I'm days late on writing something about anti-trans legislation and it's extremely unlike me... but my editor wanted an unpacking of how anti-trans efforts are a form of eugenics and I'm really struggling with that.
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I am a trans man of a particular type, and that type is one disgusted and horrified by the idea of my body becoming pregnant. I'm usually quite clinical and calm about language for body parts but "uterus" is something it disgusts me to imagine just... lurking... in with my guts.
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Backing up for a sec. Eugenics is about reproduction- encouraging the "right" sort of people to reproduce and punishing the "wrong" sort so they don't. So... which kind of eugenics is anti-trans hatred based on?
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With trans women it's pretty straightforward. Transphobes want to push them to the fringes and criminalize them so they don't reproduce and infect the culture with more transness. But trans men? Liiiiitle bit more complicated, right?
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In PART transphobia against trans men works in the same way- push us to the fringes, make our lives hell, drive us underground, purify the culture.
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But there's also this whole aspect of panic over our fertility. They DO NOT want pregnant men having babies. But they DO want to force us to be women so our wombs can be pressed into service birthing babies.
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So, it's complicated. As a trans man who does not want to ever get pregnant I'm much more comfortable arguing "these fucking eugenicists have no right to force trans men to be their birthing sows". I'm a wee bit less comfortable writing "Men can get pregnant- GET USED TO IT"
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And all of this is in a context where the article I'm being asked to write isn't necessarily supposed to go deep on these details and distinctions? I believe 800 words was the suggested length?
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OK. I should log off and just try and write the piece my editor wants. If I get 200 words in and it's not working I'll accept it and move on. But writing this thread has helped me clarify why I've been feeling so blocked, thanks/apologies to anyone reading all this.
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And just like that I'm back to thinking the eugenics lens is actually pretty good. FUCK.https://twitter.com/ChanceM41820406/status/1364953485633028099 …
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End of conversation
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