Notices by Doc Impossible (impossible_phd@hachyderm.io)

Over 20% of Gen Z is queer and out about it, and the numbers are rising every goddamned year.

Stop and think about that. *Twenty fucking percent*. One in five. And good data suggests that better than one in twenty Gen Zers are trans and out. And that group votes almost exclusively on the left.

Absolutely no political ANYTHING wins, long term, by attacking a demographic that votes as a bloc.

(2/?)

There's a myth that people vote more conservatively as they age, and it's bullshit. There's some rightward drift as folks become wealthier, but in general for the last several centuries the median political position on everything has drifted slowly to the left.

And our current economic inequality is only exacerbating the leftwsrd tilt of young voters, who are wildly poorer than prior generations.

(4/?)

As time passes, the people who most oppose queer and trans rights are dying, and now they're dying fast. They're being replaced by people on the opposite end of the political spectrum.

And we have absolutely no reason to believe that trans and queer folks will ever go back into the closet.

(3/?)

The net of all of this is that the right is facing a reality where identity politics are failing more by the year, and they really don't have anything else in the tank.

Either they win now and fundamentally change the system, or it's game over for them.

(5/?)

One thing I guess I want to explain, especially in light of this week's SGW:

Why am I so relentlessly optimistic about the long term for trans rights, lives, and futures, despite how shitty and awful the backlash against us is these days?

It really comes down to demographics and rhetoric. Like, root and stem.

(1/?)

Update: Muting this thread. I'm dead tired of the frequency with which older white reply guys with no background in education, much less the doctorate in Rhetoric and Composition that I have, are showing up to browbeat me about how important they think formal grammar instruction is.

You are the problem I'm describing.

I'm muting this thread.

@Dani I mean, the data we have is soooo damming to the US education system at every level.

Problem is, teachers have been legislated to the point that we literally can't do anything to move us towards better educational outcomes. There are a lot of people out there who are actively trying to dismantle the entire school system, and they're doing it by making it ineffective.

*Taps mic*

As a lifelong teacher, homework should be abolished.

At every grade level.

No research we have supports homework as being effective, and most of it (like teaching grammar) *ACTIVELY HARMS STUDENTS*.

(Except maybe some very mild homework in math and a couple of highly specific sciences).

And if we wanted to improve student learning and performance on standardized tests, what does the data say we should do?

1. Universal free school meals, including breakfast.
2. Universal basic income.
3. Universal, single-payer healthcare.
4. Recess at EVERY grade level. Yes, including high school. Especially high school.

So why do we have homework, let alone lots of it?

The Puritan sin of idleness.

Yep.

Homework exists to teach our kids that rest, play, self-care, and listening to our own bodies is a bad thing.

So why haven't we abolished homework yet, and made recess mandatory?

Parents complain when we try. Loudly. They run for school board and institute minimum homework requirements.

Because they want their children to be "taught the value of a hard day's work."

That idleness is bad.

Time to get fierce.

Okay I just saw something sick as hell.

Someone on tiktok had a DO NOT PASS street sign and had it hung on their wall

On top of a trans pride flag.

Fucking. Legendary.

@tillybridges linked this excellent article in Nature, out last week, and I wasn't to talk about it a little. In a nutshell, it argues that scientists ought to move to the term "gender modality" instead of "cis/trans" or "gender identity" to more accurately capture and describe the cultural, physical, and biological diversity within human gender.

Heres why it's a great move.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01719-9

🧵(1/?)

If you read one essay on transness this week, let it be this one. May's writing is beautiful, here.

https://medium.com/@mayrpeterson/i-did-not-consent-to-my-body-7e36c6b53ee1

How many times have you looked at this trans person or that trans person and found yourself just in awe of them, feeling hopeless to ever measure up to their transness? I know I have.

This week on #StainedGlassWoman, Red Seems Sus, which means we're investigating imposters... or rather, why trans folks often feel like we're not trans enough, or not really trans by comparison to others. I promise: you won't be thrown out an airlock! 🤭

#trans #psychology #enby #MtF #FtM

https://stainedglasswoman.substack.com/p/red-seems-sus

@ryanc The former as in a basic PPV/VPP? Just want to be sure what I'm answering.

@ryanc Ohh, cool! I'd only heard of the version where they bury the testes in the pelvis, not one which preserved them exterior-wise. Neat!!

@sleepybisexual lol.

It works by, for an AMAB, removing the scrotum and tedticles, leaving the penis as is, then crafting a shorter vulva with or without, according to the preference of the person getting it, a standard vaginal canal where the perineum would otherwise be.

So, yes. It would remove the testes, ending major testosterone production (your adrenal gland would still make some--usually enough to meet your needs otherwise).

So for soooooome reason, I'm high femme today.