N2

I’m tired of hearing that newly-out trans identified males must be given patience, understanding, and unconditional support while they work through the awkward stages of “figuring out how to be a girl”. Because actual girls are not afforded this privilege. There is nothing a teen girl could do to avoid mockery. There is no grace afforded to a teenage girl, so why should it be afforded to men who want to mimic her experience? Why should a man be allowed to have an awkward “girlhood”, when girls aren’t ever allowed the same?

“The Knight of Rey”. A small gift for a friend.

I was hesitant to write this post, but I want to talk about why so many women and teenage girls are getting double mastectomies.

The justification a lot of trans people use for elective double mastectomies is that "top surgery" helps people feel comfortable in their bodies. Traditionally, this surgery was restricted to transmen. In the recent decade, however, nonbinary identified and even non-trans identified women have been getting mastectomies. I remember clear as day when my coworker (who identified as a "cis" woman) told me that at 18 she was planning on saving for top surgery. I myself got my breasts removed when I identified as nonbinary, having been on testosterone for 2 years.

It's important to remember that no person is born wanting surgery. Society creates conditions that are hostile to women, GNC, and gay people, and this hostility encourages a dissociated state. The body is removed from the mind - instead of the body being an intrinsic part of your personhood, a mechanism through which we experience the world, it instead becomes ornamental. This is perfectly represented by all forms of non-reconstructive cosmetic surgery, which risk people's health for entirely aesthetic reasons.

So, why do teen girls want to remove their breasts? For those of who experienced unwanted sexual advances from a young age, the answer is intuitive. Breasts are inherently sexualized. They are not seen as a vital organ that contributes to bodily function and health, but as a decoration, the only purpose of which is to attract men and feed babies. In this way, a woman's breasts do not even belong to her. When men openly gawk at a woman without a bra, when relatives grope at her as a pubescent girl, when we are exposed to an endless stream of hyper-sexualized images of women with their cleavage out, a message is sent loud and clear: existing in a female body is unsafe.

I want to make it very clear that an elective mastectomy and the practices of breast ironing are very different, but there are commonalities in the attitudes behind both. Breast ironing is done to pubescent girls in order to "prevent" her being sexually assaulted or harassed by men, sometimes including male relatives. When I hear stories of girls in the West starving themselves and binding to hide their chests, I can't help but see similarities. When I was binding and restricting calories as a 15 year old, I would have said I was doing it so that I could pass as a man. But I would have been lying to you. I was lying to myself. I didn't hate my breasts because I was "born in the wrong body." I hated my breasts because they were used to justify my sexualization. From my perspective they put me in danger.

We often hear that women's rights in the West have been secured, but you need only look at the war on women's bodies to see that that is a fantasy. When young girls constantly receive the messaging that your curves and boobs WILL attract men and that you will be objectified for it, many will try to opt out.

Take Liv Hewson, for example.

She says herself that her anorexia was a manifestation of "gender dysphoria," but the question remains - where did this dysphoria come from? Why would anorexia develop as an outlet for it? What makes more sense: a young woman was born hating her body and her breasts because she has a gendered, non-female soul, or that same woman hates her body because she has been conditioned as such by a patriarchal society, the same society that encourages extreme self harm and body modification through a multi-billion dollar cosmetic industry?

Gender dysphoria in young women needs to be demystified. It's not special, it's not unique. It is NOT evidence that she needs invasive surgery or steroids to feel comfortable in her body. It is evidence that she is in pain. In order to address the rising rate of transition in young women, we must first acknowledge the conditions that nurture this form of self-hatred.

Transition IS a feminist issue. It is just as relevant in Western feminism as tackling the beauty industry, female sexualization, and violence perpetrated against women through porn. All of these issues are deeply interconnected. When we approach dysphoric women with compassion and encourage them to perceive their bodies as a part of themselves that deserves to remain intact and whole, rather than as their enemy, we take a necessary step towards female liberation.

"Longing. Longing for a wave of love that would stir in me. That's what makes me clumsy. The absence of pleasure. Desire for love. Desire to love."

Wings of Desire (1987) dir. Wim Wenders

some doodles from today's episode

i will never support anyone that publicly bashed amber heard. i stopped supporting a lot of creators and lost a lot of friends. i refuse to ever support those creators or befriend those people again. i'll never forgive those people for how they made me feel as a dv victim fresh out of the relationship. that misogynistic hate campaign impacted real women and i do believe anybody that took part in that should feel immense shame.

i'm sorry, i'm dead serious when i say anybody that took part in this should feel immense shame for the rest of their lives and go donate to your local domestic violence shelter or campaign. the outcome of this trial caused women to pull their cases against their abusers, recant statements, stay with their abusers, question themselves and their stories. this was a devastating blow to feminism, especially after me too.

After losing someone like her, it’s easy to feel alone in this world. But you’re not.

SHANG-CHI + family SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS (2021) dir. Destin Daniel Cretton.

bye bye batch. waiting on that clone rebellion spinoff now

it’s totally a coincidence that most subs in the BDSM community are women and most doms are men 🥰🥺 it has nothing to do with the fact that women are socialized from birth to place male validation and male pleasure over their own safety and wellbeing 🥰🥺 if a man gets off on torturing and degrading women he’s actually a progressive king and he is immune from all criticism because misogyny is his kink 🥰🥺 the 18 year old (who got introduced to the bdsm community online at age 9 btw 💕) that he currently has chained up naked in his basement said she’s okay with it so why are you concerned? 🥰🥺

Venus

Ava Gardner in One Touch of Venus (1948)

↳ Joan Fontaine in Rebecca (1940)

When people are saying that rape is worse for male victims than for female victims, I feel like the quiet part is "because women are used to it."

complete mask off moment whenever people state this. they're straight up stating they believe rape is something that is a woman's experience. we're not just used to it - it's so prevalent it's unfortunately a huge part of being a woman. even if you haven't been raped, you likely fear being raped and take measures to protect yourself from an attack. males don't worry about this because that isn't what is supposed to happen to them under a patriarchy. to males and their logic, rape is more traumatic for them because it is a woman's experience. the worst thing you could ever do to a male in his mind is put him at the level he believes women are supposed to be at. he views it as an attack on his masculinity.

It’s the same as how emasculation has always been used to mean “humiliating in a way that only women should ever have to experience.”

Leia never gave up, and neither will we. We’re gonna show them we’re not afraid… They’ve taken enough of us. Now we take the war to them.

John Boyega as Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015-2019)

bru & dee’s friday movie night (4/?) ◆ rear window | 1954