Read on Twitter
fyi i'm non-binary! i never really came out to everyone in my life because there are times when i hold onto older parts of me because i'm afraid of what i would lose when i let them ago. i am also a woman.
i have a no queer discourse on twitter rule. but i also feel like it's worth pointing out that the most helpful thing i've learned on this website is about generational divides and the changing conditions of the discourse itself.
when i was growing up in a wealthy, especially conservative (and didn't have anything like a GSA) part of Richmond, i didn't know you could be non-binary and not need to medically transition. the emphasis on medical stuff was a huge barrier for me to access this identity because
i'm scared of doctors and didn't understand why i needed to talk to a western doctor about something as complex as my gender in order to be seen as i am. i just know the language of "female" and "male" didn't make any sense to me personally, and that i felt like i didn't resonate
with a lot of things cis women were saying about themselves. it felt really alienating and i couldn't understand what it was exactly.
long story short, i feel better about being able to access this experience now that i no longer have anyone in my life dismissing neopronouns
long story short, i feel better about being able to access this experience now that i no longer have anyone in my life dismissing neopronouns
and limiting the bounds of what non-binary is. i do not like 101 workshops on gender because how can you offer a basic analysis of something so complex?
something that i always said to myself is that "i am not trans because i don't need to access these resources" and
something that i always said to myself is that "i am not trans because i don't need to access these resources" and
it's just... hmm... not true? the fight for resources, for name change, medical transition, housing, anti-violence resources, the fight against police violence, everyday transmisogyny, the necropolitics of the state...
all of these things are integral to the trans struggle and
all of these things are integral to the trans struggle and
all of these things coincide with us learning about and affirming who we are ourselves.
there's no need for me to believe or invest in a scarcity of being when embracing who i am does not take anything away from anyone else.
there's no need for me to believe or invest in a scarcity of being when embracing who i am does not take anything away from anyone else.
something distressing i experienced was older (white) folks insisting that i might a man. it bothered me because. i never said i was.
we can all be loud about fighting for safe medical transition resources without telling people
we can all be loud about fighting for safe medical transition resources without telling people
who they "actually" are. or insinuate they will "eventually" access medical transition resources.
non-binary identity, for folks who are both TME and TMA, both uncovers the coloniality of gender itself and it also just. is. it doesn't need to do that work at all to exist.
non-binary identity, for folks who are both TME and TMA, both uncovers the coloniality of gender itself and it also just. is. it doesn't need to do that work at all to exist.
thinking about my gender outside of academia and the pressures of non-profit queer/trans contexts is so much healthier for me.
what do you mean i have to market and theorize my identity in a paper before i even fully understand it?
what do you mean i have to market and theorize my identity in a paper before i even fully understand it?
when everyone around me was becoming youth leaders i was going, "wait, who am i to be a mentor to youth when i am so new to these understandings?"*
which prompts me to ask why the pressure to turn
*working with youth is also not my forté lol
which prompts me to ask why the pressure to turn
*working with youth is also not my forté lol
everything about ourselves into a career in the first place. the "tumblr to youth leadership in non-profits" or "tumblr to academia" career trajectory... there has to be other ways for me to be??
i was always afraid to say how i feel about this because i felt like these words can be construed as me objecting to other people's career choices, when it's just that these don't suit *me*.
but this subcultural context has deeply impacted me.
but this subcultural context has deeply impacted me.
and it makes me wonder about ways to talk about ourselves that can embrace contradiction and messiness and refuse capitalism and white supremacy and colonialism and ableism at the same time. but also not pressure ourselves to do these things.
because yes, our existence is resistance. but some of us (white folks, settlers, non-Black folks) are complicit in settler colonialism and anti-Blackness so our non-binary existence comes with responsibilities and the call to fight.
some of us (TME folks) do not experience the same kind of violence as others (TMA folks) so our non-binary existence comes with responsibilities and the call to fight.
being in the world as we are, being in solidarity with others, and resisting our own oppression all co-exist.
being in the world as we are, being in solidarity with others, and resisting our own oppression all co-exist.
TME: transmisogyny-exempt
TMA: transmisogyny-affected
i don't do gender theory or queer discourse at all so i hope this makes sense! it's how i've come to understand things thus far. ;_;
TMA: transmisogyny-affected
i don't do gender theory or queer discourse at all so i hope this makes sense! it's how i've come to understand things thus far. ;_;
