CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@steff@soc.femme.cat @YKantRachelRead@social.treehouse.systems I will add: While it's not theoretically impossible to create a society where you could have physically-definable categories of sex without it being oppressive, it would require demolishing a lot of load-bearing columns in the hegemonic worldview first. You'd need to disentangle it from any social relevance for it to not enforce physical standards to legitimately be what you claim to be, and demolish notions of natural, original, etc., but it could be done. People can understand that infertility doesn't make a cis woman any less female, and have little difficulty parsing fiction where someone changes bodies as not changing who they are — the fixed anchor of sex at birth keeps such deviation from the norm irrelevant. It needs to be re-anchored to self-definition.

@steff@soc.femme.cat @YKantRachelRead@social.treehouse.systems This is what has us so frustrated, making "sex at birth" the explicit standard and relegating all trans claims to be something else to an optional footnote of something that cis people don't even have, has become a widespread standard of how to be "trans-inclusive," and they will not tolerate us saying it's not super inclusive and affirming and a safe space to be who I am (which they make me agree is a TIM who merely "identifies as a woman")

This isn't just interactions with bureaucracy, so much "trans community" effectively uses that standard for who has a female perspective and naturally belongs in female spaces, they just sometimes gloss it with "gendered socialization" or whatever. Eternally bitter that some non-women kicked us out of a women's group for speaking over their female lived experiences of knowing we can never know what it's like to actually be female like them, the oppressed sex class of patriarchy.

@steff@soc.femme.cat @YKantRachelRead@social.treehouse.systems Especially this:

What we choose to define as a distinction of sex difference (chromosomes, hormone levels, genital configuration, appearance, etc) has always been an arbitrary matter of choice. Within reality, sex is assumed based upon presentation and appearance - literally, No One begins every interaction with another asking for a DNA blue print or to see their genitals. Sex and gender are both assumed constructs we all live with in our daily lives; they are not limited to laboratories, medical facilities, or theoretical strawman discussions.

We construct them continually with our actual interactions and interpretations of people, which are often at odds with our notional definitions. The goal isn't to become some standard, it's to become who you yourself personally need to be, and to assert that you are what you claim to be — to alter the social construction and the scope of whatever you are to include you.

Currently I can't be who I need to be because "trans-inclusive" bureaucracy makes sure to use "sex at birth" as their explicit standard of what people are and put a note that this male identifies as something else. I need to fight to make "female sex" include me, and if I can't change my self to fit the standard, I have to change the standard to fit me.

@steff@soc.femme.cat @YKantRachelRead@social.treehouse.systems This is a much clearer version of what we wanted to say without all the baggage of 15 years of Discourse.