It’s not even as if it’s *good* porn…
submitted by <a href=”http://edgeoflight.tumblr.com”>edgeoflight</a>
OMG I KNOW.
This is exactly how it happened for me - I remember going through each one of these circles as I grew up.
Real Britannia (racism, colonialism, and the Jubilee)
The Jubilee celebrations and their accompanying hysteria all demonstrate Britain’s exclusive and narrow minded approach as to what really is British. There is a great section of British society that is not reflected in what seems to be a collective effort by some to return to the good old days and retro Britannia. Such an attitude doesn’t help address the needs of modern Britain today, a society rife with tension on all levels, whether that be class or race.
Let us not pretend for a second that what made Britain great was strong exports of crab apple punch and Devonshire clotted cream. This “great” society was built on the backs of colonised communities all over the globe, of whose diaspora continually contributes to the British economy and workforce. The Jubilee celebrations do not reflect this fact. Neither do they reflect the toil and sweat of British people of all races struggling in a class system where social mobility is further grinding to a halt.
Well… Here it goes…
This is a spoken word poem I wrote about 2-3 years ago… I never had the courage to perform it or show it to anyone but something is telling me to do it now. So… here it is…
Sarah stands in a room full of of familiar faces
she knows them..
but none of them know herRyan
Ryan sits within Sarah’s body screaming, fighting to get out
show himself to that room full of people.
show them who HE really is.
He’s the sensitive type
but can still hold his ground
the gentleman
pulling out chairs and opening up doorsSarah is tired.
Tired of hiding who she really is
tired of waking up extra early… just to paint on her daily mask
tired of explaining to her parents why she doesn’t want to wear a dress to prom
why she doesn’t find pleasure in carrying shopping bags
and why her hair will only be as long as she wants it to beRyan loves his girlfriend
He wants to be everything that she has ever hoped for.
He wants to be the shield behind which she holds her deepest fears
be seen has her boyfriend
not girlfriend
and all he wishes for is to get to wear a tuxedo to prom.Sarah has been tugging at breasts that have been growing for years
Using duck tape and sports bras to make them become one with her chest
just hoping that they.. would somehow resemble pecks
wishing that she could send a message to her hormones asking for a just little more testosterone
The only person who understands her… is Ryan.I stand in a room full of people that I know but none of you know me
I am Ryan.
My genetic make up masks who I really am.
So stop asking me if I am him, or her .
Just know that I am here.
I am here to make a difference
I am here to make you understand.
I.. am human.
You are just like me, and i am just like you.
Confused, and scared.
But loved.
I don’t care if you disagree
and I don’t care if you don’t believe in me.
I was put here for a reason
I live amongst familiar faces.
My only hope is that one day
They’ll know me
for who I am
and not who I appear to be
My name is Ryan.
Nice to meet you.
Like it or not, fat people are at war. I’m not hyperbolizing or dramatizing. If you don’t believe me, Google “War on obesity”. Tonight HBO premiered its new documentary series “The Weight of a Nation”. On the premiere page it says “Obesity in America has reached a catastrophic level. Almost every aspect of our lives is threatened. The first step toward ending the damage is learning how to fight back.”
I spend a lot of my time politely asking people to please stop oppressing me. I don’t apologize for that, nor do I begrudge it – it’s proven to be a very effective way to create change and I think that people deserve to be given the benefit of the doubt and the support they need to shift their thinking, and it’s a reasonably pleasant form of activism. I will continue to do it.
But I also have to acknowledge that there is a war being waged against me because of how I look, by people who have been given every opportunity to know better. In concert with HBO’s documentary, I received a Tweet letting me know that Kaiser Permanente is launching the “most aggressive anti-obesity campaign in history.”
They know that there are healthy fat people and unhealthy thin people. They know that not a shred of research shows that any method of weight loss works in the long term. They know that research shows us that we could vastly increase health by providing access to healthy foods, safe movement options, and affordable/free evidence based health care. Nobody is obligated to be healthy or thin; however, I wonder how many people would make different choices if they knew they just need 30 minutes of moderate movement 5 days a week? If they knew that people who choose simple healthy habits have very similar health outcomes regardless of weight. What would people choose if they knew they could abandon the goal of weight loss completely and they could still pursue health. America could be a successful role model for giving people access to health, but instead they are choosing to be a failed role model for thinness - waging war on people based on their appearance for tremendous profit and actively blaming the casualties of the war for the war’s massive failures.
Let’s be clear - they are pathologizing a body size. It doesn’t matter if they say that we need to seek solutions environmentally instead of at the individual level, or if they say that we should have “compassion” for fat people – they are still telling people that is is not ok to exist in fat bodies and that they should see fat bodies as a threat to America. There are tons of thin people who eat unhealthy foods and are sedentary (which is completely their right), but as far as the government is concerned, as long as you are thin you’re part of the “solution,” feel free to do whatever you want. They want people to look at me (and you, if you’re fat) and think “She is part of a catastrophe. She is threatening almost every aspect of our lives. The first step toward ending the damage is learning how to fight back against her.”
I say that if they want a war, I will damn well give them one.
“
| — | They Want A War, Let’s Give Them One - By Ragen Chastain (via redefiningbodyimage) |
No matter how much you try to justify it, the phrase “Die Cis Scum” only hurts your cause, and the people who support you.
Translation: “I am uncomfortable with you expressing anger at the fact you are violently oppressed. Please be nicer to spare my precious feelings.”
Actual translation:
While I am not uncomfortable with you expressing anger at the fact that you are violently oppressed, the way in which you do it makes me uncomfortable and angry. Fighting fire with fire only fuels the flames, leading to an out of control blaze that ends up hurting both sides. I understand where the phrase comes from, and the sentiments behind it, but that still does not make it OK.
The phrase does not discriminate. It implies that all Cis people are scum and should die. Now I ask you, why would any bigot want to listen to you if you are spouting shit like this? It is no way to get through to people. In all honesty, when I first saw the saying, I very nearly turned my back on the trans* community, because… well its a slap in the face. Just because some Cis people are assholes, doesnt mean all of us are, and lumping us together like that is downright hurtful.
My “precious feelings” aside, a saying like this is only going to make you enemies. If an undecided Cis person decides that they want to learn more about trans* issues, and stumbles on this phrase, are they not going to be hurt and offended? and decide that if you are such a hateful group of people, what is the point of showing you any sympathy?
How, at face value, is the phrase “die cis scum” any different than the phrase “die jewish scum” or “die black scum”? And I am talking at face value, not if you look into what lead to be being said, not looking at who said it, just at the saying itself. Now, if anyone were to spout the latter two, they would be labelled a bigot, an anti-Semite, a racist. Scum. Now, how does trans* people spouting the same phrase help? You are calling out a group of people, you are calling them scum, and you are telling them to die.
How is telling anyone to go die acceptable, ever? Yes you may be angry, yes you most definitely have a right to be angry. But the way in which you express your anger is what will affect how people respond to your anger.
By the logic I have seen justifying this phrase, if cis-people tell you to go die, its ok to tell them to go die. Extending this logic, if cis-people beat you up, its ok to beat them up? If cis-people kill you, its ok to kill them? where do you draw the line?
I most certainly agree that the the people who discriminate against trans* people, or any people for that matter, are scum, but I much prefer the phrase
“fuck off you big headed loud mouthed bigot, and go drown yourself in a puddle”
- Sarah
mr-owls asked dear-non-cis-people:Cissexism is not limited to disrespecting pronouns or identity erasure. Telling trans* people that their anger and frustration at being violently oppressed is hurting your /precious feelings/ is cissexist.In response to this, how is expressing your hurt at something someone says cissexist? Isnt it just expressing yourself? Calling you out on something that is hurtful is not being cissexist. its being human.
- Sarah
Being trans* myself, I find the phrase ‘Die Cis Scum’ incredibly offensive as do many other trans* people I know.
It does not solve our problems, yes some cis people have persecuted and killed trans* people some have beat trans* people up. However there are trans* people who have raped or killed cis people does that mean we should be tarred with the same brush as them?
I agree that this phrase should not be used as it is a sweeping generalisation we do not like it when trans* people are all swept together in one so why should we do it to cis people? The answer is we shouldn’t!
Rob
Reblogged for excellent commentary.
TRUE DOG
I agree with the message of course, but it should be ‘affect’. In most cases, ‘effect’ is a noun, ‘affect’ is a verb.
Did everyone just accept the fact that Martha Jones in the parallel universe gets killed by the doctor?
That’s not Martha Jones in the parallel universe, that’s her cousin, Adeola Oshodi, in this universe.
So.
I just saw my first episode of Doctor Who. The one with Vincent van Gogh.
And just.
Right in the feels. I’m sniffling.
Oh, god, wow. Way to start with the best! That episode, along with The Doctor’s Wife, are the two best episodes of New!Who for me, hands down.
‘Cis Scum’
When fellow trans* people use this term, I can’t help but to think how hypocritical they sound. It’s as if a gay person were to go around referring to heterosexual people as breeder fucks. Your thoughts?
I agree. It’s a term of pure hatred and viciousness. I understand that some trans* people have every reason to be in pain over what some cis people have done to them, but there is no excuse for this petty bitterness.
It can’t be good for a person to carry around all that hatred. So my feeling when I see someone calling other people horrible vicious names is to feel sad for them, and hope they come to a place where they can let go of that soon.
oops.
There are people who don’t have a gender, people who genuinely are genderless, I don’t know if they really identify as such or if it’s just something they see and go “hey, sounds like me” or “oh, so that’s why I don’t get trans people” then go on with their lives label-less. From what I can tell, they generally feel fine in their body, don’t really understand gender and assume it’s just based on sex because that’s the only reason they identify as anything (get really confused by trans people) and the only problem they’d have with waking up as the opposite sex is that they’d have to re-socialize themselves. But I also don’t really know.
~ Dreki from Chroanagram
well shit. have i been using the wrong label? the parts in bold are me exactly, and that bit in the middle is how i used to be before i actually started reading things on the internet (not that i was confused by trans people, i just didn’t really understand how one could feel male/female/whatever because i didn’t feel anything; that didn’t stop me from accepting that other people could have different experiences).
i thought agender meant genderless? like atheism is a lack of theism, agender is a lack of gender? that makes sense to me.
I think you’re right - I feel the same way. I’ve always used agender the same way - recently switched from using genderqueer to describe myself to agender as it more accurately reflects me.
I’ll just leave this here
Let it be known that Steven Moffat has no interest in bisexual visibility, and anybody who says anything else is clearly wrong. He says so himself.
also, look at how rude I’m being. how dare I question the great steven moffat.
“I have no interest in bisexual visibility” and “When did I say I thought I was contributing to bisexual visibility” do not mean the same thing. @hallor was being rude - they were effectively calling him thick. There’s no need for that. You’re not going to change someone’s mind by being angry at them and accusing them of being stupid.
I think it’s much more productive, when it comes to dealing with tv show/movie writers and other authors, to thank them when they do things right, and to politely and privately point out when they get it really, really wrong. Castigating people in public for not doing things exactly how you would prefer doesn’t win you allies - it may or may not help you feel you’ve expressed your rage, but it isn’t productive.
Does the Doctor and Rose ever meet again? I just finished season two, and cannot go on if I don’t know the answer. Help me!
[spoilers]
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Yes, they do. Not telling you any more than that because you really should just keep watching!
[/spoilers]
Yep, I am one of those pansexual people.
Up until about 45 minutes ago, I used the term “pansexual” as opposed to “bisexual” to describe myself because a) it felt cool to be different and new and obscure and “enlightened” and b) because I viewed the term “bisexual” as enforcing the gender binary and basically (but not really)inherently bad and “unenlightened”.
There are a lot of very interesting articles out there discussing bi vs. pan and the definition of pansexuality that if you’ve read this far into this post, I suggest you go check out.
One of them mentioned the term “gender-blind” in a less than positive way and though the author goes on to say: “I am most certain that there are pansexuals out there who do feel that the gender-blind definition of pansexuality fits them perfectly”, I feel the need to defend the term gender-blind and how it relates to me.
(Disclaimer: I have not had any extensive interactions with trans* people, so I cannot comment comment on the trans* issues that go along with the words pansexual and bisexual. I do not have transphobia, nor do I mean to ignore the trans* community, but I feel like if I tried to touch upon that topic with hardly any knowledge, it would end up coming out rather offensive. So please excuse my use of the gender binary and liberal use of the word gender for the rest of this post. Thank you.)
“Gender-blind”, for me, does not mean that gender is not a factor in my everyday interactions. My boyfriend is male. My best friend is female. I do not have the capability to ignore this fact, nor would I want to.
Gender-blind means, for me, that gender is not a factor in regard to physical attraction. The best example I can give is about my first (and only) girlfriend. Every so often, I would remember that she was female. Not that she looked like a man or anything, but it was never a factor for me that she had a vagina; in fact, I was always surprised when I remembered that I wasn’t dating the gender I was “supposed” to be dating. I’ve had that moment a couple of times with my boyfriend, but it’s different, since he is of the gender I am “supposed” to be dating.
I found my girlfriend’s delicate fingers and long hair among her other feminine traits very attractive. I find my boyfriend’s muscular arms and stomach along with everything else masculine about him also attractive.
It’s a complicated line between being both oblivious to and thoroughly appreciating the femininity and masculinity of the people I am sexual with and that is (now) the reason I prefer the term pansexual. That is not to say that a bisexual person could not feel this very same way, but to me, the word pansexual more accurately and comfortably describes this feeling.
Thank you tumblr for always teaching me things. I no longer reject the term bisexuality, nor do I have very much of a problem using it to describe myself. I feel more comfortable with the term pansexual and it is the word I will primarily use to describe my orientation, but I am not longer limited to it and I will try my best rid myself of the sense of superiority that I initially felt when using the word pansexual.
In the end, there is nothing better or worse about who you are attracted to or how you are attracted to them. We can only be who we are, nothing less and nothing more.
Well said. I identify as bisexual but I experience my sexuality much like you’ve described.
If you’re with a person who later comes out as a trans guy, do you lose your gold star?
[Gold Star: A girl who has never been with a guy]
My friend Becca was getting a bit too tipsy, so I asked her what was going on. She said that a second ex had come out as being a trans guy.
I told her that it had only happened to me once that I’d been with a person who later told me, “I’m a boy.”
We got to talking about how that even though we’d been with them before, they were really guys the whole time.
So does that mean we were with guys? We lose our gold stars?
Our friend Sara came in and we asked her and we kinda came to the conclusion that it was an exception and we could all keep our gold stars.
The gold-star thing is hideously biphobic. What difference does it make if you’ve slept with a guy or you haven’t?
