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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 8h

haven’t used any myself but some third party widget apps will let you make gifs into a widget, so they could be a solution for you if the animation would work as one?

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 10h

even more common than that though is the broader way that cis people will speak to trans men in a way they would absolutely never speak to an equivalent cis man (ie same age, race, social context, etc). usually it’s infantilising, but can also be hyper-critical of how we perform or “chose” manhood.

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 10h

the last thing we need is more misinformed comments from people who haven’t read what the guidance says (trans men can be banned from male and female spaces), appearance-based bathroom policing, “cis people can pretend to be trans to hurt women”, or total disregard for our safety for ‘gotcha’ points

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 10h

in the wake of the uk supreme court ruling, any of the variations on “so you want trans men in the women’s bathroom then?”, usually with a photo of a passing trans man attached. it’s meant to be allyship but it’s genuinely doing more harm than good.

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 1d

and if we transition too far away from womanhood or call ourselves men without any ‘but not really’ caveats then they have to make sure we’re never given the opportunity to say anything or else we might make a good point and they’d need to face that they’ve denied themselves transition for no reason

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Reposted by cybernetic rat

River doesn't know what to say @riverraven.bsky.social · 4d

And yet and yet! Internalized self hatred is what people want from transmascs because it reinforces their prejudice and desire to control us.

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Reposted by cybernetic rat

Solomon Skalozub🌻🔱🍁 @sollizyy.bsky.social · 7d

The more people accept chest dysphoria and offer solutions instead of being weird and gross about how we should "love our breasts" the less young transmascs will feel the need to bind via unhealthy means

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 1d

I think this is also contextual — other than “facial feminisation surgery” I really don’t hear people talk about healthcare as masculinising or feminising here.

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 1d

anyway I hope this isn’t derailing and I appreciate you hearing out why some people might not love transmasc as a term applied to us that isn’t “I don’t want to be associated with non-binary people”!

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 1d

to be clear this doesn’t mean butch can’t be contextually lesbian and I would assume lesbian adjacency in other contexts, but I think masc-as-a-noun is even more so based on how I’ve experienced it used, especially when it isn’t prefaced by ‘trans’

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 1d

(incidentally the use of butch for cishet men feels quite dated, but if someone’s older parents or grandparents referred to “a big butch builder” or similar, I’d still presume they meant a cishet man)

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 1d

yeah, and weirdly enough I’ve heard ‘butch’ as a noun used by/for men (including cis men) more than I have ‘masc’! so when butch in online and queer specific spaces is more specifically lesbian, the fact that masc feels even more so based on my experiences hearing it is definitely meaningful context

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 1d

also again anecdotal but I’m surprised you’ve never heard it for women! I think ‘masc’ as a noun especially, I’ve never once heard applied to a cis man. it’s almost exclusively to either lesbians and nb people who identify with lesbianism, or to afab trans people as a whole

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 1d

like I said there’s no perfect solution, there does need to be space for people who aren’t men but have a good reason to be grouped in with us (eg similar healthcare needs) to not be erased by being called men when they aren’t, but I wish that there was one that didn’t feel alienating to me

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 1d

and when it’s just applied to mean ‘any afab trans people’ it becomes even more offputting honestly bc realistically, it’s just a euphemism for afab at that point that also needs to engage with what constitutes masculinity. is ‘afab but not a woman’ automatically masculine?

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 1d

I know all terms are imperfect but it does often feel like any issues with the term are automatically treated as being anti-nonbinary and not about the meaning and connotations of ‘masc’ or how many people use ‘(trans)masc’ to differentiate from ‘full’ manhood

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 1d

I do get those intentions and maybe it is different circles (and possibly different countries) on most of this. but to be clear, I don’t think people are conflating transmasc with ‘must present masculine’ here, I think it’s taking a term that means ‘presents masculine’ and then saying it doesn’t

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 2d

and I do present relatively masculine but I still don’t feel comfortable with that being more important in determining my identity than my gender, as if it’s just clothing and style I choose

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 2d

even when people don’t shorten it and go with ‘masculine’ instead of ‘masc’, it can’t escape the baggage of how many people love finding reasons not to call trans men ‘men’ or how people who don’t want to present masculine now have to use that label to be understood as men.

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 2d

I get that the ship has sailed and I have to just cope but honestly I hate being called transmasc. partly bc ‘mascs’ is mostly used for women and nb people or ‘no fats no fems masc4masc’ gay men.

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 2d

saying it’s making a difference feels very hollow when it doesn’t look like any difference has been made at all

cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 2d

I know this sounds doomerist but it’s been eight years since my first trans related email to an mp, I’ve probably sent 50+ emails since then, and I have never once seen a benefit from doing so. same as with government petitions, nothing ever seems to come from it.

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 2d

I’ve written to my mp multiple times across the years while living in multiple different constituencies and it’s achieved nothing. even if they bother to respond, nothing happens.

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cybernetic rat @suicyborg.bsky.social · 2d

not a critique of this organisation at all but genuinely how does everyone keep up the motivation to do this when it hasn’t made a difference and the mps don’t listen?

Trans+ Solidarity Alliance @transsolidarity.bsky.social · 2d

We have partnered with @transactualuk.bsky.social to create a new tool to help you write to your MP.

Your voices have been making a difference. Because of you, pressure is mounting, but we have to keep it up.

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Trans+ Solidarity Alliance x TransActual.

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Reposted by cybernetic rat

✨ Hamish Steele ✨ Buy Go-Man! @hamishsteele.bsky.social · 20d

Psa please never call me neurospicy, I am an adult

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