i love when phil says something ridiculous like this will be the year of pears and dan just decides he’s onboard. “there’s a big plot to make them relevant”. damn right daniel those are the phacts.
Something that I think gets understated (understandably so) by Tumblr transfems, and Tumblr trans people in general tbh, is how it does suck to be excluded from sports, actually.
I enjoy sports. I have enjoyed playing games for a lot of my life, I have enjoyed studying sports, tactics and players, their histories and drama, engaging in communities. When I was younger, I used sports to try and fit in with others, and now I’m older I am using sports to build a better relationship with my father.
But as a transfem, the culture is so hostile towards, not only my existence, but my engagement in sports. In every sports website, subreddit, forum I post on, I post anonymously, using a different account from my regular account and never ever mention my gender. When I go to games, I dare not wear the clothes that make me feel happy, and I especially don’t use the bathroom I feel most comfortable in, or correct people on my pronouns.
And there is no!!! safe!!! space!!! because trans people have been so thoroughly excluded from sports that finding any who have even a passive interest is extraordinarily rare. Even worse, I am never humoured. In the (very autistic) spaces I’m in, it is common courtesy to listen to people ramble about their TV shows, their blorbos, their niche horror podcasts. But that sympathy, that interest evaporates into thin air, replaced by a glassy facade if I so much as mention a ball. It’s so embarrassing as well, the way they look at me as if I’ve admitted that I was actually faking being a trans woman the whole time, I’ve finally let the mask slip and exposed the cis man, the predator, who’s been there the whole time whenever I talk about it.
I don’t expect people to relate or suddenly get into sports or whatever, but I want people to start being activists about it. Because whilst I know for a lot of you, losing sports from your life is inconsequential, hell it may even improve it, but it’s such a core part of me and my relationships and my past that the loss of it has genuinely damaged my personality. And to the trans people out there who are into sports I’m begging you to be more open about it.
Im seeing the meteoric rise of the Heated Rivalry guys and I keep getting flashes from the novel you are working on and have read from occasionally. Despite it only being a couple of unfinished chapters, it already has added some foreboding qualities to the phenomenon of fame.
I shouldn’t say that fame sucks. Fame is a really, really intense drug that causes a lot of positive feelings and has certain positive effects but also a drug that will ruin your fucking life if you’re not incredibly lucky, because fame–like a lot of other drugs–will make you believe you can do all kinds of shit you should not do, and it gives you all kinds of feelings you cannot get from regular life.
Also, having and caring about a public persona gives literally everyone on Earth the power to easily make your life worse just by saying that you or your work suck, which is a complex thing to navigate. (Trust me.)
(I am speaking independent of financial independence. Financial independence is, if anything, underrated. But now lots of people get famous without financial independence, probably including the guys in Heated Rivalry. Movies and TV shows pay way less than you think except for the 1%, just like everything else.)
there’s absolutely something to be said about ‘booktok’ books being largely wattpad quality written erotica i’m certainly not reading them however having seen a guy on tiktok make a video like ‘all the women in your life are READING PORN’ about a book he picked up and read in his FEMALE FRIEND’S HOUSE in a tone of scandalised horror and disgust i actually don’t think men should be making those criticisms. he said he picked it up expecting a romance and was horrified it was GOONER SHIT he said specifically like ‘who are you getting your pussy wet FOR??’ in a tone of revulsion. idk man im not sure shes the weird one. i kind of wish you were dead
“a lot of books that are successful on booktok are not very good” and “people can read what they want and we need to stop being so fucking weird about women enjoying erotica” are both correct statements
