Dirty Hippie

sanaatamir:

[TW: Racial slurs]

moononwaters:

pogromnacht:

pinupboy:

mtfbutches:

[image description: A person with a chelsea haircut, wearing a black tank top, black suspenders, a chain collar and heavy eyeliner rests a baseball bat over their right shoulder.  On their left shoulder is a black tattoo that reads “DIE CIS SCUM”.]

MTFButches note: Views expressed in submissions are of the poster, not me.

-b

Who the hell gets a tattoo like that? And then poses with a baseball bat? Damn. It would be different if it said “die transphobes” or something, but saying that all cis people are scum who should die? That’s rude and offensive and prejudiced.

Yes, some cis people are anti-trans. Does that mean that all cis people deserve to die? No.

And atleast one person is going to reblog this saying “but maybe she was beaten by a cis person in her life and has reason to feel this way!” If you were beaten by a black person at some point, would it be okay to get a tattoo saying “DIE NIGGER SCUM?” No. No it wouldn’t. That would make you a prejudiced asshole. Just like this does.

Thinking that an entire group of humans should die, probably based on stereotypes or what a single person did, doesn’t make you “a strong feminist woman full of trans* pride!” or whatever. It basically makes you Hitler.

http://pogromnacht.tumblr.com/post/13105914955/this-is-for-tdor-die-cis-scum-its-not

Look, first, I hope you can see a difference between a threat towards an oppressive majority and a threat towards an oppressed minority.  Just want to point that out.

And, ok, sure.  So I was attacked, whatever, so what.  So maybe I don’t get a right to my anger for the types of people who attacked me and who continue to make my life measurably more dangerous.  (Cuz pacifism is super effective, after all.)  But let’s just take that as a given, hypothetically, for the moment.

Apart from that meaning, there is also the point that this tattoo is an engine.  It generates a certain unpleasant flavor of empathy.  Cis people see it, and hopefully they are startled.  “Good god,” they think.  “There is someone who doesn’t like me simply for what I am!  Simply for the fact that my gender identity has a certain relationship to what I was coercively assigned at birth!  This person seems to advocate my death!  I am upset!”

Congratulations.  You now know what it feels like to have that uneasy paranoia simply because of one tattoo on one person.  If you are cis, imagine, please, that you are certain that everyone- everyone- from the people beside you on the sidewalk to the drivers watching you through their car windshields to the teller at the bank and every single customer there with you to the anonymous faces in the grocery store to your coworkers and family and perhaps even to your lovers- every single one of them feels that way about you, on some level.  Perhaps on a higher, more conscious level, perhaps on a lower and rather more subtle level, every one of them believes you’re a fucking freak who really ought to make things easier on everyone, yourself included, and die.

I have no regrets about this tattoo.

(also holy shit so much misgendering BUT YANNO WHATEVER NOT A BIG DEAL RITE)

The fact that the pinupboy person decided it was okay to try and use race as an analogy for gender and not star (*) out some letters of the word ni***r is enough for me to roll my eyes.

That and their obvious pandering to the cismasses.

Hmm, new tattoo idea! Wish I’d thought of it first. Also might add another line: “Fuck off, cis panderers.”

Also, just as a general FYI: THE ONLY THING COMPARABLE TO NAZIS IS NAZIS, FOR FUCK’S SAKE.

Ok, setting the N-word and Nazis statements aside… I have two main issues with the arguments above. Both of my problems focus on the claim that this tattoo is to make people think about their CIS privilege. (CIS: individuals who have a match between the gender they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity,)

#1 As mentioned above, CIS is the majority. So making blanket statements that they should die is not going to help people to understand the side of transgendered/transexual/gender-queer individuals. (I apologize if there is another label you prefer to use that I did not mention.) Being that CIS is the majority if anyone wants to make any changes to policy or how we are socialized or the attitudes towards a minority then the minority has to work with the majority, not attack it. 

You are claiming that this tattoo will make CIS individuals think about the automatic acceptance they face everyday, that it will make them think that maybe they also face discrimination. First I would like to point out that the vast majority of CIS individuals are unfamiliar with the term CIS and will have no idea that this tattoo is a statement about them. Second I would like you all to acknowledge the likelihood that someone who does understand this tattoo will take your views seriously (meaning actually considering what your statement may be). It is a TATTOO, posted on the internet (or seen in person). I know few individuals who have had revelations in their thinking based on extremely biased tattoos or photos.

(If your goal is pure shock value and revenge then you have possibly accomplished your goal. But in that case you are also buying into a similar mentality as your attacker. In one case an attack is based on the idea that an individual is representative of a whole and can be attacked as such. In your mentality that individual attacker is representative of a whole, which should be attacked. Neither of these methods of logic are accurate, credible, or helpful in changing views.)

#2 If you are trying to start conversation or instigate social understanding I suggest you make yourself more available. Even someone interested in talking about your view/statement would most likely refrain from addressing them with you directly because this tattoo is hostile. You are not opening the floor for discussion or consideration by making an equally discriminatory statement against the VAST MAJORITY of society. 

I understand that each person affected by CIS privilege  (everyone in society including CIS individuals) has different experiences, beliefs, and values. Anyone trying to create change or conversation must take that into account as well when addressing their audience. As a member of the minority and an avid advocate for respect, equality, and trans/queer rights; I do not find this tattoo to be an engine.