#tinkerspeaks

[tinkerbitch69]

I’m sure this one will attract the terfs like flies but I’m gonna say it anyway cuz I haven’t heard anyone express or discuss this exact take but here goes:

‘biological sex’ categories are just modern day phrenology

Like first off it’s based around the idea that someone’s ’biological sex’ is dependent on the convergence of multiple factors I.e chromosomes, hormone levels, genitalia, etc. But the idea that any of these indicators are inherent to the ‘biological sex’ they are attributed to is disproven by both intersex people and trans people. I.e Many cisgender women are born with a Y chromosome. Trans women with so called ‘male’ physiology can develop breast tissue and estrogen levels on par with someone with ‘female’ physiology.

Now the existence of these traits and the effects on the body is verifiable if disputable, but the modern idea of sex involves the assumption that these physical traits are indicative of someone’s character or capabilities. (i.e high testosterone means someone is more aggressive, high estrogen prevents high levels of physical achievement etc.)

How is this any different from assuming someone’s skull shape says anything about their intelligence?

And the fact that the modern ideas of what it means to be ‘biologically male’ or ‘biologically female’ were formed through deeply racist and violent phrenological research kind of supports this fact. So why do we assume these value assertions about individuals because of their physical traits are in fact true when the others are clearly false (obvs not everyone does think that sadly but generally speaking phrenology is scientifically discredited)

So when people claim we need to acknowledge the ‘biological reality’ of sex, both disingenuously and sincere,

do we though???

Yes we need to acknowledge the fact of generalised physical differences between people but I think we should question the idea that these physical differences indicate anything about a person’s personality, behaviour or capabilities and the validity of ‘sexual categories’ especially.

Side note: if this is like the stalest possible take in intersex discourse I apologise, I am merely a humble perisex trans woman who has engaged in way too many arguments with my increasingly right wing mother about imane khelif over the past few days and thought I should share my thoughts. Y’all are awesome and people should listen to your takes on sex and gender more often 🫶

[tinkerbitch69]

Sitting in a room full of people with incredibly southern accents talk about the north of England as a marginalised and stereotyped place but in a kind of Sexy Way as a northerner was an experience. One I hope to never have to sit thru again, as naive as that may sound

[tinkerbitch69]

Just saw a Tik Tok that played the speech about being a woman from the Barbie movie over screenshots of trump supporter tweets with a description lamenting that ‘every woman saw and loved the Barbie movie* but y’all learned nothing from it :’(’

Woah, you’re shocked the FUCKING Barbie movie of all things didn’t end misogyny for good?!!!

Get fucking REAL omfg. The most milquetoast liberal feminist takes ever, including and almost entirely limited to ‘well shucks being a women sure is not very swell, is it?’ dressed up in corporate propaganda and insipid product placement is not going to do shit in combating reactionary ideology, no matter how many of you absolute chucklefucks have the misconception that it is some radical piece of social commentary. Truly just the most vapid political takes coming out of Tik Tok for real. Tho I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.

*press x to doubt

[tinkerbitch69]

Is it wrong of me to feel just a liiiiiiitle salty about the fact that the x men are everyone’s favourite superheroes again but everyone’s decided to experience collective amnesia about the public perception of the x men in the 2010s during which I stuck with them as my favourite marvel heroes?

Even through the times marvel editorial actively tried to kill off their popularity plus being the only person I knew who got super hyped for dofp/apocalypse/dark phoenix while everyone else was hyped for the latest avengers film. (Also having to eat a big slice of humble pie when dark phoenix turned out to be total shit) Like I know this is incredibly minor and petty and unimportant but still stings a little you know?

[tinkerbitch69]

Hot take: most tme ppl don’t even really understand JKR type transmisogyny. They just know from the general cultural zeitgeist that JKR=bad but they couldn’t actually explain why JKR’s views and statements are harmful to trans women.

Evidence: first critique they always bring up against her being her discriminatory attitude towards anyone with ‘clocky’ vibes ‘aFFecTs CiS wOmeN ToO!!!’ Smh 🙄

“Oh no, she’s hurting CIS (real) women too?! Well damn maybe I should reconsider buying the new hogwarts game” (they won’t)

you simply need to be able to recognize and criticize transmisogyny in general and not just the extremely over the top JKR type shit, you are not actually growing if you refuse to consider the idea that other queer people can reinforce and benefit from transmisogyny on smaller levels too

[tinkerbitch69]

There really are queer folks out there who will try to bring a trans woman down just to move up like barely a single rung on the social ladder.

And just to make sure this analogy can’t be misinterpreted, the trans woman is not even above them on said ladder. Her face is just in the way of some good footing.

[tinkerbitch69]

Restarted my bg3 playthrough cuz I got to act 3 and realized I had zero emotional investment in anything going on. Thought I’d play again with the trajectory of the story in mind when role playing my character and see if that helps. Anyway got to the roadside cliffs marker and hoped I’d succeed at the strength saving throw to pull gales ass out of there this time and almost immediately after talking to him for the first time I was like ‘oh yeah this is what I was missing!’

Snarky over confident wizard who uses big words just to show off and also kind of an asshole but in a sort of pathetic court jester kind of way? Amazing wonderful, dare I say the piece de resistance? this man is gonna be so entertaining to put through The Horrors!

Now why on greenwood’s earth would larian lock this whole ass companion behind a strength check with no alternative to recruit him? Who taught them game design?

[tinkerbitch69]

One thing I cannot understand about tumblr is why catholics keep beefing with me on here. Like wtf are you even doing here? This is the devil’s sacrament don’t ya know! Go confess to your priest or something.

[tinkerbitch69]

Not to make this about something personal when it describes something much more widespread but I swear to god the amount of friend groups I’ve been in irl where I was accused of starting conflict for addressing the conflict that was clearly already there but no one wanted to talk about openly is unreal. The fact this is always followed by being ostracised and kicked out of the friend group instead of having an actual conversation clearly shows their priorities were less concerned with community but rather absolving themselves of blame and doing as little as possible to change their own behaviour.

“Oh, it’s just the ‘bitchy’ trans fem causing problems. They are the problem. If we just exclude them then the problem will go away without having to reflect on our own actions or examine our own thoughts and feelings about them. I mean her.”

Fuck you, I’m not your scapegoat.

you all need to learn the difference between "trans women starting conflict" and "trans women describing the conflict that already exists and is enforced on them every waking hour" i think

[tinkerbitch69]

Autocorrect try not to fuck up tense challenge impossible

[tinkerbitch69]

Love the term cult classic btw. Like ‘oh yeah, this fucking SLAPS! my cult ate that shit up.’ Lmao

[tinkerbitch69]

Living in a flat with very thin walls is fucking wild cuz you will overhear really deep philosophical midnight ramblings of drunk people you barely know but it’s considered socially unacceptable to kick down someone’s door and intrude on their private conversation to say that everything they just said is absolute bullshit :(

[tinkerbitch69]

I firmly believe a live action adaptation of Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin could fix this. I mean it’s perfect right? A gritty R rated post apocalypse drama with an explosive action packed finale?! it would make for a fantastic TV Series!!! and there’s plenty of popular shows that prove it could be successful. Fallout, the last of us, The Walking Dead!!!

But why isn’t it in the works? Simple. It’s about trans women. And not the clean, sanitized, cispassing trans women that don’t make cis people uncomfortable. It’s about messy, fucked up, complicated real trans women so mainstream networks and streaming services wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. Plus the author dared to get angry with Jkr on twitter!!!😱 They’d never risk pissing her or her fucking sycophants off by treating it as legitimate literature worthy of adaptation.

Even if we don’t get an adaptation we need something that has the spirit of manhunt on screens, small or big. Something unflinchingly apologetic about the trans fem experience, even the ‘difficult’ or ‘uncomfortable’ or ‘gross’ parts. Something unafraid to call out cis women’s complicity in transmisogyny! Ofc people can’t handle when trans women are anything less than a saint irl when the depictions of us in most media they encounter are simplistic, unrealistic perfect uwu soft girls.

Gotta say I'm kinda fucking sick of every new piece of "landmark queer media" is just another kids show or movie, please make some actual queer cinema or at least let a trans woman set foot in the writers room before we start calling this shit a "masterpiece"

[tinkerbitch69]

I have to talk about this scene from X-23 #11 and how it reads as so trans fem coded to me. TW: discussions of self harm.

during some down time Logan, gambit and jubilee take Laura shopping in Paris. This isn’t just for fun tho, this whole arc began with laura self harming in a public bathroom and all of them are trying their best to make her feel as loved as possible and yes it is so adorable. Especially gambit. If you love him, you got to read Marjorie liu’s X-23 but I digress. So it’s x meets Emily in Paris and this is how it goes.

Immediately, I read this as laura experiencing complicated and conflicting emotions about presenting in a feminine way. The fact that she struggles to find words to express how she feels about the situation and yet she spends ten minutes looking at herself in the mirror? That’s a long ass time. Clearly, it must be a little more complicated if she doesn’t get some level of satisfaction in what she see’s, right?

the ‘it feels wrong’ line carries so much subtext to me. Along with the reason brought up later in the scene that Laura is very much more of an alt girl than a high femme, there is also the possibility that she feels wrong experiencing pleasure in her presentation. This whole arc is an exploration of her shame, her guilt over being used as a ‘weapon’. the thing she was always seen as from the moment of her inception yet never wanted to be. It’s important to note Laura has a long history of self-harm in the comics that she was still grappling with at this point (something sadly all too common among trans femmes) and she has been seen to resort to that when receiving care from others or experiencing joy. I personally read her negative response in this scene as a her guilt overwhelming any potential euphoria. The part of her that tells she was, is and always be a ‘weapon’ making her feel disgusted with herself for allowing herself nice things. For allowing herself joy.

I hope you haven’t had to read too far between the lines to realise how easy it would be to swap out ‘weapon’ for man for this to be very consistent with a trans femme experience. Imposter syndrome and societal reinforcement that we are ‘invaders’ in cis women’s spaces and that our maleness is somehow innate can often result in intense feelings of shame or guilt when we try to claim femininity for ourselves. That, as a ‘man’, an ‘interloper’, a ‘dangerous predator’ it is wrong for us to experience the euphoria of wearing feminine clothes and enjoying it. Much in the same way, Laura seems to feel guilty at feeling happy because she herself is a ‘dangerous predator’, crafted to be a killer. Or so she believes. And she shouldn’t be allowed to be happy.

there’s also another significant exchange in the scene that further explains her thoughts. As Laura explains to jubilee,

That feeling that she shouldn’t be here seems to be palpable to her in this scene. That feeling that she is in a space that is not meant for her. That a woman’s changing room is no place for a ‘weapon’ like her. And then she goes on to explain how style and presentation have always been wrapped up in tricky associations of identity for her. It seems to be something she actively avoided thinking about. Allowing others to present her with clothes and gravitating to what she felt best suited her I.e punk/goth with a slightly androgynous but mostly femme-leaning bent yet she still seems to express resentment at never being ‘taught’ how to dress. An odd statement since she clearly knows ‘how’ to dress. Yet when considered through the lens of a trans feminine interpretation, this line makes a lot of sense.

Early in transition, it’s common for many trans women to feel overwhelmed by figuring out how to present themselves. Clothes shopping like this can be a daunting task especially considering they have often never been familiarised with feminine presentation. The fine points of fashion, style and what is generally considered appropriate or societally acceptable to wear in any given occasion is not knowledge that has generally been presented or even accessible to us, unlike those who were AFAB. It’s understandable that a lot of trans woman experience some level of resentment at their care givers for not providing them with an education on how to navigate these aspects of life like they would have to a cis daughter and I think at the very least, Laura holds a similar resentment in common.

Next, she expresses doubts about her clothing choices wondering if the high femme clothes jubilee has chosen for her is ‘who she should be.’ Again many trans women, like cis women, can feel pressure to fit into the patriarchal norm of what is expected of women, especially in presentation. The desire to be seen as anything other then our AGAB often necessitates a high femme presentation to deter any transphobic responses to visible ‘maleness’ or doubts surrounding our identity, either from others or ones we may have internalised ourselves. Yet that may not necessarily be how we prefer to present. There are many trans women who would probably feel more comfortable in alt clothing like Laura but think like they should present in a more traditionally feminine way. That they should want this, as women after all. That a desire to present in any other way is potentially a sign of their ‘male socialisation’ which they should be ashamed of or work to hide, at least. I think laura is definitely experiencing something like that in this scene. If she ever wants to be a ‘real girl’, to be anything other than a ‘weapon’, she thinks she must conform to the traditional ideal of femininity as closely as possible. The more she conforms the more of a person she is and the more people will finally see as anything more than a bloodied blade. And if she doesn’t, that’s all they will ever see.

Even if you choose not to read Laura as trans, the specific way this issue intertwines Laura’s shame and trauma with her complicated feelings around her choices of presentation manages to convey the complexities of a trans femme experience that I see few media do so as well as this. And that’s part of why i read Laura as trans femme.

Bonus: this scene were where laura comforts jubilee when she is distressed by what she see’s in the mirror?

That’s incredibly sweet and a very common experience among trans femmes. We love to see it. Oh yeah, forgot to mention jubilee was a vampire this whole time. thanks for listening to my ted talk! ☺️

[tinkerbitch69]

Liberals starting arguments with leftists: hehe hoho this’ll get ‘em >:)

Liberals when leftists argue back:

[tinkerbitch69]

To think I could have been born on weed day but alas god wouldn’t allow it for then I would be too powerful and could have threatened his throne.