#manifest feminist

[theshiftingwitch]

I know this is mainly an LOA / shifting blog that I keep faceless and anonymous, but in real life I am a staunch feminist with so much burning rage in my veins. So think twice before coming into my inbox to shit on women because you think loa or shifting got a bad rep because of them! You think I'm going to sympathise with you while you throw around the word "female" like it's a curse and blame innocent creators for trying to have fun with their content, think again. I will burn you at the stake before I engage in your misogynistic bullshit. I get you're tired of misinformation but I will block you faster than you can blink for throwing that shit around.

Happy fucking shifting ❤️

[super-nova5045]

i think the reason oliver is such a compelling character - or at least to me, he is - is because in the end…he wins! he gets what he wants and comes out on top.

in this modern world everyone is a bit of an oliver. crippling social anxiety, awkward, booksmart, and later in the film mostly queer audiences STILL find themselves relating to oliver’s struggle of how to express a desire that is so unconventional, so disturbing, so queer. normally in shows like this - shows with stunning rich people and their stunning social skills - the social outcast remains a social outcast. the queercoded character does not get their happy ending and remains the perpetual butt of the joke.

but in saltburn? saltburn almost has a gone girl sort of ending in the way the supposed villain gets what they want in the end, and we’re rooting for them! we see a mostly unexplored perspective in cinema - the perspective of the outsider, of the freak, and we see just how awful these people - beautiful shiny upper class folk - are, and then this outsider, who has been patronised and placed on a pedestal and humiliated, gets his revenge and gets everything he desired in the end. and in a world where queer, different characters are killed off or side lined or made fun off for whom or what they desire, oliver stands out, because he gets what he desires and he makes the audience root for him while he’s doing it.

[corviddusk]

genuinely asking, how does the things you said, and i mean everything, apply or work when the transmasc doesn't pass as a cis man? does he still have privilege?

That's a reasonable question and the answer to it is where things get way more complicated.

Trans men who don't pass primarily do not receive benefits of male privilege in any overt manner and will not have as much of the systemic power as a cis man by far. They will have even less claim to it than cis men who are effeminate. However there are a few variables that could lead to plausible utilize of the category of man- even if it's more difficult. This is common in some things that I used to see going around like advice to be more masculine that was based on toxic masculinity.

Get rid of everything you once loved that is too fem, refuse to wear color, become aggressive and cruel, be meaner, take up more space, refuse to move to the side when someone is walking towards you only women move, etc. Those things are specifically coming from trying to fit in with the cissexist patriarchal "man" rather than men as a masculine class of people. The push to behave in certain manners to be seen as more male is to reaffirm what manhood is- and sometimes people sadly push to reaffirm toxic masculinity. This is by far not the majority but it is indeed a subtle way that trans men can end up unintentionally playing into systemic issues. This usually comes from younger trans guys and by younger I mean children. It's understandable that a lot of people's views on men would be formed in this way.

You may also gain a form of privilege by not being targeted by specific rhetoric or laws that target trans women or specifically those with the same gender marker as you (if you've already changed it) though in cases like we're seeing in my country, the USA, the gender marker will change nothing and you'll be attacked by misogynistic laws regardless. This comes into an odd area of limbo where there's numerous asides and notes and specificities that makes it possible to either be present or not. And the more common privilege that is gained is privilege to not be treated as a trans woman which isn't the same as male privilege and usually also means you get the disprivilege of being treated as a trans man.

Not one transmasculine person can ever hold the same level of power that cis men do in the patriarchy. Even the most stealth and interpersonally misogynistic example you could come up with could easily be dwarfed in impact by the actions of numerous cisgender men. However the ability to be those things without your own rhetoric being applied to yourself as you are obviously not a woman does mean that there's more privilege than when a women who was just as misogynistic would be in the same position. (That was a generalized you I don't believe the anon is misogynistic to be clear).

So yes he would have some privilege over women to a degree that doesn't lead to that massive of an impact, however it's still there and it's important to try to not fall into traps. Part of the pressure while you transition is the pressure to conform to cissexist ideas of man or woman. You don't have to be the overly strong breadwinner who hates his wife and has a man cave and prefers his bro time. You can be loving father, a devoted lover, a solitary man who makes his life his own and wonderous, an author, a painter, anything you desire. You can rely on others and be kind. You can also be weak. There is nothing wrong with not being the ideal man in the eyes of cis people.

Once again I want to emphasize that this is not how all trans men act nor are all going to have power themselves. However the plausibility or capability to utilize certain forms of systemic oppression while not misgendering yourself is a privilege. Transfems cannot experience those specific things without forcing themselves into the closet and further causing harm to them (though that doesn't defend people with internalized issues acting poorly). I believe there are other ways women specifically can uphold patriarchal ideas that are less common than men to do and may eventually talk about that.

Basically non-passing trans men have severely less male privilege than passing trans men. But they have like the smallest amount to where internalized misogyny getting externalized tends to not be self hating as much as it is harmful to others because they're men and not women.

[nico-esoterica]

'Can I manifest a kpop idol?'

You mean that poor boy who gets 1/14th of a cut raging at League of Legends in a sweat soaked gamer chair? And waiting on overpriced takeout who's lonely and overworked af?

Yes, of course it is. Even if he's a multi millionaire, that gamer chair's still crooked and there's an open monster energy drink that's gone flat in the corner somewhere.

[theeternalwombtarot]

The lack of advocacy for choice feminism and the practice of taking away women’s choices, rights and freedoms is exactly what led to the erasure of women’s reproductive rights in multiple US states and almost fully eclipsed them in others!!! The same people who put that in motion are the same people who told your female ancestors that they couldn’t wear pants, weren’t fit to work, and that their lives purpose didn’t include anything outside of child bearing and coddling and enabling a man. The lack of advocacy for choice feminism is the same thing that is still allowing honor killings to take place in areas of the world where it’s not socially accepted to allow women to make their own choices about Theo bodies, where they want to go, who they want to talk to, what they want to wear, etc. come on guys!!!! Come on!!!! let us lead our last two braincells that are still standing after a life lived full of processed junk in the direction of common sense and women's rights!!!

[droitsdesfemmes]

Manifestation féministe à Londres le 13 juin 1908, devant la bannière de Bath, Frances Balfour et Millicent Fawcett. Agence Rol.

[marshmellowtea]

eyeing this post i have in the drafts like do i want to post this. will this get me angry anons

[littlebydigital]

Opening possibilities of a new way of being.

[atopvisenyashill]

i feel bad creeping thru people’s blogs without following them right away but unfortunately i have accidentally followed so many people that seemed normal and turned out to be terfs so i always have to stalk someone’s blog for weeks before i follow now. if u see me all of a sudden liking all your posts for a specific, obscure character there’s a high chance i’ll start following you like a month from now lol

[thechronicmasochist]

I'm taking a class this term that's looking at Chicana feminism and activism and my instructor is so fucking smart and very cool and the other six kids in my class deserve to be hit with large sticks for talking over her all the time and making it so she can't give her fucking lectures on her dissertation topic.

[selfishgeneration]

SELFISH GENERATION https://www.instagram.com/selfish_generation/

[terven--godess]

I've developed so much fatigue over online radfem spaces to be honest, like yeah I still align with the politics and I don't think that'll ever really change, but I'm at a point where I can't get over the inaction of online political spaces…not saying that there's none of this happening but, we have to organize, we have to venture into the material world. There's risks that have to be discussed and addressed sure but there's more risk to staying silent & also strength in numbers. Being crypto is reasonable, but how can we move forward? These are things that need to seriously be considered for any sort of real societal shift or activism to happen, or even for us to just have irl connections which are so, so invaluable and so different from digital ones. The notion that women somehow "ruin" men's happiness through their interests and passions is a projection of men's own insecurities. From making fun of female-dominated hobbies to invalidating their emotional experiences, many men seek to undermine what women value. This pattern of behavior reflects a deeper discomfort with allowing women their own agency, especially when it doesn't align with traditional male ideals of what's important or worthy of respect. Instead of uplifting women, these actions serve to keep them in a subordinate position. Feminist fatigue with online spaces stems from the lack of real-world action. While digital platforms have allowed for the spread of feminist ideas, many activists feel that the movement has stalled. Without organizing in physical spaces, there is a risk that feminist discourse will remain theoretical and disconnected from the tangible change needed to challenge oppressive systems. Reproductive violence is a widespread form of control used by men, religious institutions, and governments to limit women's autonomy. Through the denial of birth control or abortion access, women are forced into unwanted pregnancies or childbirth, reinforcing male control over female bodies. The way internalized misogyny often manifests within certain marginalized groups is striking. frieza: Im derpy, but even I wouldnt crimb LIC. Me:

LIC…DIK…KIB… All sleping. Why is Donkey Kongs banana horde always full of sklebby Super Saiyan Forms? Go to Links kitchen of shame, and dont look back.

[shoujoboy-restart]

Also the actual worry men should have is prostate cancer, so "male breast cancer" is the equivalent of talking about the importance of losing weight and exercise while having a undiagnosed brain tumor. It's virtue signaling, men feel so unable to externalize their feelings and struggles with other men they feel the only alternative is to constantly make women's issue about them and demand pointless sympathy.

[taliabhattwrites]

I don't think there is a significant or notable number of people who believe transmascs are not oppressed.

I feel slightly insane just having to type this out, but this is rhetoric you inevitably come across if you discuss transfeminism on Tumblr.

The mainstream, cissexist understanding of transmasculine people is the Irreversible Damage narrative (one that's old enough to show up in Transsexual Empire as well) of transmascs as "misguided little girls", "tricked" into "mutilating themselves". It is a deliberately emasculating and transphobic narrative that very explicitly centers on oppression, even if the fevered imaginings misattribute the cause. As anyone who's dealt with the gatekeeping medical establishment knows, they are far from giving away HRT or even consults with both hands, and most transfems I know have a hard enough time convincing people to take DIY T advice, leave alone "tricking" anyone into top surgery.

Arguably, the misogyny that transmasculine folks experience is the defining narrative surrounding their existence, as transmasculinity is frequently and erroneously attributed to "tomboyish women" who resent their position in the patriarchy so much they seek to transition out of it. This rhetoric is an invisiblization of transmasculinity, constructed deliberately to preserve gendered verticality, for if it were possible to "gain status" under the sexed regime, its entire basis, its ideological naturalization, would fall apart.

Honestly, the actual discussions I see are centered around whether "transmisogyny" is a term that should apply to transmascs and transfems alike. While I understand the impetus for that discussion, I feel like the assertion that transmisogyny is a specific oppression that transfems experience for our perceived abandonment of the "male sex" is often conflated with the incorrect idea that we believe transmasculine people are not oppressed at all. This is not true, and we understand, rather acutely, that our society is entirely organized around reproductive exploitation. That is, in fact, the source of transfeminine disposability!

I know I'm someone who "just got here" and there is a history here that I'm not a part of, but so much of that history is speckled with hearsay and fabrication that I can't even attempt to make sense of it. All I know is that I, in 2024, have been called a revived medieval slur for effeminate men by people who attribute certain beliefs to me based on my being a trans woman who is also a feminist, and I simply do not hold those views, nor do I know anyone who sincerely does.

If you're going to attempt to discredit a transfeminist, or transfeminism in general, then please at least do us the courtesy of responding to things we actually say and have actually argued instead of ascribing to us phantom ideologies in a frankly conspiratorial fashion. I also implore people to pay attention to how transphobic rhetoric operates out in the wider world, how actual reactionaries talk about and think of trans people, instead of fixating so hard on internecine social media clique drama that one enters an alternate reality--a phantasm, as Judith Butler would put it.

Speaking of which--do y'all have any idea how overrepresented transmascs are in trans studies and queer theory? Can we like, stop and reckon with reality-as-it-is, instead of hallucinating a transfeminine hegemony where it doesn't exist? I'm aware a lot of their output isn't particularly explicative on the material realities of transmasculine oppression despite their prominence in the academy, but that is ... not the fault of trans women, who face extremely harsh epistemic injustice even in trans studies.

The actual issue is how invisiblized transmasculine oppression is and how the epistemicide that transmasculine people face manifests as a refusal to differentiate between the misogyny all women face, reproductive exploitation in particular, and the contours of violence, erasure, and oppression directed at specifically transmasculine people.

You will notice that is a society-wide problem, motivated by a desire to erase the possibilities of transmasculinity, to the point of not even being willing to name it. You will notice that I am quite familiar with how this works, and how it's completely compatible with a materialist transfeminist framework that analyzes how our oppression is--while distinct--interlinked and stems from the same root.

I sincerely hope that whoever needs to see this post sees it, and that something productive--more productive dialogue, at least--can arise from it.

[sbcdh]

On the morning of August 19th 1966, the merchant marine vessel Pelican unloaded its cargo into the port of Los Angeles. Recently declassified information about the Pelican’s ship manifest confirms that the ship was carrying experimental materials for a nascent project Clover. Of the 425 drums of material, only 424 were accounted for. 

While government officials have not confirmed exactly what was in the lost barrel, its contents are believed to be approximately 55 gallons of an experimental substance similar to LSD. 

To anyone with a passing interest in the 1970’s music scene, this will not come as news. Tall tales of a lost ship full of experimental drugs were as common as disco, though the stories have been exaggerated. The most common form of the story features a drunk crane operator loading a shipping crate onto the wrong train, though in reality it was only a single barrel that went unaccounted for. The more outlandish forms of the legend include everything from a daring heist by a crew of rocker-pirates to shadowy government entities vanishing the entire ship for their own nefarious purposes. 

The reality was a simple logistical mixup, a mistake that can be tracked back to a simple addition error on an inventory sheet, an ordinary yet deeply embarrassing mistake on part of the government. Additionally, The information that revealed the lost barrel came alongside a report detailing project clovers lost asset tracking protocol. Protocol that reads as comically naive in hindsight, with guidelines including “monitoring local jazz bars” or keeping an eye out for “feminist thought.” With the benefit of retrospective, it is no surprise that agents were not able to track the barrel. 

Declassification of the Pelican’s manifest prompted an unexpected crossover with another niche legend of the 1970s Los Angeles music scene: the disappearance of the Knights of Altonia. 

Even today, many consider the Knights of Altonia to be a myth, but scant references to their existence can be found. According to a review from a 1977 issue of Jam! Magazine, the Knights of Altonia were a “D-List psychedelic glam metal outfit with more style than skill, known more for their disappearance than their music.” Though a 1997 retrospective from Tempo calls them “A band too ahead of their time to be properly appreciated” noting their flamboyant stage costuming and its significant influence on the aesthetics of the genre. 

To the frustration of music historians seeking to separate fact from fiction, the band featured an elaborate mythology, with each member claiming to be a “Wizard-Knight of the Mystic Tower” who traveled from their world to ours “on a journey through the Nine Realms to find the secret stone.” This has been the source of innumerable urban legends around the band. A common joke among hobbyist historians at the time claimed that the Knights did not vanish, but simply “returned to the Nine Realms.” Information on the band is so muddled that many music historians doubt their existence entirely. In fact, the only confirmed, physical evidence of the band’s existence is a photograph at the bottom of the Jam! Review, it features:

Lead singer and guitarist Donald Hawkins as his stage persona “Zozimos the Wise.” He sports a mane of dreadlocks, and a classic blue wizard hat and robe decorated with yellow stars.The robe is worn open to reveal Donald’s bare chest, along with velvet short-shorts and a pair of thigh-high leather boots. The article states that the glittery bright purple guitar in his hands was named “Excelsior.”

Rhythm guitarist Jon Todachine as “Wan the Witch King.” He wears a deerskin jacket, also open at the front, decorated with what appear to be crow feathers and small animal bones. The theme of bones continues to his belt buckle, which features an as-of-yet unidentified animal skull. This figure is presumed to be Jon, although it should be noted that the broad hat he wears features a curtain of beads that obscures his face. 

Bassist Riley Knox as “Chulainn the Horned.” He wears a full deer skull, along with a lit candle that appears to be slowly melting down over the mask. Most of his upper body is obscured by what appears to be a cloak of leaves. Beneath the cloak he appears to be wearing a pair of Nike Blazers. 

Drummer Marcus Wilson as “Magnus Fire-Weaver.” He wears a viking helmet over intricately braided red hair, a chain-maille loincloth, a pair of medieval bracers on his wrists, and nothing else. 

Most notably, a speaker on stage left is placed upon a large steel drum identical to the ones used by project clover. 

Study is ongoing. 

[autolenaphilia]

Edit: as hoshi9zoe pointed out, the original version of this post needlessly berated other transfems like Jennifer Coates, for which I do apologize, and I have toned it down in this edited version. The original version survives in reblogs.

Some months ago, I was searching through this transandrobro blog to see if they posted a callout of me, and i found this reblog, which I couldn't really write about for months, because what do I even write. I recently wayback machined it for posterity, and I guess this is my attempt to write a post about it.

It's saint-dyke himself, the coiner of transandrophobia, saying that the infamous (at least for me) article "I am a transwoman. I'm in the closet. I'm not coming out" is what made him coin the fucking word. It's literally bolded and underlined: "Reading this article is what made me coin “transandrophobia”.

The reason I put off writing this post is that reading that article makes me feel like i'm drinking poison. And it is poison, make no mistake, it's internalized transmisogyny brainworms dripping out of the writer's brain and onto the page.

It's a justification for why the author, known by pseudonym Jennifer Coates, doesn't want to transition, despite knowing she is a trans woman. And it's the exact kind of internalized transmisogyny that keeps trans women in repression and not transitioning. "I'm not going to pass, i'm forever going to be an ugly freak who will at best be humored by other women, the closet is uncomfortable but at least it's safe"

It's the same exact bullshit a lot of represssed trans women tell themselves because it's what society tells us about trans women, that we are freakish parodies of women, that we will never pass, and if we don't pass we have failed and are ugly freaks. It's all to scare us into staying in the closet and make others hate and fear us. Transmisogyny permeates our society, and the majority, maybe all transfems will absorb and internalize some of it.

Coates says that it all is just applicable to her, but again so many transfems believe this shit before transitioning and realizing it's a pack of lies. If this bullshit was in any way valid, a lot of trans women shouldn't transition, because before we actually transition many of us believe it word for word. And "it's only true for me" is how we justify it to ourselves. We tend to be way harsher on ourselves than others. This kind of self-hating transfem tends to think: "Other trans women are beautiful graceful goddesses, earthly manifestations of the divine feminine, always destined to be women, while I'm an ugly forever male ogre who just has a fetish."

It's all bullshit, it's poison, it's internalized transmisogyny.

And the rest of the article is bullshit too. It is not some insightful mediation on gender as some people say, it's the author confusing and mixing up actual transmisogyny with an imagined problem of misandry. She does this because she has gone full repression mode, and decided she has no other choice to live as a man, so her dysphoria and experiences of transmisogyny are actually men's problems.

It's a bad article, excusable because as Coatas points out, it's "essentially a diary entry." that was meant to be a way to "vent frustration" and she "did not intend for anyone else to actually read it." It is clearly not the product of a healthy mind.

I hope the author sometime in the past seven years eventually did transition, and that for whatever reason she didn't want to publicly repudiate her own article. Maybe she lost access to the medium account so she can't delete it.

Far worse than the article itself is the response to it. I've seen it passed around as some insightful commentary on gender by the "feminists are too mean to men, misandry is real" crowd. I have argued against this before. And other people have made insightful comments about it.

And learning that saint-dyke claiming that he was inspired to coin the word "transandrophobia" because of this article is the cherry on top of this shitcake of transmisogyny. For my thoughts on "transandrophobia" theory and how transmisogynistic it is, see here.

Of course, Saint-dyke absolutely could be bullshitting here. Claiming that Coates's article is what inspired him to coin the word might be a lie to claim that transandrophobia theory is not transmisogynistic because it came from listening to trans women.

This is why "listen to trans women" doesn't work. Because TME people will always choose a trans woman who confirms their prejudices. Blair White has made an entire career out of this. And Coates article is popular because it says that misandry is real and trans women's issues are partly caused by it, misgendering herself and other trans women.

And it's popular for another reason. Coates has thoroughly internalized transmisogyny, and thus her article presents a trans woman that is exactly as transmisogynistic patriarchal society wants her to be. She is suffering, but ultimately accepts her assigned role. She truly believes that her biological sex dooms her to forever be male. She literally "manages her dysphoria by means other than transition" as conversion therapy advocates want us to do. She never makes an social claim on womanhood by actually transitioning, so she doesn't invade the sacred women's spaces. Yet she performs the role of woman perfectly by serving men, by defending them from supposed feminist misandry. And she fulfils the ritualistic role that the rhetorical figure of "trans women" sometimes serves in progressive spaces, of giving a blessing to TME people's pre-existing views and actions, all while actual flesh-and-blood trans women are destroyed by those same deeply transmisogynistic spaces. This time it's a blessing for the same "misandry is real" soft-MRA bullshit that has infested the online left and created the transandrophobia crowd.

That is why this article and the positive response makes me sick, makes me feel like i'm drinking poison. This is what its fans want trans women to be like. I'm acutely aware this kind of self-denial is exactly what transmisogyny wants from me and tried to indoctrinate me into doing it. And I want none of it. I want to live, I want to be a woman.