When I yapped in the thread I posted about Whipping Girl, I was pretty hostile to the use of the terms TMA and TME. Seeing people use them essentially as slurs on tumblr will do that to you, (fell for it again) but that doesn't make the terms bad, obviously. The AcidSmiley post was a good read on that subject. But I've carried a skepticism with me regarding both the idea of trans men taking over spaces/pushing transfems out of spaces, and the concept that anyone could hold a "non-binary supremacy" sort of viewpoint. Mostly this was because I was introduced to these concepts, respectively, through a novel and Whipping Girl. But if you've been on tumblr, you've also seen the shit that anyone transfem gets on that site daily. Maybe even experienced it.
I was told that some of what's written in Whipping Girl might have been more relevant two decades ago, and the above plus reading some stuff from the 90s as well has led me to writing this. There wasn't any good reason for me to be skeptical of people's experiences in queer communities, that thread or anywhere else. Wasn't following "No investigation, no right to speak" and alienated others over it. I don't like that I did that.
Also I took the nothorses tumblr post at face value, which was a colossal L. Imagine talking shit about psyops on tumblr and then taking a tumblr post at face value? You can only grow by admitting to your faults.
As one of the people you alienated, you are forgiven. I've done the doubting others experiences shit before as well, it can get too easy to feel as though one has to dig one's heels into one's chosen ground.
I myself at that time was already decently too dug into my broader position/feelings on that subject. I am significantly more chilled out about masculinity now, as an example.
And do remember, it wasn't just you doing the alienation. Speaking from my personal perspective there were several users at that time who contributed as well, and I ended up writing off the trans community on this site as a whole as 'Not a space that would accept me'.
It's funny, honestly. I've actually only gotten more non-binary since then in an objective sense even if I very much shy away from calling myself that for a lot of reasons. Sometimes I'm not sure if that thread helped with that change or hurt it - same thing with the chilling out on masculinity.
What that does make it for sure is narratively significant, so, no regrets or hard feelings on my part, alright? It was a worthwhile conversation, if unpleasant at the time.
Welcome back.
Hi, thank you for saying and I'm glad to hear. I guess I didn't feel like the thread was a net-positive contribution to the site, but I'm glad it was worthwhile.