I run into a lot of peope on twitter who spout harmful anti trans rethoric. Some of them seek me out cos I use the term pregnant people when discussing reproductive rights.
I rarely see it here on fb, Esp on friends time lines thankfully, how ever I am still going to make a statement.
Gender is between a person’s ears.
Transmen are men.
Transwomen are women.
Genderfuild people are either, & I respect them by being mindful of them, thier presentation on any given day, and which ever name/pronoun combination they need me to use.
Non gender binary people are those who are somewhere on the gender spectrum, I respect them by not expecting them to conform in any way to my ideas of gender presentation & using thier correct pronouns and names.
Agender people do not relate to being anywhere on the gender spectrum, I respect them by using the names and pronouns they need me to and by trying to not make gendered statements or assumptions about them.
Acknowledgement and acceptance are part of respect.
Gender is a spectrum, all people deserve respect.
Respect also means not outing a person to other people and being mindful when in public what I say. My words no matter how respectful may, in public but a person in danger or be used by strangers as an excuse to abuse or ridicule.
Yes this is far from the idea of people I grew up with, but life and people are always more wonderful than how it was dumbed down, to create sexist stereotypes.
I am always glad for the world stories and fantastic fiction I read as a teen which made me ponder beyond the gender binary.
I have zero time for not respecting people’s gender.
These are pretty important imho and should be played forward in all subcultures. I first read this when it was published 14 years ago, more people need to know about the Geek Social Fallacies. Examining our own behaviours and social circles for GSF is important the whole article is a damn good read
GSF can allow for shitty behaviour to become accepted & normalized be by a person or a whole group of people.
Subcultures are for all people who are passionate about the things they do/read/watch/create.
I do want Irish Fandom/Geek/Maker/Activist spaces to be generally inclusive but intolerant to shitty behaviour, esp repeat shitty behaviour. Tolerating shitty behaviour in Fandom/Geek/Maker/Activist spaces is the broken windows of those spaces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory
Geek social fallacies make dealing with such behaviour difficult & allows for too many ‘missing stairs’ to develop
‘missing step’ is the shitty behaviour of a person which has become normalized, people adapt to them, being them, take safety measured but Sooner or later a new person will encounter this & suffer, cos we let it become normalised, & they don’t know the risk or history.
Honestly if I had my way I would have the Geek social Fallacies on the Jr Cert Social Personal and Health Education Curriculum SPHE.
I’ve not been writing that much of late, life had been a bit bumpy and the mood a bit dark. So I am going to treat myself to a 2016 round up post to remind myself of the nicer things which happened this year.
This year I tried to do one thing which was new or scary to me each month, most months I managed more then 1 thing.
In February I took part in two photo shoots, one for the X ile Project and the other for Trinkets Jewelry. I was also being ahem present at the GE2016 TV debates
July I was at #Longitude and worked 3 days at the Abortion Rights Campgain stall, running the twitter and instagram account, talking to the oh so many wonderful people who came over to get leaflet, sign petitions and by badges and t shirts.
August I was a speaker at the Galway Pride Festival about the intersection between lgbtqi rights and reproductive rights. I was also on TV3 as a spokesperson for the Abortion Rights Campagin as part of a debate on National TV as well as being on Dublin City FM for the Nerdy wordy girlie section of the Kitchen Table show.
September was very, very busy. I was delivering training in Cork, working on the March for Choice,
from the press conf to doing media spokes person stuff, which involved going out to RTÉ today’s in a row to be interviews by the BBC, BBC Gobal and BBC 2. Doing interviews with media outlets. Then helping with coverage of the March on the day, and taking part in the Speak Out.
October was OCTOCON! I was pro and Vice Chair! I got to be on some amazing panels, take part in some excellent discussion and help make the national SFF convention happen! We got some lovely coverage on Newstalk, Irish Examiner and Dubiln City FM. I am really looking for today next year as I am to the Convention director and two of my Fav writers are coming over as Guests of Honour!
November was thankfully a bit quieter after October and September. I was an invited speaker out at UCD Labour to talk about repeal the 8th as an ARC spokes person and to GIGSOC in GNUI to talk about reproductive rights. I also did one of the hardest, most panic inducing things of the year, applying for a passport. It was a mess of red tape, involving 4 different governmental departments.
For in December having a passport meant I left Ireland for the 1st time in 18 years, boarded a plane and headed off to the UK, where in Wembley I got to see The Cure play, twice.
2016 has been an eventful year (what I have listed is barely the tip of the iceberg), the last 1/3 of it have been a struggle at time, but looking back has helped. Still can’t believe the BBC 100 women thing! We got through this year, here’s to getting through the next one.
Today is #Humanrightsday lgbtqi rights, reproductive rights, womens’ rights, migrant rights, sex workers rights, disability rights, children’s rights are all part of Human Rights.
Unfortunately we are denied them on grounds of being ‘other’ and we do need to call out that ‘othering’ which means using labels to identify the struggles and attitudes which prevent us from having and exercising our human rights.
While cultural/societal attitudes and systemic oppression via legal systems, government systems and other institutions refuse us our Human Rights we have to keep identifying the issue and that means using the labels we have, because they don’t see us as being full Human if they are denying our Human Rights.
The diversity in SFF (Science Fiction & Fantasy), what ever the medium comics, film, Tv, books and video games is why I am a fan. I have had people wonder how my feminism, parses with my interest in SSF, what I have read, watched, played and loved as frankly fed my feminism.
Helped me dream of the world being a better place and of people dealing with each other with compassion. Helped me figure out what I would do in horrid situations, let me explore possibilities.
SFF has never been prefect, it won’t ever be, it is created by flawed humans, but it has never been the preserve of cis white hetro men not from the very beginning.
Yes as it has become mainstream and those looking to target the biggest section of the market for profit have started to present it as being of and for cis white hetro men, but that is spin.
SSF has always been diverse, women and girls have always created, organised, wrote, drawn, been the back bone of fandoms.
Yes Fandom and conventions are not perfect either, but they are a hell of a lot better then they were 20 years ago in my experience.
Which is why I am proud of the conventions I have been involved with, Shamrokon and Octocon and the work done to try and reflect that diversity and the joy SSF brings.
Hope to see many of you this weekend in the Camden Court Hotel for Octocon.
