I was just reading this chapter in a book where the characters are talking about the "continuity" that exists or doesn't exist for trans people between their pre-egg crack and/or pre-transition selves and the version of their selves which evolves on the other side of those life milestones.
It's a fascinating question that I've pondered on and off for a long time.
For me, BOTH continuity and discontinuity have existed simultaneously.
My one thread for today, I suppose...
Oh. It seems like Phanpy doesn't render the "bags under eyes" emoji properly. Well crap. I like that emoji.
I've not been around here much because I've been working this 10 day hell-shift at work and I'm just... really friggin' exhausted.
Mmm. You can just smell the smug 1980s/90s sense of u.s. cultural chauvinism wafting off of this TV show.
"Angel One" (STTNG Season 1 Ep13)
In which the crew of a starship from a patriarchal culture with a false veneer of egalitarianism visits a planet with outward matriarchy and pretends to be the superior culture (as usual) while looking like a bunch of hypocritical wankers (as usual).
I *might* have expanded and ad-libbed on that quote a bit, LOL.
I just had some rando complain that, "People work as cops because they have to make a living too and have to work as fascists for hire because late stage capitalism. Taco Bell didn't pay the rent. ACAB is SO unfair!"
Guess who I blocked.
So are many if not most other institutions. Hierarchy is automatically inbuilt.
In ways that we look past without a thought because we're used to seeing those patterns everywhere.
I have the perfect idea for making sports 100% fair for *any* combination of participants regardless of body type, strength, endurance, and aptitude:
👉 abolish sports scores
Oh, that's crazy talk?
But that's what turns a pursuit into an automatic medium for social hierarchy and its attendance dominance games. That's what makes it a medium ripe for meshing with various forms of oppression.
It's an institution with dominance oriented thinking built right into its very foundation.
Oh cripes. They've moved from MAGA interviews in diners circa 2016 to sausage party bible study in 2026. 😒
NT Times:
"In deep-red Texas, conservatives are trying to make sense of what just happened to their longtime Republican stronghold. We visited a men’s bible study as they gathered for the first time since the state flipped in the midterm election."
But I have to say, if that's your motive, you're being a jerk? You're being one of those proverbial crabs in a bucket of crabs who is biting and pinching other crabs to escape the pot.
Don't be a jerk. It's not at all helpful.
Although, I'm guessing that there are binary trans people who are worried that non-binary people will somehow add to and exacerbate cis people's anger and disapproval of trans people's existence via a "guilt by association" reflex. So, you reject the other group of social outliers to make yourself feel/appear more "respectable."
Knowing that, I'd think it would be logical and an act of intuitive empathy to see that we share that common thread of cis reactivity to our existence with non-binary people.
"Wait, how do binary trans people challenge cis people's notions of the gender binary?"
Because cis people commonly assume that the male/female binary, as they define it, is immutable and forever stable. Trans people "switch sides" in their minds and that violates cis notions of immutability and stability of a sex/gender binary. We violate their sense of boundaries around the binary, regardless of how strongly we might *personally* identify with the binary of female/male, feminine/masculine.
Hmm. So, what is the disconnect for trans people who are having a hissy fit moment over non-binary people existing?
You do know that even trans people who ID as binary violate cis society's notions of a sex/gender binary, right? Even *we* blow that shit out of the water just by existing. That's a major reason why cis people have *their* hissy fits over trans people.
Is it really that difficult to extend our acceptance of ourselves to non-binary people as well?
https://bsky.app/profile/shelleybwoke.bsky.social/post/3mzqdjlzrad27
It strikes me as odd/inscrutable every time I read it. Obviously, there's going to be a disconnect for me. I mean, hello, I'm a woman.
But when I still had that body configuration, I didn't even think about my (feels weird saying "my") balls. I didn't think about them AT ALL. Other than situations of physical discomfort when they were injured/pinched/whatever, it's like they weren't even there for me. Just a general sense of not noticing them or thinking about them.
OK, some personal dysphoria and dissociation talk about genitals. Be forewarned. I don't normally talk about this stuff but here's one of the rare moments...
I've been rereading The Sisters of Dorley series. In this book/story series there are regular references to cis men centering their sense of self and masculinity in their... Well, their balls/testicles, to be blunt.
The subject comes up a lot. If you've read the series, you'll know why.
"Democrats Crushed Trump. Here’s What They Should Do Next."
Grow a fucking spine for once in their lives.
"What’s Behind Trump’s Obsession With Butts?"
Isn't it obvious? Because he's an ass. It's peer appreciation.