yo, one thing about actually abolishing oppression towards us trans people: it requires not putting any specific puberty above another. All puberties are permanent, not just trans ones.
We have the ability to sit every person down before puberty and talk them through what it entails, and then let them choose what exactly they want to go through. Making it an explicit choice places trans and cis people into the same situation.
Even with zero medical barriers to transition once someone realizes they are trans, the social barrier of what you are “expected” to be is an issue, for multiple reasons. People who want to make big changes are often questioned and forced to prove that what they want is what they “actually want”, because it deviates from what is expected. People who deviate in smaller ways are punished in their own ways, with those deviations being treated as mistakes or failures, because another major role can’t be easily assumed. They are pushed to drop everything that is not perfectly aligned with the role to not be constantly torn apart. We have the technology to provide agency, not allowing its use is oppression. The only way to abolish the hierarchy around puberty is to abolish expectations around puberty.
If you think a child doesn’t have the ability to decide what puberty they want to go through, forcing them into a random one isn’t better. If they can’t say no, then they definitely can’t say yes. People will always know themselves better than others do.
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This is such an excellent point!
thank you, I’m glad the people here like it, I’ve posted similar stuff other places and have gotten lots of hate
Yeah, personally, I want more rights and freedom for younger people. I tire of the ways older people treat them, as if they shouldn’t be allowed autonomy which is based on nothing solid that I have ever been able to find.
I have younger people in my life and we get on well because I treat them as if they are autonomous beings and always ask them for consent before giving them a hug etc and if they say no, I accept that without feigning sadness etc which a lot of other people in their life do.
I see no reason why they shouldn’t be given more rights, treated more autonomously etc, since they respond well to it and punishment is just such a bad motivator, and so are the people who punish for that matter.
yeah how people treat kids tends to show a lot about them, a lot of people really hate the idea of consent.
They don’t want to allow them autonomy because it is socially acceptable not to and they love hierarchy over people.
Oh yes, it really does, sadly. I know this from my own upbringing.
Yeah, socially acceptable things are not at all ethical a lot of the time so I actually ignore them or do socially unacceptable things which makes people confused or annoyed, but I’d rather live according to my own morals and ethics than what others think is correct and morally right because time and time again I’ve seen it not be and lead to disastrous results long term.
As a relationship anarchist I hate having hierarchy in my relationships with others so I always do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen.
this society is organized around nonstop genocide, honestly at this point I think that things become socially acceptable only when and because they hurt people
Yes, a lot of physical or culture genocide is perpetuated through ‘socially acceptable’ behaviour, so you’re not at all incorrect.
Youth liberation is so key.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc9r_BYSBia9HLaEV1kaInTB_ltiC1v4R
Ive seen most all of Andrewisms entries to this.
Indeed, Trans Kids are Deserving of the Choice to avert a puberty they Clearly Do. Not. Want.
Anything else is heirarchal domination and authoritarian violence; and speaking firsthand as a person who got to her late 20’s b4 realizing she was in denial: is deeply traumatizing.
The good news is therapy works. The bad news is “To con someone is easy, you need only to pull one over on their intelect. To convince that same person they’ve been conned is much harder: you have to overcome their ego.”
Interesting concept, but how would that practically work? “Do you want to go through puberty or do you want to spend your monthly allowance on pills/injections until you do?” That is even assuming these pills/injections are widely available, as right now they seem to be severely underproduced in the world.
And what is going to happen to those people who actually want to transition? Would they just lose all government subsidies due to enormous demand and have to pay full prices?
nothing “practically works” that is helpful to us under capitalism, the entire point of capitalism is that only things that hurt us work
