yousaythosethings

Well, I don't need to tell anyone here that I didn't write this. There is a lot of tunnel vision and misattribution going on in this analysis, but overall this is more good than bad IMO. It is important that someone got the conversation started, and specifically someone non-TERFY and into Queer Theory. I also saw that a trans bi person apparently made a video against the Master Doc. I don’t know that I have any interest in watching it though. But the siren needs to blare from the inside to have effect.

There is a lot of hypocrisy and inconsistency within this analysis, but that’s what you get when you try to ground an analysis in queer theory, and when you try to make every act of erasure, big or small, about “hate.” You’re going to step on just as many other people’s toes. We all commit “erasure” to some degree because we are also so focused on ourselves and what we know and care about. We can’t care about all things. We can’t know all things. We can’t understand the complex struggles of all people, and we certainly shouldn’t be expected to be born knowing them. So while this lady's perspective is selfish and ignorant at times, we all are to some degree, I can appreciate the good in it without harping on the bad as malevolent. Overall, I think she made it pretty clear that she believes that the author of the doc is a political lesbian or is espousing ideas consistent with political lesbian. It would be helpful for her to define that more and to indicate that political lesbians aren’t “lesbians,” but she’s too stuck on the idea that “lesbian” can have a million self-serving definitions and we don’t know what someone means by “lesbian” until they indicate their definition. So while she is concerned about bisexual erasure, lesbian erasure and lesbophobia is not a concern for her. I think it’s also evident that she thinks that political lesbian = TERF. Like it can, but that’s not inherently the same thing. And let’s be real, no “TERF” is writing about “gender feelings” and women being attracted to trans women as a sign of lesbianism. Like come on, dude.

It’s also clear that she doesn’t think actual lesbians are behind this trying to convert bisexuals because if she has been researching this topic for months and says it’s being passed around “shady” parts of the Internet, there's no way wasn't snooping around r/latebloomerlesbians for a while, and realized, as an actual bisexual, that the prosletyzers there are most definitely not lesbians themselves. For one, if she read enough posts, she likely realized she has far more concrete, real-life sexual attraction to women than them, hence her emphasis on the problem of the lack of focus of the Master Doc on attraction to the female body. And hence that she emphasizes learning from attraction you feel to actual women in your life in the real world and engaging in experiences with women over weird Internet thought exercises (Hallelujah). I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the actual bisexuals in r/LBL are the most reasonable there, even the queery ones. Lesbians won't stick around in the Upside Down for long so you're not going to get much engagement from them there. So often the only pushing back happening on these LARPers there comes from bisexuals pointing out bi erasure, and they absolutely should. It is a problem, and this is part and parcel to that.

Also, does anyone have any idea what she's referring to here?

It seems people’s biggest issue with me is that I tweeted, and stand by, the idea that this document is full of awful conversion rhetoric and misinformation and sending it to bisexual people (especially when unprompted) is just bigotted and mean. This kind of bigotry in the lgbt community leads to literal violence against bisexual people, the majority of who are trans and/or poc as well.

Like obviously it's a dick move to send this to bisexual women, but the rest of it - the Master Doc leading to literal violence and bisexuals and that most bisexuals are trans or POC, what? Like does she mean in the world because most people in the world aren't white? And most bisexuals are trans? How do you figure?

The references to "TERF rhetoric" are interesting because it shows she knows nothing about the diverse group of people who get called "TERF." Like obviously, a lot of things can get you called TERF, but I've never heard any terven woman espouse any of the things she associates with "TERFs." She seems to think TERF = obsessed with gender conformity. It's absolutely delicious that she calls the idea of a woman being attracted to a feminine/gender non-conforming man as evidence of lesbianism transphobic + TERF logic. That's one way to strike a major nerve in these female trans chasers. No one calls out the straight women who date transwomen and call themselves "lesbians" and stan the "girldick" "chasers" but that is exactly what a female trans chaser looks like IMO.

“You wish you weren’t attracted to men / You wish you were a lesbian” I know straight women aren’t reading this but if they were they would be laughing with me.

She gets so hyperfocused on her own group, bisexuals, that she seems to forget that straight women are reading this, as evident by her point that the Master Doc implies lesbianism is women who don't like the idea of dating men and that it's completely disconnected from lack of attraction to the female body.

She's ignorant about lesbianism being what erases bisexuality. Well many lesbians do, but in the opposite way. Not by trying to convince bisexual women they're lesbians but by considering bisexual women straight. I'm just confused about how this woman, who I will believe is actually bisexual, and has an interest in "queer history" has somehow missed this. In reality, she is doing a lot of her own bisexual erasure throughout this post when she talks about different definitions of "lesbian," as anything other than exclusive same-sex attraction. If she endorses that a woman can have a history of attraction to men but be a "lesbian" and that bisexuals can be lesbians, how is that not bisexual erasure too? And why should anyone other than homosexual females decide the definition of "lesbian"? If "lesbian" means something else, then shouldn't homosexual females still get their own word?

I've come to find that the way the word "ableist" is used to be tone-deaf, idiotic, and offensive, but then again someone called "ableist" on r/LBL recently because I found it relatively easy to leave my marriage and not fuck men as a lesbian. But you know, apparently the idea that if you're a lesbian, you generally have no interest in continuing to be married to a man or fucking men so ableist.

Since this woman clearly has Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), I get that she takes offense to the idea that a mental disorder can make a woman think she’s straight. But I find it can be the other way around. It is supremely unhelpful for her to compare disorders that inherently involve a weak sense of self and personal identity with anxiety and depression. My very straight long-time close friend who developed Bipolar disorder in the second half of her twenties experiences hypersexuality when she is hypomanic and manic. One of the early signs she's entered that stage is that she starts to appropriate aspects of myself and incorporate them into herself including my sexual orientation, getting my piercings, adopting my habits, interests, and goals and presenting them as her own to others. And I do suspect that a lot of women with a weak sense of self including those with BPD are among the biggest victims of this Master Doc propaganda, but for some of them I also get the sense that their "bisexuality" is inherently tied into the hypersexuality of their disorder. So it's not that they can't co-exist, but it's on a case by case basis.

The "gender feelings" section makes this author sound like a TERF in disguise. I like that she thinks it is harmful and offensive to "trans women." I mean it is in a way harmful to the generally homosexual transsexuals with sex dysphoria. But this logic is very much the logic repeated by transbians. She's either going to give them an identity crisis, or more likely feel their wrath, especially since she shot an arrow right through the hearts of straight women + trans women in "lesbian" relationships.

If you experience any of the things above, it does not mean you a real lesbian unless you fucking say so.

No, dingus. You undermine your entire point and just wasted your time writing this if you are going to promulgate that all it takes to be a lesbian is to say you're one. Your target audience already made that declaration and you are basically saying that you can't question it as a result and are automatically the bad guy for doing exactly that in long form.

Finally, the idea that Vice published an article about the MasterDoc this past summer has me howling. I’ll have to read that and also tune into the reactions to this verbal takedown in places like r/LBL.