Genderfluid Elven otherkin. Panromantic Demisexual.
Norse Pagan/Heathen. Kitchen witch.
My pronouns are ze/zir. If you want to argue with me about the validity of any portion of my identity, don't. I'll just ignore you, so I'm saving you the time. Everything here is more or less UPG unless otherwise stated.
I’m aware. This is appropriation. Did you not read the text from one of these people in their own words, by their own admission? It’s pure appropriation and as an ACTUAL DISABLED PERSON, I find people WANTING to be oppressed but go back and devour their privilege and use it to their advantage horribly appropriative, highly problematic, trivialising, ableist and patronising. This person described and treated being disabled as the equivalent of shoe shopping. She wanted to choose which disability, how disabled and when she could decide when not to be for her own convenience. Don’t pull that bullshit on me unless you know the fucking context. Not only that, but the language they choose to use are specifically appropriated from transgender people(and as someone who is also transgender, it comes as a double punch in the face, heart, stomach and pretty much all parts of me that I DONT GET TO ERASE FOR MY OWN CONVENIENCE.) This is also going to contribute to systemic ableism because someone like this individual who just wants her “disability” as the latest trendy fashion wants to go on disability and take funding and social services from actual disabled people who ACTUALLY NEED IT.
You really need to check up on the basic definitions of appropriation and oppression. I hate to say it but you can’t just decide to be oppressed because it makes you feel special and then decide to not be because it’s more convenient not to be. It’s horribly fucking privileged, and it trivialises, fetishises, and erases actual human beings who don’t get to choose “disability” as a fucking identity. I’d love if being disabled was just an identity though, how convenient would that be?
Honestly.
This also goes for that fucker who wants to be a trans-Korean or whatever the fuck.
But yeah, my disability is just an “identity” I can remove whenever I feel like it right?
I did not read the whole argument—what I read was the piece that got taken out of context and presented as the crux of this argument, since that was what was apparently deemed relevant to the current discussion.
If there are people claiming that they are oppressed when they are not, especially if they currently enjoy the privileges of being white or non-disabled or anything else that merits them privileged regardless of how they may internally identify, then that is definitely not okay, I agree with you there. If they are not transgender themselves and are using comparisons to being trans* to describe their experiences, then that’s not okay either.
If, however, somebody feels that their body is not the way it should be, and is struggling with what they need to do and how far they need to go to make it feel right, then that, to me, seems reasonable. It still might be problematic, depending on how they conceptualise the idea and how they choose to discuss it, and given what context you’ve given to the rest of their posts, then yes, I agree, especially if their end goal is to take away resources from people that need them. It’s problematic and ableist. I’m not remotely going to argue with you there.
My only reason behind reblogging the post was to point out that transableism is frequently coming from a real place of physical discomfort (that is, BIID, though just like with anything else, it might only get diagnosed as such if it’s a severe or life-threatening or life-altering situation) and to also point out that nobody is making up these identities. Or if they are, then that’s something that needs to be taken up with them as individuals, not used to dismiss an entire group because of the bad apples that crop up within it.
I’m sorry that I offended, and I’ll concede to you and back out of the discussion.
On Names
I’ve been thinking a lot about writing this post, and I’m not really sure exactly what direction to take it, because I have a handful of things I want to talk about. I think first, I want to talk about labelling and names being slightly more formal labels, and second, I want to talk about the power of names and about True Names (the way I understand them). I’ll try and keep it to those two subjects.
This may not make a whole lot of sense to anyone but me. But if you’re curious about my views, read on.
You are such a damn Scorpio.
(I kid because I loev.)
It’s actually nice that you put this down, because I was starting to wonder what the hell you wanted to be called. I guess it doesn’t matter too much, then?
Names are odd things. They seem to change the self, or at least the expression of the self, depending on what they are. The way my online name is different from my offline name, my online self is different from my offline self. They’re both me—just different versions of me.
Lots of interesting thoughts, though.
I admit, I partially did this for your (and my other offline friends’) benefit. Because PM brought it up the other day when we were talking about eir name, and the fact that ey didn’t know what the hell name I was going by anymore, and I commented back that I don’t know either. And I’ve been thinking about it for a while—I’m definitely more okay with that. It’s nice finally putting it down in a solid way where I can review it and go “yes, this is what I meant, this is the nebulous thing that’s been haunting me”.
This could also contribute to the fact that I’d rather have truly indefinite pronouns—“this one” or “that one” as opposed to anything concrete. (It also makes it increasingly difficult for people to discuss me when I’m not present, if they don’t know what to call me and don’t have the proper pronouns to refer to me when I’m not in the immediate vicinity, which is a nice side effect, I confess.) It’s funny, in a way, how the more I know about myself, the more vague I want the way people refer to me to become.
Also, yes, I am the quintessential Scorpio, the end. XD
On Names
I’ve been thinking a lot about writing this post, and I’m not really sure exactly what direction to take it, because I have a handful of things I want to talk about. I think first, I want to talk about labelling and names being slightly more formal labels, and second, I want to talk about the power of names and about True Names (the way I understand them). I’ll try and keep it to those two subjects.
This may not make a whole lot of sense to anyone but me. But if you’re curious about my views, read on.
I’ve sαid similαr sentiments in less detαil in the pαst. Being thαt I’ve hαd multiple nαmes since I knew how to speαk, pretty much — αlwαys requiring α nαme thαt belonged to Me (αnd My ‘heαdmαtes’) only, to offset the fαct thαt I wαs sαddled with α ‘nαme’ thαt did not belong to Me but I wαs yet forced to use αnywαy.
Even now, I hαve severαl nαmes, αnd I couldn’t see αny merit in nαrrowing it down to one — then I would feel constricted by whαt thαt nαme evokes.
So I kind of like it thαt different people cαll Me different things. Didn’t reαlly think αbout thαt until I reαd this, but yeαh.
Mαinly, the “true nαme” thing resonαtes with Me α lot. I still don’t know whαt Mine is. I’m still wαiting for it to be reveαled to Me.
Thanks so much for the feedback—makes me feel like I’m actually making sense instead of just rambling wildly at a wall. XD
My “true name” is something that I, weirdly, have known for a long time, that I’ll know at random at any given time, will forget for a few years (or forget I ever knew it), and then will re-discover and go “oh, that’s it, that makes sense”, only to rediscover, upon looking at my older personal writing, that I knew it at some point before. That’s the only way I know for sure it’s my true name, the fact that I’ve come to the same conclusion about it several times over the years after completely forgetting I came to a previous conclusion at all.
I have some odd theories about why this is—for one, it usually coincides with finding a new “truth” about myself, and when I forget it is when I’m either convincing myself I identify in a way that doesn’t quite fit me or when I’m in between and muddling around and am looking for where to turn next on this weird journey of self-discovery. And when I find something that’s actually RIGHT, that actually FITS, I’ll remember the name again. (This is a pattern I’ve only VERY recently picked up on, like in the last few months.)
At any rate, it’s a good thing to know. Hopefully, noticing the pattern won’t completely break it, but alas, my life runs on chaos. Once things start making sense in a way I can quantify, they give way to entropy again. (Remind me how I’m not, in fact, a Lokean?)
(via formerly-samarkands)
On Names
I’ve been thinking a lot about writing this post, and I’m not really sure exactly what direction to take it, because I have a handful of things I want to talk about. I think first, I want to talk about labelling and names being slightly more formal labels, and second, I want to talk about the power of names and about True Names (the way I understand them). I’ll try and keep it to those two subjects.
This may not make a whole lot of sense to anyone but me. But if you’re curious about my views, read on.
Ohmygod.
I found a blog for otherkins, which included a list of otherkin bloggers so that otherkins could find other otherkins.
I clicked four of the urls. Three were deleted and one’s last post was like “I’m sorry. You’re right, I’m human. Good bye.”
Great job breaking my heart, Tumblr.
The people who troll the otherkin tag and send hate to these people should be banned from Tumblr. Ugh.
“I’m sorry. You’re right, I’m human. Good bye.”
As a darkling, that’s akin to a suicide note to Me — judged by the level of “oh shit no wait” that My mind employs in response.
To fall into a line that you don’t belong on only because you’ve been pressured to is certainly one kind of death (one that even humans are prey to, depending on how much of themselves they give up for the chance at assimilation).
It is a form of suicide—it’s a sacrifice of identity, and especially when it’s something that’s a huge part of who we are, falling to the pressure of not being that anymore is a kind of death, yes. To me, it almost seems worse to have a death of the self that occurs separate of the death of the body, and that’s what this amounts to.
There’s so much I want to say about this, but I’m finding it hard to articulate it in a way that makes sense. Maybe I’ll tackle it again later.
This is just…profoundly distressing, and it’s a real show of what effect the people who attack us (or who attack anyone who doesn’t fit what society considers to be “normal”) can have. Some people can take it and shrug it off and roll with it. Some can’t. And it’s horrible to me that anyone would feel they have to bend to the pressure of being someone they aren’t.
(via formerly-samarkands)
