I'm As Much Of A Descriptivist As The Next Linguist, But I Do Hate The Resulting Misconception That There's

I've had this image saved for months waiting for inspiration

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.

“Our Friendship is Unbreakable!” (The top reads “Long Live International Women's Day!”)

Soviet Union, 1954

russian speaking guy who is like "okay libs this is basic grammar: there are three genders"

I would like to apologize to my anthropology professor, as the kids say, I was not familiar with your game

smoking the weed that makes you lib out

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?

please look at this picture junji ito drew of his moms crusty white dog

so long as we're back to social justice 101 on this stupid website, u need to be aware of the feedback loop that emerges from disproportionate scrutiny: any social group that is placed under extra scrutiny, regardless of the actual prevalence of any particular behaviour, will appear to engage in that behaviour more often.

you see this most blatantly with racialised groups (more cops in black neighbourhoods = more arrests in black neighbourhoods = "omg look at all the crime in these neighbourhoods!" = more cops in black neighbourhoods etc). even if the rate of crime is the same (putting to one side the criminalisation of poverty which is also an important related factor), one group gets away with it way more often and a new generation of racists is indoctrinated with the crime statistics which "prove" that some groups are simply more criminal in nature. we see a similar phenomenon online with particular groups (trans women being a huge example) being subjected to mass stalking, their every move documented by weirdos and broadcast as representative of the group as a whole.

tl;dr - overscrutinising groups based on existing bigotries creates a recurring feedback loop, reproducing those bigotries across generations and nominally justifying them. this is bad, and you need to remember that you are not immune to it.

i love you and we will make it thru this together

you have just got to stop crowing about "the ruling class losing control of the narrative" every single time a bunch of usamericans on twitter are doing meme politics with zero understanding of or commitment to basic principles of historical materialism or anti imperialism. some of these are legitimate opportunities for radicalisation if the organisational infrastructure existed but they're emphatically not radicalisation or mass politics on their own