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I don’t think we should assume people’s gender identity, and that’s something that I like about the internet, that I don’t have to identify or present in any particular way. That’s why I’ve been on the other side of this struggle session, because I think there are people who prefer to abstain from making any statement about their identity whatsoever when they’re online, and I think we should respect that.
As for the framing in terms of whether it’s sexist or transphobic or both, I’m just trying to understand what the precise issue is, and also honestly I’d like for people to take a step back from knee-jerk reactions and think things over a bit so that we can figure out how best to solve the problem. Like, does defaulting to “any” actually solve the problem of people assuming everyone’s male unless declared otherwise? There’s still a default and people will still assume what they will. If we can define the problem precisely, then maybe we could all put our heads together and try to come up with a solution that actually addresses the core problem. From my perspective, it feels like what’s happening is a bunch of people throwing around accusations and then the community doing a performative gesture and acting like everything’s solved. I feel like there was very little discussion about what the problem was or what should be done before it became a thing where everyone who doesn’t do it is transphobic.
“I am a cis guy I look cis people can and should assume I’m cis”.
But NO ONE looks like ANYTHING on here, because we don’t have profile pictures. Like, if you wanna apply that argument on Twitter or Facebook or whatever, cool, but when everything’s text-based the problem of assuming people’s gender based on their appearance becomes a non-issue in the context of that platform.
The pushback to this, especially the pushback by people who can’t articulate why they disagree, tells me there’s a limit to the extent people are willing to go to break down our traditional understanding of gender.
I’m non-binary, I have no love for our traditional understanding of gender, and I believe that I’ve made valid, rational objections in this thread and others. But the biggest reason I’m pushing back was because of how accusatory and knee-jerk everything became. I believe there are several other people in this thread voicing valid concerns. I’m sure some of them were around earlier in the struggle session with the same concerns, but maybe they felt too intimidated to voice them, or maybe they needed some time to figure out how to articulate them.
I think that you’re doing a lot of mind-reading to reach the conclusion the reason for the pushback is because people are attached to traditional views of gender.
