Emma, probably
@probably-emma.com
Trans calligrapher // 30s // she/they
DM for commissions. Signatures, documents and landmark gifts for trans people are always free.
Please understand that I am very online but in a way where I understand none of the lore
DM for commissions. Signatures, documents and landmark gifts for trans people are always free.
Please understand that I am very online but in a way where I understand none of the lore
And then he has the fucking temerity to conclude by saying "Trans studies is fine, QED, lets all hope to imagine a future to be trans in", as if the original article wasn't critiquing trans studies' failure to do exactly that imagining. "Moving beyond internal critique" indeed...
August 27, 2025 at 8:33 PM
And then he has the fucking temerity to conclude by saying "Trans studies is fine, QED, lets all hope to imagine a future to be trans in", as if the original article wasn't critiquing trans studies' failure to do exactly that imagining. "Moving beyond internal critique" indeed...
I wonder if Halberstam is able to think about desire in any terms other than penetrability.
August 27, 2025 at 8:32 PM
I wonder if Halberstam is able to think about desire in any terms other than penetrability.
Apropos of nothing, here's a quote from Emmet Harsin Drager, the other author of the article who Halberstam forgot about, despite having enough space in his 10-page response article to critique Chu's twitter jokes:
August 27, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Apropos of nothing, here's a quote from Emmet Harsin Drager, the other author of the article who Halberstam forgot about, despite having enough space in his 10-page response article to critique Chu's twitter jokes:
This is just some absolutely vile transphobia and lesbophobia. Indistinguishable from TERF vitriol about the inescapable burden of womanhood that transition can never overcome.
Jack Halberstam, repress all your life if you want, but stop making it other people's problem.
Jack Halberstam, repress all your life if you want, but stop making it other people's problem.
August 27, 2025 at 8:31 PM
This is just some absolutely vile transphobia and lesbophobia. Indistinguishable from TERF vitriol about the inescapable burden of womanhood that transition can never overcome.
Jack Halberstam, repress all your life if you want, but stop making it other people's problem.
Jack Halberstam, repress all your life if you want, but stop making it other people's problem.
Okay, sure, but Chu and Harsin Drager (long forgotten by this point in the essay) do actually explain why they see this as a problem. You could have responded to that, Jack. Just saying "yes, and you questioning that makes me angry" isn't enough. Again, how was this published.
August 27, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Okay, sure, but Chu and Harsin Drager (long forgotten by this point in the essay) do actually explain why they see this as a problem. You could have responded to that, Jack. Just saying "yes, and you questioning that makes me angry" isn't enough. Again, how was this published.
Having now read Females (albeit quickly) I legitimately have no idea where this is coming from. The word "butch" does not appear in Females, nor does "trans man/men".
August 27, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Having now read Females (albeit quickly) I legitimately have no idea where this is coming from. The word "butch" does not appear in Females, nor does "trans man/men".
Side note, but this is weird. Discussion of commitment to the bit is *Chu's* words from her book "Females". I have no doubt a response might have used the same language for effect, but it's strange to attribute it to the response and not the original. He did read Females, right?
August 27, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Side note, but this is weird. Discussion of commitment to the bit is *Chu's* words from her book "Females". I have no doubt a response might have used the same language for effect, but it's strange to attribute it to the response and not the original. He did read Females, right?
See what I mean? This has fully devolved into him just going "this fucking bitch thinks she's so funny" and quoting her twitter. In an academic paper! How did this make it past publishing???
Citing the tweets is, admittedly, absolutely hilarious though.
Citing the tweets is, admittedly, absolutely hilarious though.
August 27, 2025 at 8:27 PM
See what I mean? This has fully devolved into him just going "this fucking bitch thinks she's so funny" and quoting her twitter. In an academic paper! How did this make it past publishing???
Citing the tweets is, admittedly, absolutely hilarious though.
Citing the tweets is, admittedly, absolutely hilarious though.
This is the point where Halberstam's criticism shifts explicitly from the article to Chu as a person
I legitimately did not know where this came from, having only read After Trans Studies from Chu before this point. I assumed it must be an interpersonal beef or lore I've not run into yet.
I legitimately did not know where this came from, having only read After Trans Studies from Chu before this point. I assumed it must be an interpersonal beef or lore I've not run into yet.
August 27, 2025 at 8:27 PM
This is the point where Halberstam's criticism shifts explicitly from the article to Chu as a person
I legitimately did not know where this came from, having only read After Trans Studies from Chu before this point. I assumed it must be an interpersonal beef or lore I've not run into yet.
I legitimately did not know where this came from, having only read After Trans Studies from Chu before this point. I assumed it must be an interpersonal beef or lore I've not run into yet.
Halberstam briefly remembers Chu has a coauthor, to highlight their "tempering" influence on Chu's rhetoric. Harsin Drager gets exactly one more mention in the article after this. I wonder why Halberstam is so focused on Chu, when both authors are broadly in agreement throughout. We'll never know.
August 27, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Halberstam briefly remembers Chu has a coauthor, to highlight their "tempering" influence on Chu's rhetoric. Harsin Drager gets exactly one more mention in the article after this. I wonder why Halberstam is so focused on Chu, when both authors are broadly in agreement throughout. We'll never know.
If only someone had written an article questioning whether trans studies' obsession with radical anticonformity actually provides a valuable future for the field, Jack.
If only you could have written a response explaining why you think it is, rather than stating it as a priori justification, Jack.
If only you could have written a response explaining why you think it is, rather than stating it as a priori justification, Jack.
August 27, 2025 at 8:24 PM
If only someone had written an article questioning whether trans studies' obsession with radical anticonformity actually provides a valuable future for the field, Jack.
If only you could have written a response explaining why you think it is, rather than stating it as a priori justification, Jack.
If only you could have written a response explaining why you think it is, rather than stating it as a priori justification, Jack.
Imagine getting two full pages into a rant about how decrying an entire field of study is solely a preoccupation of fascist reactionaries, only to then remember that you've done it yourself before and having to build a "not me though" exception in.
August 27, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Imagine getting two full pages into a rant about how decrying an entire field of study is solely a preoccupation of fascist reactionaries, only to then remember that you've done it yourself before and having to build a "not me though" exception in.
Halberstam's article opens strong and by that I mean he opens by poisoning the well and immediately juxtoposing Chu's words (in an incredibly clumsy, overdone, were-you-just-trying-to-hit-a-wordcount, sort of way) with bad faith right wing attacks on progressive fields of study broadly.
August 27, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Halberstam's article opens strong and by that I mean he opens by poisoning the well and immediately juxtoposing Chu's words (in an incredibly clumsy, overdone, were-you-just-trying-to-hit-a-wordcount, sort of way) with bad faith right wing attacks on progressive fields of study broadly.
In honour of the end of book 1 of RCBG's serialisation, and of What Comes Next, I did a calligraphy.
August 4, 2025 at 9:46 AM
In honour of the end of book 1 of RCBG's serialisation, and of What Comes Next, I did a calligraphy.
Ooh what could it be?!
July 14, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Ooh what could it be?!
Much more succinct than what I've ended up doing. I should switch to your approach...
![[top half of a text box with a red error message]
This text box is limited to 1000 words.
12. Is there anything you would change to make the explanation of the legal rights and responsibilities in this update clearer?](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3kpl3jy23y3vgpcb46ixybue/bafkreifdqownylltf27idlca23pdzldinw6qmgf7bi5rlq3e2j7enybqaq@jpeg)
June 28, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Much more succinct than what I've ended up doing. I should switch to your approach...
Oh my fucking god I just read the actual post and we're not even wrong. "It is implied that Tony is similarly submissive in bed" as one of the reasons he's female-coded.
This immediately following a passage where he's apparently woman-coded by virtue of being filmed like a victim of sexual violence
This immediately following a passage where he's apparently woman-coded by virtue of being filmed like a victim of sexual violence
June 27, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Oh my fucking god I just read the actual post and we're not even wrong. "It is implied that Tony is similarly submissive in bed" as one of the reasons he's female-coded.
This immediately following a passage where he's apparently woman-coded by virtue of being filmed like a victim of sexual violence
This immediately following a passage where he's apparently woman-coded by virtue of being filmed like a victim of sexual violence
Hey look they put me in the story.
June 7, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Hey look they put me in the story.
'cos it's constructed, get it?
June 6, 2025 at 9:07 PM
'cos it's constructed, get it?
Cisheterosexuality strikes me as a lack of ambition, if nothing else.
June 5, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Cisheterosexuality strikes me as a lack of ambition, if nothing else.
'tis the season for themed practice
June 3, 2025 at 7:18 PM
'tis the season for themed practice
UK
Our fairly organised shelf and not so organised drinks cupboard it sits on.
Not pictured: Wilfa Svart grinder, KitchenAid variable temp kettle, big big unorganised basket of various teas etc.
Current coffee is a Columbian Gesha our local roastery had in stock.
Our fairly organised shelf and not so organised drinks cupboard it sits on.
Not pictured: Wilfa Svart grinder, KitchenAid variable temp kettle, big big unorganised basket of various teas etc.
Current coffee is a Columbian Gesha our local roastery had in stock.
June 1, 2025 at 6:18 PM
UK
Our fairly organised shelf and not so organised drinks cupboard it sits on.
Not pictured: Wilfa Svart grinder, KitchenAid variable temp kettle, big big unorganised basket of various teas etc.
Current coffee is a Columbian Gesha our local roastery had in stock.
Our fairly organised shelf and not so organised drinks cupboard it sits on.
Not pictured: Wilfa Svart grinder, KitchenAid variable temp kettle, big big unorganised basket of various teas etc.
Current coffee is a Columbian Gesha our local roastery had in stock.
Happy Pride to all the Gender Criticals out there realising with horror that a corrupt court ruling can't force your former friends and family to love you again.
May your twilight years be full of all the joy and compassion you've shown others.
May your twilight years be full of all the joy and compassion you've shown others.
June 1, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Happy Pride to all the Gender Criticals out there realising with horror that a corrupt court ruling can't force your former friends and family to love you again.
May your twilight years be full of all the joy and compassion you've shown others.
May your twilight years be full of all the joy and compassion you've shown others.
Pronounced like it's spelled.
/brxh/
/brxh/
June 1, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Pronounced like it's spelled.
/brxh/
/brxh/