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I have a question for "gender critical" people and it is: how do you find so much time to devote to thinking about other people's genitals? doesn't that get in the way of, you know...having a life?
I own a set of genitals. they're physically attached to me. I think about them when I'm using them and I guess when I have to do necessary things like cleaning and grooming. the rest of the time, they're just a part of my body.
I am aware in the intellectual sense that most other people also have genitals, but since those genitals are not attached to my body, they're really not my concern unless I'm physically interacting with them for some reason.
okay, I lied a little - I do think about my genitals when I'm not using them sometimes because I'm a dysphoric trans person and the body parts I have do not always match up with the body parts I want. but that's my business, you know? maybe mine and my doctor's.
but you know, after the first dozen or so genital exams I did as a young medical student, I stopped seeing genitals as something mysterious or taboo and realised that they were just another body part. they have functions and they need maintenance, just like limbs or lungs.
and like limbs or lungs, while I am aware that these are things most other people have, I don't really spend much time thinking about it unless I have a reason to. how often do you think about other people's lungs?
if there was a group of people that went around insisting on knowing the condition of people's spleens, we would think that was weird. it would be weird! but there's a group of people who want to know what kind of genitals people have and that's...a thing, somehow?
I don't know, y'all. they're body parts. they have functions and they require maintenance. there's no reason to care about what another person does with any part of their body unless it directly affects you. just let people live in their bodies.
if you aren't trans and don't want to be trans, nobody is asking you to be. you can just not be trans if you want. that's allowed! but what business is it of anyone's if other people are trans? nobody's forcing *you* to take hormones or get surgery or change your name. who cares?
when I use a public bathroom, I'm in there to use the bathroom. I spend zero time thinking about the bathroom activities of the person in the stall next to me unless they're out of toilet paper and ask me to pass some under the stall for them or something.
when I buy products I need for grooming or maintenance, I just buy the stuff I need. I'm not standing there in the personal hygiene aisle at the chemist scrutinising everyone else buying tampons or razors or, idk, lube? that would be weird and creepy.
I would find it weird and creepy if people cared about what I did in public bathrooms, or which grooming products I was buying. I would find it weird and creepy if a person who wasn't about to have sex with me or give me a medical exam wanted to know if I had a dick.
I can pass for my assigned gender if I want to, so I'm not often bothered by people who think you should have to show ID to use a bathroom. I've also used men's bathrooms when that was the easiest or most expedient option. the world did not end. I did my thing and got out.
I just don't know why it should matter. why do other people's bodies matter? why are there people who are so obsessed with what other people do with their bodies? why do you *care*? nobody is forcing you to use a bathroom you don't want to use or get surgery you don't need.
do you really think that letting people live in their own bodies is somehow a danger to you? because I can tell you right now, I've never been sexually assaulted in a public bathroom, but I know people who have been, and it was by people who were in the "right" place.
and I can tell you something else: when I was sexually assaulted, it wasn't because the person assaulting me surprised me with unexpected genitals. it was because they wanted sex and didn't care what I wanted. it happened in our bedroom in our house. *that* was the surprise.
I had to sleep in the bed where it happened afterwards. I promise I thought about that a lot more than I've ever thought about whether the person in the stall next to me pees standing up.
let people live in their bodies. they're not hurting you. and if they do hurt you, they were going to do it no matter what you knew about their genitals in advance.
anyway, buy me a coffee, which I will drink in a gender-neutral fashion, probably: http://ko-fi.com/jaythenerdkid
