Liarmouth cancelled, Scavengers Reign S2 cancelled, Mickey 17 delayed AGAIN, fuck my stupid filmbro life
a lot of behaviors that get attributed to "female socialization" can be so much more easily and accurately understood as a person recognizing the power differential surrounding them and behaving sensibly in response to that.
like. does a woman politely listen to a man monologue at her because of some experience she had when she was twelve that magically cursed her to behave that way forever, or does she do it because the man has the power to hurt her and she knows it?
does a woman do all the dishes in her household because she is less capable of breaking out of a long-ago conditioned response than, like, your average trained dog, or is she doing that because she knows that all the men in the house will blame her if she doesnt and will make life worse for her if she speaks up?
maybe a lot of sexist patterns of behavior that are widely observed in society arent caused by women like, lacking willpower or backbone? maybe it is super fucking weird for supposedly feminist movements to imply this is the case when they talk about female socialization as the end all, be all of predicting human behavior?
isnt it both more useful and more respectful toward women to consider that they are perceiving their present circumstances accurately, and recognize when power is already being wielded against them, and take logical measures to deescalate and protect themselves because it works? is it not fucking clear to everybody that trans women in particular have to do this all the fucking time?
I don't think gender is something which is joyful, any more than I consider capitalism to be something which is joyful. I think, like with capitalism, there is joy to be found and had within these class systems -- joy in resistance, in autonomy, joy and beauty in the finding of love and community, and joy and pride in courage and conviction. I think these things certainly are true. but at the end of the day, to me, what gender is, at its core, is a class system of violence, an immense structure of centuries of brutal and vicious subjugation and cruelty, a machine which punishes resistance-in-the-form-of-deviance with systematic and merciless force. I am the person I am because I am true to myself and I take joy in that -- this is distinct from my "gender," or rather my "gendering," which is a process of violence, an act which is done to me, without my consent, and against my will. That which renders me woman is nothing intrinsic to myself or about my choices -- it is the violence of society which renders me woman, renders me faggot, constructs my place in gender-class, places me within a system of subjugation. I find joy in being a woman not because of gender, but in spite of gender. my pride as a transgender woman, as a faggot, is in opposition to the forces of gender which seek to brutalize me for the way that I am. gender is not something I would ever, ever seek to preserve, or sustain, something which I consider not to be a sacred institution worthy of respect, any more than capital or empire. I consider gender to be my enemy, my opponent, the iron fist within the velvet glove, the barrel of the gun pressed to the back of my skull. gender and I exist in opposition to each other, with gender hell-bent on forcing me to submit to its will, and myself hell-bent on bringing about its total and absolute obliteration. by my analysis, it is critical that any feminist, any act of resistance against gender, correctly understand who the enemy is. the enemy is gender, and it has always been gender. we as transgender women are in a unique position to understand this, by way of the profound violence we experience under the orders of gender, by the consciousness imparted to us by the unique and peculiar acts of punitive cruelty struck against us under the commands of gender. but, for us to be able to do this, for us to be able to liberate ourselves from the wretched shackles of gender, so must we understand that we cannot trap ourselves in a prison of our own making, that we cannot mistake the prison for a home, that we cannot allow ourselves to be tricked into defending that force which exists only to do us harm.
What
“Our Friendship is Unbreakable!” (The top reads “Long Live International Women's Day!”)
Soviet Union, 1954
two zany guys from @maximumgraves's comic
this international women's day, ask yourself: are you willing to love women at any cost?
ppl are always saying that women are "allowed to cry" more than men are but I don't really think being expected to is the same as being "allowed" to without judgement, because generally the social judgement is still extremely present and imo not made much better by it being a "typical behavior from the likes of you" flavor of contempt
fuck them up glenn
while I'm generally pretty wary of narratives that assume transmascs have a more developed feminist consciousness than cis men, I do think it's fair to say they do at least have more opportunities to gain that consciousness. I don't even think this necessarily due to their personal experience with misogyny, as while that can certainly be a factor, "suffering doesn't make you a better person, it just makes you suffer" etc. and being oppressed does not automatically result in a correct analysis or understanding of the structure of that oppression. An equally important factor is that transmascs are much more likely than cis men to be exposed to trans/feminist theory due to their proximity to queer, trans, and feminist spaces, and are therefore more likely to at least be familiar with the idea that masculinity, as it is currently constructed, is inextricably tied to oppression. this is also why I find it very misguided to interpret the pattern of transmascs distancing themselves from cis men as a sign that they are secretly not trans or whatever. instead I see this stemming from a very real internal struggle with the concept of masculinity and what it means to belong to broader social class of men. this is partially because transness is inherently antithetical to cispatriarchy and exposes a lot of its internal contradictions, but it also applies to anyone masculine aligned who also wants to support the feminist project. what masculinity is, and what it could be potentially transformed into, are very good questions that need to be grappled with, and is a discussion where transmasculinity can offer important insight. anyway tldr, I think transmascs are often uniquely positioned to both gain a greater understanding of misogyny and leverage their privilege in discussions with other men/mascs, but none of that is guaranteed by virtue of you being trans. you still have to put in the work, stop squandering your potential by whining about trans women who you think are too mean to men
poker face (2023) intro cards