gender

~ Brin ~ 2 Comments

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If anyone’s wondering who Jesse Bering is and why he’s related to that quote from yesterday:

A few years ago I was listening to Science for the People (as I used to do), and they had an interview with Jesse Bering about his then-recent book Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us. He was going on about how men’s sexualities are narrow and stable while women’s sexualities are broad and fluid, a spectrum with exclusive paraphiles at one end and @sinesalvatorem at the other.

And this felt really familiar, and at first I wasn’t sure why. And then I realised:

This was not the first time that I had been accused of having an extreme male brain.

Tags:

#the ”paraphilia is quintessentially masculine” people and the ”autism is quintessentially masculine” people #should get together and study whether the two things are correlated #or they might have already I don’t know #now I’m curious #oh look an original post #sexuality and lack thereof #gender #autism

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Quote ~ ~ Brin ~ 2 Comments

flyingpurplepizzaeater:

Faced with the concept that autism is an extreme male brain and simultaneously told that they just think they are boys due to their autistic traits, AFAB autistic persons would find themselves with no allowable gender identities.

Alyssa Hillary, Criptiques

 

slartibartfastibast:

Stan Gooch was rambling about this in the 70s.

 

isaacsapphire:

Huh, sounds up my alley.

Tags:

#yeah pretty much #(see also Jesse Bering) #gender #autism

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The Nonbinary/Genderqueer Stats Survey 2017

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

nonbinarystats:

nonbinarystats:

It’s time for the fourth annual nonbinary/genderqueer survey!

Last year there were over 3,000 participants, and I’d love it if we could beat that this year. If your gender isn’t fully expressed or described by the gender binary, you are enthusiastically invited to take part – regardless of the words (if any) that you use to describe your gender.

There are just 8 questions, and it doesn’t ask for your birth assignment or any identifying information.

[LINK]

If you’re nonbinary or thereabouts, or you know you’ve got followers who are, please consider reblogging this post. The statistics are really useful for visibility and activism worldwide.

You can see results from previous years here. The survey will be open for about three weeks, and closes no earlier than Monday 27th February 2017.

Thank you!

~

If you’d like to help promote, you can also retweet this tweet, visit this post on Reddit, post the URL on Facebook, or send it to someone you think might be interested: http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/NBGQ2017/

In the ~7.5 hours since this survey was created there have been 1,000 responses, or 2.2 responses per minute. That’s pretty amazing! Thank you, everyone, for spreading the word so efficiently! :)

Something I’m quite happy to share with you before the survey is closed is the sites respondents are referred by…

Nonbinary Stats Survey

As you can see, we’re pretty Tumblr-heavy! So if folks were open to it, thinking about places you can share in addition to reblogging is a big help. :)

1,000 responses in under 8 hours is incredible! I’m hoping for around 3,500, just to aim a little higher than last year, and we are well on the way. You are all awesome.

Tags:

#gender #survey #signal boost #I’m binary myself but some of my readers might be interested

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

orcshaming:

when you spend enough time looking at unnecessarily gendered products it starts to become clear that the only two real genders are pink and black, so from now on i’m going to ask heterosexual couples which one of them is the stuart semple and which one of them is the anish kapoor

Tags:

#gender #vantablack saga #I didn’t actually laugh aloud but it still amused me enough to reblog

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

ilzolende:

socialjusticemunchkin:

wirehead-wannabe:

psybersecurity:

wirehead-wannabe:

Carson + Paul is obviously the best choice. Heal the world + never worry about being sick or getting STDs + end the drug war. Only downside is spending three hours a day praying, which is honestly the easiest downside to deal with.

Also I think Paul’s running mate bonus is supposed to say “decriminalization” in the last paragraph.

Taken from /u/annextasia at https://www.reddit.com/r/makeyourchoice/comments/4gtu83/2016_gop_nomination_cyoa_oc/

Kasich is better than Carson I think. If you have a legion of 11 million loyal followers willing to heed your beck and call you could do pretty much anything and it would be a lot more fun than standing around all day touching people and feeling guilty every second that you’re doing anything else

I’m trying to figure out why Ted’s running mate bonus is supposed to be a good thing lol

I mean you could probably earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a day curing AIDS and cancer if you really just wanted to use it on yourself. Which is arguably just as good if not better than having 11 million loyal followers.

Or you could tax the ohioans just a few dollars a day each to earn a hundred times more.

Assuming “Ohio” means the legal state of Ohio, and not “the territory which currently forms the state of Ohio”, Kasich/Paul is totally OP and broken.

First, I legalize individuals and communities choosing which state to belong to democratically. The other states may whine, but governance only with the consent of the governed doesn’t violate basic rights, so with Paul I can totally do it.

Then I end the drug war. In Ohio, because I’ve legalized states setting their own drug laws.

I decriminalize states setting their own immigration rules, and open the borders in Ohio, defining ohioans as “anyone present in Ohio, or who announces their decision to join Ohio, or who has previously fulfilled either condition and has not renounced their ohioanness” (thus, making me immune to assassinations as anyone who would try to do it would have to travel to Ohio, become ohioan, and stop wanting to assassinate me and start wanting to protect me instead).

Then I implement a basic income in Ohio (for those who have been ohioans for a sufficient amount of time, as I have previously suggested). And all the other cool stuff, in Ohio.

Everyone would give anything for the cause, so I ask the people to be excellent to each other, and otherwise be free to do whatever they want as long as they don’t deprive others of the same right (but if they wish to give to charity they really should prioritize EA instead of Make-a-Wish). Crime in Ohio plummets to zero, and so does poverty, deprivation, and coercion. The economy gets an immense boom from the immigrants, and the abolition of zero-sum and negative-sum bullshit games, and all people working together for their prosperity, like a weird libertarian (or, in fact, full-blown anarchist in all but name) version of North Korea’s propaganda films come true.

The obvious consequence is that a lot of people would want to be a part of Ohio. Just as planned. It won’t take long until Ohio has a population of approximately 200 million and covers a vast fractal shape encompassing most of the major cities.

Then I become the president of the US in the most overwhelming election since Washington, seize control of all brances of the government, and turn my Paul powers to international law instead. Rinse repeat with a bit more restraint to not provoke a nuclear war, and I’ll soon have acquired most of the Americas, the major liberal cities of Europe, and vast swathes of territory in Africa as well (I’m deliberately not touching Russia or China because that way lies armageddon), in this only-nominally-stateful community of freedom and dignity.

It’s immune to invasions because open borders mind control magic, it’s immune to terrorism because surely you wouldn’t want to hurt your fellow ohioans, it’s immune to pretty much everything except ICBMs. For ICBMs my policy will be a clear and ruthless MAD if attacked, but otherwise non-interference in the affairs of the other superpower and the little regional Shitholistan with a superiority complex propped up by its ridiculous nuclear arsenal. In fact, I can afford a comparably submissive foreign policy, letting Russia pick the arctic oil and China get whatever gas fields it wants because our anarchist regime is too rich to care about such slim pickings.

We’re going to outer space instead. All the labor and ingenuity currently wasted in pointless things will be redirected in a program of technology and space colonization (and AI research but I’m assuming no FAI because it kind of cuts everything short and turns things boring). We’re going to cure all the diseases, conquer the Moon, Mars, and everywhere. We’re going to win.

A wise man once asked: “Why does everything always end in world domination with you guys?”

The rationalist answered: “Have you ever tried giving us a scenario that did not have world domination built in?”

To the US I came seeking fortune
But they’re making me work til I’m dead
The congressmen have it so easy
The bankers put gold on their bread
The people of the world are so hungry
But think what a feast there could be
If we could create an anarchist state
That cared for the people like me: 

I am the man who arranges the blocks
That descend upon me from up above.
They come down and I spin them around
Til they fit in the ground like hand in glove.
Sometimes it seems that to move blocks is fine
And the lines will be formed as they fall –
Then I see that I have misjudged it!
I should not have nudged it after all.

Can I have a long one please?
Why must these infernal blocks tease?

I am the man who arranges the blocks
That continue to fall from up above.
Come Ohioan! To the every last one!
An individualist regime of peace and love.
I work so hard in arranging the blocks
But the landlord and taxman bleed me dry
But Ohio will rise! We will not compromise
For we know that the old regime must die.

Long live freedom, burn the flags!
We salute the orange and black!

I am the man who arranges the blocks
That continue to fall from up above.
The food on your plate no concern of the state
An individualist regime of peace and love.
I have my choice in arranging the blocks
Under promethean rule, what you say goes.
The rule of the game is our rights are the same
And my blocks can make my own-shaped rows.

Long live Ohio! It loves you!
Sing these words, you know what it’ll do…

I am the man who arranges the blocks
That are made by the men from Shitholistan.
They came two weeks ago and back there they won’t go
Now they’re working to our world conquest plan.
I am the man who arranges the nukes
That will make all the Putin keep away
The hopes have come back, and ‘Murica is Black!
Let us point all our dollars at EA.

We shall live forever more!
We can start an altruism war!

I am the man who arranges the blocks
That are building a highly secret base.
Hip hip hurray for the AS of A!
We are sending our men to outer space.

This is #amazing, you are #amazing, 10/10.

Note to self: Sing this when I have microphone access.

Also, orange-and-black is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutualism_(economic_theory), yes?

“Every single man, woman, child, and animal in Ohio” (emphasis added)

See the loophole?

That’s right, folks: nonbinary assassins.

(Furthermore, if we’re going to play with definitions as much as “Ohio” has been played with, perhaps the resistance could have elaborate coming-of-age rituals, without which one is not considered to be truly adult, and then deliberately keep binary people in a liminal state where they are old enough not to be children*, but since they haven’t completed the rituals they’re not men/women yet.)

(Might also be able to get some stuff done through gender abolitionism, which I seem to recall Promethea favours? So there could still be some benefit in this from their perspective depending on the resistance’s methods.)

(But nonbinary assassins would still be the quickest and easiest method, because we already have some nonbinary adults readily available and wouldn’t need to spend precious time training people out of old thought patterns regarding the meaning of adulthood and/or gender.)

*For obvious reasons, the definition of “child” should be made as narrow as possible.

Tags:

#reply via reblog #fun with loopholes #choice games

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~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

sinesalvatorem:

pervocracy:

ozymandias271:

Excellent “am I transgender?” questions from Hacking Transgender:

  1. Imagine you have just been presented with a magic red button. When pressed the button will change you into the female version of yourself. It will also change the memories of all those you know and love so that they will have always known you as a woman, and regard you as such now. Would you press the button? What if you could only press the button once, and never be able to change back. Would you still press it?
  2. If you were presented with two magic pills, one that would turn you into a woman, and one that would take away your trans feelings and make you into a “regular boy,” which one would you take, and why?
  3. If you were to wake up tomorrow with the body of your desired sex as if you had been born that way, how would you feel? In a month? Year? Decade?
  4. If you were to wake up tomorrow 3 years post-transition, any surgeries or changes you desire completed, hormones taken full hold, a full wardrobe, etc., how would you feel? Month? Year? Decade?
  5. Would you rather be a rich, successful, attractive person of your current sex, or an average person of your desired gender?
  6. If you were married with kids which sounds more appealing, being a husband or a wife? A mom or a dad? A gay man, a straight woman, a gay woman, a straight man?
  7. Which gender would you prefer to live as on an island by yourself? Alone with Family? Friends? Strangers?
  8. How would you feel if you saw a therapist and they told you that you were trans? How about if they said they could tell you really weren’t trans and should never transition?
  9. If there was a test you could take that accurately guessed the taker’s gender, and you were to take it, which answer would you be hoping it gave you?

Well, ouch.

Imagine you have just been presented with a magic red button. When pressed the button will change you into the female version of yourself. It will also change the memories of all those you know and love so that
they will have always known you as a woman, and regard you as such now. Would you press the button? What if you could only press the button once, and never be able to change back. Would you still press it?

Um, altering other people’s memories without their consent is morally wrong. I’d have to figure out who all the affected people would be and ask for their consent.

But after that’s taken care of? Absolutely; no doubt.

If you were presented with two magic pills, one that would turn you
into a woman, and one that would take away your trans feelings and make you into a “regular boy,” which one would you take, and why?

Oh, wow. Hmm. Younger me would probably have opted for “make me normal”, since that was my most salient desire for a long time. But now, I think I value being me more than being acceptable. Especially now that I’ve been mostly accepted. As such, I think I lean more toward making my body fit my brain than the reverse.

If you were to wake up tomorrow with the body of your desired sex as if you had been born that way, how would you feel? In a month? Year? Decade?

Holy shit what’s everyone going to think!? Will my teachers, classmates, friends, or parents even recognise me? Are any of my IDs valid? What would I need to do to convince them I was the same person?

Well, whatever. I can worry about that when I get out of bed. In the meantime: I can sing! I love my voice and everything is perfect; even though the rest of everything is broken.

I think after the first month I’d have sorted out most of the problems, so strictly positive by then.

If you were to wake up tomorrow 3 years post-transition, any surgeries or changes you desire completed, hormones taken full hold, a full wardrobe, etc., how would you feel? Month? Year? Decade?

Same as above, I think?

Would you rather be a rich, successful, attractive person of your current sex, or an average person of your desired gender?

Average how? I really really don’t want to be average intelligence (especially not the global average). I’d rather lose my gender than My People. And how rich is rich? Or average? I’d love love love to be as rich as the average American. I’d have struck gold. If I have to be as wealthy as the average person from my own country, fuck no. I don’t even expect to be that poor if I stay. I’m rich where I’m from, but my Canadian friends are blown away by my poverty. I am not going deeper.

But if I get to be an average member of my in group, then yes. Definitely. No doubt.

If you were married with kids which sounds more appealing, being a
husband or a wife? A mom or a dad? A gay man, a straight woman, a gay woman, a straight man?

Wife, mother, and gay woman; of course. I already intend to be all of those things.

Well, that one was easy. Moving on….

Which gender would you prefer to live as on an island by yourself? Alone with Family? Friends? Strangers?

Female, female, female, feeeemale. Next…

How would you feel if you saw a therapist and they told you that you
were trans? How about if they said they could tell you really weren’t
trans and should never transition?

To the first: No shit? To the second: I’d want to know what they meant by “trans”. I sure as hell experience dysphoria. I’d want to know on what basis they think transition would be bad for me. I’d want to get and third opinions.

(However, if even one therapist said that, my faker feels would be exacerbated for the rest of my life.)

If there was a test you could take that accurately guessed the taker’s gender, and you were to take it, which answer would you be hoping it gave you?

Female. Definitely. The alternative is dysphoria-inducing as all hell.

Am I the only one weirded out that people are actually answering this quiz?

I mean, when I read through it the first time and got to that last bit:

If there was a test you could take that accurately guessed the taker’s gender, and you were to take it, which answer would you be hoping it gave you?

I thought “Oh, I see. That’s this test. All of the other questions were red herrings intended to get you hoping one way or another: this is the only real question on the list.”

Am I in the minority on this interpretation, or are people just answering them anyway for the hell of it?

(I have been having trouble with reading subtext into things that the writers didn’t actually intend, so it is very possible that my interpretation is not what I was supposed to come away with.)

Tags:

#gender #reply via reblog #this is not actually the sort of thing I did #when I was performing the semi-mandatory gender screening that all Tumblrites are expected to undergo #I didn’t actually go in with the intention of doing a screening at all #I was reading about the effects of transitioning because Knowledge #and I noticed #’hey’ #’my visceral reactions are consistent with there being a part of me’ #’that’s convinced my body is the Objective Best Body’ #’and is confused and horrified by the idea of people altering their bodies to be less like mine’ #'(and nods along like ”well of *course*” when presented with the idea of people altering their bodies to be *more* like mine)’ #’I bet this probably qualifies for my semi-mandatory gender screening’ #’something to point to when someone asks if I’m’ #'(or rhetorically asks if people in general are)’ #’*really* cis or if I just haven’t thought about it enough’ #’well that’s one thing off the to-do list’ #(I suppose that test doesn’t rule out the existence of a purely social thing) #(but tbh I don’t think I’ve got any of that either) #tag rambles

Poem by a jewish trans woman written in 1322

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

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somnilogical:

protector-of-the-small:

Some trans history for trans day of visibility! Here is a poem written in 1322 by a jewish trans woman! (source and alternate translation). In case you were in need of the knowledge that yes, trans people have been around for a long, long time. [this is an english translation from hebrew]

“What an awful fate for my mother
that she bore a son.
What a loss of all benefit! …
Cursed be the one who announced to my father:
“It’s a boy! …

Woe to him who has male sons.
Upon them a heavy yoke has been placed, restrictions and constraints.
Some in private, some in public,
some to avoid the mere appearance of violation,
and some entering the most secret of places.

Strong statutes and awesome commandments,
six hundred and thirteen.
Who is the man who can do all that is written,
so that he might be spared?

… Oh, but had the artisan who made me
created me instead—a fair woman.
Today I would be wise and insightful.
We would weave, my friends and I,
and in the moonlight spin our yarn,
and tell our stories to one another,
from dusk till midnight.
We’d tell of the events of our day, silly things,
matters of no consequence.
But also I would grow very wise from the spinning,
and I would say, “Happy is she who knows how to work with combed flax and weave it into fine white linen.”

And at times, in the way of women,
I would lie down on the kitchen floor,
between the ovens, turn the coals, and taste the different dishes.
On holidays I would put on my best jewelry.
I would beat on the drum
and my clapping hands would ring.

And when I was ready and the time was right,
an excellent youth would be my fortune.
He would love me, place me on a pedestal,
dress me in jewels of gold,
earrings, bracelets, necklaces.
And on the appointed day,
in the season of joy when brides are wed,
for seven days would the boy increase my delight and gladness.

Were I hungry, he would feed me well-kneaded bread.
Were I thirsty, he would quench me with light and dark wine.
He would not chastise nor harshly treat me,
and my [sexual] pleasure he would not diminish

Every Sabbath, and each new moon,
his head he would rest upon my breast.
The three husbandly duties he would fulfill,
rations, raiment, and regular intimacy.
And three wifely duties would I also fulfill,
[watching for menstrual] blood, [Sabbath candle] lights, and bread…

Father in heaven, who did miracles for our ancestors with fire and water,
You changed the fire of Chaldees so it would not burn hot,
You changed Dina in the womb of her mother to a girl,
You changed the staff to a snake before a million eyes,
You changed [Moses’] hand to [leprous] white
and the sea to dry land.
In the desert you turned rock to water,
hard flint to a fountain.

Who would then turn me from a man to woman?
Were I only to have merited this, being so graced by your goodness…

What shall I say? Why cry or be bitter?
If my Father in heaven has decreed upon me
and has maimed me with an immutable deformity,
then I do not wish to remove it.
And the sorrow of the impossible
is a human pain that nothing will cure
and for which no comfort can be found.
So, I will bear and suffer
until I die and wither in the ground.
And since I have learned from the tradition
that we bless both the good and the bitter,
I will bless in a voice, hushed and weak,
Blessed are you, O Lord,
who has not made me a woman.

…

Tags:

#poetry #gender #oh thank *god* it’s *back* #I mentioned this poem to my mother a while back and she wanted a link #and I couldn’t find where I’d read it #(or anywhere else it could be read for that matter) #but now I finally have a link again #I will go email it to her

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

ilzolende:

nihil-descent:

ilzolende:

ozymandias271:

@ilzolende said: ew ew i have to share a gender with _cats_? ugh. i thought they were all supposed to be the same gender cat otherkin-as-gender people are or something
@nihil-descent said: can confirm, am cat and nb

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

@nihil-descent said:

a level 1 housecat beats a level 1 commoner every time

you’re a cat otherkin, you can totally claim to share a gender with cats

also you are a noncentral cat in that if i tell you to not touch me you will stop, you are not a vector for toxoplasma, and you probably aren’t a major threat to endangered bird species

on the other hand, tell me i share a gender with cats and i will be p offended

i don’t really have a response to this, i just find this whole conversation amusing

Thanks!

~follow for more amusing speciesism~

Tags:

#anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #oddly enough it was the ~follow for more amusing speciesism~ that made me laugh #it’s meta-amusing I guess

brin-bellway asked: Yeah, I was going to say “turtlenecks”, but then you were complaining about lack of AC, so I figured turtlenecks would be a bad idea. Maybe when you’re in a colder part of space-time.

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

ilzolende:

Are turtlenecks not girls’ clothes? I thought they were girls’ clothes…

In theory, my brother and I each own a few turtlenecks.

In practice, we frequently have trouble figuring out which turtlenecks are whose when sorting laundry, and it is likely that at least one of our turtlenecks is currently hanging in the closet of a different person than the one it was bought for.

(My brother and I have also shared polo shirts, but he refused to wear some of mine because they were too pastel. If he thought turtlenecks were feminine-coded, he wouldn’t wear them. I don’t have enough information to say for sure if his opinion is a common one, but for what it’s worth.)

We buy most of our clothing, and pretty much all of our interchangeable clothing, from Lands’ End. You might want to check them out. (Try looking in the kids’ section; we wear the largest kids’ size. Looking at the website, apparently the gendering works like this: “girls”, “boys”, and an at-least-somewhat-hidden “kids” category whose members appear in both sections. I haven’t poked around enough to determine if there’s a way to browse the androgynous section specifically.)

Tags:

#reply via reblog #clothing

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

sinesalvatorem:

maddeningscientist:

sinesalvatorem:

+I avoid cameras like the plague because Teh Dysphorias. <br>+Unfortunately, so many things involve people wanting pictures of you and I want to be like “Ah! No! Stay back! *hiss*”, but this isn’t always a viable response. <p>+So, maybe I should just take a lot of pictures all at once and sort them by awfulness? Until I find one that doesn’t make me want to crawl in a hole and die? <br>+I mean, with enough attempts, I’d probably end up with something that doesn’t make me feel soul-crushingly dysphoric, but IDK if I’d survive the process. <br>+IDK what do <p>+Is there a manual on how to photo while trans? <br>+(If there is such a manual, I bet ozymandias271 knows where to find it.)
+Was this covered in The Gay Agenda?
+I didn’t do the recommended reading and now I’m going to fail the course :(

Your formatting messed up so this is kind of hard to read, but, yeah, that’s basically what I do.  In addition to “take like 20 of them and pick the best ones” other tips include:

-natural light!  the sun makes everything prettier!  IME standing by a window without lights on in the room tends to look best, (i.e. this and this versus this)

-find good angles.  putting the camera square in front of my face doesn’t usually work out as well as holding it slightly to the side + above/below

-um… shave?

that’s about all i’ve got.  maybe is helpful?  

Wow. I just reblogged someone supporting the format. I guess there’s disagreement.

Anyway, thanks for the tips!

Personally, I’m fine with the pluses, but the raw HTML tags are annoying. I suspect that’s what Jade was getting at too.

Tags:

#reply via reblog