theraptorwhomurderedlove:

Saying that you love your period is not inherently cissexist.

Saying that you love your uterus is not inherently cissexist.

Saying that you love your vulva and vagina is not inherently cissexist.

Saying these things in a way that implies (or flat out states) that any of these things are what “makes someone a woman”, that not loving these things makes someone any number of negative adjectives, or that the dysphoria that some trans* people feel due to these things is a sign that we’re all misogynists and/or are “rejecting our womanhood”, is cissexist.

There is nothing—I repeat, nothing—wrong with loving your body or loving the things that your body does. There is, however, something seriously fucking wrong with gendering those parts of the body on a broad scope (read: applying gendered terms to bodies that are not yours) and then insulting trans* people—by either saying that we’re unintelligent or overreacting or some other bullshit—for feeling dysphoric about those body parts/functions.

And there is a serious, serious difference between these two things. You can talk about how much you love your body and the things your body does until you’re blue in the face (or until your fingers fall off from typing)—hell, write a song dedicated to your period if you want!—and there is no problem with that whatsoever. Just don’t make other people—specifically trans* people—feel like we’re obligated to love those things, like there’s somethingwrong with us if we don’t and don’t automatically equate those things with a certain gender identity. 

That is not that much to ask for, really.

Indigofer’s calling me out on retweeting Kotex’ “My vagina is what makes me a woman” ad campaign uncritically is still, two years on, the moment I realised that I had Shit to Do in order to be a half-decent trans* ally.

(I really hope it was two years ago. Time is a wibbley-wobbley blur at present.)

(via indigoferarchived)