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dhddmods · 27 days ago

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When will people start listening and caring?

When will people stop ignoring the epidemic of eating disorders that comes from our society? When will people acknowledge orthorexia? When will they stop promoting false diets and listening to diet culture? When will people stop equating fatness with health, and realize that fat people can be underweight too? When will they stop mocking fatness or treating it as an undesirable trait, and instead start treating it as a natural human variance? When will people care that fat people are being refused life saving or life improving surgery, on the basis of their weight? Or that fat people aren't allowed to donate their bodies to science?

When will people care about disabled people (including those who cannot communicate, work, upkeep hygiene, etc)? When will they care about the lack of even the most basic of accommodations, for physical, sensory, and neurological disabilities alike? About how literal doctors cannot be trusted to give people proper treatment, especially if they have highly stigmatized conditions?

When will people stop fakeclaiming, and instead think about how "fakers" are VERY likely to just have a somatoform disorder or some other condition that they are misunderstanding? And that fakeclaiming creates more harm than good?

When will people start caring about all forms of neurodivergence, and stop picking and choosing what to support? When will they stop acting like there is an "evil disorder" or "abuse disorder"?

When will people stop listening to pop psychology? When will they stop using stigmatizing language towards neurodivergent people (misusing terms like narcissist, sociopath, psychopath, OCD, PTSD, bipolar, schizo, etc?) When will they stop saying "empathy/sympathy" when what they really mean is compassion or kindness?

When will people see that a majority of sexual offenders don't have a paraphilic disorder? And that most people with paraphilic disorders are pro-recovery? When will people view it as a genuine disorder that they do not choose to have?

When will people stop being so obsessed with traumagenic vs non-traumagenic plurality, and focus instead on the oppression all systems face? Focus instead on the severe lack of research into plurality (and all stigmatized mental conditions)? Or focus on how there are still doctors actively attempting to "debunk" plurality?

When will people start caring about the horrendous justice system? The literal torture of prisoners (isolation, physical abuse, emotional abuse, ableism, sexism, etc)? The focus on punishment over rehabilitation? The constant false imprisonment, especially of those who are part of marginalized communities?

When will people start caring about homeless people and people in poverty? When will people care about the homeless people in the streets, most of whom became homeless due to disability, abuse, or being underpaid or given impossible bills to pay? When will people care that thousands of houses are sitting empty right now, when they could be housing a homeless person?

When will people care about the violence happening in the Middle East, and the people who are losing their homes and are desperate for aid?

When will people start listening to Indigenous people when they explain that they are still actively facing erasure and genocide?

When will people start caring about the countries which have its citizens trapped (ie; North Korea)?

When will people start listening to the racism BIPOC still face all around the world? Or BIPOC people in the LGBTQIA+ community, and how race directly correlates with their queer experiences?

When will people learn the difference between sexual attraction, libido, and sexual arousal? When will they acknowledge that ace-specs and aro-specs can be partnering or non-partnering, and that neither is better than the other? When will they acknowledge that anae-spec, apl-spec, afam-spec, and asen-spec people also exist, also experience unique oppression, and that the term a-spec includes them? When will they stop using "a-spec" to mean "aroace-spec"?

When will people stop enforcing monogamy onto people, and allow ethical non-monogamy and non-partnering people to thrive?

When will people listen and realize that people can have complicated relationships with their gender, sex, attraction, hence why contradictory labels (lesboy, turigirl, m-spec lesbian, m-spec gay, etc) exist? Or that they could have multiple genders, a mixed gender, split attraction, or fluid attraction?

When will people start listening to trans men, intersex men, and other queer mascs when they explain their experiences with transandrophobia and androqueerphobia? When will people stop telling them its "just misogyny" (when that argument could be used for ANY gender or sex oppression in existence, as all gender/sex oppression has a basis in misogyny?) When will people accept that queer mascs deserve to have words to explain their SPECIFIC experiences, and how the words transandrophobia & androqueerphobia are meant to describe how misogyny intersects with anti-masculine, anti-trans, anti-intersex, and even anti-BIPOC rhetoric?

When will people stop putting "cis men DNI" in their bio, actively pushing away cis queer men and forcing trans people to out themselves?

When will people stop imposing new binaries on people ("TMA/TME")? When will people stop using transmasc & transfem as catch-all terms, and acknowledge that many non-binary people fall into other categories, like transandrogynous, transneutral, transnull, transgenderless, transxenine, transoutherine, transaporine, multigender, or multiple of those categories? When will people stop gendering HRT?

When will people start normalizing non-binary specific labels, rather than forcing every enban to use binary-centric terms when many of them don't want to?

When will people stop using AFAB & AMAB as synonyms for mullerian and wolffian? When will people understand that AFAB =/= born with a vulva and AMAB =/= born with a penis? When will people stop saying transness is "identifying against your AGAB", when that's not the case for many enben and intersex trans people?

When will people start listening to the countless intersex people who explain the horrific medical abuse (genital & reproductive mutilation, hormone abuse, misdiagnosis, underdiagnosis, stigmatization), selective abortion, and exclusion they face? When will they stop using the terms DSD/disorder of sexual development, urogenital disorder/deformity, reproductive disorder/deformity, hormone disorder, and chromosome disorder to refer to intersex traits & variations?

When will people start listening when intersex people tell them that the h-slur is a slur (even when it's used on animals), and to use other words (ie; cosexed) instead? And that intersex animals aren't examples of transness in nature?

When will people understand that intersex is a large spectrum, and that it is not synonymous with cosexed, and that not all intersex people have mixed sex traits? When will people understand that intersex and perisex are not personally selectable, and that being intersex is born and something you develop during puberty, and that "transintersex" is impossible? When will people stop fetishizing intersex stereotypes in pornography? When will people stop using salmacian or transintersex, and use aphrodisian or other terms instead?

When will people stop using intersex people's existence or medical abuse as a "gotcha" towards bigots? ("Cis people are allowed to get hormones but we aren't", "trans people are valid because sex isn't binary", etc)? When will perisex transgender/altersex people stop saying they "wish they were intersex" or pretending to be intersex to doctors in order to receive treatment (which perpetuates the medical abuse intersex people face, by implying that intersexuality needs "correction")? When will people realize that all anti-trans laws are also anti-intersex, and it's not "misdirected transphobia", but rather very direct and intentional in most cases?

When will people stop gendering brains? When will people stop gendering sports, and instead categorize them based on physical size and skill? When will people stop gendering restrooms?

When will people start caring about female genital mutilation, which is still prevalent around the world? Or male genital mutilation, which happens in some cultures too?

When will people stop demonizing a woman being hairy, muscular, or not traditionally feminine? Or a man being not traditionally masculine?

When will people start caring about reproductive rights? When will people start teaching about comprehensive sex education? When will people teach intersex variations in school, when it's super simple to do? Or queer sex? Or pregnancy symptoms? Or how STDs can be passed through any sexual contact, not just genital-to-genital sex?

When will people take sexual violence seriously? When will people stop blaming it on clothes or flirtatious behavior? When will people stop acting like sexual violence is just forced penetration? When will people realize that oral rape, forcing fetishes/kinks onto others, stealthing (messing with or lying about condoms/birth control), sending unsolicited sexual images or comments, asking invasive questions about a person's urogenital & reproductive anatomy, and spying on people in vulnerable states is sexual violence?

When will people understand that making intimate fanfiction or fanart of real people to post it online (without that person's consent) is harassment?* (*Writing or drawing things about real people privately is different, you are allowed to fantasize, but posting it online IS harassment - even if you think they'll "never see it." And it's different if you are making content about the characters that they play rather then the actors themselves.)

When will people stop being pro-birth? When will people care about the thousands of people with uteruses who are being forced to carry the fetuses of their abusers, or fetuses who are unfit for life (as in, literally will not survive outside of the womb)? Or how children and teenagers are being forced to carry pregnancies? Or the people suffering from ectopic pregnancy who aren't allowed to get it removed? Or the people who can't have tumors or cysts removed because removing anything from a uterus counts as an "abortion" by law in some locations?

When will people stop supporting eugenicist ideas, and calling it "pro-choice?" When wil people start encouraging others to consider that their child (born or adopted) might not be able-bodied, able-minded, or perisex, and that they have to be prepared for that if they want to be a parent?

When will people care about the millions of children in foster care? When will people care about how messed up the foster system is? How kids are constantly being abused? How many kids get stripped away from their families at a whim the second that CPS is called, even when it's unjust? How families who cannot afford or function to feed or tend to their children have their parental rights removed, instead of being given the financial or health aid they need? How most foster kids age out and end up homeless or in abusive situations?

Will people ever listen, or will they forever ignore or stigmatize marginalized communities? Are you part of the problem?

Will you ever stop treating these things as merely internet discourse, and instead treat them as the serious issues that they are?

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canichangemyblogname · 1 year ago

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I watched all eight episodes of season 1 of Blue Eye Samurai over the weekend. I then went browsing because I wanted to read some online reviews of the show to see what people were thinking of it and also because I wanted to interact with gifs and art, as the series is visually stunning.

Yet, in my search for opinions on the show, I came across several points I'd like to address in my own words:

Mizu’s history and identity are revealed piece-by-piece and the “peaches” scene with Mizu and Ringo at the lake is intended to be a major character reveal. I think it’s weird that some viewers got angry over other viewers intentionally not gendering Mizu until that reveal, rather than immediately jumping to gender the character as the other characters in the show do. The creators intentionally left Mizu’s gender and sexuality ambiguous (and quite literally wrote in lines to lead audiences to question both) to challenge the viewer’s gut assumption that this lone wolf samurai is a man. That intentional ambiguity will lead to wide and ambiguous interpretations of where Mizu fits in, if Mizu fits in at all. But don't just take my word for this:

Re: above. I also think it’s weird that some viewers got upset over other viewers continuing to acknowledge that Mizu has a very complicated relationship with her gender, even after that reveal. Canonically, she has a very complicated relationship with her identity. The character is intended to represent liminality in identity, where she’s often between identities in a world of forced binaries that aren’t (widely) socially recognized as binaries. But, again, don’t just take my word for this:

Mizu is both white and Japanese, but she is also not white and not Japanese simultaneously (too white to be Japanese and too Japanese to be white). She’s a woman and a man. She’s a man who’s a woman. She’s also a woman who’s not a woman (yet also not quite a man). But she’s also a woman; the creators said so. Mizu was raised as a boy and grew into a man, yet she was born a girl, and boyhood was imposed upon her. She’s a woman when she’s a man, a man when she’s a man, and a woman when she’s a woman.

Additionally, Mizu straddles the line between human and demon. She’s a human in the sense she’s mortal but a demon in the sense she’s not. She's human yet otherworldly. She's fallible yet greatness. She's both the ronin and the bride, the samurai and the onryō. In short, it’s complicated, and that’s the point. Ignoring that ignores a large part of her internal character struggle and development.

Mizu is intended to represent an “other,” someone who stands outside her society in every way and goes to lengths to hide this “otherness” to get by. Gender is a mask; a tool. She either hides behind a wide-brimmed hat, glasses, and laconic anger, or she hides behind makeup, her dress, and a frown. She fits in nowhere, no matter the identity she assumes. Mizu lives in a very different time period within a very different sociocultural & political system where the concept of gender and the language surrounding it is unlike what we are familiar with in our every-day lives. But, again, don’t just take my word for this:

It’s also weird that some viewers have gotten upset over the fact women and queer people (and especially queer women) see themselves in Mizu. Given her complicated relationship with identity under the patriarchy and colonial violence, I think Mizu is a great character for cis-het women and queer folks alike to relate to. Her character is also great for how she breaks the mold on the role of a biracial character in narratives about identity (she’s not some great bridge who will unite everyone). It does not hurt anyone that gender-fluid and nonbinary people see themselves in Mizu's identity and struggle with identity. It does not hurt anyone that lesbians see themselves in the way Mizu expresses her gender. It does not hurt anyone that trans men see themselves in Mizu's relationship with manhood or that trans women can see themselves in Mizu when Mama forces her to be a boy. It's also really cool that cis-het women see themselves in Mizu's struggles to find herself. Those upset over these things are missing critical aspects of Mizu's character and are no different from the other characters in the story. The only time Mizu is herself is when she’s just Mizu (“…her gender was Mizu”), and many of the other characters are unwilling to accept "just Mizu." Accepting her means accepting the complicatedness of her gender.

Being a woman under the patriarchy is complicated and gives women a complicated relationship with their gender and identity. It is dangerous to be a woman. Women face violence for being women. Being someone who challenges sex-prescribed norms and roles under patriarchy also gives someone a complicated relationship with their identity. It is dangerous to usurp gender norms and roles (then combine that with being a woman...). People who challenge the strict boxes they're assigned face violence for existing, too. Being a racial or ethnic minority in a racially homogeneous political system additionally gives someone a complicated relationship with their identity. It is dangerous to be an ethnic minority when the political system is reproduced on your exclusion and otherness. They, too, face violence for the circumstances of their birth. All of these things are true. None of them take away from the other.

Mizu is young-- in her early 20s-- and she has been hurt in deeply affecting ways. She's angry because she's been hurt in so many different ways. She's been hurt by gender violence, like "mama's" misogyny and the situation of her birth (her mother's rape and her near murder as a child), not to mention the violent and dehumanizing treatment of the women around her. She's been hurt by racial violence, like the way she has been tormented and abused since childhood for the way she looks (with people twice trying to kill her for this before adulthood). She's been hurt by state-sanctioned violence as she faces off against the opium, flesh, and black market traders working with white men in contravention of the Shogun's very policies, yet with sanction from the Shogun. She's been hurt by colonial violence, like the circumstances of her birth and the flood of human trafficking and weapons and drug trafficking in her country. She's had men break her bones and knock her down before, but only Fowler sexually differentiated her based on bone density and fracture.

Mizu also straddles the line between victim and murderer.

It seems like Mizu finding her 'feminine' and coming to terms with her 'female side' may be a part of her future character development. Women who feel caged by modern patriarchal systems and alienated from their bodies due to the patriarchy will see themselves in Mizu. They understand a desire for freedom that the narrow archetypes of the patriarchy do not afford them as women, and they see their anger and their desire for freedom in Mizu. This, especially considering that Mizu's development was driven by one of the creators' own experiences with womanhood:

No, Mizu does not pass as a man because she "hates women" or because she hates herself as a woman or being a woman. There are actual on-screen depictions of Mizu's misogyny, like her interactions with Akemi, and dressing like a man is not an instance of this. Mizu shows no discomfort with being a woman or being seen as a woman, especially when she intends to pass herself as and present as a woman. Mizu also shows the women in the series more grace and consideration than any man in the show, in whatever capacity available to her socially and politically, without revealing herself; many of the women have remarked that she is quite unlike other men, and she's okay with that, too.

When she lives on the farm with Mama and Mikio, Mizu shows no discomfort once she acclimates to the new life. But people take this as conclusive evidence of the "only time" she was happy. She was not. This life was also a dance, a performance. The story of her being both the ronin and the onryō revealed to the audience that this lifestyle also requires her to wear a mask and dance, just as the bride does. This mask is makeup, a wedding dress, and submission, and this performance is her gender as a wife. She still understands that she cannot fully be herself and only begins to express happiness and shed her reservation when she believes she is finally safe to be herself. Only to be betrayed. Being a man is her safety, and it is familiar. Being a boy protected her from the white men as a child, and it might protect her heart now.

Mizu shows no discomfort with being known as a woman, except when it potentially threatens her goals (see Ringo and the "peaches" scene). She also shows no discomfort with being known as, seen as, or referred to as a man. As an adult, she seems okay- even familiar- with people assuming she's a man and placing her into the role of a man. Yet, being born a girl who has boyhood violently imposed upon her (she did not choose what mama did to her) is also an incredibly important part of her lived experience. Being forced into boyhood, but growing into a man anyway became part of who she is. But, being a man isn’t just a part of who she became; it’s also expedient for her goals because men and women are ontologically different in her world and the system she lives under.

She's both because she's neither, because- ontologically- she fits nowhere. When other characters point out how "unlike" a man she is, she just shrugs it off, but not in a "well, yeah, because I'm NOT a man" sort of way, but in an "I'm unlike anyone, period," sort of way. She also does not seem offended by Madam Kaji saying that Mizu’s more man than any who have walked through her door.

(Mizu doesn’t even see herself as human, let alone a woman, as so defined by her society. And knowing that creators have stated her future arc is about coming into her “feminine era” or energy, I am actually scared that this show might fall into the trope of “domesticating”/“taming” the independent woman, complete with an allegory that her anger and lack of human-ness [in Mizu’s mind] is a result of a woman having too much “masculine energy” or being masculine in contravention of womanness.)

Some also seem to forget that once Mama and Mikio are dead, no one knows who she is or where she came from. They do not have her background, and they do not know about the bounty on her (who levied the bounty and why has not yet been explained). After their deaths, she could have gone free and started anew somehow. But in that moment, she chose to go back to life as a man and chose to pursue revenge for the circumstances of her birth. Going forward, this identity is no longer imposed upon her by Mama, or a result of erroneous conclusions from local kids and Master Eiji; it was because she wanted people to see her as a man and she was familiar with navigating her world, and thus her future, as a man. And it was because she was angry, too, and only men can act on their anger.

I do think it important to note that Mizu really began to allow herself to be vulnerable and open as a woman, until she was betrayed. The question I've been rattling around is: is this because she began to feel safe for the first time in her life, or is this part of how she sees women ontologically? Because she immediately returns to being a man and emotionally hard following her betrayal. But, she does seem willing to confide in Master Eiji, seek his advice, and convey her anxieties to him.

Being a man also confines Mizu to strict social boxes, and passing herself as a man is also dangerous.

Mizu doesn't suddenly get to do everything and anything she wants because she passes as a man. She has to consider her safety and the danger of her sex being "found out." She must also consider what will draw unnecessary attention to her and distract her from her goals. Many viewers, for example, were indignant that she did not offer to chaperone the mother and daughter and, instead, left them to the cold, only to drop some money at their feet later. The indignity fails consider that while she could bribe herself inside while passing as a man, she could not bribe in two strangers. Mizu is a strange man to that woman and does not necessarily have the social position to advocate for the mother and daughter. She also must consider that causing small social stirs would distract from her goals and draw certain attention to her. Mizu is also on a dangerous and violent quest.

Edo Japan was governed by strict class, age, and gender rules. Those rules applied to men as well as women. Mizu is still expected to act within these strict rules when she's a man. Being a man might allow her to pursue revenge, but she's still expected to put herself forward as a man, and that means following all the specific rules that apply to her class as a samurai, an artisan (or artist), and a man. That wide-brimmed hat, those orange-tinted glasses, and her laconic tendencies are also part of a performance. Being a boy is the first mask she wore and dance she performed, and she was originally (and tragically) forced into it.

Challenging the normative identities of her society does not guarantee her safety. She has limitations because of her "otherness," and the transgression of sex-prescribed roles has often landed people in hot water as opposed to saving them from boiling. Mizu is passing herself off as a man every day of her life at great risk to her. If her sex is "found out" on a larger scale, society won’t resort to or just start treating her as a woman. There are far worse fates than being perceived as a woman, and hers would not simply be a tsk-tsk, slap on the wrist; now you have to wear makeup. Let's not treat being a woman-- even with all the pressures, standards, fears, and risks that come with existing as a woman-- as the worst consequence for being ‘found out’ for transgressing normative identity.

The violence Mizu would face upon being "found out" won’t only be a consequence of being a "girl." Consider not just the fact she is female and “cross-dressing” (outside of theater), but also that she is a racial minority.

I also feel like many cis-het people either ignore or just cannot see the queerness in challenging gender roles (and thus also in stories that revolve around a subversion of sex-prescribed gender). They may not know how queerness-- or "otherness"-- leads to challenging strict social stratifications and binaries nor how challenging them is seen by the larger society as queer ("strange," "suspicious," "unconventional," even "dishonorable," and "fraudulent"), even when "queerness" (as in LGBTQ+) was not yet a concept as we understand it today.

Gender and sexuality- and the language we use to communicate who we are- varies greatly across time and culture. Edo Japan was governed by strict rules on what hairstyles, clothes, and weapons could be worn by which gender, age, and social group, and this was often enshrined in law. There were specific rules about who could have sex with whom and how. These values and rules were distinctly Japanese and would not incorporate Western influences until the late 1800s. Class was one of the most consequential features to define a person's fate in feudal Japan, and gender was quite stratified. This does not mean it's inappropriate for genderqueer people to see themselves in Mizu, nor does this mean that gender-variant identities didn’t exist in Edo Japan.

People in the past did not use the same language we do today to refer to themselves. Example: Alexander The Great did not call himself a "bisexual." We all understand this. However, there is a very weird trend of people using these differences in language and cultures across time to deny aspects of a historical person's life that societies today consider taboo, whether these aspects were considered taboo during that historical time period or not. Same example: people on Twitter complaining that Netflix "made" Alexander The Great "gay," and after people push back and point out that the man did, in fact, love and fuck men, hitting back with "homosexuality wasn't even a word back then" or "modern identity didn't exist back then." Sure, that word did not exist in 300s BCE Macedonia, but that doesn't mean the man didn't love men, nor does that mean that we can't recognize that he'd be considered "queer" by today's standards and language.

Genderqueer, as a word and as the concept is understood today, did not exist in feudal Japan, but the people did and feudal Japan had its own terms and concepts that referred to gender variance. But while the show takes place in Edo Japan, it is a modern adult animation series made by a French studio and two Americans (nationality). Mizu is additionally a fictional character, not a historical figure. She was not created in a vacuum. She was created in the 21st century and co-written by a man who got his start writing for Sex in the City and hails from a country that is in the midst of a giant moral panic about genderqueer/gender-variant people and gender non-conforming people.

This series was created by two Americans (nationality) for an American company. In some parts of that country, there are laws on the book strictly defining the bounds of men and women and dictating what clothes men and women could be prosecuted for wearing. Changes in language and identity over time mean that we can recognize that if Mizu lived in modern Texas, the law would consider her a drag performer, and modern political movements in the show creators' home country would include her under the queer umbrella.

So, yeah, there will also be genderqueer people who see themselves in Mizu, and there will be genderqueer fans who are firm about Mizu being queer to them and in their “headcanons.” The scene setting being Edo Japan, does not negate the modern ideas that influence the show. "Nonbinary didn't exist in Edo Japan" completely ignores that this show was created to explore the liminality of modern racial, gender, class, and normative identities. One of the creators was literally inspired by her own relationship with her biracial identity.

Ultimately, the fact Mizu, at this point in her journey, chooses to present and pass as a man and the fact her presented gender affects relationship dynamics with other characters (see: Taigen) gives this story a queer undertone. And this may have been largely unintentional: "She’s a girl, and he’s a guy, so, of course, they get together," < ignoring how said guy thinks she’s a guy and that she intentionally passes herself as a guy. Audiences ARE going to interpret this as queer because WE don’t live in Edo-era Japan. And I feel like people forget that Mizu can be a woman and the story can still have queer undertones to it at the same time.

#Blue Eye Samurai #‘If I was transported back in time… I’d try to pass myself off as a man for greater freedom.’#^^^ does not consider the intersection of historically queer existence across time with other identities (& the limitations those include)#nor does it consider the danger of such an action #I get it. some come to this conclusion simply because they know how dangerous it is to be a woman throughout history.#but rebuking the normative identities of that time period also puts you at great risk of violence #challenging norms and rules and social & political hierarchies does not make you safer #and it has always been those who exist in the margins of society who have challenged sociocultural systems #it has always been those at greatest risk and who've faced great violence already. like Mizu #Anyway... Mizu is just Mizu #she is gender queer (or gender-variant)#because her relationship with her gender is queer. because she is gender-variant #‘queer’ as a social/political class did not exist. but people WE understand as queer existed in different historical eras #and under different cultural systems #she’s a woman because queer did not exist & ‘woman’ was the sex caste she was born into #she’s also a woman because she conceptualizes herself as so #she is a woman AND she is gender-variant #she quite literally challenges normative identity and is a clear example of what sex non-conforming means #Before the actual. historic Tokugawa shogunate banned women from theater #there were women in the theater who cross-dressed for the theater and played male roles #so I’m also really tired of seeing takes along the lines of: ‘Edo Japan was backwards so cross dressers did’t exist then!’#like. please. be more transparent won’t you?

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