collect from clark kent

Re: Shit (Young, White, Class-privileged, City-based) “Radical Queers” Say to Each Other”

mewmewfoucault:

youarenotyou:

i also think it’s weird how people are taking something that started out as, basically, ‘oppressive shit privileged people say’ and turned it into something else entirely. like, ironic self congratulatory “see we can laugh at ourselves and how we are all carbon copies of one another” shit. this is an opportunity to explore how harmful dynamics have manifested within so-called radical spaces but people are just making it into a big joke.

the repetition of “i’m trans!” did make me uncomfortable and there’s some chance it was just straight up making some kind of gross butch-flightesque comment - but i also think it might well be referencing how a lot of ‘radical’ trans guys will constantly emphasize their transness in order to better weasel out of being called on their sexism and misogyny

idk, i do think a lot of white rad queer spaces overtly or subtly pressure butch or otherwise gender-variant people who get read as FAAB to not use female pronouns and not publicly identify as women, even if this often happens less with an air of actual hostility and more with a sense of “oh, you can’t really mean that …” or “your gender is too interesting for you to just be cis female!”

and i think they did touch pretty well on rad queer racism/classism a couple of times? most white rad kids are too smart too say many really overtly racist things and are often pretty invested in imagining themselves as ‘poor’ or at least ‘not-really-middle-class-and-too-cool-to-want-to-be’ - and yet still think ‘building community’ means putting a year or so of work into the local food not bombs franchise before moving on to chicago or the bay area or something for a while

i largely agree with youarenotyou’s last paragraph, though

The video made me uncomfortable for a moment until I remembered that I’m a person that this video SHOULD make a little uncomfortable. I think that the “I’m trans” joke could have been clearer, because if it’s about trendiness and not the self-obsession and avoidance that I want to think that it is about, that’s a lil fucked up. But I think mewmewfoucault is on point with what the joke is most likely referencing. And yo, let’s not pretend that trans men don’t have cultural capital in queer spaces. Holy god, the radical-chicness of rejecting femininity/women is FUCKED UP and BULLSHIT and EVERYWHERE.

And THAT is why people are reblogging this video like cray and saying “OH MY GOD, THIS.”

The top commentary is highly backed and even though I think this video does explore some oppressive dynamics, I’m fucking over these “Shit shit says to shit” videos as a model, it’s been exhausted of its potency for critique.