How Conservatives Created (and Cancelled) Gender

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A people’s history of gender ideology.
Gideon M-K: Health Nerd, analysis of “The Cass Review Into Gender Identity Services for Children” gidmk.substack.com/p/the-cass-review-into-gender-identity
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
tinyurl.com/gendersources
Featuring the Voice Talents of:
Henry Fellerhoff
Bill W
Devon Price
@CopsHateMoe
@jackisnotabird
@JessieGender1
@PhilosophyTube
@graveyardpansy

[@alexander_avila]

Get the full picture on every story by subscribing through my link ground.news/alexanderavila to get 40% off unlimited access with the Vantage Subscription or get started with the Pro-Plan for less than $1/month.

[@jack-a-lopium]

You're alright, but your weird autism self-diagnosis video was all over the place. Although I think it's just struck me that the entire 'lying about autism on the internet' thing is a kink thing, right? It's so that you can r@pe each other and feel somewhat like it's legal. And once you're in that community, you'll likely never get out, just because of the taboo nature of what you guys do to each other, it's ingenious really. You guys are just common or garden preverts, very cool

[@frootloop4149]

throw in that shirt you're wearing for the part about the horses and you got yourself a deal!

[@jarrellfamily1422]

Cis people can't comprehend intersex people it's like a Lovecraft concept made by the woke leftist to them

[@ambientjohnny]

@@jarrellfamily1422 What are you on about? The correct terminology is DSDs, Disorder o Sexual Development, not the misleading and outdated "intersex" label. Every single person with a DSD, is either male or female. Most of the conditions are even fully sex-specific, never affecting the other sex. There is nothing hard to comprehend about DSDs in terms of what sex a person is.

[@wigglespeedturbo6324]

Ew ground news. I thought you were a left-wing channel, why promote ground news and its liberal BS???

[@Iglehiver]

"According to data, people don't like psychological torture ☝️🤓" didn't see your sources, not even your data, this whole video essay is ruined

[@Avauxi]

Insufficient double blind trials, I imagine.

[@iantino]

I'm suspecting of anecdotal evidences.

[@nescius2]

sorry to hear that... would it make you feel better to volunteer as a test subject for that?

[@jjmaligaya3507]

@@nescius2 i would volunteer 🖐

[@evenodd3339]

Yeah they probably should’ve linked the caspian report and the nice report. That kind of stuff is really important for a credible video essay

[@persbaderse]

if joe rogan fact checked me in person to my face i would fake my death

[@logan_swe]

its like that one guy getting ratio’d by the dictionary

[@caketality]

I’m not sure faking would be enough for me, I might just die on the spot from pure shame.

[@kkilljoy3588]

Yet it’s clear Matt Walsh has no shame and I think we all knew this long before the Rogan incident.

[@faffywhosmilesatdeath5953]

​@@logan_swe CANCEL CULTURE STRIKES AGAIN!

[@MathMasterism]

If you can say one nice thing about Joe Rogan, he not afraid to point out the clown behavior on the right.

[@saintkohle]

As an intersex person, thank you for touching on the hypocrisy of the medical community for banning trans healthcare access for youths while simultaneously forcing intersex youths into hrt and other treatments that they DON'T want because upholding the binary is more important than their agency and comfort. They need to seriously pick a lane.

[@OllamhDrab]

Their lane is conformity to their version of their religion. What science they use, abuse or ignore has everything to do with their belief they have a right to express power by whaever means. They consider their hypocrisy merely a show of dominance accordingly.

[@tundranone8366]

👏👏👏👏

[@umamicashflow1809]

Yes, people with disorders of sexual development have historically insisted on bodily integrity, and as such have no truck with trans activism, which is all about chemical/surgical intervention.

[@saintkohle]

@@umamicashflow1809 I don't need you explaining what I already know back to me with a anti-trans edge, man. Especially after using the term "disorders of sex development". Go find some anti-woke clowns to watch or some shit.

[@OllamhDrab]

@@umamicashflow1809 I don't know how you got any of those ideas or that it's 'disordered' to be intersex, per se in the first place. And actually there's plenty of *overlap* with the trans community sine many *do* need surgical /'chemical' treatments to feel right, they just don't want doctors arbitrarily trying to alter ambiguous infants or kids to conform to the anatomical binary *before they even have a say in it.* Notably cause the last figures I saw on it said that doctors somehow have a worse track record of picking 'right' for intersex kids' gender identities than if they'd just tossed a coin. A lot of chromosomal intersex conditions people might walk around all their lives and never even know it, but quite a few go through the same experiences as trans people, who are arguably just another form or degree of intersex anyway.

[@aidanbagshaw3411]

In physics there is a saying "all models are wrong, but some are useful."

[@melitrophium]

In biology it’s not a saying, but it’s widely known that all systems of classification are wrong. There are always exceptions. We’re all just trying to make sense of things lol

[@julzbehr6696]

@@melitrophium well there is a saying “the standard biologist’s answer is I know it when I see it” which is to say, we don’t know and we are scrambling to find places to draw lines, as though evolution did not long prove that there is no such thing as a species, and viruses did not long prove there is no such thing as life.

[@melitrophium]

@@julzbehr6696 real 🙏 on that note, if anyone is interested in reading more takes on how these flimsy boundaries relate to queerness and relationships, I loved "Virology: essays for the living, the dead, and the small things in between" by Joseph Osmundson

[@rodie3602]

Omg this sounds really interesting, thanks for sharing! ​@@melitrophium

[@jospinner1183]

For whatever it's worth, I'm a biologist (specifically a botanist and a quantitative ecologist) and we also use that phrase too. It may be more common for those of us who work more with statistical models of complex systems, like population biologists and ecologists.

[@yourlocalfemboywastaken]

"the medical fandom"

[@jack-a-lopium]

'Autistic' content on KZbin is basically just that, yes. Although this creators very own contribution started out condemning, but eventually just became it... it was a very confused video.

[@jjmaligaya3507]

left that fandom long time ago, shit got way too toxic

[@bibliophilecb]

@@jack-a-lopiumit’s just a funny bit pal

[@mackingcheese]

@@jack-a-lopium girl what

[@Kamishi845]

@@jack-a-lopium Which creators? I haven't come across a single autistic CC on KZbin who is intentionally advocating for the right of medical institutions to tell who is and isn't autistic. With that said, I avoid anything center and/or right wing content, because centrism is just right wing in denial anyway, but even if such autistic CCs exist, I wouldn't consider them to be a majority, and their advocacy is not aimed at an autistic audience, but the allistics who want to force autistics back into the closet.

[@kwowka]

Shout out to all the indigenous peoples whose historic trans history is just being completely ignored… shout out to all the intersex folks who are being told they don’t exist… shout out to all the trans people who exist in spite of it all. Shout out to all the trans people who preceded us, who aren’t here today, but whose lives leave ripples that we can still feel today. Edit: hello yes I am reading all your intelligent replies (highly recommend anyone else to read through) With my use of ‘trans history’ I didn’t mean to be reductive (it was very late at night when I wrote this comment) and the idea of transness requires a concept of cisness that is absent in many cultures. My special interest is gender non conformity and third genders through history- from the sekhet ancient Egyptians, the cult of Inanna, the mahū, the hijra, to that one person called Thomas(ine) Hall in the American early colonies who was assigned the gender of ‘men’s clothes with women’s apron’ so they didn’t deceive the public. But if I say ‘well actually a gender binary doesn’t really exist anywhere naturally and is enforced by colonial rule’ then people tend to get confused, so I just say trans history. Still, although under your original cultures you may not be queered, very few parts of the world lie untouched by colonisation and it’s dastardly cisheteronormative nonsense. And in spaces like this- English speaking comments sections on an American app, any variance is inherently queer. TLDR you’re all right and I should have phrased myself better. And now I’ve managed to infodump on hundreds of innocent people. Mwa ha ha autistic villain be like:

[@RevBucktoothJesus666]

as an intersex native person thank you.

[@kaypoh2589]

THIS. transphobes *constantly* refuse to acknowledge indigenous third gender, between gender, and transgender identities because it completely discredits how they imagine a 'successful' society to be

[@jack-a-lopium]

And shout out to all the genuine autistic (which is a real disability, btw) people this vile KZbinr (and all others like him) are appropriating for whatever reason on the internet. He's as oppressive and as far-right as anybody... despite being a brack man. It's all some weird kink, right? Disability kink Love it!

[@skeletonbuyingpealts7134]

​@@RevBucktoothJesus666🫂

[@SarastistheSerpent]

It’s not even just indigenous people. Many many cultures in Asia, Africa, and even the pre-Christian and pre-Islamic Middle East and Europe. In Southern Italy where I am from, we have a third gender called femminielli. Theyre neither considered men or women and in fact many femminielli are intersex. Femminielli are conceptually descended from Ancient Greco-Roman eunuch priests from Hellenic Turkey, and the concept of the androgynes of Hermaphroditus.

[@hiericas]

Weird that birth control is also associated with lower bone density and but drs seem to have very few questions when putting teen girls on that.

[@cedaremberr]

I used to work in teen group homes and some of the girls had hormonal birth control implants that they only kind of had a say in getting, and would get a ton of push back if they wanted them removed.

[@Nemo12417]

Matt Walsh is open about his intention to come for that next.

[@UTTP-142]

ALEX STEALS MY VIDEOS FOR MOOLAH AND HAS MADE MILLIONS OFF MY HARD WORK!!

[@phaIIicaIIyimpaired]

Oh, don't worry, the same bigots who are transphobic are also pro-life (more accurately 'forced birth') and are already looking to abolish no-fault-divorce (their preferred vision being no divorce possible at all) and they'll also eventually advocate against birth control, if their shitty demands keep being codified into law. They certainly don't want schools to educate comprehensively about birth control.

[@SarastistheSerpent]

⁠​⁠@@Nemo12417well yeah but he’s also been pretty open about how fertile 15 year old girls are and how he is much in favour of getting them pregnant

[@spantigre3190]

I never liked the 'born this way' narrative. It would still be wrong to try and change someone's gender if it was a choice. We don't need it to be an unchangeable characteristic for it to be worthy of protection. Most people think religion should be protected, but you can convert and many people when faced with threats will.

[@PanEtRosa]

I've felt for a long time that if we're going to gain any ground and respect, it will be by standing on our agency. as Judith Butler described, and Alexander expressed from his personal experiences in "I Was a Transgender Child", something about our identities is external, and something about them is located within us. sometimes the external pressure pushes us, sometimes the internal intuition pushes us. and both of those can limit our practical range of choices. but *we* make the choices we feel are best. that is our power and our right as living beings.

[@airplanes_aren.t_real]

Same, kind of tired of playing the optics game, im not saying that I'm gonna 💣 fox news or anything, just that it's annoying to have to "sell" the idea of yourself like a product to others so that they'll "buy" into it

[@CutieBanana09]

While it should be respected if it were a choice, I really don’t think “trauma causes people to be trans and maybe it’s changeable” is the eat y’all think it is. Personally that very much goes against my own experience of my transness and I know plenty of other trans people with the same experience. Not all, sure, but I don’t see why a) it *cant* be innate and separate from trauma. I would still transition if I didn’t have PTSD. and b) now, when we’re facing a major political movement that seeks to eradicate us, is exactly the time to say that we’re the result of mental illness and aren’t born the way we are?

[@owo4983]

@@CutieBanana09 i dont think trauma causes transition is what any of them are saying though? maybe im misunderstanding what you're meaning here but no one in the comments youre replying to has really mentioned trauma as a direct cause of people being trans. edit: i reached the point in the video where it was brought up, and trauma causing queerness isnt what is being said there either. its more like trauma can affect your concept of gender for everyone, cis and trans alike i think.

[@yoyohayli]

@@CutieBanana09 Uhm, where did anyone here aside from you say anything about "trauma [causing] people to be trans"? I don't even see the word trauma, or anything close to it mentioned anywhere here.

[@SarastistheSerpent]

12:43 hit the nail on the head. I was a cis kid who was on a puberty blocker in the early 2000s for adrenal hyperplasia. There was zero controversy surrounding them then, and even still when I defend trans kids being allowed to use them, transphobes counter with the “you had a medically legitimate reason”. I did indeed have a medically legitimate reason, as do trans kids. My parents and I did not want me going through puberty at 6 years old. Had I been a girl (I’m a cis guy) they would’ve _especially_ not wanted me to go through male puberty as a 6 year old girl. It would’ve been psychologically traumatizing. Yet anti-trans ideologues force trans kids to endure it.

[@Super-BallSharp]

But the actual difference would be that PBs were being used to block an early puberty for you (if i understand correctly) but would be blocking a "natural" puberty for trans kids, and we dont know the effects of that. No?

[@AnArmoredMarch]

​@@Super-BallSharp We know it blocks the undesired puberty, which can cause actual, real, measurable trauma in trans people. The brain is very much a part of the body that deserves attention and care, same as any other organ. Mental health care is genuine and real health care, the same as any other

[@gizmo5601]

@@Super-BallSharpSo you would support the banning of puberty blockers for all cis kids too, surely? Since we don’t have strong evidence, such as randomized double blind studies, demonstrating the long term effects. i.e. for the same reason trans kids are now being denied the medication. Or should we draw a distinction between “natural” and “unnatural” puberty?By age, by cis or trans, by motivation. Whatever it is, if you agree with the Cass report findings, you’ll need strong evidence to support your position to prescribe or not.

[@Super-BallSharp]

@@AnArmoredMarch uh.. i know this? And i dont really see how it counters or answers my question?

[@kendan06]

​@@Super-BallSharp Where does your criteria for "natural" puberty end? Some people might say that someone with adrenal hyperplasia going through puberty at a young age is "natural." Their body "naturally" began developing secondary sex characteristics, without the use of any medical intervention in the first place. Perhaps going on puberty blockers was just as "unnatural" because it put a pause on what their body originally did. Yet most people do not see it this way. They believe the positives of putting cisgender kids with precocious puberty (such as improved mental health due to the ability to fit in, and more time to just be a kid for longer) outweigh the negatives. There are actually multiple long-term studies of transgender children who had been on puberty blockers showing that it greatly improved their mental health in the same way. Yet these are disregarded as "inefficient" and "biased" while research papers created by people with histories of anti-trans opinions are allowed to be used because they're totally unbiased, right? (Heavy sarcasm there). The real problem is that puberty is a ticking clock, and if we keep trying to hold off on puberty blockers for trans kids based on apprehension directly related to their identity (which we do not do for cisgender kids with precocious puberty), the children who really need that care are forced to go through the torment of a puberty they never wanted- usually causing higher rates of gender surgeries like mastectomies in the future to reverse these changes anyway. I urge you to think more critically about what is so different about using puberty blockers for trans kids and puberty blockers for cis kids, and why it matters. Sincerely, a transgender man who also has adrenal hyperplasia. :)

[@9kingdoms757]

Ill die happy now knowing that a portion of the Ancient greek population wished mpreg was real

[@kc8391]

On that note, Plato (at least in his youth) thought that gay men were meant to be rulers because they are more masculine in nature

[@groundbird4904]

@@kc8391what is manlier than loving a man?

[@1000Ducks]

The has been a big return of catamites too!

[@9kingdoms757]

@@kc8391 are they not? nothings more masculine than TWO MEN. ITS DOUBLE THE MAN

[@jaylendaley1213]

tag this for SPOILERS PLEASE WHOA

[@ZombieInvader]

“Sneed’s Feed and Seed: Formerly Chuck’s” Me: haha it’s funny because “Chuck’s Feed and Seed didn’t rhyme. Sneed just happened to buy the business” Moments later: … oh

[@Lollero200q]

Sneeders unite!

[@Lollero200q]

It's Chuck's Seeduck and Feeduck

[@sugar-fen]

bruh same D: we're too innocent

[@ZombieInvader]

@@Lollero200q perhaps Chuck sold duck feed

[@Lollero200q]

@@ZombieInvader yes

[@user-cy5pc7eg3s]

As a trans man in Russia, the way that u feel so unhuman in day to day life is mindboggling. If in your country u have a chance to do something, ANYTHING- pls do it. Everything can turn around so fast.. no war be safe (also great video 💖)

[@beatblocksgaming]

Stay strong brother 💜

[@kkilljoy3588]

Hang in there. I’m so sorry for your circumstances.

[@cianuro577]

​@@kkilljoy3588 damn built-in KZbin translator translated "hang in there" as "повесить там" and I read it as "повесьтесь там," which translates to "go k_ll yourself by hanging yourself." I was scared, but then I realized that it must be some kind of idiom, as i reread it ". _. This funny incident actually says a lot about how queer people in russia feel Thanks for the support, bro💚💚;^;

[@ConductiveFoam]

​@@cianuro577holy shit that wrong translation is horrific I wish all of you the best ❤

[@duffin.caprous]

Hell, they even go in reverse. A friend of mine in school had a disorder that kept him from entering puberty. We were the same age, but he looked like he was half my age. He took hormones or some sort of medication which jump started his puberty. No controversy about that whatsoever.

[@albertfralinger2711]

Isn’t this a very different scenario though? He was dealing with a physical disorder and not just mental distress

[@duffin.caprous]

@@albertfralinger2711 you don't think he wasn't bullied for being smaller than the other students in our grade?

[@albertfralinger2711]

@@duffin.caprous I’m sure he was, but I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make.

[@Kamishi845]

@@albertfralinger2711 The point is that not going through puberty alongside his peers caused him mental distress.

[@albertfralinger2711]

@@Kamishi845 yea I agree, and I’m glad this disorder was corrected. Wouldn’t puberty blockers cause the same scenario for children?

[@teah2310]

I can’t get over the Cass Report using AI generated images. Nothing supports your totally 100% scientifically sound report like incorporating images of people who literally do not exist.

[@girlmaya6818]

Yeah fucking hell

[@albertfralinger2711]

How does this effect any of the material in the report though? If these used stock images of actors and models, would it be the same issue?

[@PanEtRosa]

@@albertfralinger2711 it's one of many pieces of evidence that trans voices were not included in the report. it suggests the report's authors view us as... less real than themselves. and easily replaced.

[@hi-i-am-atan]

@@albertfralinger2711 is this a hot new "keanu reeves does not exist" conspiracy theory i smell

[@Kagomai15]

​@@albertfralinger2711 Not the exact same issue but it would absolutely still be _an_ issue to criticize.

[@PhilosophyTube]

I liked the video and I wish it had come out in time to cite it in mine lol! The horse analogy is really useful. There’s a crucial timeline error in the discussion of the Cass Review though: the NHS actually stopped prescribing puberty blockers to trans children in 2021 - not 2024 - in response to Bell v Tavistock, not the Cass Review, and even when Bell v Tavistock was later overturned in the Court of Appeal they didn't resume prescribing. This is important because it shows us a key way these systems operate: they make the decision first (in this case deciding to refuse treatment to trans patients) and *then* create the document that they point to as justification. The Cass Review not only excluded trans people from its governance board, as you rightly pointed out, but also several members of its advisory board are pro-conversion therapy activists, which was kept secret until *after* the report was published. Some have directly lobbied the British government to prevent a ban on conversion therapy. I think it does the Review far too much credit to get into the weeds of how it conducts evidence reviews; it gives NHS England the benefit of the doubt when the truth is, in my opinion, blunter - NHS England have been told since at least 2013 that the segregated system they are running is bad for patients. They have been condemned in joint statements by international medical authorities multiple times, and even by their own clinicians. Several patients have died on the waiting list. The Cass Review is, in my opinion, an attempt to continue ignoring the negative outcomes they’ve caused and protect the careers of the managers responsible for those deaths.

[@alexander_avila]

Hi Abigail, thanks for contextualizing this further. I’ll admit that the British Medical System is not my expertise. I appreciate you highlighting the earlier history of this policy decision that goes back to the Bell v. Tavistock decision. It’s important to note that these policy decisions are not clean reactions to medical research, but politically motivated systemic actions that problematize trans life. Ultimately, the intention of this video was not to be the ultimate Cass Review/NHS “takedown,” so I had to make some decisions on where I spent my energy, leading to some oversights and omissions. Had it been my intention to take on Cass or the NHS or British transphobia, I would’ve spent a lot more time outlining all the nefarious connections different journalists have pointed out. You could write an entire video in and of itself that ties together the different suspicious knots in the Cass Review. I assume you’re referring to Trilby Langton and her connections to “Exploratory Therapy.” I think it’s certainly worth the time to show the anti-trans bias surrounding the review. But since this video wasn’t supposed to be a Cass Review takedown video, I didn’t want to make strong claims that couldn’t be quickly, cleanly, and firmly demonstrated. Rather, I wanted the main focus of this video to be about the frameworks we use to talk about gender. Because even if we lived in a cute fantasy world where The Cass Review was a genuine good-faith effort to “review the evidence,” the whole way of thinking of trans experience as a medicalized disorder is fundamentally flawed. The way I see it, regardless of whether or not you include trans people or surround yourself with sketchy transphobic connections, the search for evidence in favor of gender-affirming care is always going to be fraught as long as (trans)gender identity is pathologized. Underlying the Cass Review is the assumption that a trans life is an undesirable life, a uniquely disordered life, and/or a life to be avoided at all costs. I think this is the larger question that is the heart of the issue. P.S. Your video on Judith Butler was great!

[@ambientjohnny]

@@alexander_avila No one can be "born in the wrong body", our brains ARE our body just as much as any other part of it. We are the sex we are, regardless of what our personal relationship is with the sexist stereotypes in society. "Trans" ideology, is regressive and sexist, as there is no "correct way" of being a boy or girl, man or woman, all those terms do is indicate sex and stage of maturity - decoupling sex and gender and trying to make gender into this ludicrous concoction of personality and sexist stereotypes is beyond regressive - it actively harms people who buy into it - the idea that there is something wrong with a kid's body that needs to be chemically altered because they believe living up to sexist stereotypes is some real measure of whether they are a boy or a girl (and man or woman for adults obviously), is insanity. I have asked hundreds of "activists" and "allies" to explain what they are measuring themselves against to determine that they have a need to transition - NOT ONE person has been able to articulate what that is - not one person is able to distance themselves sufficiently to realise that THEY are the ones with a regressively sexist idea of what it means to be a boy/girl or man/woman and that that is the issue causing all the problems - their own misunderstanding and severely limited perspective/sexist misunderstanding of what sexist stereotypes/"gender norms" actually entail - they are not rules, they are not real boundaries, they are regressive ideas and generalisations - no one needs to live up to any such utter nonsense or feel comfortable with those stereotypes to be a boy/girl/man/woman - all those terms represent, and all they should represent, is sex and stage of maturity - by creating this whole "gender identity" nonsense, THAT IS WHAT CAUSES ALL THE DISTRESS, THIS FABRICATION OF A FRAMEWORK WHICH DISTORTS REALITY. No one - NO ONE - in the movement has been able to explain or articulate what this supposed "womanly essence" or "manly essence" is that they feel/know/need to transition in order to represent etc. actually is - yet you all actively believe in it and push for it to be accepted. That is ludicrous.

[@durnsidh6483]

​@@ambientjohnny Why all the spam under every person's comment? Couldn't you just make your points once? This isn't the only channel I've seen you do this on. Also, you clearly didn't watch the video.

[@ambientjohnny]

@@durnsidh6483 Because I'm interested in changing people's minds. The comments I reply to, those users would never see what I say otherwise. The comment certainly isn't tailored to this video. Seeing as this is under a PhilosophyTube comment, the channel owner doesn't seem to have the slightest problem with PT going around lying about having changed their sex (he's still male despite lying about being female on Novara Media).

[@durnsidh6483]

@@ambientjohnny Well may I suggest you take a rhetoric course because people here don't see you as worth engaging with, they see you as an asshole. The fact that you're alleging that Abigail "lied about [her] sex change" again indicates you haven't watched the video.

[@kwowka]

I know a trans girl who had her second appointment with the gender clinic two days ago. She’s 14. They made silly jokes about the doctors saying they have 2 extra balls (hilarious, Luna, well done) and it’s possible that she could get on puberty blockers in around 6 months. But they won’t get access to estrogen until at least 16- and even then, only gets a consult with a doctor. Basically, this is how real trans kids live. They’re giggly nerds who say ‘that’s what she said’ and go to school.

[@airplanes_aren.t_real]

Breaking news, trans girls are just like you

[@chrisbfreelance]

Your friend is an experiment.

[@motherofthetans]

My youngest is nonbinary and, as An Old, I have to admit that I don't necessarily understand what they're going through. But as a parent, I want my kid to be happy and I don't think I need to *understand* necessarily in order to be supportive, which is what I'm trying to do. I've learned a lot from your videos, so thank you for your work 😊

[@sometimesawful]

So you're just blindly agreeing with your child on his or her assertion that they're not a girl or a boy, or are both, and you think that's good parenting? Please actually look into what your kid is getting into. If they're female, the chances are they'll get a radical bilateral mastectomy and take testosterone to appear more androgynous. She may take risks like going into male locker rooms and be assaulted. If male, he may decide to have nullification surgery (look it up) and you will have no grandchildren from him. Or he may decide to get breasts and keep his junk and do porn. Maybe you should ask your kid what non binary means to them, and see if it's sensible or nonsense, cut their internet use to supervised only and get rid of their device, stop them hanging out with idiots at school who think they're furries and gender fluid and pansexual when they're twelve. Do your job as a parent and protect your child from the horrible future "non binary" offers.

[@TerryVideoZone]

@@sometimesawful The parent is very clearly going out of their way to educate themselves. Cool it with the fearmongering bullshit. As a nonbinary adult myself who has no desire for surgery, has recognized theirself as nonbinary since being a child in the 2000s, born '98 and whom nowadays associates with and has spoken with a lot of other adult enbies, irreversible surgeries are a lot rarer than you're making it out to be. It's much more important that a parent be supportive and educate themselves, participating alongside the child, making sure that they're in actual safe spaces and not just arbitrarily going into opposite-sex spaces where they wouldn't be safe and asking important questions *with* them to ensure that those more key decisions are made while totally informed and aware at a time in the child's life that makes the most sense to them. This isn't to deny that the horrible things you're describing out don't happen, of course, but from my own understanding is largely overblown and based, as I've said in fearmongering. these things seem to majorly happen because a child doesn't feel comfortable opening up about these things with their parents (who are often evangelical christians or otherwise right-wing alt-right-news-slop-gobbling oppressive dickwads who fall for the shit you're spewing right now), so they just never receive the guidance they need to express themselves while also staying safe, and end up stuck stumbling through life because they never had a father or mother they felt like they could actually trust. If you want to actually be helpful why don't you drop the regurgitated right-wing talking points and actually educate yourself too while you're at it.

[@ts4743]

based mom

[@sometimesawful]

@@TerryVideoZone what made you think you are non binary

[@Shoulderpads-mcgee]

You’re absolutely correct that you don’t need to understand to support. I’m certain with time and more experience with the concepts you will come to understand your child better but you are doing the most important part, letting them be themself and supporting them along the way. Your child is lucky to have you, though I wish a parent like you wasn’t luck but the standard

[@lathalassa]

from the moment i understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me

[@nicolasnamed]

*ORGAN MUSIC INTENSIFIES*

[@logan_swe]

agreed, since i realized i rejected a physical form.

[@magma440]

I craved the strength and certainty of steel

[@UTTP-142]

ALEX STEALS MY VIDEOS FOR MOOLAH AND HAS MADE MILLIONS OFF MY HARD WORK!!

[@DKdrop]

-that one turtle who got a little skateboard to zoom around on.

[@kwowka]

Dora richter (the first trans woman to receive gender reassignment surgery) is a really good example of trans kids existing whether you like it or not. Born in 1892, at the age of 6 she reportedly tried to remove her penis to look like a girl. Decades later, she continued to identify as a woman. She was treated by Magnus Hirschfeld, and worked in his institute- Hirschfeld gave her the nickname of ‘Dörchen’. It was believed that she had died in a raid of the institute in 1933 by Hitler youth, but she survived, and the last we know of her was a census in 1939. However, she lived and worked as usual for over 8 years after having THE FIRST vaginoplasty, which is- mad. So cool. Science. Wow.

[@edm.7212]

The more I hear about the transitions of other trans people, the more I realize how unprecedented my transition timeline was. I came out in September 2016, got a puberty blocker in January 2017, and started taking T in June 2017 due to hormonal complications. This happened while I was 12-13. The fact that trans youth STILL has to wait years to even be considered for medical treatment is absolutely insane. My location, previous displays of gender non-conformity, parents, and sheer luck all played a massive role in streamlining my transition, but the fact that I have only met one other trans person who started hormones even close to the age that I did shows how undervalued trans youth really are.

[@nicolasnamed]

Not to mention those who would've started sooner if they were allowed, because I did come out at 15 and started seeing doctors and a therapist, but my dad (who accepts me now but didn't really 'get it' then on how important it was to me) wouldn't sign off on me starting hormones earlier than 18 because he didn't want to feel responsible because I regretted it. Which as I type this I realize makes me a lot angrier now that I recognized it, even if it didn't really effect my transition effects long term.

[@BarkleyBCooltimes]

Not to be "all children" but at least in America, people seme to really hate children in general. Children are a massive second class citizen population that Americans think is perfectly fine to control their entire lives and dismiss anything they say. Which leads to trans children who just get completely ignored instead of being taken seriously when they express mental trauma with their AGAB.

[@Shoulderpads-mcgee]

I think a lot of it comes from a persistent distrust of children and their abilities. It may sound silly to say we need better children rights, but we do. Minors don’t have any control over their living situations, education, or even their bodies and that can and does lead to kids getting hurt or killed. It’s especially clear when people like Matt Walsh liken your experience of knowing your gender to a child playing pretend as a walrus, as if minors have no grasp on reality or themselves.

[@Shoulderpads-mcgee]

@@cyclicozone2072 bad faith commenter spotted

[@Shoulderpads-mcgee]

@@cyclicozone2072 because you didn’t pay attention to the video

[@NoraStriker]

Ah, perfect, another video to anxiously watch next to my mother, crossing my fingers that This is the one that magically snaps her out of her cyclical transphobic logic so we never have to have another conversation about "transgenderism" EDIT: It went pretty well, actually. We had an in-depth conversation about our contrasting experiences with gender and humanity in general. She's come a long way since I came out to her over a decade ago, if not as far as I'd prefer. There's still a lot to work on, but it's something. I attribute a lot of her progress to the accessibility of trans creators online and her willingness to engage on some level with their works alongside me, so thank you so much to people like Alexander Avila for making that possible. I hope all of you who are looking for breakthroughs with your families find them, and otherwise find belonging and understanding here and elsewhere ❤

[@tawbhwa]

I wish I could this😭 sadly mom doesn't understand English🙃

[@eleanorsherry4620]

good luck soldier

[@aerindinescarro47]

Remember that self-love is an act of spite, to anyone who wants you to be ashamed of yourself. Live anew with wisdom old.

[@keilee_khaos]

Good luck

[@lydiamoss2632]

@@tawbhwamy mom understands English but would refuse to watch this :(

[@opnuul]

"Anatomy has existed since Greeks were taking it up the a-" I'M HOWLING!!

[@UTTP-142]

ALEX STEALS MY VIDEOS FOR MOOLAH AND HAS MADE MILLIONS OFF MY HARD WORK!!

[@alejandrapedroza14]

Love how he then says the same about Romans lmaooo

[@deltafournumbers]

​@@UTTP-142Alex doesn't make millions to begin with lmfao

[@cewla3348]

The greeks took it the wrong way and needed to know how it worked, what is a group of CLOSE MALE FRIENDS to do?

[@connerblank5069]

Came for the gender ideology, stayed for the epistemological discussion of medieval vs modern horse girls. 10/10.

[@clueless_cutie]

"In what other branch of medicine do we intentionally exclude key stakeholders and experts from medical policy?" Abortion Women and OBGYNs are regulary excluded from having any input on the legislation affecting abortion and gynecological care. Hell, you're lucky if there's any medical input at all.

[@crazlei]

me: yeah, i need to study for my 4year exam from "the knowledge of society" *alexander avila posts" me: well this counts as studying, no?

[@TheSkyCaptain]

I consider him to be a gender/sexuality lecturer. So, absolutely.

[@arej5390]

powodzenia na maturce

[@crazlei]

@@arej5390 dziena, przyda się 😭

[@alejandrapedroza14]

Lmaooo sameee, saw the notification in the morning and now that it's my break I'm watching it

[@crazlei]

guys the essay i had to write was a speech about social exclusion, watching all of these video essays finaly payed off 😭❤️

[@anisnissa]

Sleep was invented as a torture device keeping me from watching this video

[@cedaremberr]

Oh no, but research shows that, generally speaking, people don't like torture!

[@JackieMBadguy]

As a trans non-binary person that doesn't fit any of the popular boxes, I've been long dissatisfied with the way as you said sex and gender are locked in a cage. I find it hard to put into words just how dehumanizing it feels for not only my falling out of the norm to be pathologised but many of my gender identity related wants and needs to be completely dismissed as not even being gender related. As if others could objectively decide that for me.

[@Shoulderpads-mcgee]

It’s hard to exist outside of the boxes when people are already mad enough over the ones just trying to swap one cage for another

[@fartface8918]

it seems like the only way out is through, thanks for bending that cage, may we build a world that does not hurt, you or otherwise

[@mooncupcake_]

@@Shoulderpads-mcgee people are just so mad in general. you have to 'fit' or you're a target.

[@chrisbfreelance]

Biological sex has no time for your flouncing.

[@cewla3348]

sexuality is a prison (luckily i was never in it to start), though im not too sure if the bars of gender surround me or are in front of me.

[@aquietdragon5671]

"pretend you're a horse girl" ok "you're reading pre-9th century texts about the natural history of horses" o-oh, whoops >_>

[@wintergray1221]

uwu and owo

[@johannesschutz780]

Fun fact: whoever wrote the bible did not say that Eve was created from Adams rib! The hebrew word that is used there means side and is never translated as rib anywhere else. God cut Adam in half to create Adam and Eve, just like in the Ancient Greek spherical people story. The Greek translators are at fault.

[@airplanes_aren.t_real]

Zeus dammed Greeks

[@alejandrapedroza14]

Damn greeks indeed

[@fluidthought42]

That helps explain the "dual creation" interpretation in some schools of religious thought, primarily in the Khabbalah school where they interpret the repeating of the creation of man as referring to two, possibly three women created in the garden in total, the last one being the one that's known as Eve. The first woman is identified as Lilith, and her crime was being of the same original unitary as Adam (like the Greek concept of the unitary primordial people who were all-sexed/bi-sexed) and thus equal, which wasn't acceptable to Adam.

[@tsunamininja]

found a hermeneutics stack exchange question saying otherwise but don't know any Hebrew and thus cannot verify - have a look for yourself though? title is: is the translation rib for the Hebrew in Genesis 2:22 justified?

[@SpoopySquid]

Imagining God splitting Adam by pulling his legs apart like a wishbone

[@catloaff]

When you were talking about how capitalism needed population control to protect the capital's interest I was sooooo ready for eugenics name drop and you mentioned it 6 minutes later

[@svarakissoon1189]

Very malthusian

[@kaymitchell6143]

As a nonbinary person who considers myself genderless this is so comforting to hear. I always say I feel like I’m me irrespective of my body but I recognize that I am female in society it always weirds people out. As someone who has my degree and has done research in biology, I look at sex as no different than any other genetic mutation. It was what was needed for our species survival. Me being born female is no different than me being born a few inches shorter than my siblings. It was what I won in the genetic lottery. However, I realize even though I feel (and the people around me feel) that my body is genderless it won’t change that fact that in my life time my body will mostly be seen as female and have social expectations that comes along with it. I always say I’m trans only because we live in a society that forces us to reject nuance.

[@alexba1ley]

i'm so intrigued by the idea of sex as a mutation that evolved simply bc it was enough of a survival aid to merit passing on. makes me consider the vast sexual variations of animals and how those are often very specifically adapted to their ecological niches. why shouldn't the same apply to humans? thanks for the food for thought!

[@ConductiveFoam]

I'm amab agender and your comment put into words a lot of my own thoughts. I feel so seen right now Much love to you 💜

[@PigIA]

My grandmother was a high school biology teacher from the late 60’s to the 2000’s. During my mother’s childhood (the 80’s), she would invite trans and gay people to the school she taught at and taught her students about them. She would even invite them to her house afterwards for dinner. Teaching about trans people isn’t something invented 10 years ago, it has been around for a long time and is called being a good, thorough teacher and a decent human being.

[@cecilross2848]

35:29 Whelp. I've officially reached a point in which my autism hinders my thirst for psychological and anthropological knowledge. I've seen this scene numerous times, but always interpreted the joke as the store initially being "Chuck's Seed & Feed" and the alliteration provided by the new owner Sneed is a funny coincidence.

[@Blatt1247]

well, I thought it was just "Chuck's"

[@MuckyMarci]

I thought it was just Chuck's as well, but now that I've heard the full joke explained, it's makes way more sense!

[@svarakissoon1189]

Same I literally did not get the joke at all until he explained it

[@samt3412]

A funny thing about this joke is that it spawned a weird 4chan thing called "sneedposting" where they explain the joke in a deranged manner. I think it's because the joke goes by so fast and is so complicated that it ironically falls totally flat on what should've been a very simple joke

[@mikablue420]

SAME! i felt so disappointed i went all this time not getting the joke, especially since its a really funny joke, my brain just couldnt comprehend it without someone saying it

[@spades498]

trauma as a cause for any gender or sexuality is a really interesting idea. i think cis men probably could relate to that idea if theyre open to the idea that bullying causes trauma. men are often bullied into manhood. that kind of trauma makes a man more set in masculinity. sexual assault works to subjugate women and force them to understand their "place" in society. that kind of trauma can make women more set in femininity as well.

[@airplanes_aren.t_real]

Isn't there an entire subset of asexual people that started to identify with the term due to a traumatic experience involving sex?

[@dani01949]

@@airplanes_aren.t_realyup

[@UTTP-142]

ALEX STEALS MY VIDEOS FOR MOOLAH AND HAS MADE MILLIONS OFF MY HARD WORK!!

[@I-do-not-exist-here]

@@airplanes_aren.t_realdefinitely, not me personally but that’s a pretty major contributing factor.

[@wintergray1221]

@@airplanes_aren.t_real I hate that this has become a stereotype. I'm ace. I have sexual trauma. My trauma has never impacted my inability to feel sexual attraction in any way.

[@electricbleue5017]

i’m nonbinary but have never felt a strong urge to medically transition. i feel disconnected from the societal concept of sex and gender itself, not from my body. i don’t even like calling myself nonbinary, because that in itself is a label. i’ve felt ostracized from the greater trans community because i don’t want top surgery and other things that ftms/ftxs are “supposed” to want. thank you for this video, i feel seen.

[@DesOkun]

You can decide how much to do and/or not do to feel more comfortable in your own skin. There is no required set of check boxes that should need to be checked to be considered who you are. You are valid as you are.

[@dayozin2001]

I totally relate to this

[@SpoopySquid]

Honestly, same

[@yukiauditore8460]

Me too. Kinda OK with my body in the default state it is and mostly just focusing on what's in my mind palace tbh.

[@naluzoniro]

"Absolute masculinity or absolute femininity in any individual represents an imaginary ideal" HOLY SHIT EUGEN THAT GOES HARD

[@BlackReshiram]

"gender trouble" sounds like an awesome bandname for bands made from trans people

[@TheLeftistCooks]

Well: that was just exceptional. I've never seen gender theory described so succinctly and accessibly. And what a rallying cry at the end. I'm awed and inspired. - S.

[@ryn2844]

'Most trans people I know can't even order extra water at a restaurant' haha dang you didn't have to call us out like that

[@sashyf]

i don't get the joke, care to explain it for me?

[@ryn2844]

@@sashyf We tend to have social anxiety

[@sashyf]

@@ryn2844 oh, is that like something trans people just have naturally or??

[@ryn2844]

@@sashyf No, social anxiety is generally the result of a lifetime of rejection, sadly.

[@sashyf]

@@ryn2844 oh, yea that makes sense, sad!

[@fred2310]

"For those of you who don't follow the medical fandom" I have no words to explain how much I enjoy your writing.

[@ConductiveFoam]

Or his "from smooth child to hairy manlet", both ridiculously funny. There's a lot of great lines in the video

[@reaperman111]

i completely agree...the narrative that sex and gender are separate and that trans people have the brain of the gender they feel they are has always bothered me. gender is just extremely complex and a personal connection to the world which doesn't have to make sense, because nature doesn't really have a purpose. i'm genderfluid and i've always seen my connection to gender more weird and complicated than the way people simplify it whether that be with transphobic intentions or activism intentions

[@Shoulderpads-mcgee]

Yeah, I often find myself thinking into tangled spirals when I try to really think through that model. It just doesn’t quite fit the puzzle it’s trying to solve. The lines of everything are too blurry to have that distinction and you can’t truly know who you are outside of the culture that influenced you. I really liked Alex’s discussion of experience and trauma influencing gender. I identify as nonbinary but sometimes I’ve felt like a fraud because I don’t fit into any of the popular narratives of what that means, and I think my feelings about gender are strongly linked to my asexuality. And I thought if my gender is caused by my sexuality, it must be fake because I don’t feel like I have a nonbinary brain, I feel like an asexual who is distanced from my assigned gender because of it

[@UTTP-142]

ALEX STEALS MY VIDEOS FOR MOOLAH AND HAS MADE MILLIONS OFF MY HARD WORK!!

[@christopheriman4921]

@@Shoulderpads-mcgee I am also on the asexual side of things and I think I would actually identify with being agender which because it isn't apart of a binary I would also consider non-binary or if you were to say I had to have a gender I would say that I am my own gender, I literally have never cared at all what my gender is or even what my sex is because there were more interesting things to talk about. From my view everything we talk about is a social construct because we socially construct these barriers between things that don't actually exist, although certain barriers are more useful constructions to talk about how and why things work. I even recognize that had I gone through even a slightly different life up until this point I could likely be a hugely different person. I use the pronouns of he/him because that is what I am used to and don't see a reason to change it. I do find it interesting to relate to other people on issues like this though because not only do I find it satisfying to some degree but because it might help someone else figure something out.

[@lilangelbunny42]

for me, when i first heard about transness around age 12-13, the brain vs body thing made sense, and was even something that kind of resonated with me, but as soon as i learned that "male" and "female" brains don't exist, maybe a year or two later, it became that much more complex and interesting. i LOVE that it isn't as simple as a mismatch between the mind and the body. it made my journey exploring my gender and sex that much clearer. i wasn't cis, and i wasn't a tomboy. in my mind i am very feminine in how i feel, but never a girl, and never a woman. and finally recognizing gender dysphoria in myself was the moment i allowed myself gender affirming care. it's all so complex, and that's what makes it interesting, worthy of exploring, human. why is every difference pathologized and demonized instead of explored and supported? well, bc humans naturally fear the unknown, but as soon as you explore it, it's no longer unknown, so why recoil and try to destroy it instead of exploring it in a safe environment with open arms?

[@Eevea_]

It is about a brain body mismatch. The mismatch is what causes dysphoria. And if you don't have dysphoria, you aren't trans kzbin.info/www/bejne/boK2lKN6fNaqqbM

[@HelenaTake2]

As a Brit, I can confirm. "NICE" is good quality evidence that we're not a real country.

[@lureed]

This video really gets to the heart of why I'm so outspoken about being transgender. I'm a trans guy who has a beard, a flat chest, and a fairly broad body, so no one assumes I'm anything other than a cis guy at first glance. I know I could easily be "stealth" but most of the time I tell people I'm trans, as long as I feel safe doing so. My view of the world is so fundamentally shaped by the way I view sexuality and gender that it always seems to make its way into my conversations with people. I recently had a conversation with a 60 year old woman who is in a public speaking class with me, and she was talking about how she rushed into a relationship during the pandemic and came to regret it. This is a straight woman who has very little knowledge of the queer community, but she was respectful and open to conversation, so I said "theres this concept in queer theory that i think you might resonate with called 'compulsory heterosexuality'." Once I explained it, she immediately agreed with the idea, and we talked about how the expectations of women to always be in a relationship with a man hurt not just queer women, but ALL women. I talk about being transgender because I want people to reflect on their own relationship with gender and the effect that being shoved into a category with ridiculous amd contradictory expectations has had on who they are. I want to show people how society's rigid ideas of binary sex and gender hurt everyone, because no one fits into those categories. Trans people are not an exception to a rule, we are proof that the rule should not exist in the first place.

[@Thechirimbola]

As a GP in training this was incredibly useful to listen to. The current medical establishment is unapologetically and unilaterally supporting the Cass report. It is all in the name of “protecting children”. But at no point do they even acknowledge that trans children could even be real. They show incredibly little insight into how trans people experience reality or their own medicalisation. This felt like a much more honest and empathetic take on trans healthcare than entire medical journals. Thank you.

[@chrisbfreelance]

You being in the medical field is an absolute disgrace.

[@HughEMC]

You have to be in England because America's medical & psychological institutions are fully captured by genderideology & queer activist. The Cass report ask for watchful waiting & not to give children toxic cancer medications the queer activist have rebranded as puberty blockers Every example of a child who has taken puberty blockers until old enough to go on cross sex hormones & surgery, is an example of poor medical & psychological health. Sterility,painful double mastectomies,phaliplasty & vaganoplasty surgeries that need several follow ups to deal with the complications. That's supported by institutions in America still. It's crazy to see so many people afraid of at least confronting the truth. Reas the cass report for your self. Listen Dr Hillary Cass for your self. Listen to the Wpath meetings for your self. You should never let activist influencers tell you what you should think. There are safer ways to express your gender

[@lydiamoss2632]

I am trying to get a mastectomy and its so hard. My parents insurance would normally cover it, but doesn’t because its through a religious organization. I am also on state medicaid. Which may or may not cover it. I can’t afford the 10,000+ surgery. I hate that this stuff is considered not essential healthcare

[@chrisbfreelance]

Are you at high risk of breast cancer? Or is because you've been groomed into thinking it's a wonderful idea?

[@Bashobozo]

I wish i could have transitioned as a teen. I came out as trans at 33 and my mother came out as a terf. She told me that if i tried to transition as a teen she would have had me institutionalized, which likely could have done as a medical doctor herself. She refuses to use my pronouns and won't stop buying me feminine things, and won't let me leave or work out of the house, or consult my doctor about transitioning with becoming physically violent. God i wish i wasn't so broke I'd move out.

[@ambientjohnny]

Later in life when you mature emotionally you'll thank her for not playing along with the regressive sexism of the T movement (lots of people are like teenagers emotionally their whole lives, even me I'd say I still was in my 30s).

[@Celestina0]

@@ambientjohnny telling someone whose mother is so abusive she won’t even let them leave the house or work that they’ll ’thank them later’ is some psychopathic sh*t

[@ambientjohnny]

@@Celestina0 You're ignoring the fact that this person is sabotaging their own life by refusing to accept material reality and deal with their issues in a mature way. Personal happiness cannot be dependent on others affirming delusional beliefs.

[@jonjonson-dd7gq]

Good for your mom. You’re a woman.

[@sonnentausnest]

@@ambientjohnny Please do, just for one moment, ask yourself: "And what if they had a happier life if they could transition?" Would you be willing to refuse that to people? Why?

[@lambs5258]

1:14:06 "We only pathologize this incongruence when a trans person experiences it. To long for your gendered assignment is a virtue, but to long for another assignment is a sin." 1:15:46 "Why do we medicalize and pathologize certain relationships to gender, and not others?" It really is so arbitrary.

[@mynamejefffffff]

autistic people have been debating for a while now why people on the spectrum are far more likely to identify as nonbinary/gnc than non autistics. obviously we don't know the exact answer, but the theory i think makes the most sense is that we simply don't really understand the complex systems and societal norms that dictate what gender is. everyone seems to know what "maleness" or "femaleness" is but no one can point to one thing i can make sense of.

[@quiestinliteris]

Even to the extent that "autigender" is a thing. My concept of gender is inextricable from my autism; social norms of gender are so tied up in neurotypical relationships to society that I don't think I could have been cisgender no matter what gender I was assigned.

[@kashiichan]

+

[@sophiejones3554]

"Everyone seems to know what 'maleness' and 'femaleness' are" only until you expand the definition of "everyone" to include all humans past and present from all societies. "Everyone knows" is often, especially as used by conservative commentators, a reskin of "God's command". Everyone *doesn't* have the same ideas of how a man should look, and those ideas continuously evolve. Ideas of femininity are a byproduct of male competition: female beauty is valuable only insofar as it confers status on the man with sexual access to it. So no, everyone *doesn't* know what maleness and femaleness are because those are continuously constructed cultural categories. "Everyone" only knows these things if by "everyone" you only mean white middle class Westerners. It's an inherently colonialist reduction which forces one culture's ideas of femininity and masculinity onto everyone else. Bumble, an American made dating app, uses the fact that the women initiate flirting as a selling point, but that's just how flirting is expected to work in Chinese dramas (and therefore presumably in Chinese culture). "Everyone" in America would agree that an essential characteristic of men is romantic boldness, but gotta be the person who points out that the average human is not American. Millions upon millions of people, don't think that's an essential characteristic of men so one can't say that "everyone" knows what a man is. We can also read things written by people from the past, which contain very different notions of what constitutes masculinity and femininity. So, these are not fact-based categories but rather evolving cultural constructs. Neurotypical people seem to be able to disregard what they can observe with their own senses, if pressured by social and financial incentives. People don't hate because it's fun, they do it because their status within society is threatened. However, as someone on the autism spectrum I lack the capability to be willfully ignorant. I can be misinformed, and I might believe misinformation strongly enough to be skeptical of a counterclaim. I might even be afraid of what a certain fact means about my social position. But, I can't simply ignore a fact regardless of how inconvenient it might be. It was always obvious to me that masculinity and femininity were cultural constructs, purely from the fact that I knew gendered expectations were different in different places and different eras. I knew that long before I knew words like "transgender" or "nonbinary".

[@wintergray1221]

I'm genderfluid and suck at socializing with everyone. Seems legit.

[@MoondustManwise]

Mood, I'm an autistic woman, but I still value my masculinity and want to be strong while also still being a woman who isn't butch. It's all so confusing.

[@chibisven]

Okay the Dean Pelton / Michel Focoult was a joke that you created specifically for me and I just want you to know that I deeply appreciated it.

[@rapchee]

streets ahead

[@catalystcomet]

My day has been really off and really scary, I'm going in for my first try at kind of the last effort to get my mental health on track. Within 2 hours, ketamine will be coursing through my veins, and I'm nervous. And even though that experience and this comment have nothing to do with this video or its content, I just wanted to say that if there's anything that could bring me some comfort no matter which way it goes today, it's going to be watching this video when I get home. I'm so grateful.

[@skeletonbuyingpealts7134]

🫂

[@raddestoflads7771]

Hey there! I am here to tell you that you don’t need to be nervous. I’m on Spravado and have had an injection treatment before too. You will be 100% fine and odds are your depression will get better. I’ll see you on the other side!

[@goblinaesthetics]

Ketamine treatments have changed my life for the better. I'm hoping they will for you too!

[@rosshowarth3266]

I'm envious. I think this treatment has been proven to be very effective. Good choice. I believe you feel immediately better after. Good luck to you. Don't worry.

[@catalystcomet]

@@rosshowarth3266 I also thought you feel immediately better afterward. In retrospect I realized that's very foolish. You don't just magically make decades of trauma disappear. You have to feel it.

[@blursedoftimes]

I lost it at "fake and gay" this video is so great you're super talented

[@samcrosby-schmidt791]

great video essay!!! just a note, there’s a history of necessity to the “born in the wrong body” narrative - it’s not just that it was a convenient way to describe ourselves to cis people, but it was the kind of keyword that trans people (mostly women) knew they had to use to access transition care in the late 20th century, like you discuss from your own experience at the beginning. Julia Serano outlines this history in Whipping Girl!

[@ISureDont]

When you ban something except for exceptions the exceptions become the norm

[@Spookybluelights]

It's true, Alexander sold me a (quite a high quality rip) copy of Romi and Michelle's High School Reunion for $7 outside of a Dollar Tree in Sunnyvale, CA.

[@sobaka8685]

the thumbnail is just: Alexander and a nightmare blunt rotation

[@zEropoint68]

23:10 easy. when the people who think sex and gender are correlated but independent say they learned that from "a scientist," they're generally talking about some kind of biologist. when people who think gender is dictated by assigned birth sex say they learned that from "a scientist," they're generally talking about people like the guy alex jones used to have on his show all the time who said he was an "MIT alumnus" because he took an MIT-sponsored health science certification course (meaning he has the same kind of "scientific" credentials as your average public school lunchlady).

[@Lionfrog13]

The thing I go back to is that I want a vagina and breasts more than anything in the world. Breasts have a level of performance but I want the vagina for myself. It’s an extremely costly procedure that isn’t without risk, yet it is the thing I want most. The lack of a vagina was the first thing that let me know I was trans. I don’t think that I only want a vagina because I’m a woman because I know women without them and I see them as women. I want a vagina because something deeper in my psyche than anything else I know yearns for it. Sexual dimorphism and gender are linked in a strange incomprehensible knot of signifiers. If I’m being honest I’m scared of removing my desire for a vagina from something at the core of my being. The idea that it too rests in social construction shouldn’t terrify me, but it does. I want to be a person that can find meaning in the subjective and interplay of structures, but I also want to hold firm to the truth that has defined my life for years now.

[@cheesesandwich1560]

similar thought, i have more or less abandoned any gender analysis or thinking i will ever really "figure it out". i think the best thing to do is to live the experience completely and follow your desires with acceptance. that is what makes me the happiest i think, or where truth can be embodied

[@sophiejones3554]

@@cheesesandwich1560I get where this is coming from, but in OP's defense: some people's brains don't give them that luxury. None of us are fully in control of what we think about when, and for some people this is a more regular occurence than others. Additionally, wanting to have a solid understanding of where their desire is coming from before undertaking a very expensive surgery is hardly a bad thing. @OP, you might want to look into the Marxist concept of "essence" which is a bit different from the colloquial use of that word. I think that might address your fear, which is pretty clearly a fear that if something is "constructed" then it's not "real". Your desire is clearly essential, but that doesn't need to imply that it is genetic or otherwise predetermined from the moment you were born. For example, I have an irrational and overwhelming phobia of becoming pregnant which is at the core of my identity. However, I am fairly certain it would be ridiculous to argue that I was born with that ingrained instinct. Just like any other person, I'm an animal and it is the nature of animals to seek reproduction. I think it's much more likely that my phobia comes from seeing my mother get pregnant with my brother when I was very young. I simply believe that I knew as soon as I saw that, I knew I wasn't interested. It triggered my innate sensory issues and I just went "no, not for me thanks". At the time of course, I was not aware that my body could become pregnant or that it was something other people wanted. This became a phobia, because I was swiftly thereafter informed in no uncertain terms that my consent was not required or even considered important (this however, occurred after I was capable of conscious thought: fairy tales and media set out a clear and narrow expectation of what my life ought to look like). People made it very clear that this could be forced on me, so my aversion became intense. Because I identified with certain aspects of womanhood, but not others, I therefore chose to inhabit the culturally proscribed roles of "tomboy" and later "butch" before learning about nonbinary identities in my 20s (I struggled a LOT with "butch" because my sensory issues limited my haircut options, and I desired to wear skirts as well as certain feminine garments but hated the way people viewed me as unserious when I presented that way). Had I lived in a different place but all else was equal, the categories I chose to identify with would be different but my alienation from womanhood would have been the same. Had my mother not chosen to get pregnant when I was less than two, my gender identity might not be the same as it is. Since I was less than two when this aversion developed though, I would hardly argue it was a choice: as that word implies a level of conscious understanding I provably did not possess at the time. That aversion is now essential to my identity but is neither genetically programmed nor a choice. You lived and experienced the world for nearly a full two years which you now have no memory of and during which core aspects of your identity were formed. "We're born this way" is, and always was, an oversimplified slogan developed for political purposes. It was not meant to reflect the nuances of our real identities, because in fact no one can prove they were born with any identity. The colloquial use of the word "essential" doesn't really acknowledge this point but the Marxist definition of that word does. TL;DR, your desire for a vaginoplasty is not any less essential to your identity just because it was probably not something you were literally born with. It probably has to do with something that happened when you were a tiny baby, maybe something utterly unremarkable, which interacted with your innate dispositions in a particular way to spark this desire. It's now a part of who you are, which probably can't be extricated without profoundly damaging you psychologically. So, yeah, you should definitely get that surgery. And you should go read Marx to shut up that inner critic (just do beware, he Had Some Biases™️ and wrote some very cringey hot takes).

[@yukiauditore8460]

I hope I word this right, but I think both things can be true, even if they appear to conflict. I think it is entirely valid for you to satisfy your desire for a vagina for your own bodily congruence while not holding others to that same standard to see them as women. You are allowed to seek your own happiness without worrying that you have to set an example or anything in this regard. You don't have to sacrifice your happiness to support those who choose to not undergo surgery. ❤️

[@K.angel125]

Its interesting to see this after recently being told I couldn't use my preferred name and pronouns. It feels nice to see so many people who feel the same or similarly. Makes me feel less crazy.

[@Shoulderpads-mcgee]

Cis people get to change their names all the time, you should be allowed to use the name that is right for you. Definitely not crazy.

[@NoiseDay]

Y'all how do I share KZbin videos with my extended family who I never talk about "politics" with?

[@celisewillis]

Send them the link, and ask them to watch. Then, absolve yourself of the responsibility of educating them. I know it can feel like "if not me, then who?" It can be exhausting and traumatic to argue for your right to exist. And it's okay to not engage. You are not the sole pillar on which their salvation rests.

[@TheChaoticAsexual]

I identify as nonbinary now, but didn’t really fully realize this until I was about 16, but I wish I had started puberty blockers when I was little-not because of gender identity reasons, but because I just started puberty early and this greatly hurt my mental health. As young as 8, I had extreme mood swings and I felt socially ostracized by my friends and classmates because I was starting to grow body hair and I had to wear a bra (in which my bra strap was often visible just because of the style of bra-sports bra-that I felt comfortable wearing was just like that). Later, but still in elementary school I felt so ashamed and like everyone was watching me when, after asking to use the bathroom, I had to sneak away to my cubby to grab a pad. The way some lawmakers are going about dealing with puberty blockers will even affect cis kids (or trans kids who don’t know they’re trans yet) and I just so wish people were better educated on the subject.

[@ace.of.space.]

Finally someone is saying it, we should ban puberty

[@ace.of.space.]

​@@cyclicozone2072 indeed

[@CharlotteSWeb-oh7ou]

@@cyclicozone2072, said the obsessive anti-trans ideologue.

[@SarastistheSerpent]

@@cyclicozone2072 oh the irony when you adhere to objectively the most unhinged, conspiratorial, delusional ideology currently infecting the western world. Anti-trans ideologues give flat earthers and Scientologists a run of their money (and overlap with them quite a bit).

[@luna-p]

I'm glad I'm alone in the office. Twinky gāy bones got me good 😂

[@Shantari]

In general nature defies simple and exact categorization. Even laws of physics aren't exact categories but understandable models. Newtonian mechanics, force = mass x acceleration, etc. is in fact an aberration itself, "only" applying to masses larger than quantum size and speeds lower than that of light. Not to mention gravitational distortion of time, etc. In biology we have all the different kingdoms of life, where fungi used to be considered vegetation and rocks used to be considered life forms.

[@SarastistheSerpent]

Not only that, but anyone who studies phylogenesis knows that there is no exact moment/boundary when one species evolves into another.

[@kashiichan]

Reminds me of the famous "I cannot teach you about mushrooms" tumblr post.

[@zillionalb462]

I love this line of argumentation because while we've become so used to desperately trying to stick everything into some sort of category or box (in order to understand and/or to feel superior) it just doesn't work like that. I know people generally like certainty but really, nothing is certain or final and I wish that thought would just permeate culture more. Things can be, but they don't have to. We may know but we may not. All that is left is our attempt to be kind to each other and get along.

[@Shoulderpads-mcgee]

Looking into cladistics is really interesting and definitely in line with all this. You grow up thinking you can easily sort animals into mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and fish, but looking deeper into the relationships between organisms makes it clear that that’s reductive. Birds turn out to be a type of reptile, and fish becomes a useless category full of animals that are nothing alike. It really mirrors all the people going on about “basic biology,” but that’s just it, they only know basic biology because they never dig into it. They understand sex and gender at the basic level of chromosomes the same way a child understands animals by those simple and reductive categories. But nothing is ever that simple. Trans people exist, intersex people exist, and the platypus is a mammal who lays eggs. Whenever you write a rule, there will be an exception that defies it.

[@bellarosethorne]

I've gotten to 55 minutes in and it completely recontextualises the "swing back" I am seeing within the trans community. The growing rejection of the idea "trans people change gender, not sex" and instead the standing of our ground on the concept of "many of us do change, fundamentally, our sex. We change so many fundamental traits that build into what's called 'sex' that the only correct way to describe it is that we change sex." The understanding that we're not changing a concept that we put forwards in the first place is important. That we're only working with whatever is publicly digestible at the time, and of course many of us disagree with the definition of what we are, because it was defined *for* us, not by us. Arguing that we work with gender, not sex, is an idea sold that we just nod along with. And frankly, right now, it's obvious that gender is being used to wrap us up into a conceptual bubble removed from anything else, to be popped when opponents feel it's ready, to leave us seeming to be conceptually ungrounded from reality. And that's what the anti-trans movement are trying to do right now, they try to get us to defend something we don't even hold as true.They've argued that we deal with gender, not sex, and now they argue that gender doesn't exist, actually. Which, is always doomed to fail, because regardless of concepts, we still exist, and if 'gender' is popped, our existence must and will be recontextualised. And we will be 'back' to arguing that sex isn't binary, actually, and we are altering our sex. They don't win, they just force a language change on an existence they can't just argue away.

[@saoirse2963]

You are the ones screaming at us that sex and gender are different while at the same time conflate gender and sex all the time. Not us. We don't believe in what you currently call "gender identity" or "gender" nowaday and we know sex is immutable, we never doubted that. We used the pronouns you wanted and acted like you are the sex you pretended to be out of kindness, we didn't actually believe you are that sex and we didn't believe you are some "gender" because we don't believe in this incoherent definition of gender, whatever it is. We were just being kind because we thought you have some psychological condition that makes you feel like the other sex, and we thought you are suffering because of it. No one believes "trans women" are women, no one. We just pretended for your sake. Then you decided to cross all lines, violate our rights and poison science and law with this demented belief of yours, with many young people falling victim to this crazy notion of "gender identity", mutilating thier body, putting themselves on a constant state of hormonal imbalance, agonizing over the fact that their body don't fit whatever "gender" they think they are, and we are done. We are done. People who felt connected more to the other sex have always existed, what is called "gender nonconforming people" have always existed, at least since civilization, I presume. But "trans" is a very modern invention and "trans" as it is defined now just came about 20 years ago, pushed on by millionaires, perverts and trans activists. Science doesn't actually prove any of that and it's not something that developed organically. It's just a frame of thinking pushed by people with an agenda. And you are most likely a victim of it.

[@XxYwise]

Male and female marijuana plants exist. So what do a male marijuana plant, a male insect, and a male stockbroker have in common? Gamete size. Transition cannot change that.

[@bellarosethorne]

@@XxYwise it's difficult to focus on what you're trying to say when you've listed 3 sources with 3 different gamete sizes. And also irrelevant to even consider gametes here. Noone judges anyone else by their individual gamete size. Speaking of which, for many trans people, gamete size is infinitely small. a big, huge, zero. It does not matter what gamete size is produced because we aren't. Oh, and it's not good optics that you're reducing the worth of people down to something that small, and effectively classing a whole group of *people* by a biological function. A woman is worth so, so much more than her capacity to incubate an egg.

[@jlj5487]

As a cis-woman who has nonetheless struggled with the strict confines of gender (why are girls not allowed to show rage, again?), I have long felt that all forced gendering is traumatic. The filing down of differences and overlap in how we express ourselves causes mental health issues. I try to offer different options to my kids and encourage what they themselves take interest in and try to protect that expression.

[@beatblocksgaming]

We’re all just people in the end, and we’re more similar than we are different from each other after all

[@nad613]

I saw 'Michel Foucault' and thought 'Isn't that the guy from Community?' then looked up what Foucault looked like and wow that's close.

[@QuestionsIAskMyself]

😭😭

[@AprilVibes_]

lmao same

[@PokhrajRoy.]

So happy to see another video from the channel! Hope you’re doing well! P.S. Please ban puberty. It was horrible.

[@AlsoSunflowerBrains]

I just wanted to give ya a big BIG thanks for putting in the effort of creating accurate captions, even after working so hard on the video and audio itself.

[@dribanlycan]

Being bullied and socially isolated and left alone as an autistic child with a dragonology book made my gender dragon and ive had this thought since i was 16.

[@Xx_Oleander_xX]

God I wish my gender was dragon that sounds badass! Just make sure to avoid Ice and fairy types.

[@sarahhughes4437]

Except dragon isn't a real gender

[@dribanlycan]

@@sarahhughes4437 uhhuh, so what is a real gender, in your view?

[@sarahhughes4437]

@dribanlycan not a fictional animal, that's for sure. Lots of autistic people are transtrenders though

[@quiestinliteris]

Oh dear, that's familiar. >>; I didn't have the Dragonology book, though, just a poster of D&D dragons that I had to have on the back of my door because my mom hated it. :c

[@mellowthm566]

Not sure about good intentions....at all. Cass was also in talks with DeSantis over his gender healthcare ban and has history with gender criticals sooooo

[@UTTP-142]

ALEX STEALS MY VIDEOS FOR MOOLAH AND HAS MADE MILLIONS OFF MY HARD WORK!!

[@XxYwise]

Gender criticals have good intentions: protecting kids from being harmed for profit on the basis of piss-poor evidence.

[@brobs0463]

You mentioned the ingrained believe in history that men were hot like fire (😏) and women were cold like ice. If this belief stuck around in our culture my nerd brain immediately thought of the Xmen character Iceman. One of the main examples of a gay character in superhero comics. Its probably nothing but it’s interesting

[@ocularzombie6679]

Wait, Iceman was gay? Hm, never knew.

[@jk-jl2lo]

every video this dude makes really amazes me. i've only been following for a few months, but the content, the comedy, the production value, the aesthetic material, everything is WAYYY too good for the subscriber count.

[@allymofo2332]

@@cyclicozone2072how many comments am i gonna find u under doing this same little basic transphobic statement. ur actually so funny, it brightens my day to know ppl like u hav seriously nothing fucking better to do, like wow, it’s pathetic in such a funny way. i’m sorry u don’t like the boy in the video but i don’t think calling him a girl 500 times is gonna hurt his feelings or change anyone’s minds silly

[@stormwarrior5362]

@@cyclicozone2072What you are doing is considered spam so I will report you for it. Over a 100 comments… Get a life, instead of getting yourself angry on KZbin.

[@elisehalflight]

@cyclicozone2072 I used to be insecure about transitioning late in life, but if someone this manly can be called a lady, i guess I have nothing to worry about, I'll go out and be the best woman I can. Thanks for the self esteem boost!

[@maudlin9725]

I feel like this video was made for me specifically. I've spent a lot of time trying to understand and articulate the relationship between words, concepts, social constructs, and gender. You've managed to fill in so many of the gaps for me. The explicit knowledge that the construct of gender came from eugenic biologists in order to continue the idea of the binary explains SO MUCH, and I just... dang freakin' words, idk, I just know it's something I'm going to be mulling over for a long time.

[@DomyTheMad420]

4:25 i swear 😆 did you seriously just call it the "medical fandom" ? that is such a tumblr move. i love it.

[@satyasyasatyasya5746]

I think its also worth looking into how capitalism manufactures these social issues as a defence against social/class unity against it. Its a preservation mechanism. However, in order to expand itself and make greater profits etc, it has to include more and more people and lowkey 'tolerate' the people it once excluded. But, at some point and I think its close, it'll run out of people to demonise and distract us with and then, we'll all kinda accept eachother because we have to work jobs with eachother, but not capitalism itself, then (provided we foster true solidarity) we'll be the collective that could bring it down.

[@nezahuatez]

Capitalism isn’t a living breathing thing. And using it in this way is just silly because it discounts how these issues can exist in pre-Capitalist societies.

[@QuikVidGuy]

​@@nezahuatez I would like to direct you to the section on capitalism less than halfway through the video. Abstracting the language doesn't mean not understanding the underlying complexity

[@CharlotteSWeb-oh7ou]

@@nezahuatez No, capitalism is a system and it does not discount similar issues under feudalism to discuss how they function under capitalism.

[@AD-dg3zz]

​@@nezahuatez I don't think anybody's claiming that those issues are exclusive to capitalism

[@DZrache]

I kinda disagree because with the end because IMO there's always a way to make up a new category to put people into, and I think that's part of human nature (related to how our brains are only designed to really "know" about 50 people in our lifetimes.) The way out is to foster a more communal spirit, where people have commonality as fellow humans despite any difference, which fortunately is also a natural human (even animal, in ideal circumstances) trait.

[@antarag47]

I was a little girl, then a young man, and then a grown neither. I felt fine with each stage for a while, then changed my pronouns. I felt alien and unconfortable. Transitioning always felt like a choice, though. I could've lived without doing it. I think I just outgrew my old "gender" and needed to get a bigger one to fit "me" better.

[@Shoulderpads-mcgee]

Gender as choice, and an acceptable choice at that, feels so radical and freeing. Definite that part of your identity by your misery and discomfort is so restrictive and sad. It sounds so free to say “I think I’m no longer a guy, onto the next thing!”

[@airplanes_aren.t_real]

Gender metamorphosis

[@CharlotteSWeb-oh7ou]

@@Shoulderpads-mcgee You can talk about one type of trans person without throwing other trans people under the bus.

[@Shoulderpads-mcgee]

@@CharlotteSWeb-oh7ou wdym? Like that it’s ok to have diverse experiences and views on the subject?

[@poigntless]

Petition to stop using the term "sex assigned at birth" in favor of "sexpectation"

[@ocularzombie6679]

that is way better and less awkward tbh

[@SpoopySquid]

Where do I sign

[@alexzacuber]

Where do i sign

[@Bettytruffles]

You’re clearly wasted in any career that’s not marketing or pr 😂

[@zoe-715]

Thanks for this. I've been more and more frustrated with the way trans people and gender and sex are presented even in leftist spaces, despite understanding where they were coming from. I also took classes about gender and languages studies last semester and I asked a lot of questions regarding stuff you talk about in this video (especially at the end), but I never felt satisfied with the answers I was given. This video felt very satisfying though, and even made me cry because getting answers that make sense from someone who has the same way of thinking of gender and sex as me but is also trans is something I hadn't had before. Anyway, now I really wanna read Preciado and Foucault.

[@charlie_claire_comedy]

perfect timing for this video, I’m refurbishing an old cat tree

[@anne_nunes]

I wish I could have had puberty blockers cuz puberty hit me like a bus at 11 and I was NOT ready to have boobs at that age (and how other people react to them)

[@MBeckers]

The last "save the kids" movement I recall which was about saving the lives of children was called "Stop de kindermoord" (stop the child murder). This was a Dutch movement for safer streets and to limit deadly traffic accidents with automobiles.

[@Geraldgalaxy]

"to hell with nature's purpose" 🔥🔥🔥 the 'natural/unnatural' distinction has always occured to me as impossible. it's like, dude, how can you, perceiving the world through the eyes of a human, truly decide what is naturally and unnaturally human? not to mention, the weight the term 'natural' holds, as compared to just 'teleologically aligned'; the latter admits that it is a contingent distinction based on the framework of study rather than a necessity born out of God's will.

[@AwfullyOllie0706]

Maybe it’s my asexuality, but I never got the Sneed’s Feed and Seed innuendo until now. I always thought it was just that the prior name was Chuck’s Feed and Seed, and that the new owner’s name was a happy coincidence.

[@Gladissims]

"Not only transgender people have gender problems." SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK. Like seriously. This is so true. As a cis gender woman with PCOS I'm constantly struggling with the fact that I grow facial hair, and am just... really hairy overall. It makes me feel SO uncomfortable with my own body, and myself. This experience has always made me feel like I could relate to transgender people and what it's like to have gender dysphoria, even though I actually identify with the gender I was assigned at birth.

[@MilesDashing]

9:30: The argument that suddenly there are more kids being diagnosed with gender dysphoria, so we should be more selective about who we give puberty blockers to, is stupid. This would be like if there was spike in UTIs and we responded by giving fewer people UTI medication. Insane.

[@umamicashflow1809]

Not really when you presuppose discomfort with the sexed aspects of one’s body means he/she would therefore be better off as the opposite sex… and you start drugging and operating on them to make it so…

[@littlegirlgogo]

the fact that you uploaded this right after i finished a a research essay on the historical interplay between feminism, queer theory, and trans theory for one of my classes (i was arguing that terfs were anti-feminist by being anti-trans) is just fun timing, i get to go into this for once with some theoretical knowledge of what's behind the curtain I'm about a fifth of the way into the video, but i'll just say before continuing to watch that I something i found surprising in my research was that a lot of the sex/gender distinction theory work did not come from the queer side of things, it came from feminism. Women had been working to distinguish sex from gender for the political reasons of saying there was no physical basis that women were less than men, no physical basis for confining gender roles. Judith Butler's "gender is a performance" theory wasn't even that out there by feminist standards, third wave feminist theory was full of people trying to come up with a new model to understand gender through a social lens instead of an inherent one, with ideas such as "gender is defined by how it relates to other genders" or "gender is the realization of historical possibilities" By contrast, trans theory did come from the queer side of things, and it caused a lot of issues with the feminists. Queer theory was heavily medicalized, because queer identities were seen as mental illness and they had the political goals of challenging that. So trans theory comes onto the stage using this medicalized language, and the feminists hate it, because it reduces gender back to a physical reality rather than a social one. Meanwhile trans folk have issues with the feminists because, well, they're being treated like trans theory is an illness rather than a discussion filled with critical thought. Trans theory quickly adopts a lot of feminist theory, but the initial interactions were really rough because of these issues and some feminists never moved past it also trans theory has been described as "the evil twin of queer theory", which is just marvelously funny, along with the fact that lesbian feminists are both the source of the most intense transphobia in feminist spaces (historical radfems --> modern terfs) and a major source for trans acceptance. I cannot get over how much of feminist views on trans theory, good or bad, always came back to the lesbians

[@Shoulderpads-mcgee]

This really fascinates me considering how terf ideology is extremely medicalized and biological, with radical feminists putting so much stock into female anatomy (the creepy vagina cult is a nickname that amuses me) and biological difference. The intense hatred of trans people feels like feminism has been set back so that instead of insisting men and women aren’t particularly biologically different, the narrative has become women are frail and weak and need to have protecting against the hulking and predatory male human. I hate it and it’s bioessentialism immensely.

[@christinec271]

Love this synopsis! Also always worth mentioning that there has been quite a schism in the historical radfems over precisely trans rights. Cornerstone radfems have vocally fallen out over it. We hear most about the terfs of course, but some really major names oppose(d) them. Catharine MacKinnon comes to mind, as does Andrea Dworkin (if MacKinnon and Dworkin's widower, activist John Stoltenberg, are reliable sources, which I think they are).

[@edn2674]

With terfs do you mean feminists who only don't consider trans women women or do you mean feminists who go out of their way to shame and criticize trans women? I'm curious because I'd like to know if you think it's possible to be a radfem (not believing in gender) without being transphobic. I wonder this because I believe it's important to maintain female spaces and legal information about a person's sex, but I never felt repulsion and even less hate for trans people. In fact I'm aware of how much risk they face for different crimes, and that's imperative to fix

[@littlegirlgogo]

@@edn2674 terf litterally stands for "trans exclusionary radical feminist", it is impossible to be a terf without being transphobic, idk enough about radfems that aren't terfs to say but based on the other reply to this comment its possible to be a radfem without being teansphobic, but yeah if you dont consider trans women women or want to exclude them from "female" spaces then thats transphobia. I get the want to have a women-only space, i read a whole paper talking about the history of that desire and the formation of radfems as a group, but defining it as "female-only" isn't doing that and is, in fact, really reductive of about 50 years worth of feminist history working to seperate the definition of "woman" from the definition of "female". To qoute a famous feminist whose name i cant remember rn just google the qoute, "you are not born a woman, you become a woman", this is true for every single woman on earth, cis or trans, being a woman isn't a physical reality it's a social reality. To illustrate this better for you, imagine having trans men in your "female-only" spaces. Google trans men and look at them and think about that. They're biologically female, so they should be welcome in "female-only" spaces, right? But i got a feel that having men with beards and the like in that space isn't what you're going for

[@edn2674]

​@@littlegirlgogoI believe in trans people's right to express themselves in every way they want, to recieve proper medical care without being discriminated against and it's inconceivable that they have to endure so much violence. However, I do think it's important to acknowledge both culturally but most importantly legally that biological women and trans women aren't the same. Not because trans women are "fake", but because our sexes are different, and in most places around the world (my country, for example) your sex is what determines how you're treated. Gender is simply all the social expectations and exaggerated "sexual" characteristics that are assigned to you after your sex in known, and because said gender is a social construct I don't subscribe to it. Also I can't see how acknowledging the reality that trans women biologically aren't the same as natal women is somehow ignoring feminist history. I also don't agree that you "become a woman", because growing up as a natal woman means enduring several hardships, abuse and systems that are not made for you, but that doesn't "make" you a woman, it is simply the shared suffering women have in the world, not something that defines our womanhood. Trans women suffer a lot too, but although our struggles overlap, they're not the same. A trans woman won't ever have to deal with pregnancy, menstruation, PCOS, etc. Just like a cis woman won't ever have to deal with gender dysphoria, be called a degenarate for wearing a dress/femenine clothing, change her entire legal documents/notify people around her that she's a woman, etc.. These problems don't make us greater of lesser than each other, it simply showcases that our life experiences are fundamentally different because of our biological reality. Finally, trans men are biological women. It doesn't matter if they have beards or great muscle mass or what have you, they should be allowed in female only spaces because of the mere fact that they are biological females. By that logic we should exclude gender non confirming women or women with facial hair from female only spaces because of the way they look.

[@elliotlarsson7408]

I hope this becomes a core part of the general conversation about gender and societal goals concerning it. The time and effort spent on legitimatizing our experiences to an existing framework is commendable, but ultimately, I feel, insufficient. Too many have fought for their own inclusion, their own normalization only to turn around and ridicule and undermine similar struggles, for us to keep using the same systems and frameworks without question. We don’t need to categorize brains for our experience to ”make sense”. How physical patterns map onto experience is fascinating, but what value comes from denying that experience if the expected pattern isn’t present? I don’t know. Shit’s confusing sometimes.

[@Shoulderpads-mcgee]

And ultimately I think having some hard scientific evidence for being trans would be a disaster. Because if you can isolate a biological factor that causes something, you can then attempt to prevent of destroy it, like those people trying to “cure” autism. If bigots can find a way to eugenics you out of society, they’ll use it

[@ckorp666]

"Too many have fought for their own inclusion, their own normalization only to turn around and ridicule and undermine similar struggles, for us to keep using the same systems and frameworks without question." dont get me started on a certain type of bougie, white, conformity-obsessed tfem.... i deal w/enough of them when i play tf2

[@saoirse2963]

You can't make legislations based on something that can't be defined. You have to define something if you want legislations based on it. Every first year law student can tell you that much. You also need a non-circular definition for science, something that can be proved and disproved, otherwise it's not science, it's spiritualism at best.

[@CharlotteSWeb-oh7ou]

@@saoirse2963 You people all talk in a particular way when you have not bothered to do the slightest bit of research. You think knowledge is a tone of voice that you can adopt.

[@aquietdragon5671]

thank you for putting the word "tumblrina" into my vocabulary

[@mpspenguin]

It really is so hard to be trans in the UK right now. You don't know what room you're safe in or who's gonna suddenly say something transpobic that you either have to ignore or argue with- and this is me speaking as an adult. I can't imagine how hard it is for the children actually affected by this

[@ThatFreakingGinger]

Babe, wake up, Alexander Avila posted a new video

[@ohnothepineappleohno1524]

just got this video as im about to come out to my therapist. thank you, Alexander Avila, your videos have been so much to me, including your video on self diagnosis and hannah montana. theyve all helped me so much.

[@magnoliaskogen]

good luck! i hope it went or goes well 💕

[@quiestinliteris]

Good luck / congratulations!

[@lmcb8447]

As an OCD person, which is GNC but cis-woman , I never knew that it would "may result in uncertainty about my gender identity "(and being under the "particular influences[...] had a substantial impact [...] on beliefs and understanding of my gender"as a trans ally-that consumes tons of queer media,including trans media ) supposedly by the Cass review... The more you ""know"" 🌟 (Ps:not the entitlement of women's bodies and sexism of viewing them all as baby machines by anti-abortion protesters in that anti-trans march.)

[@HotDogTimeMachine385]

"We excluded any specialists on this topic and used AI generated articles!" Cass report

[@fabrisseterbrugghe8567]

I like the idea of gluten free questions.

[@cookie-kei]

hell yea it's big brained on gender o'clock

[@sosanz8340]

i’m trans now, but back when i was 7 and still thought i was a girl, i was given puberty blockers to stop an early puberty. i took them for three years and no one ever questioned it. but if i had asked for them when i was 13 and had realized i was trans, it would be much harder to get them prescribed

[@starbreezevillage]

Not the cursed gender blunt rotation in the thumbnail

[@diegoescalante2876]

TWINKY GAY BONES 😂😂😂😂

[@wen6519]

I honestly dont know what to say. I want to point out how funny the burns were, and how much i appreciate your editing. But overall, im just left with this sinking feeling were trans kids are not seen as receiving preventative helth care when transitioning. I knew it in less words, but im still sad sitting ln that feeling. I also agree that the Born This Way narrative is too simple, but hearing the words of "giving the dignity of complexity", i felt like somebody had hugged my child self. We contain multitudes, we deserve more than restrictions to "get it right". All trans kids deserve the helth care they feel comfortable with having.

[@maimee1]

I think just like your triangle analogy we are in fact "born this way", each our own distinct shapes. We just then learn to categorize ourselves into boxes through our society and but also our limiting languages. The first part we do not control; the second part we also hardly can control. Though we certainly do change and evolve over time, both what we are and how we think of ourselves and others.