Quoting the rule from the community for reference:
- You must follow the Egg Prime Directive. You may not push or coerce people into identifying or not identifying a certain way. You must respect them as the gender they claim to identify as. In addition it is extremely in poor taste to make assumptions about other people’s identities based on external factors, we understand it cannot be helped but it is best not to as it can affect the way you treat others in noticeable ways.
Honestly, I’ve been anxious about this for a while, not sure if or how to bring this up. I understand the importance of the rule when it involves real people. But I’ve been seeing comics and memes getting criticized of breaking the Directive a couple of times now. But aren’t they just being shared from the creator’s perspective? Making fun of their own experience, such as, looking back, pointing out how obvious things seemed? When you see any other comic making fun of some situation, that doesn’t mean that applies to everyone. That’s not the statement the comic makes. It’s just something that may end up being, or having been, true for some people.
Am I wrong in feeling like the Egg Prime Directive is being invoked too easily when it comes to memes and comics?
edit: I hope this is the right place to make this post. (Also, technically, it’s breaking the title rule? Are meta posts allowed?) To be fair, I don’t recall where this has been happening the most, I’ve just seen it in my time browsing Lemmy and the many trans memes communities over the last few months. Also, note: The stickied post did not answer my question.
I just want to say, I left the post up because it was a fictional setting and said post doesn’t actually break the egg prime directive. Though I will still criticize it on that merit because the thing is. Violations of the Egg prime directive are seen way too lightly, and as I said in my other comment aren’t really recognized in our hearts as being as harmful as they really are. It’s why people even think they’re funny or relatable when a similar situation making light of transmisogyny wouldn’t be. Of course displays of fictional transmisogyny are permitted when they have value or share experiences but they are handled in a much different and more serious way, and egging just isn’t handled that way. Like I said most people don’t recognize it in their hearts as being as bad as it is.
I think this is a problem because if we don’t recognize why it’s bad, we’re more likely to decide there are situations where its okay. Even the community chosen name “Egg Prime Directive” is misleading because the Prime Directive in Star Trek is very morally flexible, and indeed one could argue should be broken to save a people from disaster or even from ignorance. That is not the case with the Egg Prime Pirective, because trying to break someone’s egg so to speak or force them to “be trans” is going to be a very traumatic experience for most people, and for people who aren’t actually trans, is straight up gaslighting and misgendering.