#and what about intersex trans women who may well HAVE a womb? do they get treated well by them? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sunflower-stella · 4 years

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Hello there! I’ve seen a lot of posts going around, defining different terms and communities that you might come across while exploring the age regression side of tumblr. However, I’ve never seen an overall guide, so I’ve set out to make an easy-peasy guide to all the complicated terms you might encounter! This guide includes 1) Minor-Safe Age Regression Communities, 2) Kink Tags, and 3) Common ‘DNI’ Terms.

Please let me know if there’s a term I’ve missed, or a community I’ve misrepresented! This is a pretty basic introduction to a lot of complex concepts, so if you have more questions please feel free to get in touch with me.

Even if you know the basics, this guide is probably worth a scan to see if there are any terms that you haven’t seen before, and you can also fact-check my writing while you’re at it, helping out anyone else who reads this in the future.

With that said, let’s get into it!

Part One: Minor-Safe Age Regression Communities

Age Regression: The term ‘age regression’ as an umbrella term that is used to describe any experience where a person returns mentally to childhood. It can be a coping strategy to deal with stress, a reaction to trauma or mental illness, or just a natural part of someone’s life. In tags, ‘age regression’ is often shortened to ‘agere’. (Be aware: kink communities also sometimes use ‘agere’ and ‘age regression’ tags! They aren’t inherently minor-safe or non-sexual, so use caution and common sense.)

CGLRE: Stands for ‘caregiver/little regression’. Cglre is one of the oldest regression communities that exists on tumblr, as well as one of the most popular. Cglre is controversial because it uses ‘littlespace’ terminology. (A regressor is called a ‘little’ and their caregiver is usually called ‘mommy,’ ‘daddy’ or similar parental titles.) Littlespace terms are used in cglre to describe regression, but they’re also used by kink blogs to describe submission. On the surface, this means that cglre looks similar to kink blogs, but most cglre members are very dedicated to being minor-safe, separate from kink, and discussing therapeutic, coping-related, non-sexual age regression.

(Note: CGLRE subcommunities and tags are abundant! The tags ‘liltot,’ ‘agere society,’ ‘nsre,’ ‘dxlg,’ and others are all cglre-based communities. You can find huge lists of cglre subcommunities on this blog because there are too many to cover here!)

CHIRE: Stands for ‘child regression.’ Chire evolved as a response to cglre, as a regression community that doesn’t allow littlespace terminology, or interaction with blogs who allow it. Because of the harsh lines they draw between communities, they are also a controversial group, but many people have positive experiences with it!

Non-Comm Regression: Short for ‘non-community regression.’ Non-comm regressors don’t identify as part of cglre, chire, or any of the smaller sub-communities that exist under age regression. Often, they interact with multiple communities, as well as with other non-comm regression blogs.

Pet Regressors: Some people feel less like kids when they regress, and prefer to identify as animals! ‘petreg’ or pet regression is the word for people who regress as animals. This might be connected to otherkin identities (people who self-identify as something not human, possibly an animal or possibly something more abstract) or might just be their own way of regressing!

Age Dreaming: Age dreaming, which is sometimes shortened to ‘agedre,’ is a minor-safe community focused on recapturing childhood outside of regression. Age dreamers take comfort in childish and nostalgic things while not mentally regressing (or not fully regressing, depending on the age dreamer).

System Littles: The term ‘little’ has a different meaning when applied to someone in a system. A ‘system’ is formed from a variety of experiences, including childhood trauma and dissociative disorders, when a mind copes by developing rifts in their memory and personality, forming different people within one body as they grow older. This collection is called a system. System members may interact with age regressors for multiple reasons. Firstly, some systems have littles, which doesn’t refer to an age regressor when it’s used about a system member. A system little a system member who is a child, contained within an adult body. Some system littles find community in age regression spaces, but most prefer to keep separate from agere groups. Secondly, some system members are age regressors, or ‘age-sliders,’ which is an experience kind of like regression, but is specific to system members. So systems have all kinds of reasons to be part of the age regression community!

SFW Agere: This means ‘safe for work age regression.’ This usually means ‘non-sexual age regression’ or ‘minor-safe age regression,’ but not always! Please see the sections on ‘sfw kink’ down below.

Dual-Comm: Short for ‘dual community’. People call themselves ‘dual-comm’ regressors if they are sfw age regressors that also participate in kink communities in their adult headspace. People with sfw regression blogs might indicate that they are dual-comm regressors so that people can block them if that makes them uncomfortable, or because it is an important part of their relationship to regression, even if they don’t post about it on their regression blog.

Part Two: Kink Tags and Communities

(Note: I won’t go as deeply into kink communities because I’ve created this guide for age regressors, and want to mention kink groups mostly to raise awareness of what can’t be reblogged onto a minor-safe regression account.)

Cross-Tagging: The act of ‘cross-tagging’ is when someone tags a post with both minor-safe community tags like ‘cglre’ and kink community terms like ‘ddlg.’ This is bad because it exposes minors to kink communities, which is dangerous for everyone involved. It also might expose regressed people to sexual content, which can be triggering depending on their experience of age regression. That’s why it’s important to know which tags belong to kink communities, so you can block and avoid them if you want to have a minor-safe regression blog!

Age Play: ‘age play’ is an umbrella term for any kink dynamic in which one person consents to being treated as a child for the purpose of submission.

DDLG/CGL: Stands for ‘daddy dom/little girl’ and ‘caregiver/little,’ respectively. These are kink communities that use littlespace terminology to talk about sexual relationships. There is also ‘mdlb’ which stands for ‘mommy dom/little boy,’ and same-gender variants like ‘mdlg’ and ‘ddlb’. (If you run a minor-safe tumblr blog, it is very important to have all of these tags blocked so that you don’t accidentally reblog from an unsafe source!)

ABDL: Stands for ‘adult baby diaper lover.’ This is a kink community centered around diapers. They might also identify with the term ‘omorashi’ or use it as a tag on their posts.

SFW Kink: Stands for ‘safe for work kink.’ This can be used to refer to non-explicit kink posts or to platonic, non-sexual kink. Either way, kink being ‘sfw’ does not mean that it is minor-friendly!

NSAP: Stands for ‘non-sexual age play,’ which is an approach to age play often (but not always) linked to coping with stress, rather than explicit sexual gratification.

(Note on non-sexual age play: There is a misconception in the age regression community that all kink is inherently sexual. Some people use age play as a coping strategy without involving sexual elements. That said, even non-sexual age play isn’t minor-safe because it is still a power-play dynamic that minors cannot (and should not) consent to. I say this because it is important to a) not cross-tag nsap with minor-safe communities and b) not bring power-play into sfw agere spaces. If you are an adult and you are more drawn to the rules and discipline of littlespace, please explore on the non-sexual kink side so that we can foster a safe space without power dynamics for minor regressors!)

Part Three: Common DNI Acronyms

Content Warning: mentions of transphobia, eating disorders, and pedophilia.

(Note: We’ve already covered a lot of the acronyms that you might see on people’s DNI in Parts One and Two. Here are some more you might see. As a general rule, if you’ve never seen the term before, it probably doesn’t apply to you, but it’s always best to Urban Dictionary an unfamiliar word!)

DNI: Stands for ‘Do Not Interact.’ A list of communities that a person doesn’t want to interact with their content, usually for personal comfort. It is always important to read a person’s DNI and respect it. A person’s DNI can be on their post in the form of a banner/image, or in their blog description, their ‘BYF’ (Before You Follow) page, or linked in their blog description as a ‘carrd.’

TERF: Stands for ‘Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist’. TERFs are threatened by trans women in feminist spaces, and believe that womanhood is intrinsically linked to biological femininity (ie. having a womb).

SWERF: Stands for ‘Sex-Work Exclusionary Radical Feminist.’ SWERFs believe that sex work is inherently linked to sexism and gendered violence, and that women cannot freely make the choice to engage in sex work. Some SWERFs believe that women who make this choice are encouraging sexist objectification.

Transmed/Truscum: These terms refer to someone who believes that being transgender must be linked to dysphoria and a desire to medically transition.

Anti-Mogai: The term ‘MOGAI’ stands for ‘marginalized other genders and intersex’ and refers to a community of trans/gender-nonconforming people who use very specific and personal titles to describe their gender. People who are anti-mogai are often part of the transmed community.

Ace Exclus: Short for ‘ace exclusionists,’ it means someone who believes that asexual or aromantic people shouldn’t be welcome in LGBT spaces.

REGs: stands for ‘reactionary exclusionist gatekeepers’ and is an umbrella term for all of the groups above: pretty much, anyone who ‘gatekeeps’ (limits) who gets to be part of the LGBT community.

Anti: I’m not sure what this is actually short for, but I always think of it as ‘anti-ship’. An ‘anti’ is someone who believes people shouldn’t be engaging with problematic media and ships (such as racist media, pedophilic ships, and fanfiction that romanticizes abuse).

Anti-Anti: An anti-anti is someone who doesn’t agree with the above people.

Endogenic Systems/Anti-Endogenic Systems: There’s big debate about whether it’s possible to have a system (see ‘system littles’ in section one) that isn’t formed in response to trauma. The term ‘traumagenic system’ refers to a system created by childhood trauma. ‘Endogenic system’ means a system that is not related to trauma.

Pro-Ana/Thinspo: Stands for ‘pro-anorexia’ and ‘thin inspiration,’ respectively. This is a community based on the encouragement and romanticization of eating disorders. Understandably triggering to a lot of people!

MAP: Stands for ‘Minor Attracted Person,’ which is another word for pedophile (adult attracted to children). Tumblr has an unfortunate community of pedophiles who choose not to seek treatment, and take pride in their identity. They use a miscellany of titles, which is important for people to research and block for safety, especially in age regression circles where there are a lot of vulnerable minors. (Note: If you experience persistent attraction to minors, please talk to a professional about it.This is not your fault but it is your responsibility.)

Littlespace: Some people list ‘littlespace’ or ‘non-system littles’ in their DNI to block kink blogs that use littlespace terminology, as well as CGLRE and related communities that use the same terms. These people aren’t always insinuating that the two groups are the same, but rather that those words make them uncomfortable. So it’s important to respect that if you use littlespace terminology on your regression blog!

18+: This confuses people all the time. Ninety-nine percent of the time, if a person has ‘DNI if 18+’ on their post, they mean don’t interact if you run a minor-unsafe, 18+ only blog, not ‘if you are over the age of eighteen’. (That said, there is a one-percent chance that they actually mean that it’s a minors-only post, so do check if you’re unsure!)

Congratulations if you’ve made it all the way to the end of this guide! I don’t expect you to remember everything you’ve read, but this guide will be here if you ever want to come back to it to check on a new and confusing term. I’ve spent years being confused by all of these different labels, and there are new ones coming out all the time, so don’t worry about screwing up every once in a while! We can only do our best, and correct ourselves politely when we make a mistake. I hope you have an awesome day, and I’ll see you around in our chaotic little virtual neighbourhood!

#age regression #sfw agere #cglre #agere community #agere ref #agere help #i hope this is helpful for some people!#i get quite a few asks from new people in the community #and there are so many confusing terms!

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defeatedbyamerechild · 4 years

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Still not going to be posting for a while, but I had some Pokémon-related questions for you ^^

1) Not sure if you’re still doing the ship ratings, but what do you think of Giovanni x Cyrus? I go back and forth between them being in a relationship or Cyrus being ace…

2) I also have been thinking about trans Ghetsis and Colress… I was curious, how would a (pre-op) man prevent menstruation? In my headcannon, if either one of them were trans, both wouldn’t be able to get surgery.

Thanks uwu

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Hello! I had stopped the ratings, with grades and all, but I don’t see any problem in commenting what you sent me. So let me see...

1) About Cyrus and Giovanni, I used to like that ship a bit more in the past, but I kinda grew tired of it, I don’t know. I mean, I’ve never actually shipped them, it’s never been too attractive for me, but there was a period of time when I thought it was rather cute. Now I feel pretty neutral, if not a bit negative about it. I can’t quite explain though, I think it’s because of how I have developped both the characters in my comics. Still it’s not like I would complain about people who ship them or whatever, I’ve seen some really cute pictures of them and really nice headcanons of them before. I’ve nothing against it, it’s just a ship that I don’t think I would be able to make work nowadays. About Cyrus being ace, it’s the headcanon that I’ve chosen for him in my comics. Aromantic and Asexual. Still, I’m also open to other headcanons for him. Gay Cyrus, straight Cyrus, demisexual Cyrus, aromantic but not ace, or ace but not aro... biromantic and gray-ace. There are thousands od possibilities in terms of romanticism and sexuality for him, whatever you feel like working with will be fine. If you would like to have an ace Cyrus in a relationship with Gio, you can have him be, let’s say, demiromantic and gray-ace... Or homoromantic and asexual. Or demiromantic demisexual. There are ways to make that happen without having to completely discart the ace spectrum from his character. :) Also, nothing wrong with playing with two headcanons at the same time. Two different au’s maybe... Recently, I’ve become more interested on the idea of shipping Cyrus with Lysandre. This would never happen in my comics and is totally impossible in this headcanon, but that doesn’t mean I can’t think of what it would be like in a different hc, nd even write about it if I ever feel like it. ^^ 2) About trans Ghetsis and Colress, that’s great! All trans headcanons are valid. Actually, a while back, I thought about an intersex Ghetsis (More specifically, Ghetsis finding out he actually has ovaries and that he’s intersex and never knew it, and that helping him become less sexist and lgbtq-phobic). I don’t think it’s going to happen in my comics in reality, but it was interesting to think of. Anyway... About the period question, as a cis woman, I feel like I don’t really have the authority to talk about this in details... You should try to find some trans-focused blogs that could answer your questions. I did some research for writing my trans Piers, though, so I can try to say a few things... First, sadly, it seems like menstruation is not discussed a lot for men, which sucks, so it’s not that easy to find out info on that. Another consequence of that is, most of the things I saw were dysphoric men talking about how much period hurt them emotionally and psychologically, because it made their dysphoria much worse. I know it’s a huge issue for many trans men, as well as some NBs of course. Still, some trans man that don’t experience dysphoria have nearly just the same amount of discomfort as a women. No women likes having periods, we know that, so naturally no trans men like it either. But some can deal with it without getting dysphoric feelings. If you want to talk about period in a trans man’s life, there are many aspects of it that you can try to include. Many trans men I saw on the Internet talked about how they hated having to change their pads in a male bathroom, and how they had to hide pads or cups, and how much they feared having leaks in public. Many of them talked about incresed symptoms of other psychological conditions such as depression, nd suicidal thoughts related to “feeling like a woman despite knowing they are not” or like their bodies were trying to go against their minds. Well, you talk about “pre-op” men, that is, men who intend to have surgery at some point, but haven’t managed to yet. Still, surgery is not mandatory to stop having periods (although, of course, removing the person’s womb will do the trick). From what I’ve searched, you can stop periods with hormonal treatment. It takes a bit of a while for the periods to stop, since changes happen slowly, but eventually the bleeding stops. So yeah, not sure if you’re going to work with dysphoric men here or not, but you can headcanon that they take hormones and don’t have periods, or that they don’t take hormones and still have periods but that makes them dysphoric... Or, like my Piers, they don’t take hormones and have periods, but that doesn’t make them dysphoric. They can be pre-op, but haven’t got money for it yet, or are not ready yet, or whatever other reason for not doing it now, or they can be non-op, like my Piers, that is, trans men who don’t intend to ever have the surgery, even thought they identify as male. Basically, yeah, some men have periods and not all of them plan on making periods stop for good at some point, but that doesn’t mean they are less of a man. Well, that’s all I know from what I’ve researched on trans men and periods, I really wish there was more info about this subject, but I guess there’s still kind of a taboo around it, even for cis women, in fact. Anyway, if you want to know more about trans men dealing with periods, you should try looking for trans-themed blogs, some of them will surely answer asks on the matter. ^^

Also, any trans person that follows me and wants to contribute to this discussion, please do tell your experiences and all you know about it! (if you feel comfortable too, naturally!) I know that no one can talk about this better than trans men themselves, and I definitely would love to hear from you guys what it’s like dealing with that kind of thing. :) Not only it will help me with my headcanons for Piers, but also will happen many other artists and writers that want to work with trans characters, and may also help younger trans men who haven’t dealt with this yet. ^^ Feel free to submit, reblog and comment here, and please do correct me if I said anything wrong. :)

#trans headcanon #transexual #ftm #ftm trans #period #ftm period #trans periods #discussion #DBAMCHeadcanon #collab #thanks #submission

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theyounganarchistmagazine · 6 years

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Imagination +Pain= Dreams by Anarchy Munroe

Imagine walking into the world a fresh being; no knowledge of right, wrong, color, gender, physical sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or what it means to be anything other than you. As you form you see others; many skin tones, shapes, sizes, and languages. Than life- like a mirror shows you what you look like. You realize that the image of self isn’t quite matching the mental picture you’ve perceived. You see that you are comfortable in your skin, presentation, but slowly people point out that because of genitals that you have to be something contrary to your nature. You’re slowly but surely perplexed and ask why? Why do I look different than I feel? On top of that people around you are pointing out that the skin, that youre wearing comfortably is no longer acceptable. Because of your skin tone somehow you were less than the others… People start to question your character, your identity, and your attributes because you stand out. You feel vulnerable. You feel unearthed. You feel alone. Like a teenage girl with anxiety about her weight, her acne, and her image, you start clawing at your skin. You rip, scratch, claw, beat at your flesh hoping that parts will change and shift. Maybe, if you scratch hard enough it’ll lighten up.. Maybe, if I cut at it, it’ll shift people’s perceptions, Maybe if I change my hair color, wear color contacts, or dress more like those whom I see in a place of power in this world, it’ll work for my benefit; maybe just maybe if I change the way I talk, walk, and behave they’ll accept me… But still I am called a nigger/spic from my peers and sellout from those of my hue and community. No matter what I do- I am wrong.

Staring in the mirror I see my body and my image, isn’t what I believed it to be. I’ve seen others like me but their form isn’t the same. I have a penis where a vagina is supposed to be. I no longer have the perception of self that I once believed mattered. My life doesn’t matter. My love doesn’t matter. My heart doesn’t matter. No matter what I see I have found my identity to be unworthy, unacceptable, and torn down. Walking down the halls of school, living in my apartment complex, listening to the news, songs on the radio, messages of the church and many other religious institutions telling me that my identity is wrong- deserving of death; I am called a faggot, abomination, sinner, and that I deserve to die. Could it be true? Could it be true that I am unworthy to be loved; could it be true that the nature of the world, the foundations that I was created from, and the womb that birth me is wrong? OR did somewhere along the way did I go wrong.. I feel hopeless.

After hate, after bulling, after shaming, after slut shaming, after neglect, and after rejection I am confronted with microaggression after microaggression… This is the journey of women of color. Being a woman is pain, lies, shame, and hurt. People want to exotify your identity you and abuse your being. If you aren’t white all of a sudden you’re the other. They think you’ll be their fantasy, their toy, their whore, and that you’ll fulfill their kinky sexual desires. You are not a person but an image of their imagination; a creation birthed in their mind to do whatever they want, whenever they want, and however they want. They want you to do whatever they say and whenever they want say because you don’t have a private life and you don’t deserve to be loved. Countless times, I am told what I am “supposed” to look like, talk like, and how I am not good enough. When we say no, we are told that are whores, sluts, disease ridden, and disgusting; a slew of microaggressive phrases, lies, and exaggerations thrown at you but when you fight back youre in the wrong.

Intersex or TransWomen of Color are here to objectified, marginalized, subjugated into a box so demenished of love and life that we end up in sex work as a form of survival. In school we are taught that are bodies are here to the pleasure of the video vixen. I am supposed to be hyper sexual, twerk, and be all the things that “Whyte women aren’t”.. these are all Microagressions. I am supposed to have long nails, hair straight, always dolled up, and I am supposed to not exist until I am told too. I am not supposed to infringe on any males life because I should be just happy with the emotional leftovers that come from their dick. I am taught that I am too be smart but not too smart that I challenge any males manhood, ego, self esteem, self respect, or self perception. Unless he enjoys that than I should be that and all the above things his caregiver as well. Before I get too far ahead of myself I have to stop to remind everyone that I am supposed to be stealth at all points in time as well except when a man tells me it’s okay. Stealth means that intersex and transwomen (people born with either chromosomal, sexual, or reproductive organs that that don’t identify necessarily with the traits that a doctor says one is supposed to be at birth (intersex) or may have been born with a penis but identify with cisgender women or gender non gender conforming individuals (trans)) should do their best to be as close to the what “regular woman” look, act, behave, and live like Cisgender women. Cisgender is a person born one gender and identify with the gender they were born as. So just as I have stated above, I am supposed to as stealth as possible, passable (aka socially acceptable), hyper sexual, open, available, nurturing, motherly, invisible, have perfect vocal pitch/tone, pure, and yet, virginal. Everyday. Single. Day. I am supposed to be all these things to every male I meet: while being closeted about what I am, I’m still supposed to tell everyone I meet so no feels like they are being deceived/tricked. So please tell me how we supposed to live? How are we supposed to survive but be all these things to everyone?

It’s like socially conditioning, gas lighting, and abuse all the time. Literally in this world of constantly being the other you have to be strong or you won’t make it. According to the Washington Times,” More than 41 percent of those identifying as “transgender” or gender nonconforming who have attempted suicide, compared with 4.6 percent of the overall U.S. population who report a lifetime suicide attempt. It is also higher than the 10-20 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults who report ever attempting suicide. These data come from a study by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and UCLA’s Williams Institute, which analyzed results from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. More than a dozen other studies since 2001 have found similar results for alarmingly high rates of suicide for transgender individuals like Chelsea Manning.” This doesn’t count those who weren’t interviewed. This isn’t adding those who ended their lives, were killed, or lost in the mix of life.

Before Laverne Cox can anyone name a Woman of Color who was trans in main stream America in the last 20 years? Can you name any woman of color that is trans or intersex that has made it mainstream without being a sex worker first? Almost all of them have been through it because the incredible amount of discrimination that we face trying to get jobs, look well, be mentally healthy, date, and just be ourselves. It’s so hard that we can’t ourselves. We’re constantly fighting, surviving, and trying to live. It’s difficult when over 60% to 90% of the trans or intersex people I��ve known have no biological family to go or turn to for help. That means, when life falls apart we’ve either got to depend of the system or the people around us for help. It’s impossible to make it without help. Medication, education, awareness, and learning to survive, live, and POSSIBLY survive all comes with a price. Hormones, surgery, medication, and mental help all come with a hefty price tag and we are constantly trying to take care of it all while warring with the expectations that are laid upon us. Here’s been a snippet of the population that is constantly being oversexed, overstretched, and constantly being violated but we fight to survive.

Ive known the struggle of trying to be socially conscience, be a woman that I am proud of while, still trying to make people around me happy. My struggle isn’t alone; my struggle is than forced on others around me because they are near me. They become stigmatized, shamed, hated, and discriminated against. My life, our lives, can be and often are hell. We fight for crumbs but often give up when the pain, weight, and hurt of the world becomes too much. People like to stigmatize us, limit us to our genitals, and socially condition us to be all that they want us to be but when we fight against that to become our own; own our sexuality, own our identity, fight against conformity, and demand to stand our ground we are often forced into a corner. This is why so many us end up dead, simply existing is a threat to power structure that tells us we shouldn’t exist.

#civil rights #human rights #transgender #transexual #speech #education #lgbtqqia #lbgt

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trying-hard · 7 years

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Trans Issues and Christianity

For my first post, I’d like to talk about something I care about in depth - Christianity, transgender issues, and how they intersect. As a trans woman, devout Christian, and politics junkie this intersection comes up very often for me, and I have a lot invested in it. The effects of this go far beyond just me and people like me, though. The topic strikes deep into the core of Christian notions of gender and sex, making the consequences of this debate extremely important - not just because it impacts trans people’s lives and the current political climate, but also foundational ideas of the extremely powerful and influential religion of Christianity.

In the big picture, trans issues being at the forefront of social discussions is a somewhat new thing. In 2015, Slate released an article titled “Conservative Christianity’s Discovery of Transgender Issues Worries Trans Christians“. It discusses how a group of self-described biblical counselors held a conference on “transgender confusion”. The results were not surprising; the article gives it the description of a “one-sided succession of rants against modernity and cultural change that made little or no attempt to address how religious congregations could go about welcoming individuals who are transgender and/or struggling with gender dysphoria.“ Since then, discussion has only picked up.

For example, the Church of England had visibly warmed up to trans people, going so far as to consider special services to mark gender transition. This predictably brought backlash along with it. Meanwhile, the twitter of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee, the social issues arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, regularly brings up transgender issues, and is currently advertising a book on the topic. On the flip side, the United Methodist Church recently commissioned a nonbinary deacon.

To truly understand this debate, we need to understand not just the arguments commonly brought up, but the relevant traditions within Christianity. It is no surprise that gender roles are prevalent within it. The two major ancient, apostolic churches (Catholicism and Orthodoxy) have never supported women within any of the major religious roles. Methodism was a pioneering group for women preachers within Protestantism, and they started as recently as 1761. Even then, complete gender equality in church roles within Methodism wasn’t achieved until 1956.

In terms of scripture, there seems to be clearly defined gender roles. Paul does a majority of the complementarianism, with writings such as Ephesian 5:22-33, 1 Corinthians 11:1-16, and 1 Timothy 2:8-15. While there is a lot of exegetical work (which I won’t spend time elaborating on here) that goes into interpreting these seemingly plain verses, some of which suggests gender complementarianism is a misinterpretation, the majority agrees that the Bible does mandate certain gender roles.

Lastly, the issue of sex, both the biological kind and the action, is fundamental to much Christian thought, even if most don’t even know about the important conclusions which have led to our present. A long time ago, a person known as Augustine came into the Christian fray. Augustine had some ideas, among the most notable being the doctrine of Original Sin. Augustine posited that sex and sexuality is intimately tied to the curse of sin, passed through mankind. This is why Adam and Eve were ashamed to be naked; this is why an erection, basically a prerequisite to procreation, is involuntary; and this is why all humanity is cursed for the sins of the first humans. Sex is inherently bad, in a way, according to Augustine. The reason Augustine’s thoughts are important is because he was an extremely important figure in the development of Catholic doctrine, and even if many tenants of his thought are disagreed with today, the consequences of his thought - for example, that sex is something which should not be talked about lightly - remain in conservative doctrine.

These three points - gender and tradition, gender and the Bible, and sexuality - are important to this topic, because modern gender theory throws it all into chaos. It challenges notions of innate differences and the connection of genitalia to psychology. When so much revolves around sexual biology, what happens when that is disturbed? What about when the existence of intersex people becomes a key point? It requires rethinking longstanding views, and to institutions based in preserving the heavenly truth once and for all delivered to mankind, that’s scary.

I understand the challenges it presents to conservative and moderate Christianity, and how it’s unnerving. Despite this, I still have huge criticisms with how it’s been handled. Even discarding the very obvious criticism of “they disagree with me”, the topic has been handled atrociously by major powers in Christianity, such as the Southern Baptist Convention and the Catholic Church.

Appearances and reports suggest the Catholic Church has butchered transgender issues badly alongside LGBT issues in general. Right before the Catholic Church held the Synod on the Family in 2015, a priest by the name of Kryzysztof Charasma came out as gay and in a relationship with another man. This priest, who had formerly been a part of a major doctrinal organization within the Church and had written much on theology, was rapidly fired and defrocked (removed as a priest). He later was interviewed and had many interesting things to say about the inner workings on the Church.

“The reaction to gender really began after the UN conferences, after Cairo and Bejing. The Vatican responded to those conferences with panic and disorder...

“In this situation, you cannot reflect about reality, about this thing you refuse. Therefore, the reaction to gender studies is to reject... When Darwin wrote his book, the reaction of the Catholic Church and of Christianity as a whole was to reject it. The only strategy was prohibition – not objective study, reflection, or dialogue – of human thought, which the Church perceives as not coherent with the doctrines of the faith. The same thing is now happening with gender studies.”

There is much more like this in the interview. This confirms what I had suspected beforehand about Catholicism: it is either unable to handle new challenges to gender and sexuality, or refuses to. With all due respect to the beautiful and fascinating theology of Catholicism and the intelligence of the people who study it, it seems clear to me that in this field it has grown outdated and is now entering a state of petrification. It doesn’t even need to necessarily shift completely towards the more modern perspective to avoid this; it just has to actually engage with modern gender philosophy in an intellectually honest way. As of right now, this is not what the Catholic Church is doing.

While Catholicism is the larger and more influential group, the Southern Baptist Convention’s rhetoric is worse. While acknowledging the existence of gender variance and the scientific research on the subject, they pose opposition with essentially no real solutions. While Catholicism may be inherently neutral in basically refusing to engage, the discussion surrounding the resolution to condemn transgender identity involves complete anti-intellectualism, suggesting no longer classifying being transgender as a mental illness was political and not scientific. Other lovely descriptors involve “revolt”, “confusion”, and “rebellion”; as well as suggesting being transgender involves a lack of humility. It’s not just a refusal to engage - it’s harmful, anti-intellectual rhetoric that is explicitly aimed at the political scene. While it’s been a while since that resolution was passed, if the ERLC twitter is anything to go by, the SBC hasn’t gotten much better.

Many of my criticisms could be fixed through honest, open dialogue. Intellectual isolation does not lead to finding the truth, but to other-ing people, relegating them to the threat and not to someone trying just as hard to get through life as you are. In this exchange of ideas, people are humanized, and bad ideas are shown for what they truly are. Earlier it was mentioned how the Catholic Church uses intellectual isolation to handle trans issues. It’s been noted more than once that the SBC has a similar issue, although intentionality is more unclear. Simply put, they appeal only to their own “experts”, and anyone with an outside perspective is not included. This is always bound to lead to intellectual stagnation, and it has.

I believe there are Biblical ways to reconcile the concept of transgender people with the Bible without even touching topics like Biblical infallibility. The Bible does acknowledge, if passively, the existence of intersex people within the category of “eunuchs”, and in one case explicitly lays out that they have exception from normal rules. Given that modern scientific research suggests that trans people’s brains are literally the opposite gender, should it be true, it’s not a stretch to posit that they are the exception to the rule. I don’t believe that the idea that God forms everyone in the womb is particularly Biblically founded, given the only two relevant verses I know of are poetic. There is the traducian view of reproduction as well, which suggests that souls are created along with bodies in procreation, autonomously. There is more to my views which I may cover in a later post, but not here; the point is that there is a legitimate case to be made for conservative and moderate Christians that being trans is Biblically acceptable.

This debate is complex and has far-reaching implications. Beyond even the very significant effect it has on trans people, it touches foundational principles of what is arguably the most important religion in today’s world. The debate deserves respect and understanding from all involved, and while a solution likely won’t be found soon, it is imperative that Christians, politicians, and LGBT people collaborate to ease tensions and understand each other. There is more to it than hatred or rebellion; it is something which touches the deepest parts of people.

#politics #lgbt #religion #original #transgender #trans #christianity #catholicism #catholic church #sbc #southern baptist convention #anglican communion #anglicanism #christians #christian #lgbtq

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fenrislorsrai · 7 years

Text

Side-eyeing the Black Furies

I recently reread the Black Furies revised tribe book because as I’ve gotten older, I’ve liked the Furies less and less. I thought maybe tribe book would help. It didn’t.

It tried to get away from the main stereotype of “but we’re not like other Girls!” but unfortunately it introduced a different issue and reinforced the ongoing issue of “we’re a matriarchy- it values exactly what patriarchy does, but with girls on top!” But not those other girls. Only the cool girls who are not like other girls.

hrrrgh.

Beyond that, the one consistent thing you’d had in all editions is that the Furies are champions of the Wyld. Nobody understands the Wyld like the Furies, not even the Red Talons.

But the Revised tribe book you’ve got some very, very Weavery shit going down. One of the issues has been there in every edition, two are brand new problems with Revised. W20 sort of backs off this due to space issues, but you can basically still go with “expanded information in Revised tribe books is still relevant to W20″. (the By Night LARP rules are really, really dif, so I’m not talking bout them here)

I’m gonna slap rest behind a cut, but here’s the three issues here so you know what the hell I’m gonna yell bout behind the cut.

Vengeance/justice

age roles

gender

and at the end of this big rant I’ll address those three issues and the general “matriarchy is patriarchy with the serial numbers filed off” and what WOULD work as a coherent whole for Furies.

Issue one, vengeance/justice. Revised try to refocus on the Black Furies as the actual FURIES. This is their thing. They are the ones that seek vengeance for transgressions against universal moral laws. Murderers, rapists, oath breakers, etc.

Which is fine... but rest of book harps on their agents of the Wyld. Vengeance or Justice is anything but random, chaotic, or creating something new. And you’re enforcing moral laws applicable to humans so they’re not truly universal. They’re quite artificial. So they’re agents enforcing artificial law. Often by ending the life of something and returning it to the cycle.

That’s either Weaver or Balance Wyrm territory, possibly both. It’s most definitely NOT of the Wyld. While meanwhile going “nobody loves and supports the Wyld like us! You are all tools of the Weaver”

K. pretty standard “do as I say, not as I do” for Garou, but still poorly integrated here.

Issue two, age roles.

I don’t hate this idea, but I hate the implementation here for much the same reason. The book itself doesn’t entirely agree on implementation, so I’m going to comment on the most extreme version.

So the cycle of age roles is Maiden/Mother/Crone. That sort of triple deity set up works well in the Werewolf cosmology and particularly well with the Black Furies as the Greeks had a whole lot of these and majority were female triads.

The execution of this idea though... hrrrrrrgh.

Its tied explicitly to their reproductive status. Which ties back into the issue of “its patriarchy with the serial numbers filed off” Defining them by reproductive status is exactly what they’re bitching about with other tribes. But we’re not like those other tribes! We value women... based on their reproductive status!

They get into how much they revere motherhood but then actively either kill male infants (historically) or give them away (modern era). So you give your male Garou cubs away, to be raised by the patriarchy you hate so they’ll grow up to actively participate in it? I know Garou are good at creating their own problems, but REALLY. (I will bitch about this more later)

Anyway, so the most extreme version they present in book is tied entirely to change in reproductive status. You’re a Maiden until you get pregnant. Once pregnant you’re a Mother... even if you miscarry or must immediately give away that child at birth. A mother with nothing to mother. You’re a Crone as soon as you lose the ability to give birth. Female Metis automatically are Crones.

So three big issues here. One, ideally the age roles are progressed through voluntarily. But they CAN be forced through them. Which rather goes against the whole actual age role thing. They’re lacking all the other markers appropriate to that role. Your Metis starts as a Crone once they go through First Change. A Homid that was wounded badly during Rite of Passage and is now infertile is also a Crone. These are teenagers possibly even TWEENS. Stupid, rage fueled teenagers. Other than inability to have biological children, they really have nothing in common with that role in other ways.

Two, you’re mechanically presented with a Rite specifically to restore fertility to those that lost it. So you can mechanically turn back time and go back to a previous age role. What. Again, while that may work when its based entirely upon reproductive status, it doesn’t work with all the rest of the spiritual setup.

Three, it dances around the “well if you choose not to breed, that’s okay too” but its clearly NOT as this is included as part of the reason you can’t have male Black Furies. They can’t bear a child, so can’t really understand. Which then circles you back to a female Black Fury who doesn’t breed can’t truly be part of the tribe either. They sort of touch on this as why they occasinally give away female metis too.

Related to this is a peculiar omission. There’s a Rite to let an adult female Garou join the Black Furies as a tribe. There is NO Rite to formally adopt children. With that Mother role, you’d think that would in there, especially since you have a pretty high mortality rate among Garou. There’s going to be quite a lot of orphans and yet, despite that... adoption is never mentioned. Biological offspring, or nothing!

Issue three, gender. Let’s be clear here there’s a difference between biological sex and gender. Both are treated poorly in tabletop. the new BNS LARP rules sort of address this for balance issues, but not the core issue I have here.

First, you have the age roles and assigning them based entirely on reproductive ability or loss thereof. This very clearly sets up that biological sex as they key factor here. Trans women are therefor not women and can’t have age roles and can’t be Black Furies. I'm going to give this benefit of the doubt that this is more a function of the age of the book and just overlooking it vs actively excluding trans and intersex individuals as the BNS LARP rules kinda sorta address this, but the tabletop still has the biological sex setup.

Two, almost all the material conflates biological sex with gender as if they’re the same thing. Gender is constructed, and gender roles are really what the Furies are really pissed off about.

Yet... exclude male Lupus. Your newly changed male Lupus is more or less a blank slate as to gender roles. What are those? and is more or less going to conform to whatever is presented as normal to them. So instead they give away their male lupus to other tribes to join those tribes and be raised with the gender roles that actively hurt them and the Furies as a whole. Why don’t you just hand them to BSDs while you’re at it? okay, that’s a bit extreme, but you’re effectively empowering the system you’re opposing!

But we’ll keep male metis because something-something mumble its kind of poorly articulated in canon. This sort of ties into the whole justice/vengeance up top, but its kind of poorly presented. They do mention they don’t always keep female metis! It really comes down to punishing the mother for sexual transgressions. But we’re not like those other tribes!

Male Homids, get out of here... but we’ll keep male human Kinfolk. Your Lupus might not get the gender distinction and may be fine with it (wolves tend to disperse from their birth pack, so may seem natural to them). But your Homid you give up to another tribe. It’s likely that they WILL know they’re adopted. and with Rage fueled critters, that they were given up because of their sex is likely going to grind at them. Not every one, but enough that you’ve likely created some really resentful young Garou who may be ACTIVE foes of the Furies. This is definitely in “creating your own problems” territory.

And again, it comes back to reinforcing the whole biologic sex is destiny. Male Garou that could reproduce are given up because they can’t become pregnant and therefore can’t understand. They are worthless without a womb. which is basically part of what they’re bitching about with patriarchy that women are valued only for their ability to bear children... WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THE FURIES ALSO VALUE.

You’re back to its Patriarchy but with girls on top. It’s exactly the same values but with women on top and absolutely no room for deviation from Biology is Destiny.

And this doesn’t even get into issues with trans or intersex individuals.

alright, enough bitching, what do you DO to overhaul this whole mess.

I think you’re still going to have an endless round of “but we’re not like other Garou!” because pretty well EVERY TRIBE says this. That’s how you get a tribe. But you can have one that’s more internal consistent.

One big change you can make that will tie all the rest of this together is head slappingly simple. Black Furies are not just matriarchal they’re matrilineal. Descent is determined through your mother’s line.

They’re not explicitly so in canon. Think about that for a minute. That’s really something that should be specifically called out and emphasized. Descent and lineage is determined through your maternal line. Your paternity is irrelevant.

They sort of dance around it in canon but its not addressed with Kinfolk and that really should be explicitly stated. It’s a really significant thing that makes total sense for them and also marks them as clearly different than the other Garou tribes. And would be a source of conflict with other tribes who default to patrilineal as part of patriarchal system.

I’m also going to point out the spellcheck in this browser refuses to recognize matrilineal as a word. That’s WHY is needs to be called out explicitly, not hinted at. Most readers are going to miss hints because they were raised in a patriarchal society. The default is that you don’t need to distinguish between types of descent so it doesn’t recognize either matrilineal or patrilineal as words.

alright, now to the specific three issues I had.

one, vengeance/justice. This is mostly a shift in framing. You’re NOT an agent of the Wyld here, you are part of the greater cycle. Yes, this may mean you are at times acting as an agent of the Weaver and/or the Wyrm, but that is how it should be. The Wyld cannot be protected by the other parts of the cycle being ignored or neglected.

So you’re bringing justice because otherwise because of the Wyrm’s corruption, the cycle fails to complete correctly. We’re enforcing these particular artificial laws because to do so prevents the cycle stalling out.

But while you’re doing that, the artificialness of some of those laws need to be acknowledged at same time. The point is in keeping the cycle turning, not necessarily in enforcing laws just for reasons of enforcing them. You fight the Weaver and the Wyrm when they stall out the cycle though things cannot return to the Wyld, not because of inherent wrongness of the other two portions of the Triat.

Part two, age roles. The tribe book offered some slightly less harsh options for transitions, but you still had them tied explicitly to reproductive status.

Toss that. Age roles are now based more on matching the other attributes of the role. Frequently reproduction IS the trigger for transition, but not always. And we’re going to tie that to the renown attributes and the three categories. So some auspices tend to stay in certain roles for longer or shorter periods.

Maiden is the time for Glory, Rage, and the Wyld. It is the time for the self. One’s own actions are the most important contribution. Rage drives your action as the purity and surety of your conviction is clearly demonstrated in a growing mastery of your own powers and the world around you. It is time to try new things and just as quickly discard them. This is where all Furies start out. Ahroun’s and Galliards tend to spend longer as Maidens than other auspices.

Mother is the time for Honor, Willpower, and the Weaver. It is the time to realize that sometimes other needs take priority over your own. Your actions still matter, but often your role is to do for others what they can’t do themselves or can’t do YET. Many times your role is getting them to the point where they CAN do for themselves, while not losing your temper. This is the time to start planning for long term. To find something and stick with it with dedication. Furies transition to this role when they’ve spent a full lunar year as a caretaker for something or someone. This is most often a biological child, but having a child doesn’t automatically mean they’re actually ready for this role. The trigger can also be caring for an adopted child, tutoring a convert from another tribe, taking on an important caern position, or fulfilling a specific quest. Whatever it is that they invest their time and dedication to bringing to fruition. Philodox tend to move quickly to this role and stay there longer.

Crone is the is the time for Wisdom, Gnosis, and the Balance Wyrm. It is the time for seeing the coming end and being ready to move on while also making sure the cycle continues. The Crone is less concerned with individual actions and more with the cycle as a whole. She often can hurt other’s feelings with her bluntness (she ain’t got time for this shit) but also can be the most understanding because she realizes the value of a kind word now in averting future trouble. Menopause is a frequent trigger for this, but anything that truly forces the Garou to confront the fact that they likely won’t see next generation grow up could be a trigger. A crippling battlescar, the death of a packmate,the death of their child, the loss of a caern, etc. Something triggers that their life will never be the same as it was before whatever triggered the introspection.

point three, gender. Let’s go with the Furies should NOT be giant dickheads that insist sex and gender are exactly the same and very firmly divided. That they are genuinely mad about artificial human GENDER roles and not about some kind of biological essentialism.

Which then leads you back to the big issue with NOT having male Furies if their anger is directed at patriarchy, not some inevitable biological destiny. But lets jump back to that one big change mentioned at the beginning: make the Furies matrilineal.

In this case, the important thing is descent from a Black Fury on your mother’s side. That includes through Kinfolk. So male Black Furies, unless they mated with Fury Kinfolk, their kids aren’t considered Furies. They belong to tribe of their mother. This does set them up for conflict with other tribes with some disputed cubs, but that will still fit in with original background of giving away cubs. The cub belongs to the mother’s tribe, even if she’s Kinfolk because we’re matrilineal and we think it works that way. Female cubs (or Kinfolk) where father is not a Fury are just more likely to claimed by the tribe. Males might be adopted back, but its less likely (afterall,patriarchy does benefit them!) so are almost all go to the father’s tribe. This gives the impression to other tribes that they give up male cubs.

This also gives you a much firmer reason to keep metis born to Furies. Their father has no claim on them. Of course they’re Furies. Same with Lupus. and same with Homid. matrilineal descent is really easy to track in almost all cases so its really hard to have lost cubs.

OMG but, men, in the Furies!?! remember if their beef is with gender roles, they should not be excluding biological men based on other people’s gender roles. Lupus are a blank slate, metis are raised as Garou, and your Homids should have been raised by Kinfolk or Furies that could have instilled totally different gender roles. That “biology is destiny” stance is very, very Weavery so if you’re going with the tribe of the Wyld... that shit needs to go.

So what do you do for men since they’re outside the maiden/mother/crone cycle? Since you now decoupled it from biological sex, no reason you can’t have them progress through same age roles with slightly different names.

and that also fixes some of your issues with transgender, genderfluid, and intersex kids and how they’re treated by tribe. Mostly like any other tribe member

Since you also have the Bacchantes camp, you can also give them special tie to the Dionysian mysteries as the “role” that males play in tribe. Have them specifically be involved heavily in reclaiming Fury cubs where there’s a dispute in that matrileneal vs patrileneal system. The other tribe will respect the males claims more and the male Fury is in a good position to tutor new cub discovering their mother’s tribe (or converts from other tribes) and bust up their thinking that the Furies are just like the other tribes, but with Grrrl Power.

Anyway, that’s MY take on it. If you like them as written, you can still enjoy them exactly as written! it’s your game!

#werewolf the apocalypse #world of darkness

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