So first of all let me say, I fucking love tumblr.
(This is where I post pictures of really attractive
people, kittens, and bitch about my life)
I also really like the blog MTF Confessions on tumblr. The basic idea is that MTF identified
individuals can submit confessions anonymously, which I think is really awesome
and empowering. But when I logged on to tumblr this morning I saw
this.
"323) I'm tired. Every trans blog out there is run almost solely by trans men. Every
trans meme focus on trans men (I can only think of Transrex as an exception).
FTM confessions has three times the number of confessions here. Every new blog
run by a trans person I find, they're afab and masculine. No one seems to care
about us."
Feel
free to bash me, but I really, really, think this is the wrong attitude for our
community. I don't want to bash the person who wrote this specifically, but I
feel like this sentiment is fairly prevalent within the MTF spectrum community,
and really needs to be addressed.
Really
I have two big problems with this notion.
First
of all, it encourages oppositional sexism. Which is bad. We shouldn't judge our
community of mtf spectrum individuals against the community ftm spectrum
individuals. We are all fighting for the same thing. Trans* rights, awareness,
and advocacy. This is not us vs. them. We are all on the same side as gender
variant people. Although we may face different challenges and privledges, when
it comes down to it, trans* people are one community, and we should support
each other.
To
foster an us vs. them mentality which splits between the sexes and genders of
trans* people just seems incredibly counter-intuitive to me. We, of all people,
of all communities, should be supporting our trans* siblings, regardless of
gender or sex. This should be intuitively obvious, and if it's not I really
think you should probably reexamine the way you think about sex and
gender.
My
other problem with it is that it seems very "Poor me" to me.
Know
who this guy is?
Mahatmas
Ghandi helped to free India from the British. He was generally a
pretty good guy but also sort of a dick, considering he let his wife die
of pneumonia because he disallowed her
from having penicillin because he thought god would save her. He did
have a quite a few good quotes though, and one of my personal is favorites is
this "Be the Change you want to see in the world".
If
you don't think there are enough blogs by MTF spectrum individuals, and you
happen to identify as a MTF Spectrum individual, then it seems to me that the
obvious solution is to start your own blog.
If
you're just gonna sit on your ass and whine about how shitty our community is
without actually doing something, then I'm not going to have much respect for
you. You are not creating solutions. You are not creating a sense of
community. You may not be part of the problem, but I'll be fucked sideways if
you think you're part of the solution. And if you already have a blog, use it
to encourage others to create their own blogs and/or events!
(This
is where I'm gonna do the little "practice what you preach" thing, and encourage
any trans* people reading this to create their own blogs, and help create
trans-visibility, it's really not hard, and you'll be glad you did)
I'll
be the first to admit, we, as a community (and not just the mtf community, but
also the trans community and queer communities in general) need more vocal
advocates. We need more noise. We have very specific problems that need to be
addressed by society, and they're not going to be changed by us sitting quiet,
and hoping that the government, liberals, the greater lgb community, or anybody
else is going to help us.
I mean Jesus-tap-dancing-Christ people! We need
awareness! We need advocacy! We need intra-community support networks! We need more rainbows, Goddamnit!
(That's a little better)
But most of all, we need people like YOU. You are our community. If you see an aspect of the community you don't like then make an attempt to change it. If you don't think you're ready then wait. But there comes a time when just being a spectator isn't enough. Start your blog.
Again
this is NOT meant as an attack for the person who wrote this confession. I've
heard this sort of sentiment before, and I really think that this sort of
thinking is a problem we as a community need to be really critical of, because
I think it's a type of thinking we simply cannot afford to have. It's self-defeating,
and not at all helpful to us.
Anyway, leave some comments, whether you agree with me or think I'm full of shit. Let me know!
