salith @salith@computerfairi.es

Since yesterday was international trans day of visibility, let's talk about visibility

Being visibly trans (and more broadly, queer) is dangerous. I don't mean "you'll get nasty messages", I mean you risk getting doxxed, or mobbed and cut off from communities which are our very lifeline (in every sense of the word), or having random fuckos fantasizing about bashing your head in with a baseball bat, shooting you up with an ak-47, or sending credible threats of violence (all examples I've personally seen from "pillars" of certain communities of marginalised people here in fedi )

Part of this is the insideous, incessant idea that having a 2D profile pic (pfp) means you're a bigot or even a Nazi.

Being able to use a real face as a pfp (and, relatedly, real names) on an account is a privilege. There is the potential harm from others mentioned earlier, but there is also the fact that we trans people often are unable to even look in a mirror without severe distress, and having our faces on a pfp can be even worse

Judging people who have a 2D avatar (almost always called an "anime" avatar by these types even though most 2D pfps aren't from anime) as a bigot without ever knowing them is a direct form of anti-trans discrimination (and anti-queer discrimination). This comes up fairly often on fedi, and if you'd like to do an allyship, you can not only dismantle this idea in your own mind, but also speak up for us when ignorant people trot this idea out for the umpteenth time that year

#Trans #Queer #SocialJustice

p.s. Oh, I forgot to mention this tangent: trans-fems get the most visibility out of trans people generally, which doesn't mean we get more power; it means we have the brightest targets on our back, that we have one less layer of defense (see the survivability onion), that we get the most scrutiny. Visibility isn't a boon, it's a curse for us. Trans-fems you see that are highly visible on purpose are doing so despite the risks and detriments that come with it in the hope that it might help those who have yet to hatch, but demanding use of that visibility from us is demanding we take more risks

Survivability onion from outer to inner layers of defense: don't be seen, don't be acquired, don't be hit, don't be penetrated, don't be killed.