29
What is the point of "The Prime Directive"?
(hexbear.net)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2024
29 points (100.0% liked)
anti_cishet_aktion
2696 readers
2 users here now
A space for LGBTQIA+ people to express themselves.
RULES
-
Familiarize yourself with the site-wide Code of Conduct
-
Be nice to each other, no bigotry of any kind
Bigotry includes transphobia, homophobia, aphobia, sexism, racism, ableism, etc. Hold each other accountable. If you see something, say something. -
Don't link to transphobia
Please don't link to transphobia (or other bigotry), even if your personal intent is to challenge the bigotry in some way. Provide a content warning label in the title of your post where applicable. -
Be dank; don't be not-dank
No liberalism, capitalist apologia, imperialism, etc. -
Harassment
Cyber-stalking, harassment, and all other forms of threatening another comrade will result in removal.
Threatening, inciting violence, and promoting harm to another comrade shall result in removal. -
No sexually explicit content
As badly as some of us want to get saucy here, do not post sexually-explicit content that could reveal your personal or confidential information. Until there is a way this could be safely executed, all sexually-explicit posts will be removed to keep our comrades safe. -
Do not post NSFL Content
It will be removed. -
We are not a crisis service
We can't guarantee an immediate response. This does not mean no one cares. If you need to talk to someone at once, you may want to take a look at this directory of Hotline Numbers.
If you need help but don’t feel comfortable making a post for any reason, please message the moderators. We will be glad to talk with you privately, or help in any other way that we can.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Identity is very personal.
Because of how transphobic society is, one of the most universal feelings I’ve observed in people early on in gender exploration is a sort of imposter syndrome. It’s this feeling that, by claiming the label of trans or by considering that you may not be cis, you’re somehow deluding yourself or invading trans spaces. If someone has pushed you too hard to explore these feelings, it can begin to feel like they’ve somehow pressured you into changing who you are or that they’re the cause of all your repressed trauma.
There’s also the fact that repression happens for a reason. Often, the reasons for repression remain in one form or another even throughout gender exploration. Things like transphobic family and internalized sexism are common examples. Bottom line is that gender exploration is not equally safe and good for all people at all times. If someone is trans, they need to discover that in their own time when they’re ready.
What is appropriate is sharing of personal experiences. So the way that trans people often interface with The Prime Directive is to reframe those discussion and make them as pressure free as possible by focusing on their own experiences and allowing the potential egg to ask questions as needed.
This was basically it for me. When I was very young (not quite into my teens), for one reason or another, my grandmother made several remarks about how I should have been born a girl and how they should have named me [femme version of first name]. It didn't cause me to self-reflect or examine anything about my identity; rather, I felt an intense wave of revulsion and immediately shut down any possibility of ever exploring those aspects of myself that caused the remarks in the first place. It took damn near 30 years to break down those mental barriers. I'm left wondering if it would have made a difference if they'd never gone up in the first place.
Anyway, I doubt that it's a very uncommon defense mechanism for people to just shut down when someone else challenges their very sense of self. And it definitely doesn't help the impostor syndrome...