Listen to me. Listen to me. Listen to me. Listen to me.
I know there is a lot of discourse ™ around this right now but listen to me
sometimes you do just have to lie to children.
If, when my toddler is, you know, toddling around saying “mama? Big ball?”
If I were lean down and say “unfortunately the big beach ball for some reason fills you with such an unadulterated rage that is beyond human comprehension that you scream until you pass out, so mama had to remove the beach ball from the premises until you can better regulate your emotions” she would simply stare at me like I had 3 heads full of equal betrayal.
So, for now, instead “big ball went night night!”
Please understand when I say “removed the ball from the premises” I mean I popped it in a fit of exhausted confusion. I murdered the beach ball.
See I’ve lied to you all too and it was better this way.
you can’t just leave this in the tags etc.
You can’t be funnier then me on my own posts, I’m in tears from laughter
Does anyone remember what happened to Radio Shack?
They started out selling niche electronics supplies. Capacitors and transformers and shit. This was never the most popular thing, but they had an audience, one that they had a real lock on. No one else was doing that, so all the electronics geeks had to go to them, back in the days before online ordering. They branched out into other electronics too, but kept doing the electronic components.
Eventually they realize that they are making more money selling cell phones and remote control cars than they were with those electronic components. After all, everyone needs a cellphone and some electronic toys, but how many people need a multimeter and some resistors?
So they pivoted, and started only selling that stuff. All cellphones, all remote control cars, stop wasting store space on this niche shit.
And then Walmart and Target and Circuit City and Best Buy ate their lunch. Those companies were already running big stores that sold cellphones and remote control cars, and they had more leverage to get lower prices and selling more stuff meant they had more reasons to go in there, and they couldn’t compete. Without the niche electronics stuff that had been their core brand, there was no reason to go to their stores. Everything they sold, you could get elsewhere, and almost always for cheaper, and probably you could buy 5 other things you needed while you were there, stuff Radio Shack didn’t sell.
And Radio Shack is gone now. They had a small but loyal customer base that they were never going to lose, but they decided to switch to a bigger but more fickle customer base, one that would go somewhere else for convenience or a bargain. Rather than stick with what they were great at (and only they could do), they switched to something they were only okay at… putting them in a bigger pond with a lot of bigger fish who promptly out-competed them.
If Radio Shack had stayed with their core audience, who knows what would have happened? Maybe they wouldn’t have made a billion dollars, but maybe they would still be around, still serving that community, still getting by. They may have had a small audience, but they had basically no competition for that audience. But yeah, we only know for sure what would happen if they decided to attempt to go more mainstream: They fail and die. We know for sure because that’s what they did.
I don’t know why I keep thinking about the story of what happened to Radio Shack. It just keeps feeling relevant for some reason.
its so funny to me that people on twitter n tiktok are like “ok but porns still banned on tumblr so at least we’re better then them” as if they dont have to typ3 w0rd$ I1k3 th!$ to get around their censors
y34h, 4t l34st on th1s s1t3 you c4n t3ll th4t th3 p3rson h4s 4 p4rt1cul4r, mor3 4nnoy1ng r34son to typ3 l1k3 th1s
also im growing to hate the phrase “hold accountable” in discourse because its always so…. empty? like you see people saying “sure this person apologized, but we need to hold them accountable!” like cool. what does that mean. how can you get any more accountable than a public apology. do you want them to apologize… again? more? get a tattoo explaining their crimes so everyone they meet is informed? do you want accountability or are you repeating buzzwords because you cant find a nice way to say you just want them to disappear.
I feel so… down whenever I want to watch queer or trans videos because I know in the back of my mind that none of the current large queer content creators’ content or community is safe for people like me, intersex people.
I love their work otherwise, but it hurts badly to hear them toss around casual intersexism in their videos constantly when discussing queer and trans issues and nobody ever mentions it.
And because these are large, popular creators, nobody has ever listened when I’ve tried to ask they adjust their language. My dms go ignored or unseen and my public comments get drowned out by fans defending their intersexist comments. It’s emotionally draining and exhausting, I just want to be included in my own community.
Genuinely asking if you are comfortable sharing, but what are some examples of “casual intersexism”? I’m honestly less read up on it than I should as someone who is intersex. Feel free to ignore this though should you not feel like it or anything.
Stripping our intersex status when it fits an argument, ex. “Cis kids get put on hormones no problem while trans kids are denied them” (While they ignore that these are intersex children forced onto hormones)
Using us when it does fit an argument, but ignoring us entirely outside of that context, ex. Using intersex people existing to validate trans people existing, but never doing any sort of intersex advocacy unless it directly benefits/includes trans people as well
Erasing intersex issues while attempting to argue trans rights, ex. “No child is getting forced sex changes, that’s not a thing that happens” (It doesn’t happen to trans people, but happens all the time to intersex people)
Saying that sex is binary but gender isn’t (Neither of them are binary)
Reducing intersex people down to cis people with disorders, ex. “Cis people without uteruses” or “Cis people with gynecomastia”
In addition to the above point, generally acting as if intersex people are not oppressed or as though we have it better than trans people do, often by calling us cis and disordered rather than intersex, ex. “Cis women with high testosterone levels are allowed in sports but trans people aren’t” (Which is not even really a true statement) or by wishing that they were intersex or openly admitting to calling themselves intersex in their personal life in an attempt to avoid discrimination
Casual use of the word “Hermaphrodite”
Calling intersex animals trans/nonbinary
Ignoring blatant intersexism, never calling it out
Calling bills/laws or other issues which directly impact intersex people “trans bills” instead of “trans and intersex bills”, such as the recent Kansas bill directly targeting intersex people being called a “trans bill” - making these bills aiming to exterminate intersex people solely about trans people and ignoring the bills’ direct attack on intersex people
When these issues are brought up, saying that intersex people are “just caught in the crossfire/unfortunately affected by mistake but not intentionally, it’s about trans people not intersex people”
Saying that intersex people are not LGBT/queer (Not all intersex people identify as queer, but we have always been part of queer community and should not be pushed out)
Reducing intersex people down to a statistic
Common misinformation, such as saying that being intersex means “being born with both parts”
Using afab and amab as equal to “perisex female” and “perisex male”, ex. Talking as if all afabs are born with the same hormonal, genetic, or reproductive profiles
hate when people ask what goals I have. the only goal I’ve had since I was 14 is to have a butch who will build me a deck shirtless while I sip mimosas and catcall them
