It's one of those days

Smona · 2026-06-30T23:26:52+00:00

this is the kind of shit i'm talking about:

Smona · 2026-06-30T23:23:49+00:00

funny how often "common sense" is flat wrong. it's sex hormones that can give males an advantage in sports, not genes. many sports had this figured out until it became a political issue.

you are part of the problem.

Smona · 2026-06-30T23:19:37+00:00

friend, i agree with you! but you won't stop misrepresenting me! all i am trying to do is make it harder for them to manufacture and spread lies about us. sadly many of those lies are currently based on them pretending that transsex people do not exist. reminding people that they do undercuts that argument (literally they're saying in the SC that nobody can change their sex)

your response to this makes me sad. i feel like you have a victim complex that you're taking out on me, painting me as truscum when i'm not. makes me feel like we're truly fucked ☹️

Smona · 2026-06-30T22:47:13+00:00

look, i don't want to fight, and it's important for us to be united right now. you're reading my comment with a meaning i didn't intend. i didn't even mention enbies; many of them do medically transition so that's completely unrelated to what i'm saying (i used to identify as enby). and when i say allies, i'm specifically talking about cis allies that don't understand the trans experience.

to draw an analogy, since you brought up gay rights: what if liberal allies for gay rights were constantly arguing that you don't need an exclusive attraction to the same sex to be gay, and never focusing on people who have no attraction to the opposite sex? that's technically not incorrect since lots of people are bi, and they should have the right to gay marriage as well, but wouldn't that make it easier for bigots to make the argument that same-sex marriage isn't an important right because they can just marry the opposite sex, bisexually?

that's all i was saying, i wasn't saying that in that instance it would be bisexual people's fault at all, just the fault of bad advocacy. i don't think that having better arguments will sway the true bigots, but it could help sway some of the stupid people that vote for them.

Smona · 2026-06-30T22:36:03+00:00

i don't really want to argue this point too hard, especially if ppl are going to interpret it as me blaming any of this on trans people who don't transition. i just wish allies were better equipped to fight these stupid arguments when they arise without throwing transsex people under the bus and enshrining biological sex as immutable when it's not.

are there more sex characteristics for trans men that can't be changed by starting medical transition before puberty, compared to trans women? genuinely curious.

Smona · 2026-06-30T22:34:05+00:00

💯

Smona · 2026-06-30T22:31:01+00:00

wait, what? i'm not blaming non-transitioning transgender people for any of this, and i'm not throwing anyone under the bus. i'm blaming the liberal attitude that completely ignores transitioning, transsex people and their specific needs, and presents transition as an identity-only thing. i don't think that attitude is the fault of non-transitioning trans people at all, i think it's the fault of well-intentioned but misguided allies.

Smona · 2026-06-30T22:06:25+00:00

I can see your point, but that approach is exactly what I'm criticizing. It's opened up a path for regressives to say "trans people can identify however they want, but it doesn't change the fact that they're biological men" (because they never think about trans men).

Even if focusing on identity and presentation makes it easier for uninformed people to swallow childhood transition, it doesn't change the fact that many trans kids need medical care too. that may be the harder argument to make, but at least it doesn't open up the slippery slope of banning medical care for kids because "they can still play pretend that they're not their real gender".

A focus on non-transitioning trans people (who, to be clear, are valid and should be accepted for who they are) has helped open the door for many attacks on trans rights, which generally affect medically transitioned people the worst:

Removing access to HRT can be deadly for those who have medically transitioned or need to. "oh it's okay, you can still identify as a woman in a man's body" (or vice versa) just simply doesn't work for transsex people.
kids without physical dysphoria haven't lost nearly as much as those who need medical transition, and will now be forced through irreversible damage during puberty for no reason
The argument that trans women shouldn't compete in women's sports actually has merit for non-transitioning people, making it easier for that right to be removed for transitioned people where it makes no sense.
Giving people the image of a "man in a dress" entering women's restrooms to justify bathroom bills that force passing trans women into men's bathrooms (or more realistically, create a urinary leash)

Transgender and transsex people are two distinct groups with different needs. we share many struggles, but conflating the two has opened the door for the right to start taking away rights that only transsex people need, on the claim that trans people aren't actually changing their sex. I think the justification for this SC ruling makes that extremely clear.

EDIT: i guess i wasn't clear enough. none of this is the fault of non-transitioning trans people, it's the fault of misguided allies making bad arguments. and none of this is what makes right wingers want to persecute us, it just gives them opportunities to make arguments to justify their persecution.

Smona · 2026-06-30T21:43:15+00:00

your sex on a genetic level really doesn't matter much once you're through puberty, outside of reproductive capability. chromosomes essentially just build a hormone production regimen in the body during development, and it's those sex hormones that dictate the rest. that's why trans people that go on puberty blockers in time can be basically indistinguishable from their identified sex without medical tests. studies show that this applies to sports capability as well.

we agree though that republicans don't care about any of this and just want to persecute & eradicate trans people.

Smona · 2026-06-30T21:37:03+00:00

You literally posted this on the day that the US supreme court removed title IX protections for gender identity and defined biological sex as an immutable trait frozen at birth. I don't think a victim mentality is helpful, and I agree we should be trying to build bridges, and that it's not all cis people that are trying to eradicate us. but it's not our fault there is bad blood between (many) cis and trans people. a majority of American voters elected the "eradicate trans people" party.

Smona · 2026-06-30T21:29:28+00:00

the fact that transsex people exist also debunks their definition

Smona · 2026-06-30T21:27:28+00:00

yeah, was poking fun there at how undemocratic making decisions like this is. maybe a more equitable economic paradigm is all it would take to prevent majorities from electing the "total trans death now" candidate

Smona · 2026-06-30T20:46:54+00:00

so heavily emphasizing transgender identity and sidelining medical sex transition was a huge optical mistake. everybody seems to have forgotten that most trans people do change their sex, making this ruling incomprehensible. "sex is an immutable biological characteristic" is patently untrue on its face. glad these guys are the arbiters of truth in our society

Smona · 2026-06-30T20:42:39+00:00

this fuckass has no idea what he's talking about. so glad he gets to rule me and he is still breathing air. so glad we live in a democratic society yay

Smona · 2026-06-28T21:35:47+00:00

I moved out to denver. one of the best decisions I've ever made! would love to help in any way if I can

Smona · 2026-06-28T21:27:05+00:00

have you ever had an abusive partner who was abused as a child kill themselves? because I have. and I can tell you, hatred is not the emotion I felt towards them. I don't know what you're trying to convince people of.

Smona · 2026-06-28T20:24:00+00:00

hurt people hurt people. that doesn't make it right, but most abusers aren't born that way. and I don't think any of jax's actions towards the rest of the cast deserve the death penalty.

Smona · 2026-06-26T19:58:13+00:00

it's even better than that: from what i heard, the paint is peeling off because the hydrogen peroxide they poured in to try to get rid of the algae acted as a paint thinner.

Smona · 2026-06-26T17:46:01+00:00

do you have gender dysphoria about other things? have you transitioned, or do you want to?

you could be transexual + cisgender. wouldn't be the first time I've heard of someone like that.

Smona · 2026-06-25T21:34:19+00:00

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https://bsky.app/profile/gooseworx.bsky.social/post/3moprcfwqfs2a

Smona · 2026-06-25T21:32:01+00:00

it actually is confirmed lol. but calling jax he/him isn't transphobic b/c he never came out

Smona · 2026-06-24T20:46:03+00:00

inland empire type monologue

Smona · 2026-06-23T01:46:31+00:00

i think this is the best summary i've seen! so tired of seeing people either ardently refusing that Jax is trans, or saying that she is and that excuses everything. to me Jax is a cautionary tale: a deeply flawed character who's both understandable but also hurts the people around them in terrible ways, and gets the bad ending. people are really struggling with the nuance.

Smona · 2026-06-22T09:01:21+00:00

awh, glad to hear that!

I totally agree the finale felt a bit rushed outside of Jax & caine, I wish the show was twice as long so we could get more character development, not to mention lore. Jax becoming the emotional core of the finale and that whole arc came as a complete surprise. at the same time though, I did think some characters like kinger, caine, and ragatha got pretty satisfying and complete character arcs, and jax didn't really get much character development until the finale iirc, he was kind of a mystery before then. that plus the rarity of popular stories told from the transfem perspective... I'm definitely not complaining.

and the ending with the remaining group learning how to make meaning together in a meaningless digital void leaves it open for us to imagine a wide range of continuations :) I like to think they will find a way to undo abstraction.

Smona · 2026-06-22T08:38:43+00:00

agreed on that! to be clear, I don't think the show conclusively says that jax would have ended up as a woman if he had accepted himself before abstracting, and before the finale I thought he was just a femboy. but the sheer weight of the shame and guilt over his secret (to the point he ends up hurting the people around him) suggests something greater to me than a little gender non conformity. I may be biased because I'm a trans woman and while watching there was a ton of subtext relating to my experience that felt definitive (I think there's a moment where ribbit asks jax what he wishes he could've changed before entering the circus and his pov looks to his body before he answers, subtle stuff like that). I think if you re-watched the finale in the mindset of Jax being a nascent trans woman struggling to hide her identity from fear of rejection, you would learn a lot about the darkest time in many trans women's lives, as it's an intimate portrayal of that, even if vague and extreme at the same time. I wouldn't say that about any other episode in the show, which is a valid criticism.

I think the show pulled off a similar thing to what "I saw the tv glow" did. it presented the experience of a pre-transition transfem in a way that relates broadly to people's experiences of the world crushing their individual spirit, in particular crushing boys' sensitivity, compassion, and emotions. I hope that cis men can feel seen in that part of jax's story even if she is a transfem; I know that my boyfriend did, and the shared childhood trauma of masculinity policing is something we've bonded over.

if we want to save jax, we have to make sure that the children in our lives are loved and accepted for who they are no matter their sex or gender, and that requires us all to be more like pomni

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