So, say hello to the new “default” avatar, replacing generic-young-white-male as the starting avatar in Afar. Haven’t implemented it yet, I’ve got to uh, find out how to, as I made the code for avatar selection over a year ago…

It’s supposed to be gender, race, and age neutral, but if you have any suggestions to better it please let me know.

(Ashamedly replaces:

)

If you’re playing Afar, come to change your face, and don’t think any face really represents “you”, please let me know, and I will do all I can to try and edit / make a new face. Just note I’m not very good at these things so there’s a chance what I end up with might be offensive in some way.. and if that’s the case, let me know and I’ll try harder.

There’s no gender, race or age in the game, anybody can choose any face, but appreciate that it’s hard to be all-inclusive in a finite list; there are 100 to choose from but I certainly don’t claim every possible face is there.

You can contact me via tumblr, anonymously if you like, or via the suggestions board in-game (although anonymous suggestions haven’t been implemented in-game yet).

Anon tumblr asks are perfectly fine.

I will work on making a better “starting face” than young-white-male. Something like the tumblr no-avatar face would be better.

atelophobiclife asked: You do realize that transsexed was listed among the "sex" portion, don't you? Typically speaking, most transsexed people will go through surgery to correct their sexual assignment if they can afford it.

Well, yeah, but there’s still something mental in the background making them be transsexed. They’re correcting it, but correcting it based on something very real in their head. Gender expression etc might be down to social pressures and things, but there’s still a… well, still a way to be male and female other than society’s gender roles and such, idk.

atelophobiclife:

There are a lot of people who want to bitch that it’s “oppressive” to use male/female to describe someone’s sex. These people are fucking idiots.

Sex and gender a two completely different things. Sex is biological - it deals with what parts you have downstairs. That it is. It doesn’t identify…

This is all well and good, but the concept of transsexualism still exists; there’s… hmm… ok it’s hard to explain with the words society uses, but

There’s sex, and there’s gender expression and identity, but there is also a mental sex, which directly relates to sex and is nothing to do with how one fits into society’s arbitrary roles and such.

See, even if gender expression and society didn’t exist, there would still be transsexual* people; in the literal sense of mental sex not matching up with physical sex (but going further because there is also I guess “average hormone levels” and things like that).

* I used the word transsexual to seperate it from transgender because the -gender part is ambiguous.

I know this is based on good intentions and whatnot, but while gender… expression, and roles, are socially constructed, mental sex is not, and is something completely different.

Tumblr in general seems to be caught in the trap of assuming everybody is American and every topic is about America. Discussions about race, about statistics such as suicide and murder rates, about laws and law changes, the status of equal marriage, even who the president is, are all about America.

If I make a post it is almost certainly about England*, and specifically my area, because that is where I have experience, and I’m sure everybody is the same.

I’m going to have to think about that a lot more when I’m posting, and others too. The majority of things are pretty much location specific (and as a Brit I can’t influence laws in America any more than an American can influence laws in the UK).

* NB: I said England not the United Kingdom because Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own different laws and such.

The way Rad Fem has now turned it’s efforts on Liberal Feminists (see: Liberal Feminist Problems), it strikes me that the movement is less about rights for women and actually changing things, and more about just picking on other people, moving from one group to the next just to have a good argument.

ilietomytherapist:

I’m seeing a lot of “gender abolitionist” stuff on my dash today (I should probably put extra quotes around the word “abolitionist” because gender assignment may be non-consensual but it’s not slavery so gtfo). This is, of course, fucking bullshit.

I’m really invested in my gender identity. It…

That’s not the point. In a gender-free society you can still do, or be, whatever you want; you just don’t have to. There would be no laws or societal roles imposed purely based on gender. Nobody is saying you can’t do whatever you want to do, just that, as you pointed out (but passed off for some reason?), we need to fix the problems of gender discrimination. No, that isn’t another way of telling you you can’t exist. You can exist, you just don’t have to do things people tell you you have to.

A gender free society doesn’t impede anybody, at all, they can continue with their lives as normal. The only things with it are positives, as those who are impeded by society’s current groupings and rules have more freedom in a gender free society.

I know a lot of trans* people do donation drives and fundraisers and such. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but it’s not something I would be happy doing.

Buuut, if you play my game and enjoy it, there is an option to donate money to the game which will, when it’s done, get you a paid account (not sure what the perks will be yet). Don’t consider it donating to a trans* person, consider it donating to a game like any other game.

If you don’t like it, don’t donate!

I’d much rather turn my game into a sustainable job and build it into something that can keep me going in the future, than do a donation drive and get money with nothing to fall back on when that money stops coming in, idk.

And if you want to help shape my game, if you have a vision for how it could help people, or just how it could be better, suggestions/criticisms are worth more than money. :)

eltigrechico:

If you are a ‘woman’ who has a penis and a man is interested in you, it is your obligation to ‘disclose’ that you have a fucking penis.

The fuck is wrong with people?

Only if your definition of “interested in you” is “wants sex and nothing else”.

Hey Afar playing peoplephiles, if you’re in a town and lost, add &debug to the url and it will draw white boxes around any interactive elements.

No matter who, what, or why, everybody has the right to say “actually no, we’re not all like that” to anything, especially if it’s said in an open medium. It doesn’t matter who is saying it or who it is aimed at, it doesn’t matter who is the “most oppressed”. Everybody has the right to be treated fairly and equally regardless of attributes that they cannot change about themselves.

Why yes, I am listening to the Guild Wars OST while working. Problem officer?

smallrevolutionary:

what i think the issue is that other people (read:black) aren’t afforded such generalizations,

In my mind nobody is afforded such generalisations. My point is definately not to say that white people are any different in this.

and when they ARE its to erase such racism and the like afforded in your presence because you want  ALL to be just “trans women feminists” but at the end of the day when you erase our color you silence our mistreatment because of our color.

This is not my intention at all. I’m going to have to apologise because I still can’t see how including everybody in everything is erasing race. Not every trans issue is made different by race (yes, sometimes race is an important factor); I mean really I just don’t see what the original blog was talking about (which might just show my ignorance, but I still can’t see it, so I’m sorry).

AND AND AND i really want to say fuck you for making this about you. no one is saying its about you specifically, until you, ya know…. came out and said “this shit right heaaaa is about me”

Um, what?

Did you read the post?

“No matter how much truth is presented in [R]adical Feminist or [T]ransgender arguments it is dangerous because it operates under the assumption that woman = whiteness, that transgender = whiteness, that people = whiteness.”
- BlahBlahBlather

Yes, the post is about me. The post is about (radical feminists and) white transgender people. The post is full of blanket statements about the white transgender community. I do not see how it does not refer to me.

You cannot, ever, make blanket statements about a group without expecting somebody in that group to make a rebutal.

These kind of blanket statements are never ok regardless of who they are referring to. Because if it was the other way around, talking about black transgender people, it would be racism and stereotyping and that would be pretty awful, ok? You don’t get to do that to other people and claim it’s because you don’t want it done to you.

your complacency with erasing a persons systematic negative experience does nothing but add fuel to the fire.

I do not mean to erase anybody’s negative experience. I do not deny that a lot of terrible things go on in the world, and it is awful. That is not, ever, going to stop me fighting for equality, because I believe equality is the solution to this problem.

What I am erasing, I suppose, is the assumption that there has to be a seperate white and black trans community. The post is all about how black people are ignored in white people posts, and I really don’t see what BlahBlahBlather’s proposed solution to that would be; I don’t mean this how it sounds, but honestly, what would you like us to do?

fire that literally kills black trans women, hell black people period. you’d rather we see you as person and not an adjective-person but BLACK people are never afforded that shit.

I am “affording you that shit”… Honestly, I don’t understand this at all. I would rather you saw me as a person, and would rather see you as a person. It works both ways and I am never going to drop that aspect of me because I fail to see how it’s not a good thing.

If I am fueling a fire that kills black trans people - then that is terrible - but if you’re going to make that statement to me I will make it back at you - because you too are fueling said fire; the fact BlahBlahBlather’s post even exists is just fuel to the fire. Any blanket statements about anybody are fuel to the fire. If you can’t see why that’s a problem then you are just as ignorant as I.

we have to demand our humanity, our personhood with every thought conjured and breath taken because the world does not readily see it. you my dear are part of the goddamn problem.

I am not part of the problem. I am somebody who specifically wants the same as you, for you, for everybody. The world does not readily see it but I do :| you are preaching to the wrong person. If you keep calling activists the problem then they are just going to give up and stop being activists.

and this is why i am a black trans activist

why i am a black female activist

why i am black human rights activist

I cannot be a black activist because I am not black. If by this you just mean compaigning for black rights then I am too; I am campaigning for all rights, for everybody. Yes that means I don’t explicitely say “black people”, because black people are not the only troubled in society; there are a lot of oppressed groups and it would be unfair of me to single out one of them when it’s all a blur anyway; everybody deserves respect and equality, and everybody has the right to demand that respect and equality, so long as that doesn’t hurt somebody else in the process.

because white people are QUICK to ignore their own racism and claim the problem that effects THEM is greater than our problem… our problem which has been killing us since we were stolen.

The post was about me. The post was about the entire “white trans community”. You do not get to erase my right to protest against a blanket statement any more than I get to say your oppression doesn’t exist.

It is terrible what happened in the past and I will never claim otherwise. It is terrible what still goes on today, and I will do all I can to fight against that.

yall can… just…

fuck mainstream (read: white) driven activism, yall stand by and let us die because it isn’t packaged as nicely as you need it  to be. Because it would take fucking self reflection. yall let us die because you dont want to feel bad. white guilt. white fucking guilt.

So basically I have to be guilty because I’m white.

I can’t change how I was born. It is not going to stop me campaigning for equality. I am not going to sit and be silent because I happen to be part of the majority.

Going to sleep.

If you think I’m a white supremist or a bigot or anything - feel free to send me an ask and I’ll respond truthfully and honestly and (hopefully) less angrily tomorrow. I know I’m not good at expressing myself and get misinterpreted a lot (which suggests I’m typing a lot of utter shit).

Ask me anything. Anon’s ok.