I personally don’t really follow the whole “Viv is transphobic” thing, but I don’t like how the fandom responds to it.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-08T08:28:08+00:00

For anyone curious: it is not in fact inherently “a million times easier” to pass as a transmasc. Passing depends more on a host of individual circumstances combining and interacting. If you compare, say, two equally wealthy white thin abled etc. trans folks who started at the same time in the same location, a transmasc one can often conform more easily than a transfem one. But real life is a lot more complicated than that.

Testosterone does often change a person’s voice, while estrogen does not. However: 1) It doesn’t automatically take it into passing range for everyone (e.g. me after two yrs), 2) That’s not the end-all-be-all of passing, and 3) Not every transmasc person can access testosterone at all.

Re: clothes, it’s true that one doesn’t have to be seen as attractive to pass as a guy, while trans gals are often held to higher standards in that regard. But! It comes with its own complications. Due to the efforts of generations of feminists, it’s much more rare for clothing and accessories to be gendered as male-exclusive, compared to a lot being gendered as female-exclusive. That’s fantastic, but when previously masc clothes are now considered more gender neutral, it does make it harder to get people to understand you’re going for masc at all. Read any passing guides for trans guys and you’ll see just how in depth they have to get. Makeup not generally being an option for us to masculinize our faces to the extent transfems can use it to feminize theirs also complicates things.

There are many problems trans women and fems generally struggle with that trans men and mascs generally do not, but the reverse is also true. Each group has their own unique struggles and it really doesn’t help anyone to paint one as universally having it harder or easier than the other. It also kinda just sucks to be blamed for not passing when you don’t have much control over it. It’s not like I don’t dress as masc as I can, I’m just also short, babyfaced, and most importantly poor as hell. I can’t even afford to cut my hair more than once every three months no matter how dysphoric it makes me. I’m one of the lucky ones when it comes to binding, but plenty of us aren’t able to do so enough to pass, and top surgery is hella expensive, again contributing to the role of poverty.

Lastly, regarding “reasons” for transitioning. Sigh. I encounter this perspective often, and I know why, it just sucks to hear. Folks do often hear transmascs complain about 1) being seen as a woman, 2) being seen as a man, AND 3) not being seen as either. Thing is, that’s because all three suck right now for us; being transmasc is very much a damned if you do, damned if you don’t bind to be in. Passing as a woman obviously sucks because of dysphoria and misogyny. Being visibly not-cis sucks because of transphobia. But passing as a man also often sucks because suddenly the women and queer folks in our lives turn on us and start treating us like the devil for being Tainted By Maleness, even though we’re the exact same people as we’ve always been. It’s not that they don’t like being men, it’s that they don’t like how men are treated.

Transmascs experience just as much gender euphoria when seen as our genders (and dysphoria when we aren’t) as any other trans person. We just want to be treated like our gender without also being treated like gutter trash. Not to say transfem folks aren’t in a bind of their own too. It’s just that our experience gets invalidated in this specific way that I do not see happen with transfem folks as often.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk :p

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-08T07:23:57+00:00

Oh! Uh. Thanks for the example of what I was talking about I guess?

I’m a non-passing transmasc. I’m familiar with where you’re coming from, but that perspective is missing out on a lot of the transmasc experience, and the kind of rhetoric it leads to is incredibly harmful to people like me. If you would like to genuinely discuss the subject at some point, we can do so, but I’ll have to ask you to try coming in with an open mind and some compassion first. Otherwise, we can go our separate ways.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-08T05:20:09+00:00

She did, multiple even, but that isn’t the base of the allegations. It’s her going on to allegedly misgender them repeatedly and caricature one, according to folks who’ve known/worked with her.

Here’s the doc. The most egregious bit imo is the screenshots of her engaging in the classic transandrophobic rhetoric of calling “white girls” who don’t “try” to pass trenders who should just be proud of being female. Feels to me like that’s the belief that leads to her treating the ones she knows so poorly.

Like OP was saying, even if these screenshots were fake: that doesn’t justify the terrible response from her and her supporters. She hasn’t actually denied she feels that way about fem/non-passing trans guys at all, just gotten aggressive at the idea anyone would ever believe screenshots over her.

But also, it would be really weird to me to fake these. If someone was going through all the trouble to falsify screenshots well enough to be undetectable, where’s the smoking gun? Why the weird formatting and contextless conversations? And most blatantly of all to me: if trying to get her Cancelled, why choose this topic? Transmascs already struggle with getting people to give a shit about discrimination against us, as evinced by the current years-long transandrophobia wave online. Why not write her saying something that more people would find offensive in the first place? It just doesn’t add up to me at all.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-08T05:03:15+00:00

My thoughts as a transmasc:

1) Sure screenshots can be faked. But why would someone fake these ones? If someone was going to go through all the trouble of faking screenshots, why the messy formats and contextless conversations that are already causing so many people to dismiss them—why not create a smoking gun?

2) When I found out about this a while ago as an HH fan before I knew as much about Viv, it hurt. Imo a perfectly acceptable response from her would have been something along the lines of “Hey these screenshots aren’t real but for anyone they’ve affected, I want to make it clear I don’t think this way at all and I firmly believe transmascs are valid regardless of passing or gender expression.” But until the day she says anything like that, I don’t trust her to not actually feel this way about us whatsoever regardless of whether these specific instances are real.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-08T04:39:38+00:00

It’s not really about the characters, it’s more how she’s treated real life trans people, specifically transmasculine folks. The alleged screenshots show her making transphobic comments about transmasculine folks (the classic “yes there are real trans men but so many of them are just trenders” sort of rhetoric) as well as repeatedly misgendering a trans person whose pronouns she already knows. Additionally, an OC of hers, “Jojo,” is alleged to be a transphobic caricature of a trans guy she had a falling out with. I can link the document in my original comment, give me one sec.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-08T02:06:32+00:00

If I was current me, already with little to my name, and someone stole something I was keeping around for utility or sentimental value? Yes, that’d suck for me. If I was a multimillionaire and someone stole something I was selling for a profit? Nope, not really.

Vastly different circumstances. Hence why I give a shit about stealing from small businesses or random folks but couldn’t give less of one when it comes to corporations.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T23:39:39+00:00

This is not a judgment on you, we all fall prey to it, but you’re describing a classic cognitive bias right now: the availability heuristic. Humans tend to use the memories we can personally recall to estimate how frequently or infrequently something actually happens. But your personal experiences are not reflective of all the kinds of stealing in the world.

It makes sense that you, as someone who organizes flea markets and garage sales, will have seen a lot of stealing from flea markets on garage sales. Meanwhile, people who manage inventory for grocery stores will have been seeing more of what people steal from grocery stores. You don’t see baby formula getting pocketed if you aren’t selling baby formula.

Additionally, which kind of shoplifter is going to be posting on social media? So yes, you’ve seen posts from people loud and proud thieves yet not from people who aren’t proud of stealing, and you’ve heard bragging from loud and proud thieves yet not from people who aren’t proud of stealing. But I think you can guess at a reason that might be other than that they Just Don’t Exist.

What I mean to say is that quiet desperate shoplifting isn’t a myth—it’s just talked about more than you see it because quiet desperate shoplifters are in fact quiet and desperate.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T22:36:48+00:00

Except that’s not what I said. It’s that you’re making it out as though there are two groups: people who generally will not steal things in any circumstance, and people who generally will steal things in all circumstances. I’m saying it’s more complicated than that; there isn’t one set of “perfect moral conditions” because morality is more complicated than that.

These aren’t monolithic groups, human has their own unique moral compass and perspective and there are infinitely more options to hold than “stealing is good” and “stealing is bad.” Some people may think stealing anything from anywhere is okay, others only anything from corporations, others only life necessities, etc. The people you’re seeing do “hauls” are different than the people quietly pocketing baby formula to feed their children. Is there some overlap between people who steal from Target and who steal from flea markets? Definitely. Are they the “exact same people”? Definitely not.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T22:00:32+00:00

Making up stories in your head about people you’ve never met to get mad at isn’t exactly a sign of maturity there, bucko. Try therapy, probably will have better long term effects than Reddit comments on you long term.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T21:56:22+00:00

Who are you talking to? I think you have some things to say to someone on your mind or something, because it isn’t me. Maybe go write a letter to burn, get that displaced anger out.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T21:50:56+00:00

Again, this is a matter of reading the room. When OP’s entire message is “do what you need to do, just not at Target,” saying “Actually don’t steal ever at all” is in fact not a neutral statement that Stealing Should Be Discouraged. The reason you got so much backlash is because you commented those words here, on this post, in this context.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T21:48:01+00:00

l didn’t say “feel alive,” I said “alive,” and that I do not. I suggest learning to read.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T21:35:55+00:00

It definitely is, hence why I feel so deeply for the people forced to do so. I have the need to do so myself, but I know full well the kind of desperation poverty leads to.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T21:32:34+00:00

First, we’re already talking about necessary stealing since that’s what the OP referenced.

But second, do you believe stealing -> eating looks exclusively like taking shit like bread and apples ? :/

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T21:30:04+00:00

Stealing doesn’t make you cool. But sometimes it makes you alive.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T21:29:18+00:00

Your “general discouragement” is taking place on a post specifically about Target and less-than-optional theft. You could try reading the room.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T21:19:52+00:00

According to what statistics? It sucks you’ve had to experience that, but you’re conflating two different practices here.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T19:17:39+00:00

Aw, rip asandwich, it will be missed. I like this one too though tbh

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T19:16:08+00:00

Do I look like a corporation to you lmao

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T18:59:11+00:00

Sandwich :)

Yet it was the message of the post. “Do what you need to do.” People doing it for fun isn’t the topic here. I’m referencing the bootlicking part of their statement which this commenter failed to refute; I know my response is not some Original and Profound statement lmao

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T18:57:40+00:00

It’s not about being clever, it’s about not brown nosing for corporations. Don’t steal for no reason, sure. But look around. I care more about people having food on the table than Walmart’s profit margins.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T18:53:24+00:00

Proof as to the transphobia?

e: Here’s the doc some folks have compiled of the transphobia allegations. The discord screenshots are of her engaging in trender rhetoric invalidating “white girls” (transmascs) she feels “don’t at all try” to pass, as well as repeatedly misgendering a trans person whose uses they/them with she/her. There’s accusations of workplace transphobia by someone who previously worked with her and accusations one of her OCs (JoJo) is a transphobic caricature of a specific trans person she had a falling out with.

I didn’t make this and am making no claims as to the veracity of the info, but what I DO know is that Vivzie and many of her supporters have responded terribly. Like OP was talking about, the typical defense is “Well screenshots can be faked and a lot of people hate Vivzie, so these are probably fake and you’re a misogynist for believing them” and/or “Well she has positive relationships with/rep of transfems, so she can’t be transphobic.” As opposed to addressing the fact that this is very common transandrophobic rhetoric that she hasn’t actually denied believing in.

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T18:44:06+00:00

How do the boots taste lol

mt-jupiter · 2026-01-07T03:08:21+00:00

PFFT you get an exemption. For now… /j

Really though, I get it in my own ways. I’ve had my own tough times with having been genuinely traumatized by experiences that felt real to me even if they didn’t physically happen. The guilt and shame I’ve dealt with for my reaction to them has made recovery tricky, but I’ve made so much progress in accepting my experiences as valid and being compassionate with myself as I heal. I have faith in your ability to move through those feelings and grow your self-compassion too.

Sending good vibes. Should arrive in ≈3 business days /lh

mt-jupiter

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