One of the most powerful acts against injustice, I've learned, is simple confession.
As an example, I am cis but put my pronouns in my bio.
This is confession of an understanding trans people exist.
It supports trans people, but it also implicates transphobes.
They hate it.
As an example, I am cis but put my pronouns in my bio.
This is confession of an understanding trans people exist.
It supports trans people, but it also implicates transphobes.
They hate it.
I have a suspicion transphobes hate pronouns more from a cis person than a trans person, because when a cis person does it, it publically normalizes it as something that cis people do.
And highlights that they don't.
And highlights that they don't.
This is a society that unjustly favors cis people. Its default setting is transphobia.
Using your pronouns, then, is a confession not just that trans people exist, but that transphobia exists.
It implicates a system I benefit from automatically. It's a self-confession, too.
Using your pronouns, then, is a confession not just that trans people exist, but that transphobia exists.
It implicates a system I benefit from automatically. It's a self-confession, too.
It's a difficult thing for a transphobe to block voluntary recalibrations cisgendered norms, in a way transphobia—which again is a default setting unjustly benefitting cis people like me— can't touch. How does tranphobia attack cis people? They can't.
They just have to hate it.
They just have to hate it.
I find that almost nothing I've written has instinctively pissed off bigots quite as much as those simple pronouns in my bio.
It makes them really mad.
It's a revelatory experience.
It makes them really mad.
It's a revelatory experience.
And to be very very clear, transphobes CLEARLY hate trans people much more than cis people, pronouns or not.
I just suspect they especially hate the act of pronouns from cis people b/c it's a judo move that uses unjust systems they support against them.
I just suspect they especially hate the act of pronouns from cis people b/c it's a judo move that uses unjust systems they support against them.
What I'm learning is, if you receive unjust privilege, you can confess that privilege on behalf of yourself—and you should.
But far more powerfully, you can use that unjust privilege to confess it on behalf of all who share it—even those who want to maintain or expand it.
But far more powerfully, you can use that unjust privilege to confess it on behalf of all who share it—even those who want to maintain or expand it.
And just like that somebody pops into my mentions to prove my point.
I'm already blocked.
Bigots *hate* confession of privilege from people who share their privilege.
If you're privileged, I highly recommend it. It makes the world safer and better.
I'm already blocked.
Bigots *hate* confession of privilege from people who share their privilege.
If you're privileged, I highly recommend it. It makes the world safer and better.
They really hate it.
Another example on a different vector. People who benefit from privilege really do not like other people with that privilege confessing it.
Highly recommend confession for this exact reason, if you are a person with privilege.
Highly recommend confession for this exact reason, if you are a person with privilege.
