cringe culture". Like dude it's a sillay and goofy sounding phrase and as long as you're not genuinely being an ass about it, people are allowed to point out how unserious it sounds

nothing I take less seriously then people who say "oh my gods" come on now girl

[certifiedsexed]

genuine question, because I guess I don't really understand…

you mentioned that that article on menopause for trans and nonbinary people was aimed at transmascs and didn't have much ifo for trans fems.

that makes perfect sense tho in my mind, people who were have uteruses are the ones who experience menopause. trans fems dont. or am I incorrect in that??

its just that in my mind/to my knowledge, info on menopause isn't useful to trans fems because they wont experience menopause

Good question! (Believe it or not, you're not the only person who was wondering about this.)

So, peri/menopause isn't something only experienced by people who have uteruses. You can even have a uterus and/or ovaries, get them removed, and still experience peri/menopause.

Which is funny, by which I mean, makes it blatantly transmisogynistic, because transfems can experience peri/menopause but are frequently told it "doesn't count" because most transfems don't have a uterus and/or ovaries.

Peri/menopause, much like periods, is largely about estrogen and your general hormone levels. Not necessarily just about whether you have a uterus and/or ovaries.

There's actually a number of transfems who prefer to lower their estrogen doses as they age, as well as transfems whose estrogen levels drop for other reasons, and that can cause what's usually referred to as "menopause symptoms".

Its referred to as "menopause symptoms" in much the same way transfems having periods/PMS/PMDD is referred to as "having symptoms of X" instead of "experiencing X".

By which I mean, they can go through menopause, its just often differently than considered "normal" and the way its talked about is often transphobic.

So far, it seems as if it's not very common but given the fact that's been said about many transfem health related issues that people refuse to study, it's hard to say how common it actually is.

So information on menopause can be useful to transfems, they're just largely excluded from it! Even in discussions of trans people experiencing peri/menopause, unfortunately.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions, Anon! <3

[genderqueerdykes]

something that ive noticed a lot as a trans man and yet dont see talked about nearly enough is queer hatred of masculinity/obsession with femininity (which also connects to radical feminism and all)

why are there more nonbinary afabs than amabs? because queer people are "encouraged" to lean towards more feminine labels (so afab trans men are pushed towards id'ing as nonbinary, and amab nonbinaries are pushed towards id'ing as trans woman)

why are trans women expected to physically transition more than trans men? because you cant risk looking like an "evil man" of course! so you have to be as feminine as possible! this goes for both trans woman and trans men

why are gay men stereotyped as effeminate, why are masc lesbians looked down upon? it all comes back to hatred of masculinity

(and on a more minor note, ive noticed a rise in trending queer songs all being generally like "everyone wants to be a woman" "a gross MAN will never be enough for women" which is... a little weird to me?)

i myself am a fem trans man, i love being fem, but its weird asf that we've normalized such an intense hatred of masculinity. i feel really bad for my more masculine trans brothers (and my more masculine trans sisters, for that matter!). i genuinely think this is one of the major inner issues of the queer community and if we want to grow stronger and have less infighting we NEED to stop hating masculinity

thank you so much for taking the time to send this, this is very well thought out and exactly what's happening right now. thank you for taking the time to highlight the main issue.

there is a queer obsession with femininity, yes. i see it a lot. femininity is prioritized over everything else to a dangerous degree.

people claim to love transfems and then do this- which as you said, forces them to come out and transition as fast as possible because no one wants ""Scary evil men"" in their community. it's sickening. i've seen so many transfems admit that life sucked for them while they were questioning because they didn't feel welcome in queer spaces at all. some have decided to never identify as a trans woman because of this and it sucks

there are also masculine trans women and trans women who never want to pass or don't try to (or may just never end up being able to pass at all). i feel like people are unnecessarily cruel about transfems and passing, as if that needed to happen within our own walls, too. like people are so fucking terrible to trans women who don't or can't or don't try to pass. why do we force trans women to feel obligated to pass perfectly within our own walls in order to accept them? if transfems aren't super feminine and don't pass very well, they're treated like shit. no, not everyone at the meeting in a polo and slacks is a man. sometimes that's a trans woman who's butch. sometimes that's a trans woman who's passing as a man for safety.

people seriously need to understand how bad this behavior affects transfems & trans women. intersex people as well.

i love being a fem man as well, however, i also love being a gay bear. i am a feminine bear. the thing is, is people don't realize that masculinity can be feminine, too, and vice versa. not all fems are just fem. some are also masc and butch. so many people have gotten suckered into rad feminism that they spread the lie that queerness is feminine and woman based only. masc queers are still queer. we don't need this feminine/woman superiority shit. we don't need one gender or presentation to be "superior". that's not how equality works

[vonbabbitt]

I’ve been wondering this for a while: Did Sasaki genuinely care for Yanagi as a person? There have been moments when she used him like in the torture game where she let him take her punishments instead, and even when she was disguising her murder and had him kept quiet about it. For someone who was supposed to guide others as a leader, she seemed to be somewhat manipulative and possibly backstabbing.

k im breaking this one down hard cuz this is one of my biggest pet peeves lmao

sasaki was not manipulative or backstabbing. she didnt care for yanagi any more than she would any other sort-of friend and thats literally fine because she knew him for a grand total of one week and in that one week he was persistently flirting with her in a way she was not interested in reciprocating. he insisted on taking her punishment. she tried to stab her own hand and he physically grabbed her and stopped her until she demanded he let go.

in terms of disguising the murder, she did not ask him to do that. he just did that. did she take advantage of his loyalty by sending him to investigate the storage room? yes! but thats about it! id say the worst she did is probably throwing him under the bus during the trial by accusing him about the blood in his sink and w/e when she knew he was covering for her. but i feel like everything past the murder has to be taken with a grain of salt because she was trying to cover up a murder and was obviously not at her best.

imagine you are sasaki hitomi. you are a small and fairly frail teenage girl with a history of sexual trauma. you are dumped into a killing game where everyone has a strong incentive to murder each other. then, a professional athlete much larger and stronger than you starts persistently hitting on you and flirting with you. we as the viewer understand that yanagi means no harm, but sasaki does not know him. an unknown, very strong man is flirting with her very persistently in a game where people murder other people for whatever reason they want. i think most women would be afraid to put their foot down against yanagi in these circumstances.

yanagi has very bad judgement as is easily manipulated, but he's also an autonomous person who is just as responsible for himself and his decisions as sasaki is. he chose to take the punishment, he chose to cover for the murder. all sasaki did was utilize those choices to her advantage. in terms of the punishment, she tried to take it herself, and he wouldnt let her. now is hiroaki right in assessing that she wouldnt have taken it even if yanagi hadnt taken it from her? maybe, but we'll never know, because it didnt happen so it doesnt matter.

sasaki did guide others as a leader. she was a good leader. she was also a 17-year old girl trying her absolute best under incredibly high pressure and zero sleep. any manipulation sasaki enacted took place on three days of no sleep while trying to cover up a murder to save her life. i dont think its fair to take those moments of her at her absolute worst and say thats the kind of person she is.

thank u

[hxrsheykisses]

Omgg you write based on ur fic right? If so could u do the club boys x a reader in their club that does school cheer and allstar? Like going to her comps or games, seeing her uniform, and watching her become like a totally different person from her normally shy self?😭 I think it would be cute!! Love love loveee ur fic keep up the good work😽

THIS IS SO FIRE🔥🔥🔥🔥 YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE GENIUS FOR THIS REQUEST!!!!

OH. MY. GOD????

Okay, you CANNOT be the same girl who joined their club cause what???

Now, they were wondering why you haven’t been coming to the club meets on Fridays hardly and on this particular day, they were gonna give you some shit for it. Bill specifically because he’s the “leader” so of course he’s gonna ask why you haven’t been showing up.

So, the four of them waited on your front porch for a good hour…they were VERY impatient but they wanted to catch you at the right moment to pester you about where you have been going, completely unaware that nearly every Friday their school had a football, basketball, or even a soccer game to host. This is what they get for not sticking around and not caring about what events are happening but it still doesn’t excuse you being missing!

After an hour of them sitting there on your porch, they saw car lights pulling up in your driveway and they perked up. They were going to confront you ONCE and for ALL—let’s hope you don’t possibly be kicked from the club due to your shutout attendance.

… “WHAT THE FUCK?” -Bill, who’s standing there with his mouth agape as he stared at you. The other three had the exact same expression as they watched you—who was also looking like a deer in headlights as you held your cheer bag tightly.

It was just some silent staring that the five of you were doing until your mom broke it with asking you if you told the boys that you got into Cheerleading now. You hadn’t told them.

Were they mad? Nah. Were they still upset about you not telling them? Yes. But did you look hot in that cheer uniform? Hell yeah. Sooooo what could they say?

They were confused. They didn’t understand why or how you found yourself involving in such a competitive and social sport like Cheerleading. It went out of your character gradually so it was a surprise for them.

They were cool with it—cause I mean you’re still their crush- I mean friend, right? The only thing that’s an issue is how are you supposed to tend club meetings now? Even worse, will you be able to hang out with them as much as you did before getting into Cheerleading? It was a wreck because they NEEDED to see you. They HAD to see you. It was like a drug for them that they never did wish to have a hangover from. Crazy comparison, but it’s the genuine truth, the whole truth!

“Why not just go see her games or competitions?” -Jerry.

Oh. Oh Jerry. You dumb FUCK. Why would they drop everything to go see the girl of their dreams, do some backflips and cartwheels alongside her clown ass teammates, look at sweaty jocks, and their school lose this seasons game? Are we deadass?

Yes. Yes we are deadass. Cause guess what? The next game, they sat on those bleachers and cheered you on like no other. Even if y’all’s school did lose, they cheered like batshit crazy. They received so many weird ass stares from people beside them while they stuffed theirselves full with snacks from the concessions. It was a whole THING with them.

Would yall believe me if I told you Jerry let out the girliest scream when he saw you do a backflip while one of your cheer buddies were holding you up. Luckily, you landed on the other girl’s hand, ultimately ending up okay in the end but that was scary!

Don’t invite them to your cheer comps. Dont do it.

Cause one time, your team didn’t win the competition—it was the hardest one yet and you all worked very hard on it. The judges were pretty biased and what not—it was very obvious that they were and it got under your skin. So that sensitivity inside of you boiled over as you cried because that’s so frustrating. Your teammates were trying to comfort you and all of this other stuff but it will NEVER beat how bad the boys acted.

They cussed the judges out and everything cause are we FOR REAL? How did you not AT LEAST get third place? The shit is rigged! It ended up in them getting escorted out while you followed after them. Did they get the spot you deserved? No. But was it sweetly chaotic about what they did? Yes.

They saw that you have came out of your bubble SO MUCH and it genuinely makes them proud because they never saw that side of you. It really showed that you changed—and not in a bad way either. The five of you still hang out a lot, they see you every Friday for games, they cheer you on. The list grows!

It makes them even more happy when you tell them that they were one of the main reasons why you started to open up.

They love you so fucking much, girl💔💔💔

[rencatuive]

i thought itd be fun to document my reactions to the prologue on notes so this is just a copypaste of that. dont expect anything detailed at all mostly just 'ooh this character is cute' and. itll be that for all of them cause i dont dislike any characters at all:

[Student X]

airi feels extremely traumatised already

god bless student 4 is so real

ah shit student 6 intro is so cool with the student 1 connections

student 9 has good vibes i like em

STUDENT 11 <3 [manami]

i feel like student 12 is the type of character to have an *interesting* fanbase /neu

TAMBA THATS THE ONE I LIKED shes sweet omg

[Interviews]

isono is so cute i love the butterfly vibes. also i like the more mysterious vibe change near the end, its intruiging! i see her as the type to put on a strong/overly positive façade but i guess thats a pretty surface level observation

uh oh i think im just gonna call all these characters cute. harada is very cute. i love animal likers. not much more to say

(sidenote, it kinda sucks being willingly spoiled on a media youre not into. and then you decide to get into it, and you recognise these things you know play a part in the story. totally my fault lol)

chiba has the biggest 'probably have gone through the Horrors' energy to me just cause like. child star. she really intrigues me personality wise though. (oh maybe she is 17 ?? theres a lot of mystery here already which i like - she has a doctor too) fun!

ooh i was looking at designs and i liked kamimura too a lot. (side note is the interviewer straight up The Mastermind that would be neat i think) I like his voice a lot btw!! i like the energy

hayashi is so cool omg thats it . genuinely its nice to someone actually this defiant like Yeah fuck em up

oh wada is the guy whos i guess a fan of isono! probably too much of a fan! wonder about their interactions for sure... hes actually really cute. also this interviews getting deep.

sasaki is so cutr omg my type is glasses. the studious archetype is really cool and... dies early a lot of the time?? so uh good luck !!

aww childrens book illustrator <3 i really like ojima he seems nice!!

oh yeah okazaki had a cool asf design. ive. heard like One spoilery comment about her but its okay no i didnt. i really likw the intonation of 'im an open book'. (also i like how most of this cast have "no phobias" which i guess could be true?? but yeah no im not spilling that either) i like her vibes a lot rn though :D

demonologist?????? okay dude. this guy is interesting! /pos

oh oh im gonna like tsuno a Lot. and could i assume a lot more than other people? just based off how energetic she is. she has a lil fang :D hope shes not dead

i really like the vocal perforamance in hiroakis one btw. oh wait dude people ship hirojima. thats The ship in this fandom right. i love his energy btw. he dgaf (until the character development hits) also i assume youre not meant to see that little strip of glasses shading as eyes but i totally do and it makes him 100x goofier i love it

Tamba is the character I put as my favourite pre-reaction so i remember her [Student X]. loving the contrast of attitudes between them(understandably) and i do actually like her a lot here!!!! tamba nation!!!!

theres a few shyboys in this cast and i think at least one of them has to be evil or generally has a personality change or something. right? But right now theyre all cuties <3 including hasagawa

firedancer is a cool talent. lotta cool talents in this one actually. she also has fangs yippee!! watari having an unconventional talent seems to be bringing her a lot of stress though, makes sense. love the vibes

fancy boy. i thought he and tamba could be related or something at first bc. omg light blonde hair!!!! if a character mentions another cjaracter in this ill assume theyre a ship. uhhhh sasanagi

okay so right now im a big Tsuno enjoyer shes a real cutie. still liking tamba a lot!! okazaki is my favourite design. as for the boys i like harada and hiroaki for totally different reasons. and i think i want to learn the most about chiba right now :D

the voice acting in this is great btw and im really looking forward to the rest!!

[ghouljams]

So the phone addict here. I really dont wish for pity, I totally understand that c.ai is horrible, and I thank you for the advice, really. If I came across as wanting pity then I really don't, I understand that using any ai is bad and horrible.

Hello friend, I'm sorry that I was so harsh in my last reply. I try to be more considerate than that but sometimes frustration rears its head, I am only human.

I understand that knowing something is bad and actually cutting it out are two incredible different and difficult things. Look at all the people who smoke cigarettes, or drink alcohol. Quitting something is hard once it's got its hooks in you. Apps like c.ai are made to be addicting, they're made to give you that first rush of dopamine and then slowly wean you down to a drip feed. If they didn't think they could feed addicts they wouldn't have a paid version.

Genuinely my best advice for you is: app timers, and your notes app. You'll find a lot of satisfaction in writing the rp for yourself and the format is incredibly accessible. That's why it's so popular. And I really did kick my addiction to tiktok through an app timer. Sometimes we have to parent ourselves, and it's really hard, but you can do it.

[sleepyhouse2art]

when i see cute little reminders on social media to "take your meds" i feel so hateful. the commodification of mental illness and its growing popularity as a sort of astrological shorthand for an actual personality by mostly healthy people is mad depressing and annoying

dont tell me to take my meds, you creepy weird motherfuckers! the only people allowed to say that shit to me are my doctor & my husband & my friends. do you think i want to be treated like a baby because i have mental illness? why do YOU seem to want to be treated like a baby? youre on paxil sharon

like my mental illness makes people watch me and check on me and not trust my perception of reality or my memory of things. sometimes i do get straight up treated like a kid by people. if i remember an event differently, i am always wrong. its really frustrating

so no, i don't find it very nice when people infantalize me and i don't like watching people needlessly infantalize themselves. it is mad creepy. it feels like observing a diaper fetishist or something. the whole thing gives me the heebie jeebies

i wonder if it is life being so hard and mean that motivates people to adopt the "sick role"? i understand wanting care but i genuinely think people are hamstringing themselves by pathologizing normal feelings and behaviors because it's making them think they're sick when they really aren't that sick. often people aren't even sick at all and instead just going through the human experience, which is fraught and difficult all on its own without any augmentation by a brain on the fritz, no mental illness needed.

nobody should want to be a patient. its nothing to aspire to. there's no joy in it. it is uncomfortable and the medicine is not safe. i have to take it but it's not like i want to and i feel sour when somebody reminds me. please don't remind me of my shit when it already dominates like my whole life

no, sharon, i do not need a bedazzled pill basket. no, sharon, i do not want "peer support", you are creepy. i hate to inform you that you are not a tubercular 18th beauty languishing in a gorgeous sickbed. you are in a fandom that prizes sickness and this is shameful to me.

your sickness makes you binge watch tv and eat bonbons and passively ideate about scratching your thigh up with a pin. i know pain is relative but like, i used to store my own blood in ziploc bags to protect my home and every painting in my house has told me to kill myself. i have not left my house in over a year. i am on three antipsychotics right now and i am still having frequent hallucinations and they scare me so bad i can't help but react sometimes and that scares my husband and makes him want me to go somewhere just like everybody else wants me to. im trying to stay OUT of the fucking hospital, not WANTING TO GO. im terrified of being raped and killed and i know it will happen to me next time i go. everyone says no, but they don't have my knowledge.

what im saying is this stuff fucks my life up. i cannot live normally. i cant even really take care of myself on my own if im telling the truth. i know im sick. i get reminded all the time. i don't need validation. i wouldn't touch a psych or a therapist or a pharmacy with a fucking ten foot pole if i had the choice. i know im kind of going off rn but who the fuck would want to be a consumer of this boring, tedious, control-abdicating, bad for your body bullshit? i do not understand people like this. i want to be free. be free, sharon!! and stop telling me to take my fucking meds!!!!

[verpineshatterrifle]

good thoughts, good thoughts, i like this, tcw dealing mostly with the infantry and repcomm dealing mostly with specops and that the two have different cultures and tones is true and a good point, even within repcomm its noted that specops is a bit insular and troopers and specops don't really understand each other very well

more power to the people who can reconcile repcomm and tcw and enjoy both, genuinely i do not want people to not enjoy tcw or anything, i used to like it. maybe i just grew out of it, it's also largely that i'm forever upset and annoyed by what tcw did to mandalorian culture and politics (fenn shysa come back to me i miss you sir 😭)

i've posted a lot about how i just plain don't like tcw's genre so i won't unpack 'but its a kids fantasy show and i dont like that, i like realistic military scifi :(' yet again, because that's really what it boils down to for me, and its totally fine that tcw isn't that, it isn't supposed to be lol, tcw did a lot of heavy and interesting stuff

(i also loathe the inhibitor chips but ive made posts about it before)

the original thought that spurred this thread was that i really think a lot of the hate repcomm and specifically kal gets is that you just can't make repcomm fit tonally into tcw if you approach it from that angle, and i think possibly that's why so so many people are so aggressive about hating him

sorry you got a bunch of anons about it lol, i just didnt touch the tumblr repcomm fandom for a long time because of that, but i finally have just started blocking anybody who makes me too mad and there's really a lot of great people on here

i would list a bunch of my repcomm mutuals but i dont want to make a target list for the fanatically hateful lmao 😂

i have a theory that the massive amounts of hate kal skirata gets is related to the tcw-ification of the clone wars era and how it doesn't take the idea of being in a slave military all that seriously but that's an essay for another time

[stiffyck]

"i dont like animated movies" okay but why. like i genuinely would like to know WHY. and id like to hear literally any other reason besides "animation is for kids" or "its childish"

[lvnesart]

giving this emo farmer the waist and thighs he deserves

[5-htagonist]

i dont hate you responding to my post! if i was bothered by you i absolutely would have blocked you. i have fun analyzing the rhetoric people use in discourse, and frankly all of your responses have been really interesting! of course, this happening was a total accident. i did change the tag because i wasnt intentionally trying to get visibility, especially not in a tag like that. i usually go to reddit to argue for fun-- much easier to see bullshit on there without going looking on purpose. also yes i am saying trans women are oppressed for being trans and for being women. trans men are oppressed for being trans, and it would be silly to say were oppressed on the basis of being men! all the issues you mentioned are general trans issues. dont try to frame it like im changing my statements.

i do not appreciate being condescended to. you are speaking directly to me, and being condescending. i did not condescend to you in my initial post. it was a thought. also "you did it first" is a very good phrase to use when communicating with someone and wanting to help them understand.

im deeply sorry you dont have anywhere to talk about these things outside of tumblr, and that you live in bumfuck florida. im from bumfuck tennessee, so despite less visible extremism here, i empathize with you. i know i got lucky meeting a group of queers from a young age who ive been friends with to this day. i genuinely recommend exploring your options when it comes to this stuff, though. other places online, befriending people here and talking 1 on 1 or in a group, or looking for where we might be hiding irl. there are so many of us even in trumptown. only engaging with such an important community through tumblr probably isnt healthy. it can give such a skewed view on community sentiment.

also, i bet transfems dont usually derail posts for not being about transfems because they just make their own post and mind their business, whereas people usually white knight cause theyre insecure in their position and latch on to the nearest point of attack for their just cause. or perhaps they just disagree with the post. who knows! obviously my experiences arent end all be all but ive never seen this

to all the "transandrophobia" and the "erm lets not argue about transmisogynh bc idc who has it worse!!" truthers: Do you understand the very basic phenomenon where women or peolle perceived as women can wear pants and suits and generally be seen as normal but men or people perceived as men cant wear a skirt and be viewed as normal?? do you understand that in a cisheteronormative patriarchal society, a transmasc is viewed as a woman aspiring to maleness, which is inherently good, and a transfem is seen as a man revoking the almightly maleness in favor of inferior womanhood? do you understand that our society sees a transmasc as a confused woman who has the right idea about maleness being desirable? do you understand that our society sees transfems as deranged because its seen as giving up being a man? do you understand why transfems experience more violent enforcement of the patriarchy?????

[soupdreamer]

hey brennan what the fuck

[adelinamoteru]

I’m a big believer in robin jason and red hood jason loving each other. they would kill for each other. they are SO understanding and protective of each other. I genuinely refuse any other pov sorry

[oceanwithouthermoon]

saikis powers are a vital part of him so it makes sense that people who dont know about them cant truly understand his whole self, but its also very silly to me when people act like its the ONLY important part of him... people act like his friends that arent in the know are completely blind to who saiki is, but i feel like that kinda means you missed some major points... he cant keep his powers a secret forever and it DOES matter, but he can still be loved and KNOWN without knowing about them... hes still human, he still has a personality, he still has regular likes and dislikes, etcetc

his friends perspectives on him may have been wrong at first, but they CHANGED... they know him and love him, and theyll KEEP loving him the SAME once they know of his powers...

​some people cough cough cough in this fandom like to reduce saiki to JUST his powers and its so obvious that you just. missed everything. you didnt absorb anything from the show, you just saw it and went "ha, everyone thinks hes just a guy when hes actually super cool and powerful" no no no, he IS cool and powerful but look a little closer and at his core he is still LITERALLY JUST A GUY 😭😭😭

hes such a guy.....

[tigwalen]

I don't understand WHY the first thing some people that are just starting reconnecting jump to is labeling themselves Two-Spirit. I try not to assume things but it really Really comes across as either clout-seeking (often to NON-NATIVES because this info will be asked about among us) or trying to tie yourself further to a community in a non-genuine way that isn't going through the process of interacting with the community they claim. I've said it before but its like some reconnecting people will do EVERYTHING except talk to the people they're claiming.

I want to be clear, doing stuff like claiming things when you dont know the culture doesn't make sense and harms your reconnecting journey.

This person hasn't even completed their geneaology but is apparently so sure that they're wanting to claim a role that you basically HAVE to be connected to the community in some way to claim- There is too much misinformation about Cherokee that at this point unless you're connecting to the community I wouldn't take anyone claiming our Two-Spirit roles or words seriously.

Hi! quick question: if i have confirmed Cherokee ancestry (which I'm working on currently and likely do) even if it's a small amount, is it okay/not appropriation to identify as "two-spirit" (though i don't think that's super accurate in terms of Cherokee-specific traditions, but i think i have heard that cherokee gender roles tended to be more flexible- correct me if i'm wrong.) I'm definitely white + don't know much about Cherokee culture/what is acceptable in terms of being a part of the community.

Ok a big disclaimer that I'm also white and disconnected and this is a very complex topic. But I have looked into this some so I'll try to share what I've learned and ofc check the replies for if anyone has chimed in with corrections or added anything etc

'Two spirit' is a pan-native term used as an umbrella for the many distinct cultural 3rd [or 4th 5th +] genders that many native cultures have or had. I think the consensus I've seen is that it's distinct from just being native and LGBT. And you Have to be native to be 2spirit, there have definitely been nonnative appropriating it

I would say to be 2 spirit you would have to be involved enough in your culture and community to take on community roles according to the cultural 3rd etc gender. Like.. I'm trans and gay, but I'm culturally disconnected. I dont consider myself two spirit, because I'm not in those community roles because I'm disconnected. 2spirit means something specific and it means more than just being trans and native.

As for what the actual cherokee systems were, I'm not sure if I should share what little I know about that on a tumblr post, but I'll say not much of anything has survived to the present. And be careful if you do research it, as an author claiming falsely to be cherokee has written about cherokee 2spirit stuff before but they're a weirdo pretendian. So don't trust anything from a Qwo-li Driscoll.

But yea basically 2spirit isn't just 'LGBT native' and ive seen lots of reconnecting people go 'oh I'm native? I can use this cool native-only term now!' As if it's just a fun thing for natives only just to look cooler or smth, it has more meaning than that and most of it is specific to the culture.

As always, native folks feel free to chime in in the comments