Sylvia Hates Birds
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sylvialis.bsky.social
Sylvia Hates Birds
@sylvialis.bsky.social
62 followers 150 following 40 posts
20 🏳️‍⚧️ She/Her | Any opinion I hold is subjectively correct | Big fan of RPGs, adventure games and talking too much | Dysfunctional student of history

ILLEGALLY MARRIED to @melody-the-harpy.bsky.social
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sylvialis.bsky.social
Apologies for the weird format and long-ass post, I'm used to having a lot more characters to talk (and I talk a lot) and Bluesky still doesn't have a thread function to more easily spread them out.
I feel like people are too quick to call themselves 'allies' of people. That's a loaded term and I don't think it's one you should just be taking on because it makes you feel nice, or because you don't outright hate certain people. An 'ally' is a political statement with a specific goal. You're declaring that you will advocate and work for them *politically*. It's not something you need to do to be friends with someone of that group and you definitely aren't doing it just *by* being friends with someone - it involves listening regarding political and social issues and following them on that. I see a lot of trans 'allies' straight-up arguing with trans people in regards to what trans people should be allowed to do, what rights trans people should or shouldn't have, even *what being trans actually is*. A lot of my trans friends (myself largely included) don't want to talk to cis friends about trans politics and ideas - because it's draining! Talking about what happens to us is very scary, and talking about how we feel about our gender and gender as a whole gets very difficult to explain to people that, quite often, have never had to think about their gender at all. Most people enjoy having fun with their friends, to relieve themselves of some of that stress caused by living in a transphobic, transmisogynistic society - rather than lecturing their friends on Judith Butler. You can have a *lot* of trans friends and still know markedly little about being trans both politically and socially, which would make you not just a poor ally but a malevolent one - someone who *thinks* they're very knowledgeable about what 'everyone' wants, but actually has no idea what *anyone* wants.
November 7, 2024 at 5:32 PM