clitcheese:

artemiswasamerf:

clitcheese:

terflies:

no-discourse-onlywrites:

terflies:

artemiswasamerf:

terflies:

artemiswasamerf:

The common representation of transwomen being this hyper feminine, painted, shaved, tiny waist, big breasted, tight clothes, long haired image really should say a lot about two things.

1) What men think women should look like

2) What men think being a woman is

Yes, because trans women suffer from misogyny and misogynistic expectations, too—when not represented as masculine, with stubble, fat, with tight clothes revealing “male” features. Which also says a lot.

Men cannot suffer from misogyny. Presenting themselves as hyped up versions of what they think women are is misogyny towards actual women.

If men cannot suffer from misogyny, then—as trans women do suffer from misogyny—we must conclude that they are women.

Besides which, the problem you are describing—that the popular representation of trans women is rooted in misogyny—is genuine, but your conclusion—that trans women are responsible (and thus misogynistic—is a non-sequitur. The problem is with their representation: what society believes they are and expects them to be; not trans women themselves. This is a problem that negatively affects trans women.

Plus like these people love catching trans people in Catch-22’s like this

Look like your identified gender? Relying on sexist stereotypes.

Look like you always did, with some modifications? You’re not “really” trans and just trying to get attention.

Like, can you just admit you don’t want trans people to exist and go already?

As an anecdote, an example that’s stuck in my memory for years was a TERF complaining about trans women turning up to women’s spaces with unshaven legs, citing this as “proof” that they were “actually men”.

I didn’t realise op was a terf immediately because like, they straight up say “the common representation of transwomen” and that’s exactly what cis men think of us, and how they attempt to simultanesously demonise us in the media while sexualising us — see how many trans women on TV in my life are murdered sex workers on crime shows.

like you’re so close. you’re so damn close. you know how bad mainstream representation is for trans women, but then you decide it’s actually objectively correct, that it must a perfect representation of us, made by us.

Uh, that’s how transwomen represent themselves, fam. Real life mimics fiction just as fiction mimics real life. 🙂

consume a lot of trans media then do u

Nah, just seen how transwomen represent themselves and seen how people try to blame “expectations of the media”. It’s kinda funny because the trans representation I’ve seen in media have been hyperfeminized versions of the same standards actual women follow. Take Lavern Cox, for example. She looks the same in OITNB as she does out of OITNB – hyperfeminized and how men think women should look. Imagine if gender roles didn’t exist and everyone was just allowed to dress and be as they were without lables. We can tell what sex people are 99% of the time by looking at them. It seems you are upset about the gender roles women have been facing for centuries – and more female sex workers are killed daily than trans sex workers are yearly. Transgenderism is a new concept, been around for less than 10 years now. Transwomen took what they “think” women should be from stereotypes without asking women what being a woman is actually like lmao. Drag Queens at least know it’s a costume and don’t pretend that they are actually women.

1) literally what is hyperfeminised about laverne cox. like, what. like, outfits she wears or. what. that she has long hair maybe? literally what about her presentation gives u that idea. or can u not name a second trans woman?

2) i can’t think of anything more demeaning than playing the Who’s Murdered Most game with you, except i guess, debating the numbers of dead sex workers with a SWERF. like, honey, my comment was on representation. it’s a concept that means, a portrayal, a fictional idea or narrative of what trans women are, usually with an underlying agenda. a narrative which you’re apparently completely immune to, oh Objective one

3) “transgenderism” was a part of many ancient religions, usually closely associated with fertility and mother goddesses. 10 years old. did you honestly think Julia Serano invented being trans in 2007. Even using an entirely transmedicalist definition, hormone therapy was pioneered in the ‘20s before nazis tried to stamp it out. so like, i can’t even imagine where u got that idea. are u a terf who seriously doesn’t know as much about trans people as the first paragraph of the wikipedia page for Transgender. are u seriously in that much of an echo chamber. were you trying to say something so amazingly incorrect to like, upset me? rile me up ? or is this some weird sort of anxiety like, you just found out terf ideology only came to being in the 1970s and decided you must have come first. not like it’s a reactionary movement that sprang to being out of a hatred for trans people, GNC people and queers, or anything like that.

or like, is this the same thing as you not understanding the concept of representation; did you think trans people only started to exist the day you first saw a mention of us. is this an issue with your object permanence? that how you see trans people must be exactly all there is to us, and that everything you know about trans people must be all there is anyone could possibly know about us.

[nita] munus-ra munus nita-ra ku-ku-dè ᵈinanna za-kam

trans. “to transform men into women and women to men is yours, inanna.” from in-nin ša-gur-ra. enheduanna, ca. 2250 BCE (via patrexes)

ok, so I was gonna infodump in the tags, but I think this is important enough to talk about on the post itself.

Inanna was the supreme Goddess of ancient Sumer, a region of what is now known as the middle east. She was a queen who ventured into the underworld to save her husband, and came back alive. (Her story is one of the many pre-Christian stories of death and rebirth/resurrection.) She was heavily revered, more so than any male god at the time (even though she did have a male consort, as mentioned before).

Enheduanna was a priestess to Inanna. Not only was she one of the first (if not the first) priests or priestesses whose names are still known today, but she was actually one of the first authors to still have her name still preserved. Pretty much all the writing we have that was from before her time was written by anonymous scribes or chisel-workers; her writing is the oldest (or one of the oldest) with a name attached to the writer.

It’s already known that many ancient and Indigenous societies accepted trans people, but…seeing writing that’s pretty clearly supposed to be about trans people, written by the oldest, most ancient priestess we know of, which says that trans people are under the *direct* care and domain of the most important goddess in the society of that priestess…sure is something.

(via earthmoonlotus)

thanks for adding some context! here’s actually some more, because i’m real fucking weak for inanna.

trans people played a major part as priestesses and other staff in her cult (it’s even been argued that trans people were the only people who served as her cultic staff, though that’s generally received with some discontent). transness was considered inexplicably tied to the goddess and imparted by her in some respect, as we see from erra IV, “lú kur-ĝar-ra lú issini ša ana

šuplu niše ištar zikarussunu uteru ana sinnišuti”, trans. “the kurĝarru and assinu, the people beneath ištar/inanna whom she has transformed from virile men into women”.

now, note, all of the english translations of erra IV i’ve come across (i’m mostly affording my own translations here, because people use slurs a lot when they translate sumero-akkadian and i ain’t about that life) add something like “in order to strike fear into the people” when quoting that transliteration, but a) there’s nothing in that passage i can figure to get that meaning and b) that description is inconsistent with other descriptions of the kurĝarru and assinu (who are also called,

variably, gala, pilipili, sag-ur-sag, kalu, kulu’u, and ur-sal). in “the descent of inanna to the underworld”, we see the creation of the first of these by enki for the indisposed inanna: as you noted, inanna does indeed survive the trip, and it is solely because of her explicitly transgender priestesses.

[the gala-tur and

kur-ĝar-ra] flitted through the door [to the underworld] like flies. they slipped through the door pivots like phantoms. […]

[ereš-ki-gal-la] asked: “who are you? i tell you from my heart to your heart, from my body to your body – if you are gods, i will talk with you; if you are mortals, may a destiny be decreed for you.” they made her swear this by heaven and earth.

they were offered a river with its water – they did not accept it. they were offered a field with its grain – they did not accept it.

they said to her: “give us the corpse hanging on the hook.”

shining ereš-ki-gal-la answered the gala-tur and

kur-ĝar-ra: “the corpse is that of your queen.”

they said to her: “whether it is that of our king, or whether it is that of our queen, give it to us.”

they were given the corpse hanging on a hook. [the kur-ĝar-ra] sprinkled on it the life-giving plant, and the other the life-giving water. and thus, inanna rose.

when the fuck have your faves ever, am i right?

and, hell, inanna herself in a šir-namšub (”incantation hymn”; a hymn or poem written in voice, for the sake of performance) says this: “e kaš-a-ka tuš

-a-[ĝu-ne] / nu-nus-ĝen

šul giri-zal-la me-e-ĝen-[na]”, trans. “to sit in the tavern, i go as a woman [or] i go as a joyful young man”.

(via patrexes)

Source: patrexes

patrexes:

finitedreams:

patrexes:

patrexes:

“transgender is a culturally specific term” it’s really not

two-spirit is a culturally specific term. hijra is a culturally specific term. genderfuck, in the sense of a term with particular, intentional political and social connotations, is a culturally specific term. transgender is an umbrella term encompassing a myriad of experiences from any and all cultures should someone feel like it’s valuable to their identity, and people who were born before the word ever got coined can and should still be considered trans, because to do otherwise serves no purpose but to suppress the knowledge that people like us have always existed, and the only thing that can do is harm

hey thanks for saying this in a really clear way

i had asked a roman historian about the roman emperor that may have been a trans lady and the historian tried to tell me that we can’t put labels on historical figures and also that the romans had called this emperor a woman to slander them and i was just. so fucking pissed. better to misgender them or wash away all references to trans people in history than to, what, maybe put a label on somebody? fuck that.

anyway thanks for saying this and if it’s okay with you i’d like to use this if i come across that historian again because UGH

elagabalus/marcia aurelia? yeah lmao i mean rome isnt my area but while damnatio memoriae was certainly used against her there are iirc more than solely roman texts attesting to her gender, so like…. take that as u will, by which i mean she was a trans girl and you can rip that out of my cold dead hands

[nita] munus-ra munus nita-ra ku-ku-dè ᵈinanna za-kam

trans. “to transform men into women and women to men is yours, inanna.” from in-nin ša-gur-ra. enheduanna, ca. 2250 BCE (via patrexes)

“trans people have existed the entire time” yo i studied greek and roman literature in college and this dude Lucian (2nd century CE) wrote a piece called Dialogue of the Courtesans and one chapter called “The Lesbians” (unfortunately misnamed) has a courtesan named Leaina tell about a lover she had named Megilla who was AFAB but preferred to be called Megillus and presented himself as male and insisted in very detailed dialogue he was male in every way except for his birth, check it out

support-our-trans-sisters:

thank you! it’s seriously ridiculous how terfs think trans people just popped up in the sixties?? like?? talk about not knowing your own history

there’s also the Cult of Cybele, an important religion to the Roman empire that had a priestess-hood made up of trans women. Catallus, a very famous latin author, wrote about their mythology, where apparently dysphoria is treated as a sacred calling from the goddess. Here’s my fave translation, it doesn’t add in any unnecessary misgendering that wasn’t there in latin, because apparently translators feel the need to do that sometimes. TW for descriptions of intense dysphoria, and a gorey description of ancient bottom surgery.

a good rule of thumb is that if you see the word ‘eunuch’ in a history book, that’s usually a reference to trans women that’s been lost in time thanks to the rise of Christianity.