#protect black trans men

[whereserpentswalk]

It’s fascinating that you think trans people’s names come to them like wands in Harry Potter, you can’t just culturally appropriate bc you’re trans

Ok, this is about comments I made like a year ago on a comedy bit. While I stand by my feelings that the bit was bad and transphobic, my reasons why are a lot diffrent.

When I first wrote the comments my arguments were very thermian. I treated the story the comic was telling as if it was real and objective. Which feels right for most people, because stand up comedy is often presented like conversation, where we do treat stories like that as real things. But that's not how comedy works, comedians don't tell stories the way we do in conversation, they're creatives, the stories they tell are basically fictional, the art form might look like real conversations but it's not.

Comedians want to make you laugh, and sometimes want to send a message or make you think about things in a new way, but they have no reason to want to portray events accurately. They might be basing some things off of real experiences, but that's true for everyone, Tolkien might have chosen to explore his experience in world war one in lord of things, that doesn't mean we have to argue about orcs as if they're real entities when we're talking about if those books were racist.

So let's actually look at the skit, and analyze its outlook on trans people keeping in mind its a story that a cis man is telling, and not actual events: So the summery of the skit is that a white trans man comes out to his to his family, and he picked a name you'd expect a black person to have. He has older black relatives (who are implied to fully accept him, which would make him possibly the only trans person on earth with a fully accepting family) who refuse to use this name, and instead call him "the boy". The sketch ends with the comedian saying he should pick a name like Kevin, because even if he's trans he's not interesting (keep your thoughts on that last one).

Now, ignoring how this would play out in real life, what does this as a peice of fiction say about trans people:

First off: it's creating a plausible but unlikely situation where the woke thing to do is to not respect a trans person's identity. A lot of political humor exists to call ideas into question with hypotheticals, and the idea being questioned here is the idea that trans people's identities deserve respect.

Second off: it's creating a situation where a trans person is entitled and arogent for wanting his identity respected. In the fiction this trans person is that. But it's promoting the idea that they are in real life. Transphobes will show you a lot of spooky examples of trans identities that are unreasonable to respect, but that's not useally ever what it's like in real life. (An otherkin robotgirl isn't going to demand you communicate with her through beeps and boops, she probably just wants you not to laugh at her.)

Third off: it's pitting minorities agaisnt eachother. Conservatives love this, but it's super common when people try to convince progressives to a specific group from their advocacy. It shows us a world where trans rights and poc rights are at odds with eachother, in the real world they aren't, in the real world they're part of one larger struggle and diminishing one is diminishing the other. A lot of people do this with different identities, lgb types do it with gayness, terfs do it with womanhood, class reductionists do it with class, trscum do it between trans people. But it doesn't help one oppressed group when you shit on a diffrent oppressed group in their name. It's white conservatives who love it the most when trans people and poc at pit agaisnt eachother, and it's trans poc who suffer the most.

Fourth off: it's feeds into a very old myth amoung queerphobic progressives, which is the idea that queer people are privileged people looking to pose as the marginalized to get special rights. This is a myth we really have to get over, because its been internalized by a lot of people, and we get these hunts for fake minorities. This is why the "you're not interesting" line sticks out to me. Most trans people don't give themselves appropriative names, but trans people as a group constantly get accused of trying to steal other people's struggles. This is a myth that preys on the fact that white skined white colar queer people are more visible, and its one that is based on treating that disparity in visibility as a fact. We have to cut this out, nobody fakes minority status to get privileges because minorities aren't privileged. It's not true for queer people, even the queer people other queer people hate like bi people and ace people. It's not true about mentally ill and ND people, or converts to non Christian religions, or East Asian people, or anyone who gets accused of this. Stop it dearly.

Fifth off: this entire sketch is based in the idea that families can accept their trans kids, but only conditionally, only if they prove themselves to be doing it for the right reasons, and they please their family's whims. This is a transphobic idea, it's a transphobic idea most neolibs hold. Comedy bits are a lot like story books (no shade at either) where a problem is presented at the beginning, and a solution at the end, that the audience is expected to take for their own problems. And the solution here is a form of transphobia, the idea that trans people aren't owned acceptance, they need to earn it. I've seen a lot of trans people tormented by their families over that idea. And when a person of color goes and stage and wraps that idea in racial justice, it's young trans poc who get hurt by it the most.

Sixth off: not a huge point, but I feel like a cis black man, of all cis people, should be the most likely to understand that calling a trans man a boy is dehumanizing and insulting. I guess this goes to show he's not interested in thinking about how trans people's struggles are like his, he stands alongside a lot of marginalized trans people there.

Finally I kind of don't know how to end this. This is long. Really long. I don't know whose going to read this, because its a lot. Hopefully you got a bit of media literacy from reading all of this. Early on in my tumblr career, when I had just moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan, I had read an essay by @wifelinkmtg about a concept called the ditch. The idea was we often argue about media wrong, talking about things in hyper literal cannon obsessed terms, and that was the ditch, the ditch we dig for ourselves when we ignore things like themes and audience experiences. Hopefully this series of words dug less of a ditch than my words did a year ago. Sorry I don't have the actual sketch on hand. Mabye I'm wrong, but if someone wants to prove me wrong I'd rather they do it outside of a ditch. Mabye the ask wasn't even about that post. Mabye I'm tired. Maybe you should be tired too.

Sorry for the long post. Media literacy matters. Black trans lives matter. Goodbye, enjoy your night well.

[rebellum]

Begging and vomiting and puking and crying to try to remind white trans people that You Are White, you have white privilege, regardless of your gender or sex assigned at birth.

[spidermartini]

[iridesca-conjurecraft]

Made somethin

[rome-theeempire]

Went to the pool and I was surrounded by kids and teenagers. There were two little kids, a girl and a boy, I was spinning them around in a circle and they suddenly asked me if I was a boy or a girl. Very typical question from kids and I just went to my default and said "I'm a girl" and the kids were just like "no, you look like a boy" and i said "I do? Are you more comfortable calling me a boy?" And the boy said "Yes you're a boy", and I dunked them in the pool.

THEN! I was playing chicken with these three girls they were like 12, I was there to watch one of them, and they heard me tell the two kids I was a girl and then THEY were like "wait? You're a girl? I thought you was a boy" and I thought about telling them but then I didn't feel like explaining, it was like 7:00pm so I was like "yea" and one of em said "damn I was gonna ask for your snap" I'M 19 NO!

But overall I felt very assured today, it was honestly pretty cool it happened in a pool cuz I usually DREAD going to the pool cuz I'll find a good swimsuit: trunks, shirt BOOM but then I get out of the water and my form would scream GIRL! FEMALE! WOMAN! LADY!

(Also apparently I'm an official babysitter now)

Do your planks and pushups kids👍🏾

[indio-politics]

I don’t give a fuck if I make white women uncomfortable. It’s not my job as an Indigiqueer to make myself palatable, small, quiet, and center the comfort of my oppressors. This world is unsafe because of the actions of white women just as much as it is because of white men. Black, Brown, and Indigenous men shouldn’t have to mask and assimilate to be viewed as the non-threatening man of color. But sadly that’s our reality. I wish I could say something inspiring like “be loud! take up space! make those crackas uncomfortable” but that could get us beat shot or killed.

[eye-scream-girls]

Oh boy. Someone I trusted just hit me with an absolute slew of transphobic 'opinions' and I have the worst emotional whiplash and disgust.

I will never look at her the same. She had the audacity to say that she's still a trans ally, and still wants to go to Pride with me and just... girl, we aren't even in the same library.

What the actual fuck.

[jaybirdbluelily]

MY AUNT BETTER STAY AWAY FROM POLITICS THIS SUNDAY, OR IM COMING FOR HER HEAD

[thepenguinflash]

Hi hello yes I'm here.

I'm also very aware that I am one data point and do not represent all (or most) transmascs and just because I have access to male privilege the vast majority of the time it doesn't mean all (or most) transmascs have access to male privilege.

And is this transmasc with male privilege in the room with us?

[pocket-deer-boy]

Starting to think it's just straight up incorrect analysis to view terfs as even viewing trans women as men, and that they hate trans women for their masculinity (and by extention being characterized by hatred for men and masculinity). Instead, i think you have to view their comments on trans women and their bodies as intentionally and forcefully masculinizing a woman, excluding her from womanhood for not fitting into white women's beauty and body standards. Many people have noted that this is similair to how black women are historically and today masculinized in society, and indeed terfs commonly attack women of color for similair things. If it is about hating men it's noticable that they don't talk about men the same way, "men" are only ever a threat if she's a woman. Any other man is allowed to be an ally to the terf movement if he's "protecting women" (by excluding certain types of woman). It's misogyny, it's transmisogyny, everything about this structurally replicates the ways women are mistreated by society generally, and excluded from femininity, just lazerfocused on targeting trans women.

[cedarnommer]

A trans person was assaulted for trying to comply to transphobic demands on going to the "correct" bathroom. And the response from transphobes was merely that she deserved it. That it's "boys just fighting". That this is so that women are kept safe.

I know this site is full of TERFs. And so, I want to focus the attention towards you. Your belief system is just very disjointed. Women should have their own spaces and defeat the patriarchy. Yet somehow men are inherently powerful and violent. We should dismantle the patriarchal system. Yet "boys fighting" is acceptable, even as one person is a trans femme that was attacked. No matter how patient and compassionate people can be towards you, you vilify us and support men that do this to us. You are not fighting for women's rights. Likely your movement will hinge back to racism if we ever get wiped out as you seek us to be. Your ideas won't protect lesbians. They won't protect black women. They won't even protect you.

We can't use a public restroom. We can't use locker rooms. Are we going to be a threat to you just for existing publicly at some point? As cis men and women murder us and rape us?

And I want to know, where does that help you? If we get killed off are you going to be safer from cis men? Is this fun to you? Trying to ruin our lives? To tell us how we're supposed to feel and identity? Do you know why we start having violent responses to our abusers? Do you not realize you are behaving like the said men you despise?

Your movement is rotten. It's protecting men. And it's endangering us. All I can say is go fuck yourselves for all of this.

[myheartticks]

these are for my school projects, it would help me out a lot if anyone could fill these out!

[magnetothemagnificent]

Transphobes aren't attacking bathrooms randomly. It's not about protecting women and children, it's about preventing trans people from participating in public life.

Access to toilet facilities are essential to being able to participate in public life.

It's why society was so reluctant to introduce public bathrooms for women, because before that all public bathrooms were for men only.

It's why society was so reluctant to desegregate toilets for Black people.

It's why society was and is so reluctant to create disability-accessible bathroom stalls.

If a person can't access a toilet, then it's extremely difficult to impossible for them to participate in society.

So, the best way to exclude a group of people from society without putting up a literal sign saying "x group of people not allowed" is to prevent them from accessing the bathroom.

[walks-the-ages]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but regurgitating Radical Feminism talking point of

"Men are all Inherently Evil, Physically Superior, and Predatory to Women"

does not, in fact, do anything for Actual Feminism where the main talking point is

"We are all Human Beings and we're not Intrinsically Different based on the gender some random doctors decided on at birth"

and you're not doing anything for Queer Solidarity either when you go around proclaiming that all men, including trans men, are these evil oppressive monsters who have advantages in life based purely on their gender (even if they are trans men who are not out of the closet yet, apparently) , and I'm not sure why on earth the new crop of Trans-Inclusive Rad Fems think that being 'proud misandrists' is going to save them from being targeted by cis transphobes??? You can't win protection from transphobes by throwing your fellow trans community under the bus, and when you go around saying that all men are disgusting oppressive predators who have never done anything for the queer community ever and have never experienced any true oppression ever its like. ....

.... what the fuck is wrong with you?

Did you forget the AIDs crisis exists?

Did you forget the gay and bi men exist?

Did you forget that Black men exist??

The world's oppression does not begin and end with trans women, and if you're happy to throw the rest of the trans community under the bus so you can feel superior, I don't know who the heck you expect to have your back when you need help, because everyone else has already been run the fuck over, because you fucking threw them in the road because you somehow still think Respectability Politics is gonna save you instead of leaving your Exclusionist Bubble the community that ends up alone and isolated.

Trust me. Life is a lot more bearable and hopeful when you don't go around insisting an entire 50% of humanity is evil based on their gender. Try talking to your fellow trans men, trans mascs, nonbinary people and intersex people before you make another post about how """theyfabs have it so easy and trans men are inherently privalaged and evil because they're men and they shouldn't talk about reproductive health or the need for safe abortions because that's just speaking over women""" 🤦🤦🤦

[robertreich]

When the KKK Murdered My Childhood Friend 

When the Ku Klux Klan murdered my protector, it made me see the world differently.

I was always the shortest kid in school, which made me an easy target for bullies. To protect myself, I got into the habit of befriending older boys who’d watch my back.

One summer when I was around 8 years old I found Mickey, a kind and gentle teenager with a ready smile who made me feel safe.

Over the years, I lost track of Mickey. It wasn’t until the fall of 1964, my freshman year in college, that I heard what had happened to him.

Several months before, Mickey, whose full name was Michael Schwerner, had gone to Mississippi to register Black voters during what was known as “Freedom Summer.”

On June 21, Michael and two other civil rights workers, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, were arrested near Philadelphia, Mississippi by Neshoba County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Ray Price, for allegedly speeding.

That night, after they paid their speeding ticket and left the jail, Deputy Price followed them, stopped them again, ordered them into his car, and took them down a deserted road where he turned them over to a group of his fellow Ku Klux Klan members. They were beaten, shot at point-blank range, and buried in an earthen dam. Their bodies weren’t found until August 4.

The state of Mississippi refused to bring charges against any of the Klan members. Eventually, the U.S. Justice Department brought federal charges against Price and 17 others.

An all-white jury found seven of the defendants guilty, including Price. Ultimately none would serve more than six years behind bars.

When the news reached me that Mickey, my childhood protector, had been murdered by white supremacists — by violent bullies who would stop at nothing to prevent Black people from exercising their right to vote — something snapped inside me.

I began to see everything differently.  Before then, I understood bullying as a few kids picking on me for being short. Now I saw bullying on a larger scale, all around me. In Black people bullied by whites. In workers bullied by bosses. In girls and women bullied by men. In the disabled or gay or poor or sick or immigrant bullied by employers, landlords, insurance companies, and politicians.

Sixty years after the Freedom Summer murders, America still wrestles with bullies — a rise in hate crimes targeting people of color, LGBTQ people, immigrants, Jews, and Muslims — new laws restricting the right to vote, banning books, and stripping Americans of reproductive freedoms — leaders who insult and demean people with disabilities, women, and trans kids.

We must never give in to cruelty and violence. It is incumbent on all of us to stand up to bullies and be each other’s protectors.

[squireofgeekdom]

contemplating this further and i think this would also work - and potentially be better as - a 6 episode miniseries, to give it more space to breathe

this is distinct from what i'd do for cass in a more conventional multi season, 13 or, if we're truly returning to form, 26 episodes a season, which would be much different in both structure and tone. think episodic dramady/almost slice of life sort of vibes?

like, in a period where cass is operating in a city outside of but close to gotham, like in batgirl (2000) when she's running around in bludhaven, in that era where she's figuring out who she is as a civilian outside of being a superhero (while still being a superhero)

like, think something along the lines of season 1 of supergirl in terms of the combination of humor/drama/action, except rather than figuring out a superhero identity it's the reverse. (might even just call it cass wayne for that vibe) and like, I've only seen bits of a couple of unbreakable kimmy schmidt episodes but like, also that same grew up in horrible circumstances that left you totally unprepared for being in the world as a person, handled with a lighter tone. and since it's cass like, when she's out of step with social expectation or whatever 9 times out of 10 she's just like wow. sucks to suck. obviously i am doing this better than you. which I think is a delightful avenue to do comedy poking fun at stupid/absurd social norms - as well as like. give full rein to cass's canonical sharp sense of humor. (and other things from batgirl (2000) like her picking up things from tv, occasional obliviousness-to-the-point-of-comedy, etc) (my brain also keeps going to btvs as another point of reference in structure and tone)

also things like a running thread of cass struggling with and learning speaking and reading, and then getting very into reading ala batgirls. etc.

the batfam would show up as recurring characters but like, she'd have her own supporting cast. maybe alysia yeoh has coincidentally moved to the same city before cass does and barbara asks her to look out for her, so there's someone who knows cass in both civilian and superhero identity. but then of course, there's identity shenanigans with people cass befriends as a civilian (like her friend at the cafe in batgirl 2000) vs people befriends as a superhero (like the family with the vietnamese restaurant in batgirl 2024), and cass's frequently indifferent attention to maintaining a secret identity (potential for delightful comedy of people knowing who she is and pretending she is maintaining a secret identity anyway, potential for drama of people protecting her secret identity)

and of course there's still superhero action and being able to do more dramatic plotlines with shiva or cain or various batfam related conflict, and also potentially doing stuff with folks outside of the batfam, like with xanthe zhou in spirit world. and i'm of course picturing steph as the endgame love interest but with a multi-season show there would be some time for cass to explore different relationships

and of course your series finale ends with the flash forward to her taking on The Bat mantle

i am thinking... about a cass movie

it is just called 'the bat' and it is told nonlinearly over three different periods in cass's life