Asking for more than you want and the failings of the political left.
The virtues of "Fully-Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism"
Notable American de-tranistioner and TERF (who also uses this platform), recently posted a list of things they wish to reform. Didn’t quite specify if they meant as a political figure, a pundit, a fiction writer or as a weak graphic designer… but the gist was clear.
They want to eradicate transgender people via the eradication of healthcare.
There’s nothing new or notable in their list, nothing that struck me as particularly clever or insightful in what they were advocating for. It’s a list full bans on hormones and suppressants, outlawing particular surgeries, removal of government subsidy, setting impossibly high bars for mental health standards of patients etc etc.
Let’s skip over some of the dumb shit cause I’m getting real tired of explaining that the hormone therapy I receive is just off-label use of drugs that cisgender people use for very common conditions. Or that the outlawing of certain surgeries for trans people means that like… literally a cisgendered person who suffers a genital injury in an accident will need to just go without any care.
It’s the length of the list that frustrates me.
There’s one thing that I’ve found over and over again in the difference between the way the political “left” and the political “right” advocate for what they want. Typically, on one side you’ll see a clear and concise expression of intent. A goal and the changes needed to get there. On the other, it’s typically a massive overreach of intent. One that’s clearly the act of asking for more knowing you’ll be negotiated down to what you actually want. Let’s say both parties only want a $100. One side would ask for the $100 and get negotiated down to $50, while the other would insist they need $500 and play indignant when they are negotiated down to $200. This is the difference between the way the political left and the political right operate.
It makes me want to set my hair on fire.
Because I don’t think that this staggeringly untalented visual artist TERF, the one who also uses this platform to shill shitty merch and write lists of poorly thought-out demands, necessarily wants ANY of these things enacted. Ultimately, they just want to make life harder for transgender people. To them, even just a little bit harder is a win. Because all this energy exerted to deny their demands has a cost. Preventing the shifting of legal ages of transition in the US to 25? Changing their government policy on medical intervention and malpractice? It’s exhausting, and it detracts from the real work of making change happen. So, when these glorified trolls popup with their bullshit they get thrown a tiny will-you-please-shut-the-fuck-up-crumb of concession. You see them being given just one small thing to make them go away. Of course, they never truly go away, they just come back next round and ask all over again.
Conservatives know how to win a war of attrition, and they get to do it from an entrenched position.
The ground that’s been gained in conservative influence over the last thirty years has been a slow and steady creep. Tiny victory after tiny victory. Certainly, in the US, where state legislatures and county boards alike had unopposed after unopposed conservative candidates for decades. Consolidating the tiny wins while the shining titans of American progressive thought swung for the fences, fucked it up and then doomed themselves to a middle ground that might as well be enemy territory.
That beloved double-edged blade of cultural imperialism? The one that brings all your favourite Netflix shows also brings this particular brand of anti-trans political rhetoric to our doorstep. Here in Australia our “mainstream political left” has never more looked like the fiscal conservatives towing the line of “jobs and growth” than they do right now. Too many sitting sessions of parliament have rolled away with only the bare minimum done by “the left”, while “the right” steamrolls in, grabs what they can and then comes back for more. The only times our two major parties seem to be in lock-step unity is in the allowing of atrocities to play out. Clearly too worried that traits like compassion and empathy will be seen as weakness rather virtue.
So instead, we get political cowardice.
Other than this particular instance of “finding political middle ground by doing nothing” the disparity in tactics infuriates me. It’s primarily why I’m such an adherent to the philosophy of “Fully-Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism”. Well, I guess now I would say “Fully-Automated Luxury Gay AND TRANS Space Communism”?
For those of you who are not aware of this philosophy let me lay it out for you.
Picture it: Orbiting the earth, a shining utopian civilization. All labour is conducted by machines, all scarcity of resource is eradicated. Everyone is free to pursue their self-actualization in extreme comfort, and peace. Also, everyone’s a faggot and is constantly switching genders.
I know, I know, it’s a fucking great philosophy, right?
But of course, I’m not an idiot. I know we’ll never achieve it. We’ll never be up there in our glittering space station, railing each other until we achieve the true sense of ourselves and our place in the universe. It is however still a lofty goal worth fighting for… especially as it means that those who want to oppose this utopian dream will need to negotiate me back down to “Partially-Automated, Comfortable, Non-Sexuality or Gender Defined, Earth-based Socialism”.
Because that is what we actually want, right?
The modest goal of menial, debilitating and dehumanizing labour taken over by automation? An improved standard of living where a person can expect “comfort” as the bare minimum? Being able to exist without your sexual or gender identity having a bearing on your value as a human being? Care and consideration for the fragile world we live in and how to ensure its stability? Commitment to social safety nets for the vulnerable and in need?
Goddamn. What a fucking low bar we’ve set.
And yet, when we ask explicitly for it we get negotiated even lower. So, no more. Fuck it. I’m tired of asking for what I want and getting less so now I’m now going to ask for more than I actually want. Way. Fucking. More.
It’s the glittering sex-space-station-in-the-sky or bust!
I’m gonna demand the most extreme bullshit I can think of, and it can be their job to negotiate ME down to a “middle ground”. You wanna waste my fucking time having to explain why you’re full of shit? Great, welcome to the arena of political discourse YOU created:
Here’s my list of things I wish to reform:
Full and total funding for transition care including but not limited to: hormone therapy, speech therapy, the full suite of surgery for face, body and genitals, movement and posture coaching and advanced cultural and linguistic tutoring.
All living expenses for housing, entertainment and lost income from the process of transition will be paid for/reimbursed by the government.
Every transitioning person will receive a generous stipend post-transition in order to experience “the formative years” they missed out on in childhood. Factoring age and duration of transition process, this funding will ensure that we are “letting children be children” even if they have already grown up.
You can go by whatever “social name” you want but all “birth certificate names” will be gender-neutral names. Examples include: River, Leaf, Refrigerator, Sam. This list of available gender-neutral names will be selected by a committee of trans and NB people without the consultation of cisgendered people.
All cisgendered people will need to formally declare and register their gender with the Department of Gender. You do have the right not to declare. However, you will forcibly be made to undergo either penile-preserving vaginoplasty OR vaginal-preserving phalloplasty (whichever is easiest) to ensure that your “undeclared status” is reflected in your biology.
As Transgender and NB people have already been subject to formal examination and classification of their gender as part of their hard-won rights, so shall all other cisgendered people in order to use public toilets. If you don’t have your formal government-issued “genital credentials” on hand you will need to present your genitals for examination before being allowed to use the facilities. Examiners WILL be taller than you and encouraged to make “ick” sounds throughout your examination process.
Hmmmm… what else… Back rubs. I could do with a back rub right now and seeing as though this entire absurd exercise is in response to an individual conflating their own personal wishes for their own body with their wishes for everyone else to conform to their standard… We will enshrine the Department of Back Rubs. Every individual is entitled to a government-issued massage therapist to be on call at all times.
What else? I’m feeling hungry. I could really go a pub-lunch right now… The Department of Pub Grub will be a multi-faceted and diverse “super-department” housing the Department of Steaks and Seafood”, the “Department of Chips or Mash” and oft-overlooked “Department of Parma/Parmi Reconciliation”.
Right, that’s a good start. I’m looking forward to seeing what concessions I get. If you need me, I’ll be down the local looking at the list of steak-toppers.
–S