I’m so glad that y'all are so into Monkey Man and the badass hijra priestess army, but friendly reminder that hijra are NOT trans women. Hijra are their own distinct gender; trans women are women. India has both :)
This is really…weird to post if you yourself are not a trans woman or hijra, op. Many (I would even say most) hijra are women. So many of us use the term hijra women instead of just hijra to emphasise this point. A lot of the hijra identity (and other trans identities in India like Jogta/Jogtini, Aravani etc.) is tied to the arts and religion in a way that the modern term “trans” does not fully encompass or represent, but that doesn’t mean that these non-secular (i can’t find a better word rn) trans people are not. Well. Trans. Hijra, Aravani and other transfeminine people and women have been active in LGBT and esp. trans activism at the grassroots within India for the longest time. I’m Indian and trans myself and I’m really so tired of this constant third-gendering (and thus misgendering) of trans Indians. (Not to say that many trans people don’t view themselves within the third gender framework, but that that term has done more harm than good in the practical sense.)
Many indian and west Asian trans women and hijras have been very active on Twitter discussing how third gendering the Hijra community is actually a form of transmisogyny by society. Here’s one twitter thread breaking down the transmisogyny within a foundational western sociological text on the Hijra community:
Flamboyant Cuttlefish: Cuttlefish have a specialized, hollow feature called a cuttlebone that helps the animal maintain buoyancy by adjusting the levels of gas and liquid in its chambers.1 Because the flamboyant cuttlefish’s cuttlebone is relatively small, this species can only float and swim for short amounts of time. Instead of swimming, flamboyant cuttlefish “walk” along the ocean floor using their arms. They also have a highly developed sensory system that helps them respond and adjust to their surroundings.
girl typing a very specific question into google search bar, scrunching her face as she takes time to make sure she hasn’t made any spelling errors, hitting enter, shaking her head as google only presents her with unhelpful websites that don’t answer her query at all, moving her cursor back to the search bar and clicking on it so she can carefully write ‘reddit’ at the end, hitting enter again, sighing with relief as she finds a link to a reddit post asking the exact question she needed answered posted in a subreddit for a very niche topic, finally moving her cursor to click on the link, wondering why she didn’t go straight to the subreddit earlier, only to be met with a deleted comment with a reply from the OP stating 'that was very helpful, thanks’, sighing with frustration as she moves her cursor back to the search bar so she can copy the link and paste it into the wayback machine,
Replace “reddit” with “reveddit” in any reddit url to reveal deleted or removed comments. If the comment/post was deleted too quickly after it was posted, it may not pull it up, but it works most of the time
girl after reading a post on tumblr dot com with a reblog by user impossiblepackage, moving her cursor over to the url of the aforementioned reddit post, using her mouse to highlight the word “reddit”, typing out the word “reveddit” in its place, hitting enter, waiting with bated breath as reveddit loads, finally content as the deleted comment is displayed in front of her eyes containing the information she sought for so long.
this is a way better model… you’ll still get transphobic & intersexist drs of course but i prefer this to male / female or even having separate questions for gender & sex.
[we can’t see the full form, but i’d suggest having a “something else” option and dominant hormone question too.]
as a cis woman who’s had a hysterectomy and partial oophorectomy, this would be helpful for me, too! it’d be pointless to try to diagnose me for disorders that affect organs I don’t have anymore, after all.
being inclusive helps us ALL. 💖
This is such a great idea! It needs to be coupled with better education about gender affirming surgery, and ensuring patients know exactly what tissues are inside them. Removing the prostate isn’t a typical part of genital reconstruction surgery for trans women, as far as I’m aware. A gender-affirming double masectomy can still absolutely leave you with breast tissue, that you have to continue to monitor for potential malignanty growths. I’ve spoken to post-op trans people of various genders who were not aware of this, but who later did get in contact and say ’….oh you’re right, I do still have [x] in my body’. This isn’t to yuk the original post at all - I think it’s brilliant! It’s just that in order for this to work, the patient has to thoroughly understand exactly what tissue they have in their body, which really should happen anyway as part of a surgeon’s due diligence. So we need better trans healthcare & education all around.
Easter egg for office workers: if you go onto Excel and press ctrl+left, then ctrl+down, you will reach cell XFD1048576. If you put a dot in there, then ctrl+A and fill every cell in black, you can then print 34 million black pages from your office printer and get fired
ALT