Or am I just overreacting to people’s frustration with hypocrisy?
Depends on the context, when people make jokes about clavicular being transmasc it makes me feel less strange for being transmasc because when you think about it, he is trying to transition to being more masculine than how he was before. If people say it in a way that implies he should be ashamed for that, then it is derogatory.
I’ve read all the shaming about him getting “gender-affirming care” not as a slight on gender affirming care but rather on his hypocrisy. Am I being too generous?
If the comments are meant to make him feel shame for taking trt then yea it’s framing gender affirming care as a bad thing. If the comments are actually directed at his hypocrisy then it’s not an issue, but I rarely see that being the case.
Personally I think it’s probably a good thing to point out that cis people often get gender-affirming care too, but of course you can say this in a way that’s reasonable or a way that’s transphobic.
julia serano already said it best in my opinion
intense, outward homophobia/transphobia is kind of unavoidably born out of some degree of personal gender/sexuality anxiety, and I think it’s unrealistic to expect people never to point that out. gay and trans people are also victims to that anxiety, and I say that with personal experience. BUT, mocking the anxiety itself and mocking what having such acute anxiety about gender/sex implies instead of the structures that give rise to that anxiety is still reinforcing queerphobia. that needs to be pointed out, criticized, and redirected to more productive ideas
In my mind calling out hair transplants and plastic surgery in the spirit of “this should be okay writ large” is good. Like if you’re against gender affirming care and you get gender affirming care it’s hypocritical and it’s always going to be called out by someone’s pattern seeking brain. The conclusion “therefore nobody should get that kind of care” begs the question for me.
Trans liberation is everybody’s liberation, right? The bravest amogus will be willing to go “actually, you’re right. I’m no longer against trans GAC because I now empathize with their anxiety”
i agree in a vacuum (and have even made similar arguments myself), but as talia bhatt has pointed out, there’s no contradiction in the minds of those who think medical intervention in service of aligning a body with the ideal of their assigned sex is reinforcing what’s already “natural,” they believe those categories exist a priori
i’m ambivalent on the value of pointing out the double standard. i’m sure some people might be convinced by it if they haven’t given it much thought before, and i’m skeptical of any argument’s ability to change the mind of a committed chauvinist, but i guess at the end of the day i’d at least prefer if cis liberals were more focused on raising awareness about attacks on our care and ability to exist in public than dunking on fascists for also taking hormones when that’s never been the foundation of their problems with us anyway
I don’t think you can ever stop people from commenting on the double standard. The reflex to point it out exists a priori in my head so there’s no need to judge its value. But appeal to nature is gonna always be a nasty little mindspace filled with people who love to use gotchas
It’s nice to know that people wiser than me and more affected are thinking in similar veins. Even if they did it first and much better.
Edit: The point about it distracting from issues of bodily autonomy is well put, and so obviosuly true after it’s been brought up it’s a little embarassing.
Let’s be overly charitable and ignore whether it’s just a sneaky way to do a transphobia on an “acceptable target” for a sec.
At absolute best, it’s shaming someone for being a hypocrite, yeah?
Hypocrisy is bad (and funny, I’ll admit) but it’s not the worst crime in the world. It’s not the worst crime transphobes are guilty of by a long shot. Libs have to rag on people for hypocrisy because they have no moral beliefs of their own, but we actually believe in things. You don’t need to waste your time on meaningless gotchas - make fun of transphobes for wasting all their time worrying about a half-percent minority that’s done them no harm.
Is it being used that way? I certainly recall not too long ago libs were still using le Trump is le gay for le Putler,removedMcConnell, etc. and it’s like, these guys are really missing the point. If smug libs are saying it the way you’re describing, yes that is harmful to trans people.
But I try to limit my internet to places like this and cool, well-adjusted people on twitter (lawl) and so I usually see this gotcha deployed in the context that the Joe Rogan’s, RFK Jr’s, Hegseth’s of the world are restricting GAC to people who need while benefiting from it themselves or even pushing it on others.
I kind of don’t mind it when people in the group do it. Like, if a queer person is like “wow that thing is so queer” as a like “in the know” sort of thing. But when the straights are like “wow Putin and Trump are GAY together” they can fuck right off. I use this example specifically as a queer person.
So I guess if trans folks want to make fun of cis people doing trans things I think that’s fine and funny. If cis people want to make fun of other cis people by using trans things then they can fuck right off.
Hopefully that makes sense. I think there are many examples of minority in groups doing this sort of thing and I think it’s fine in that circumstance.
I mean, every time you get someone on “our side” going after medical issues or the body, it’s inherently annoying and bad.
Like, all you are saying is “I actually hate this thing that is natural or needed, but I can’t say it normally, so I’ll target those whom I can get away with it.” Like, you are still a bigot. You are just being a more clever bigot. Those of us who are still affected by these issues see you and know that you are not a safe person to be around when you do shit like this.
“lol he wears diapers” for example is shitty and ableist no matter how you slice it.
It’s like that meme of the person shooting an insult at a person and it bounces off of them and hits their comrade instead.
I am always super chuffed whenever I hear word that “OMG THE SOCIAL MURDERER IS ACTUALLY GAAAAY, doesn’t this say so much about our heccing sussiety”
I’ve never heard anyone do that gotcha, guess i’m not on X the everything app enough, have any transphobes been ‘exposed’ as to being on HRT?
It’s mostly used for like transphobic men on HGH or testosterone. I’ve seen it a bunch with the new initiative to give testosterone to US soldiers.
Like bodybuilders/weightlifters who are juicing(using steroids)?
Sorta, yeah. Like clavicular got a lot of jokes made about how he was “receiving gender affirming care” for his various (Sometimes self inflicted) surgeries and taking hormones.
