#so the probability of this needlessly cruel post finding its way onto the author's dashboard is pretty damn high

[thevioletcaptain]

y'all get that screenshotting fic to publicly make fun of it is straight up bully behavior, right? like. it doesn't matter if you redact the author's name. this is no different to a kid taking someone else's art off the wall in a classroom, walking out into the playground, and holding it up to say "haha look how shit this is"

[seewetter]

Hello and thanks for the reply.

I agree with you that transfem separatists do not exist. What the comic seemed to pointing at is not an organized separatist movement but a sort of vague gesture towards people making unreasonable personal demands of other people's private lives and lifestyles. And certainly I've encountered doomerist types in trans circles, including people IRL who say absolutely extreme things about whether or not you can trust people in your life. If you think that the comic should mind its own business instead of vaguely hinting at probably irrelevant behaviours especially in transfeminine circles...we agree. As I said, I don't find this comic very insightful.

What a needlessly longwinded post was expressing was that I'm neither a fan of the comic nor particularly liked this comic strip!

These encounters I've had with doomerist types are why I seemingly "defended" the comic. When trans people who I know exist in the flesh say "no parents truly love their trans children", saying that is cruel. And if such a person were to say that this doom and gloom is justified because of all the transfeminist theory they've read -- I think its fair for anyone to critique this insular mindset. Even in a comic.

I don't know you. You said this seemed like a 4chan meme to you, so maybe this is a comic you stumbled on. As I said in my last post, I wager in that case...this seemed chan-y because it's cheaply made and the hashtag below the comic seems to be an author "I'm not transmisogynist but"ing her way out of responsibility for how her comic comes across.

As I said, you and I both don't really like this comic, but I can tell you (from it appearing on my dashboard every few weeks) that it's a transfeminist comic written for a transfeminist audience. The hashtag asking people not to take this as transmisogynist and to look at context... is a terribly worded, but sincere attempt at conveying that. Apparently a failed attempt.

But it's possible that you and I are very different in ways that make it impossible to agree on how we perceive this thread. After all, I don't think anything serious is happening here that touches on trans liberation in any way.

So to me, attacks on the author that come from an angle like "we need an apology, this author is a terribly irresponsible comic artist, this is transmisogynistic social forces that are shaping the artist and their audience" are projecting onto this comic panel a social context in which it is widely read and thought about by... young impressionable trans people who get transmisogynist ideas about transfeminism and vulnerable members of our community? Or by cis queers and cishets who entrench their two-faced behaviour towards those more vulnerable members? It's sort of treating this comic not as an artefact of the obscure side of Tumblr trans culture that rarely gets viewed outside the audience of transfeminists its made for...and instead treating this comic which talks in metaphorical veiled language about trans issues... as some highly accessible cultural product that must be held to the same standards as major representatives of our community or mainstream journalistic outlets.

Like the comic on this page isn't doing anything great, but it's also not doing anything - period. So it's not harmful in any meaningful way -- but I can't fault you for thinking that it is, because hoo boy, those hashtags out of context are just atrocious "pay no attention to how bad this looks, just check my whole blog for context". Yeah no, you can't be expected to do that and the artist should have known better.

Anyway, sorry for being longwinded. I'll work on it.

rationalize

[ID: Three panel comic with crudely drawn stick people

Panel 1: A leaf green person is talking to a grass green person with a hat and glasses.

Leaf: "And then Orange said that-"

Grass: "Orange"? Your friend is orange?"

Leaf: "Yeah?"

Grass: "Why do you have non-green friends? Don't you know about misoviridy??"

Leaf: "…I have plenty of non-green friends. I have grayscale friends, even."

Panel 2: Grass Green solemnly holds Leaf Green's shoulder.

Grass: "Look. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but every single misoviridy-exempt friend you have secretly hates you.

Leaf: "Uh. That is not true."

Grass: "It's basic viridist theory. Every single moment they're around you, they're thinking about it."

Panel 3: The grass green person tips their hat down.

Grass: "Look. I get it. You're naive and uninformed. You don't know better. But read "Pruning Greens." Then you will understand."

Leaf: "I already read that. It did not say the things you are saying."

Grass: "You will see. It is inevitable."

Leaf: "No I think you're just finding a new way to rationalize really unhealthy thought patterns here actually"

End ID.]

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