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If you think you would like books that @TheRaDR @abechdel @rgay @katebornstein @carolqueen @ivancoyote @grease_bat @hanneblank @andreagibson and @CAwkward have liked, check these out (I wrote them): arsenalpulp.com/Contributors/B…
S. Bear Bergman
16.5K posts
S. Bear Bergman
@sbearbergman
Writer, storyteller, educator, publisher of @FlamingoRampant, columnist @xtramagazine, advice @ askingbear.com, books @arsenalpulp. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
- I was “in the newspapers as a youth activist” level of O-U-T as a queer student at 16yo in 1991. EVERY SINGLE ONE of the objections we now see about trans youth was made about me, and I am FURIOUS at all the gays and lesbians my age who are falling for this now. To them:
- When I teach professionals, I sometimes put them in groups to discuss and take notes. I specifically name that women are overwhelmingly called upon to serve as recorders, so I ask that every group assign a man to do this. The reactions are *wild*. Regularly, one man makes a 1/xThis Post is from an account that no longer exists. Learn more
- Sure, yes: let’s teach our young women to say “I’m speaking,” when they need to. BUT LETS PUT TRIPLE THAT ENERGY INTO TEACHING OUR YOUNG MEN NOT TO INTERRUPT PEOPLE OR SPEAK OVER THEM. STOP BURDENING WOMEN AND NONBINARY PEOPLE WITH THE FAILURES OF MASCULINITY, HOW ABOUT?
- Replying to @sbearbergmanTalk about everyone wants a revolution but no one wants to do the dishes. Feminist men, a word: learn to do all those things and DO them. Take the notes. Organize the group gift. Keep track of birthdays. Take the lunch order and call it in. DO a feminism, don’t just say it.
- When people ask me what I mean about wanting mutual aid a lot more than I want more self-care, this is (part of) what I mean:
- Replying to @sbearbergman“joke” that his handwriting or note-taking (or both) are terrible, so not him, which gives me the moment to note that people who practice a skill will improve, which is why women seem to be better at it. It’s not mostly natural inclination, my dudes, it’s just practice.
- Writers pro tip: if the punchline of your joke is “man in a dress” or “two dudes kiss,” you don’t have a joke, you have a contributing factor in an eventual hate crime.
- Replying to @sbearbergmanand mouth the SAME ARGUMENTS THEY USED AGAINST US? Make things harder, and not better, for trans and nonbinary and gender-noncompliant youth? I fought for you to be able to live, thrive, and succeed. NOT so you could shit on the kids who need us most now. Shame on you all.
- Replying to @sbearbergmanI fought for every student to have the equal right to attend school safely regardless of their gender or sexuality and I got hate mail, I got screamed at by crowds, I got condemned to death while most of you were still closeted. I testified at the statehouse; I visited
- However you feel about everything suddenly being very mindful, very demure, but every time you hear it remember that 55yo trans woman Jools Lebron got to quit her job at the grocery store and is now getting flown out and doing brand collabs on the strength of it. Delicious.
- Replying to @sbearbergmanAnd to be clear: zero judgement about when or if you ever could be that out or do that work. It’s not for everyone, and I want all 2SLGBTQIA+ people to live well and be happy so make your own choices in love. But don’t use that choice as a cover to shit on trans kids. Not EVER.
- Replying to @sbearbergmanschools and talked to teachers, I let them print my picture and full name in the paper while my parents begged me not to, while the AIDS epidemic raged and Jesse Helms was still yelling for all the dirty queers to be rounded up and branded or sent to an island. At every turn,
- Replying to @sbearbergmanI also had the benefit of queer adults in my life who took HUGE risks being there for me as a teenager because of these nonsense ideas about “grooming” and “recruiting.” They stood by me in every way and helped me to be scared but do the work anyway. They encouraged me and