#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]

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]

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 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]

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]

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]

Finally got round to starting the acolyte. Loving the old republic/ prequel vibes. Also that opening fight scene!!! Clearly influenced by martial arts/ wuxia films and it’s so cool to see that cinematic influence in the Star Wars universe! Especially considering it’s already a patchwork of a thousand different cinematic influences. And Carrie Ann-Moss as a Jedi is just… mmm sublime casting. Ate my little lesbian heart out. Shame she got killed in the same scene she was introduced 😭

[tinkerbitch69]

‘Die mad about it lol’

Oh, I will. And that’s a promise!

[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 should use the word chucklefucks more often.

[tinkerbitch69]

After being sent continued letters from the nhs over a penalty charge for a fucking 10 quid prescription that has already been dismissed as an error by their own online service for responses I have made the dubiously smart decision to completely fucking go off in their feedback survey about the state of trans healthcare and even threatened legal action if they keep it up lol

Not that they’ll pay attention to it clearly but my fucking god it felt good to tell this stupid broken fucking MURDEROUS system to go fuck themselves (Literally lol). I hope whichever fucking soulless bureaucrat reads it feels guilty and it ruins their day

Yes I know petty Karen moment I don’t give a shit. Fuck the nhs, I don’t think I care any longer if it burns to the fucking ground 🖕🔥

[tinkerbitch69]

Currently wondering why I should bother submitting a project proposal for my uni course when my tutors can’t even be bothered to finish marking my submitted assignments OR get back to me about doing a 60/30 split for my options next year.

If my teachers clearly don’t care about my academic progress, why the hell should I?

[tinkerbitch69]

Something that annoys me when it comes to transmisogyny in leftist and queer spaces, is that people are perfectly capable of understanding that harmful prejudices like racism, sexism, homophobia etc, are not interpersonal forces but systemic ones enforced through institutions and social dynamics that often go unnoticed or unacknowledged by the individual perpetuating them. Often manifesting in things like micro aggressions or unexamined biases, assumptions or language they may hold and use and everyone is susceptible to this.

Yet when it comes to transmisogyny, this understanding goes completely out the window and actually, they don’t need to examine their biases or behaviour towards trans women because they ‘have trans friends’ or put ‘trans rights are human rights’ in their bio and also there assumptions about this trans woman are ‘actually correct tho’ even when they perfectly conform to harmful stereotypes or beliefs about trans women which makes their treatment of her ‘completely justified’.

Like babes, are you ok? You’ve barely touched your critical thinking?