Thread by @AssignedMale

As a trans creator whose work went viral an awful lot of times and who was targeted by so many hate campaigns that I lost count of them (I started publishing Assigned Male Comics 9 years ago), I think it would have been very easy for me to go down a bitter path. 🧵

Our communities are merciless. Obsessed with ideological purity. Our siblings will devore us for the smallest misstep. It's very easy to become jaded, when you give your entire being to a cause that will treat you as disposable as soon as it's done draining all your energy.

When I started getting invited to different countries to speak, I viewed it as some kind of "reward" - I create work that spoke to people, so it got me speaking engagements. It was in fact the opposite : it's seeing the impact art can have that became the real catalyst.

With all the hate I've attracted, from transphobes, the far-right and other trans people alike, I often wonder why I keep doing it. What is it that makes it that I'm still there after a whole decade, when it would have been easier to let resent and bitterness become my fuel.

I always come to the same conclusion. It's meeting all of you, meeting so many communities from all around the planet, that keeps reminding me of the healing and transformative powers of belonging and empowerment.

It's only with that in mind that the amount of responsibilities and pressure that comes with such a platform can make sense.
Because why do we do this? Why do we burn ourselves out for a cause that we know will throw us away the minute doubt is cast on our ideological purity?

It's so that "thriving" may be something more to trans people everywhere than a distant dream. Your activism should be to work towards that. And that starts at home.

As a trans person, when you're given a voice and an audience, feeling attacked suddenly becomes a thing of every instant, from the moment you wake up to when you go to bed. I will always have compassion to anyone who goes through that, willingly or not.

We ask a lot from trans public figures, who literally put their lives at risk for doing so. It shouldn't be that dangerous to do the work they do. Let's all recognize that.

That being said, bullying, high-school-level drama and feuds should never be tolerated. Resist the urge to dogpile and raid. You might be filled with righteousness right now, but I can assure you that you will not feel better afterward. The world won't be a better place for it.

When the world becomes too much, I retreat in a corner and write comics. Sometimes, after a long creative process of multiple hours of drawing, rewriting and rewording, I post one of them on the internet.

Most of them, I keep to myself.
Thousands of Assigned Male Comics strips none of you will ever get to see.

I believe that our minds aren't made for the instantaneity of social media. I want my readers to sit back and get thinking, which is why you will rarely see me post more than 3 or 4 times a week. I basically hit the "post" button and run back offline.

One day, I'll retire entirely from social media. When that happens, I'll keep posting on Webtoon. Go read the comics there, it's under the title "Serious Trans Vibes".
"She's done it," you can then tell yourself. "She's thriving." /end of🧵

I should have put the link to my Webtoon oops
webtoons.com/en/challenge/s…
And Patreon : patreon.com/assignedmale