Last Seen Blogs
bruhjite
Sin título
somerdparker
somertime
shinobunny
「キラキラ」
tyler-t0t
Doodle Dude
tyler-t0t
Doodle Dude
Text
Allies: As part of our series of preparatory NaNoWriMo writing tips, this post is for those looking for juicier information for writing trans characters.
The experience of being transgender is minimally different form the experience of being cisgender. The air smells the same, laundry takes just as long, and food tastes just as good (or bad). Being transgender comes into play in storytelling where identity intersects with culture. This can be broken down into two kinds of things to think about:
1) [Self identity informed by cultural lens.] How does your character's culture impact self-identity? Consider creating some gender labels to help you define how your fictional culture views gender. Think of them as a collection of culturally available options of established gender roles. Are there established gender roles that align with this particular character's gender? If so, are there barriers to this character enacting those roles? If so, what are they? If there are not established roles available for your character's gender identity (this is hard mode and equivalent to a person of any given nonbinary gender existing in Western cultures), what did it take for this character to understand their own gender? Is that personal journey part of the story, and if so, how will you showcase it? If it is not part of the story, how and when does it impact character portrayal, if it does?
2) [Treatment of your character by others due to their cultural lens.] How does your character's culture influence the way others view your character's gender? How does this character's gender fit into the social hierarchies of this culture? How do people respond to this character when they are openly discussing their own gender with others, and how does this change based on the gender of the other people in the conversation? How is this person's gender perceived by strangers, and how does that impact their perceptions of this character and/or interactions?
In real life, contrast between #1 (self identity) and #2 (cultural norms) cause all sorts of things to happen, and that is a place where you can play with complexity in stories with strong social drives. This is even true when none of the characters in a given scene are trans.
0 notes
Text
Allies: Here is our next writing tip leading into NaNoWriMo: We are tired of the trope of the suffering trans person in media. A little bit of suffering is okay, but please give us trans characters who get to be happy and do fun things and meet their goals in ways that are similar to all the other characters.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Allies: With NaNoWriMo next month, we would like to give you some tools to write trans characters well. Here are three basic concepts to keep in mind:
1) In narration, use the pronouns that match the gender the character identifies as. If you use different pronouns, have an extremely good reason for it. "This is just easier" doesn't cut it. Using other pronouns in dialogue is a good way to illustrate to the reader things like "this speaker is transphobic" or "this character must be closeted in this setting."
2) Almost all representations of trans characters in popular media place us in villain roles, especially representations of nonbinary trans characters. Consider randomly writing a few of your not-villain characters as various flavors of transgender.
3) Hopes, dreams, favorite things, interpersonal relationships, and so on are almost always more important to character development than what gender a character happens to be. This is true of trans characters as well; remember that transness is not a character’s defining attribute!
0 notes
Text
Allies: Are you participating in NaNoWriMo next month? We challenge you to include one or more transgender characters. Being trans doesn't have to impact the plot; it can simply be another aspect of complexity for your characters. Not sure which characters to pick? Number them and use a random number generator. Stay tuned for more tips on writing trans characters for the rest of October!
0 notes
Text
Allies: Gender and bodies aren't the same thing. If they were, we wouldn't even have trans people. People don't transition to become a new gender; we transition because we already are that gender, or because transition is right for us even if it is not necessarily a reflection of our gender, such as in the case of nonbinary and agender people who transition. Please watch your language accordingly.
#AbandonComplicity
1 note
·
View note
Text
Allies: One more time for the people in the back: Transitioning doesn't make a person become a new gender. Please eradicate that sort of language from your habits.
#AbandonComplicity
0 notes
Text
Allies: A common misconception in Western cultures is that nonbinary people are "really just women who went through too much trauma in our sexist culture and decided to reject it all by taking on a new identity." Considering the fact that people born with every variety of genitalia (including intersex people) are all among nonbinary people, as are people who were initially raised as any given gender, this is just not true. Besides, nonbinary genders have existed across global human populations for thousands of years.
#AbandonComplicity
0 notes
Text
Allies: There are a lot of different ways people can transition. Which options an individual will utilize will depend on that person's best interests, resources, and how accessible the best options may be. Each one of these circles represents a plethora of options, many of which can affect the accessibility and/or necessity of options in other circles. When the wider world talks about transition, they are most commonly referring to medical transition, forgetting the rest is such a big part of this journey for so many of us.
#AbandonComplicity
Image description: Four overlapping circles on a black background are captioned "Venn Diagram: How do people transition?" The circles are labelled "medically," "socially," "legally," and "other."
0 notes
Text
Allies: Did you know that some nonbinary people are trans, while others are not? Either way, someone's gender isn't a complete indicator of whether or not someone will transition. Many trans and nonbinary people don't transition, sometimes due to lack of access and sometimes due to lack of need. Some of us love talking about transition and others would rather not. Find out first before picking which of us to ask questions.
#AbandonComplicity
0 notes
Text
Allies: Nonbinary people are constantly erased. Every time you write a form to collect demographic information, you have a chance to change that. Every time you see a form that is not inclusive, we need you to stand up for us by asking for it to be altered. The unfortunate reality is that cis voices legitimize what we have been saying all along in the minds of people with power. Please use that.
#AbandonComplicity
0 notes
Text
Allies: It is still rude to ask people about their genitals when they are trans or intersex.
#AbandonComplicity
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Allies: If a person of a gender minority tells you of something bad they experienced because of their gender, this is a good time to practice friendship skills much as you would for any other bad thing a person experiences. A common microaggression we face is something along the lines of "that's just something you are going to have to deal with." This sentiment implies that being a gender minority is a choice, that it was a choice made recently so the person has no idea what that will entail, and that we should just put up with being treated poorly for it. None of these are true. Please don't say something like this to someone.
#AbandonComplicity
#abandon complicity#microagressions#gender#transgender#gnc#minority#minorities#friendship#skills#tips
1 note
·
View note
Text
Allies: Remember, "gender" may be one word, but it encompasses several distinct concepts. Gender identity*, gender roles**, and gender presentation*** are three totally separate things. Please don't use these concepts interchangeably when interacting with people or discussing gender.
#AbandonComplicity
* Gender identity is who a person is. This is generally not a choice.
** Gender roles are culturally created genres of behavior that are expected of people who have specific genders. Cultures vary in what these roles encompass and in how strictly they must be followed. Cultures also vary in terms of how they assign individuals to genders, although it is common for this to be based upon genitalia, especially in cultures which only have roles for two or three genders.
***Gender presentation is the gendered appearance a person chooses or is forced to wear. Gender presentations can be part of cultural gender roles.
0 notes
Text
Allies: Remember, the question of whether/how to transition and the question of what someone's gender is are not always the same question. For some people, they are entirely separate. Do not assume that someone will transition if they are not cis. Do respect people's genders or lack thereof regardless of whether they transition. Do respect people's actions with regards to transition regardless of their genders.
#AbandonComplicity
0 notes
Text
Allies: Please note that many of us will quietly let our friends slide on transphobic things if we just don't have the energy to deal with it at the time. Therefore, "my trans friends don't have a problem with this, so it's okay," isn't necessarily true. Besides, the trans community is extraordinarily diverse and as such encompasses many different viewpoints for any given topic. It's probably best to assume you know less than you think you do about where the community as a whole stands on a given topic.
#AbandonComplicity
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Allies: Curious about the smaller microaggressions faced by nonbinary people on a daily basis? Check out this video from the BBC! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b4MZjMVgdk
#AbandonComplicity
0 notes
Text
An Ambitious Progressive Person’s 25 days of Christmas
(Written for 2018 in the USA.)
Dec 1 - Start collecting donations at work or among your friends of cash to give to your local food bank. Tell them you plan to donate on the 14th.
Dec 2 - Call your local women’s shelter to see what they need. Post what they need on social media along with directions for how to give it.
Dec 3 - Pick a religion you know little or nothing about and research which holidays are associated with it this month and why. Seek to understand the importance of these holidays to the religion. Learn something about the variation in how these holidays are celebrated between different parts of the world.
Dec 4 - Call your representatives to ask them to repeal the Real ID Act in its entirety or at least the portion of it which requires all identification used for federal purposes to show gender. Then post on social media, say that you did so, and encourage others to do so as well.
Dec 5 - Look up your local resources for homeless youth and see what they need. Post their needs on social media along with directions for how to give it or volunteer. Then do so yourself.
Dec 6 - Look up your city’s anti-homeless laws and familiarize yourself with how they work and how they harm people. Start thinking of corrections that could be useful.
Dec 7 - Contact 3 different local friends and loved ones about the anti-homeless laws in your city and brainstorm corrections with each of them.
Dec 8 - Look up information about your city council meetings and how to speak at one of them. Start the process of signing up to speak to your city council about the anti-homeless laws, and follow through with that process and with planning what you will say over the course of the time it will take before you can speak. This may be weeks or months.
Dec 9 - Take a break.
Dec 10 - Remind people that you are collecting money for the local food bank and let them know they have until the 14th (this Friday). Look up the information for how to donate money to your food bank.
Dec 11 - Look up your local advocacy groups for at least two races that you are not a part of. Find out what they need and want from allies. Post about it on social media, then start doing it yourself.
Dec 12 - Look up what it means to live a zero-waste lifestyle. Identify a permanent change you can make this week that will lead you closer to to living zero-waste, then implement it.
Dec 13 - Look up Betsy Driver and educate yourself about her importance in American history. Then, if you don’t know much about what intersex is or the harms suffered by intersex people, look that up too.
Dec 14 - Finish collecting money for your food bank and donate what you have raised.
Dec 15 - Read about the actual scientific understanding of human sex differentiation as a combination of hormones, gonads, and chromosomes and why male/female categories are inadequate to describe it, then write a letter to your local paper explaining this science to educate your community about intersex and trans people. Vet and cite your sources.
Dec 16 - Boil your letter to the editor from yesterday down into something you can easily post on social media. Post it, and be sure to include links to your sources.
Dec 17 - Go back to your research on zero-waste living. Make adjustments if the change you implemented needs some tweaking. Pick another two changes you can make by the end of this week and implement both of them.
Dec 18 - Take a break.
Dec 19 - Call your local animal shelter and find out if they need more people to sign up to foster pets after they are abandoned after the holidays. If they do and you qualify, find out what you need to do to sign up and do it. Let people know how they can help on social media.
Dec 20 - Look up at least one disabled person who contributed in some way to your field or a field you are interested in. Learn about this person’s contribution. If you look up more than one, try to find one with a physical disability and one with a non-physical disability.
Dec 21 - Call your representatives, explain that Trump and Pence need to be removed from office and why, and ask that they see to it. This was written in November, so if something else is pressing in current events when you call, talk about that too.
Dec 22 - Call your local Planned Parenthood and find out whether they need volunteers. If they do, find out what you need to do to sign up and post about it on social media. Then do it.
Dec 23 - Look up one non-white person whose race is not the same as yours who contributed in some way to your field or a field you are interested in. Learn about this person’s contribution.
Dec 24 - Look up which indigenous people(s) once thrived on the land where your city now stands. Find out where they live now. Find out which language(s) they spoke, whether those language(s) are still spoken today, and some basic information about their culture(s).
Dec 25 - Take a break and celebrate Christmas.
1 note
·
View note