The HBO hit's writer-director is returning to the competition series for its 50th edition after previously predicting he would never be allowed to come back.
  • Mossy Feathers (She/Her)@pawb.socialEnglish
    72·
    2 days ago

    Just a reminder that Mike White appeared on a podcast run by Andrew Sullivan - known for promoting the “bell jar” pseudoscientific theory on racial intelligence potentials - in order to promote autogynephilia. Autogynephilia is a similarly pseudoscientific concept which claims that trans people can be split into two categories: “true” trans, and men with a fetish for appearing as a woman (aka, a paraphilia).

    For those who are new to the concept (most cis people aren’t familiar with it), there are a lot of problems with it, both the original concept and the way it’s wielded.

    • It is often used to erase the possibility of being a non-heterosexual trans woman by defining “true” trans women as being exclusively attracted to men.

    • It is often used to erase the existence of trans women who wish to appear butch or otherwise androgynous (I personally identify as fem, but enjoy the idea of looking fem-drogynous).

    • It is often used to erase the identities between the binaries.

    • It did not have a cisfem control group.

    • It did not account for trans men and is often used to erase trans men.

    • It fails to take into account that the arousal towards seeing oneself as their chosen gender could be rooted in self-actualization and not objectification of the female body or fetishization of femininity.

    • It fails to account for the fact that arousal from pride in one’s self-image is something that cis people can experience. As an extension of this it fails to consider the fact that, having been starved of that experience, the feelings associated with that experience will almost certainly be far stronger for trans people who are just learning to take pride in their appearance.

    Even its existence by itself is an issue because, as I can attest to, it’s not uncommon for autogynephilia to be one of the first things a trans person, especially a trans woman, might come across while playing devil’s advocate with their own dysphoric desires.

    One of the reasons why I personally took 10yrs to actually start transitioning was because, as a 20yr old just discovering the concept of transness after moving out for the first time, autogynephilia was one of the first things I read about. Because of the fact that I found transformation art, especially relating to gender transformation, to be arousing, I believed that I was simply a man with a fetish.

    It wasn’t until far later that I discovered that what I experienced was relatively normal for trans people and didn’t erase my transness. Someone explained to me their own belief as to why, which makes a hell of a lot more sense than the mental gymnastics being done by autogynephilia - due to how sexuality and gender are interlinked with each other, it’s unsurprising that the rush of hormones from feeling pride in your appearance as your preferred gender (aka, gender euphoria) after lacking that experience for most of your life would cause sexual arousal.

    It’s a very harmful concept, even just passively, and it makes me sad that Mike White is still being platformed after promoting it. Though not surprising, I suppose, considering that companies like Warner Bros and HBO can’t stop chewing on Rowling’s fetid, rancid cunt.

    (For those more familiar with fighting against the term, lemme know if I missed any issues with autogynephilia because I’m sure there are a lot I haven’t covered)