Rachel, Femme Doux Naturel
why am I, as a transfem person, so up in arms about #TheBadSpace drama?
let's chat for a moment about transfeminized debt.
transfeminized debt is a term and concept originally created by transfem writer May Peterson based upon her experience in queer and social-justice-oriented spaces. you can read the thread on it here, and I've also screenshotted it with alt text below for reference.
https://twitter.com/maidensblade/status/1490047073844178948?lang=en
Rachel, Femme Doux Naturel
now, I’d like to focus specifically on the part about deference, and how that relates to a project meant to keep marginalized people safe on the fediverse.
The Bad Space disproportionately targets transfeminine people and spaces where transfeminine people congregate as “problematic” instances. and when one of us, and then several of us, and then a whole shit-ton of us, started speaking out to Ro regarding this issue, we expected to receive sympathy and a promise to swiftly and justly correct the issue.
instead, we were met with hostility, doubling down and accusations of bigotry. by the end of the day, we had prominent cis accounts talking about the “trans fascist problem.”
we didn’t receive sympathy or solutions. we received hostility and fashjacketing. all because we dared to speak up for ourselves.
it’s not difficult to see how the above plays into the concept of transfeminized debt. it’s clear that the Fediverse HOA Club, of whom Ro is a part, and who - to my knowledge - are entirely cishet or transmisogyny-exempt, expected deference from transfem people. our needs aren’t important to them, because under the transmisogynist paradigm of transfeminized debt, we’re a privileged group.
never mind the fact that the bulk of us are struggling just to survive in a world that wants us dead several ways. never mind that all we want is to not be isolated from the greater fediverse.
we spoke up, and we were punished for it. we were treated as entitled, arrogant, privileged, even fashjacketed. all for daring to speak up en masse.
all for failing to perform the labor of deference to cishet and TME people.
so, yes. the drama over The Bad Space is grossly transmisogynist to its core. and the trans community here on the fediverse deserves not just an apology, but swift and unqualified restitution.
Radha ⚧️
@YKantRachelRead everything else aside, its wild how people consuder visibility to be a privledge lmao
Rachel, Femme Doux Naturel
additionally, read the part again about how feminist, queer and social justice spaces will go to any lengths to find ways to frame transfem people as privileged.
sound familiar? sort of like how our asking for access needs on the fediverse, from a project that's supposed to make fedi safer for marginalized people, was immediately turned back around on us to characterize us all as a bunch of racist miscreants for not asking politely enough, or in the right way, or even for asking at all?
would any other marginalized group be treated that way if they asked for an access need in a similar fashion?
I think it's obvious here that the answer is, "no."
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