Trans Rights are Human Rights

Edit:

I was angry when I made this post. I should have cooled off first but I didn’t, and I apologize for that. Though that does not change the reason for this post, just the way I’m gonna say it:

I’m not, and I don’t think anyone else is, upset if someone doesn’t want to set a pronoun. The anger came from the comments on the other post, the reaction of some people who stated they didn’t care about the issue, but also cared enough to complain about the fact that it was brought up.

They cared that they were being bothered but did not care to show solidarity.

I think that’s supremely fucked up. I know what it’s like to be on the other side of that cruel apathy, and I will not stand to see it directed at my comrades.

  • the_river_cass [she/her]
    2·
    4 years ago

    my response to this in the big thread:

    adding to Melon’s response, what cis people (especially cis men on a forum dominated by men) is of interest because they represent the majority and therefore have default status. when people gender each other on this site, they assume they’re talking to a man. that’s seriously off-putting to many of us (less so to trans men, more so to women and NB people), that my mere participation on this forum incorrectly engenders me. on the old sub, I was misgendered more times than I care to count – and even nice replies that hey, I’m actually a girl would uniformly go ignored. so we push cis people to flair the pronouns here to create a new normal: everyone’s pronouns are visible.

    why not stop at letting people for whom it’s important do it but not push it on everyone else? no marginalized group/political minority will ever be comfortable with identifying themselves to a majority while the majority continues to enjoy default status. remember that that kind of labeling is always the first thing demanded by fascists who want to eliminate a group of people to get a taste for how and why that kind of ask is seriously problematic.

    but also, on a social level, if we’re serious about eliminating patriarchy, we need to do away with the default status of men – on online boards, in every day society, everywhere. this is one more step on that path.

    it's not transphobic if you don't announce everywhere you go. as usual, the transphobia is in the reasons why people refuse to do it.

    • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
      3·
      4 years ago

      no marginalized group/political minority will ever be comfortable with identifying themselves to a majority while the majority continues to enjoy default status.

      I don't understand what you mean by this. Nobody's pronouns identify them as trans, and there are plenty of women, such as yourself, who list their pronouns as "she/her." So trans people don't have to identify themselves as trans, and women seem comfortable identifying themselves as women. If they aren't, and that's the problem, than we should be discussing whether it is sexist rather than whether it is transphobic.

      Also, even if everyone assigned pronouns, there's still an option for "any pronoun" which leaves room for a "default" assumption of masculinity. The only way to get rid of that would be to make everyone identify themselves which seems to be exactly the kind of labeling that you're concerned about due to it being demanded by fascists.

      • the_river_cass [she/her]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I don’t understand what you mean by this. Nobody’s pronouns identify them as trans

        I didn't say trans in my post for a reason. default masculinity doesn't hurt trans men. the point is that default masculinity harms everyone who isn't a man. we're not an overwhelmingly male space for no reason and it's things like this that make it hard to exist here as a woman. it's never anything huge enough to complain about but the little things add up.

        Also, even if everyone assigned pronouns, there’s still an option for “any pronoun” which leaves room for a “default” assumption of masculinity.

        well yeah, people can always choose to be shitty and ignore pronoun markers, too. no one is saying this is a panacea. but it is one step towards dismantling the elements that make so many people uncomfortable in this space.

        The only way to get rid of that would be to make everyone identify themselves which seems to be exactly the kind of labeling that you’re concerned about due to it being demanded by fascists.

        if everyone is labeled, no one is. my point was about labeling only the political minorities while the majority continues to enjoy default status.