therians, xenogenders, and progressive reactionaries
2023.01.24
It’s really telling how people who think of themselves or call themselves leftists (whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean) treat people like furries & therians or people who identify with xenogenders or use neopronouns.
There’s been two things happening lately (maia arson crimew leaking the no-fly list and a tiktok of a therian doing quadrobics (walking on all fours)) that’s gotten people talking about this again and every time I hold the same view and get annoyed for the same reason.
It really seems like there’s a portion of people who genuinely think of themselves as progressive and accepting, but who have a clear bar as to who’s in the circle of that acceptance, versus who’s a freak and other in a way they can make fun of, where they don’t have to question like they do with other groups but can just let their reactionary spirit take over without worry or fearing harm to their self-understood and socially perceived “accepting” reputation.
(I feel like this boundary gets drawn in other contexts as well, specifically towards disabled people. So, we can acknowledge that some words are harmful and have violent histories, but people asking you to stop saying “crazy” or “insane” or “psychotic” is too far? They just don’t see people with more stigmatized disorders as people, so for them, that’s where it’s easy to draw the line and say, “this is too far, this is ridiculous.” I don’t think language is the be all end all of oppression, rather that it’s telling where people make the choice to stop taking language seriously.)
So sure, a myriad of gay and bi and trans and other forces have done their own things and now it’s not as hip in progressive circles to think (outwardly*) that gay and trans people are weird and make fun of them, but that hasn’t happened for other deviant forms of identification.
And so we get so-called “leftists” (and I maintain that leftist is a largely useless term) who spend their time and energy making fun of people who use it/its pronouns, or noun pronouns, or saying bi lesbians aren’t lesbians, or commenting “I’m scared” under the post of literally just someone running in a stream on all fours with a mask and fur tail. People seeing a trans person fucking leaking the no-fly list, an inherently radical act! And then taking the opportunity to argue about whether it can really be a lesbian, or whether her identity is fucking valid. And while in the US & UK (whose news is always all the rage on social media, skewed as it is) they try and overrule Scottish autonomy just to make it harder for trans people to change a document and ban classroom libraries just to prevent Floridian kids from having access to LGBTQ content while calling all queer people (but especially trans people) groomers.
I’ve said this 1 million times before and I’ll keep saying it ‘til I die: if they’re not hurting anyone, genuinely, who gives a fuck. What is your fucking issue. There is no fucking problem with people identifying with things that are different than the normal extremely limited range of options, and if you have a problem with it, you are not as progressive and accepting and radical as you think. If you have a problem with furries, or therians, or xenogenders, or neopronouns, you are not progressive, you are not queer, you are not for queerness and expansiveness. And in the case of the latter two, you are just transphobic.
And I just think, it shows us two things, 1) that these people weren’t really for us in the first place, and 2) that they’d crumble at the slightest hint of social rejection. When your reasoning for not liking something is “it’s weird” that tells me that you don’t have what it takes to push back against normative forces even with low stakes, and in the world we live in those forces of normalcy have real power!
*Different issue, but a lot of “leftists” also think they aren’t homophobic, biphobic, transphobic – and they are – because they’re still uncomfortable with us and see us as the problem even when we’re not. Which isn’t even touching on how they view/ treat other groups such as polyams, aromantics, asexuals, and kinksters.