Using Call Out Posts To Mask Trans Misogyny

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This has become an increasingly normal issue, especially on tumblr but I have seen it begin to seep its way onto other social media. (I know, I know "just leave social media" but this is an issue I want to talk about.) When someone doesn't like a trans woman, or even is a secret terf. They will commonly suddenly go after a trans woman, sometimes one who has somewhat of a platform, other times a random "friend" or "ex-friend" of theirs.

Call Out Posts are Bad in General

Listen, I don't like following absolutely horrible people. If someone is a fascist I would like to know. The issue is in the age of AI and the internet, the likelihood that the evidence is even real is honestly low. If real can also easily be taken out of context, or extremely old.

They create this hate mob against people and bring hateful people out of the wood work. The amount of replies that are always like "I have been seeing red flags in them recently!"; "I always had a bad feeling about them!"; etc, is just wild. Where were they before the controversy? Why do they feel the need now to talk about their "premonitions" about this person?

The Trans Misogyny of it All

Call out posts against trans woman aren't uniquely special in how they are made. Instead about how they get used. Common things within them are allegations of grooming, abuse, and general "creepy" behavior.

Already you may put together the pieces of this, but for clarity. These allegations are used as a way to help push the narrative against trans woman that we are exactly what is said. They want people to believe that all trans woman are abusers and groomers. They spread this so you begin to think that trans woman are doing this at an increased rate in comparison to other groups of people. Which is just clearly not true.

Out Of Context

People making these posts purposely use out of context clips, or extremely old evidence. Out of context clips are extremely common for how easy they are to use.

This screen shot is of someone from discord. Look how horrible they where to me. How mean they are. Clearly they are being purposely mean to me in DM's and now I have a screenshot of them doing so to use against them!

I'll drop the act now, obviously this is not a real screenshot, I asked a friend to help me with this post. (Thank you Hydra)

This is obviously not how all call out posts look behind the screen. It is a good example however, of how easy it is to cherry pick replies and posts to help prove their points. Often the context missing is the abuse that the original person received, or needed context for why something was said. However you now have this belief that they said it without any context and are being led to believe their a horrible person because of the reply.

Old Posts

We are all human, this is a statement you will find me constantly bring up. That is because it is always important to remember when we are all human. In this context its because we all have to grow and make mistakes. Anyone who acts like they where a perfect person when they where younger is lying. To anyone young now, this is just how life is. You are not perfect and that is okay. Allow yourself the room to grow. We also need to allow others the room to grow.

With that all said, sometimes yeah there is context, but how old is the evidence? 5? 10? 15 years? Even older? You don't have to forgive someone for their actions that long ago, but we should allow them to grow from them. What if they have grown from them? These old posts are not good enough evidence that they are continuing to do these things.

Do we know if they did or didn't do the work to fix it? Would it be enough for them to share receipts? Or is that just them digging the hole deeper? Will the goal post be moved by the person making the call out post? How long ago is long enough to not be relevant?

Sure, you don't have to forgive a person who did these things in the past. The world will keep moving whether you do or not. Nor do you really have to like them anymore, your opinion of someone is also allowed to change. The point is you really need to think about the narrative that someone is laying out in front of you.

We can not litigate a person we do not know. As an abolitionist, I believe in restorative justice so that one may redeem them self and come out the other side a better person. Someone who did horrible shit 10 years ago can be a better person. If we did not allow people to atone for their past actions, everyone would be in trouble.

Why Now?

Every time i hear about some one saying something shitty in the past, in private. I always wonder, why did the person who has the evidence hold onto it for so long? Why did they keep something important from everyone until now?

This obviously doesn't extend to every scenario, but some of these things are absolutely used as blackmail. If a "past friend" suddenly drops "incriminating" messages about that person. That does change the dynamic of the messages, it makes it slightly harder to be mad, especially cause this person was clearly also okay with it at the time.

Fake Evidence

Obviously this is the most self explanatory issue here. I bring it up however because we need to be extra aware of how easy it is to fake evidence in 2024. Even getting rid of AI trained on voices, you can just photoshop any evidence you need.

Hell you don't even need that. There is a fake post maker for every single social media, and messaging app in the world. It takes 5 seconds to find one, and like a minute to actually create them.

Narrative

If I intentionally tell you specific details while leaving out others. I am lying to you in some way. People do this to weave narratives for you to believe. The narrative people who makes these posts are trying to push is the narrative that trans women are all some sort of "super predator".

They use language, and your compassion for certain topics, against you. It's hard to make you hateful to someone you don't know for no reason. It is easy to make you hate a person through lies and deceit. Through telling you how horrible they are for doing x and y, and how they aren't "good people". They will be very careful with their words, but common notices are the intense use of "they" instead of "she", or trying to bring up the persons trans-ness as a reason for doing what they possibly did. They will use biased and inflammatory words and sentences, as a small way to trick your brain.

You are not immune to propaganda, and these are a form of propaganda. For them, the more trans women they make you hate the better. The more trans women they make you believe are these crazed predators out to get people, the more hateful you become towards trans women. The more you begin to subconsciously believe that trans woman are more predisposed to be predators.

But... What if?

What if the trans woman is a horrible person? Obviously this is possible. Every group of people on this planet, have some people within them that are shitty people. That is a given in this world.

A trans woman being a shit person doesn't give you or anyone a free pass to be a shitty person to that trans woman. Especially on the bases of her being trans. Stop calling her "they", or critiquing her looks, stop critiquing her transition, or how "much" of a woman she is. Stop using it as an excuse to be trans misogynistic

I am telling you to be critical of the people who make these posts. Question the intention behind it, who they are and what they believe about trans woman before you blindly reply with "I always knew something was off." Because no you didn't. You are just letting your trans misogyny show.

References

litigate: To prosecute or defend (a lawsuit or legal action).

Restorative Justice: An approach to justice that aims to repair the harm done to victims. In doing so, practitioners work to ensure that offenders take responsibility for their actions, to understand the harm they have caused, to give them an opportunity to redeem themselves, and to discourage them from causing further harm.

Plans

Okay, now that that is out of the way I also wanted to add that I have some ideas for future things for the site and blog. This has nothing to do with the rest of the post so.

The first thing is i am thinking of trying to start up a monthly thing where I play some games (probably through itch) and then talk about them in one post on here. Not a review but more a "hey look at this game its cool" type deal. I don't know if i will start this month or next, considering how deep we are into this month.

I also have thought about sharing people's art. The issue with this is I dont know how I want to do it. Obviously I will need to reach out, but I want it to be like more an interpretation thing instead of like "reviewing" how good they are at art. If your an artist who would be down for that maybe reach out? You can comment on my neocities, or my guestbook, or message me on bluesky. I cant promise anything though.

The game

Im still working on it. Ill probably make a blog post in the coming days... maybe.

Love Every Trans Woman You Meet Before It's Too Late.