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Posted 8 years agoIf you like lets plays and would like to offer me your subscription, then here is the link to do so. Currently I am doing a playthrough of Final Fantasy XV. In addition to an Xbox One, I also have a Playstation 2 and a Gamecube that I would like to stream games from. If any of these consoles interest you, then I would appreciate your support.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI.....xiZTaZhTSYx3Og
Regards,
Nero
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI.....xiZTaZhTSYx3Og
Regards,
Nero
contradiction in terms
Posted 8 years agoSo, this is my first journal on this site since joining it back in... what was it... 2010... and the culture has changed in the past seven years, especially in America where I am from. Without getting too political, although I actually enjoy engaging in the intricacies of political debate, I have seen a lot come from the tumblr community especially concerning different genders than just male or female.
To make a long story short, I identify as a classical liberal where I want to grant the most freedoms possible within reason. The word "reason" can be interpreted differently by many, but suffice to say, I consider "within reason" to be anything that does not adversely impact or needlessly coerce individuals to give up that freedom. But lately I see the social justice crowd, feminists, gender non-conforming individuals, and the like taking to tumblr and seeing more and more the "normalization" of gender as being a social construct. Now, I enjoy a good futanari cock or pussy, and the idea of the "girly man" or "masculine woman" does not phase me. Why should anyone be constrained in how they identify personally? I don't see any harm in that. I do see harm in being taught that masculinity is "toxic" or that femininity is "weak".
But, as a furry, and a liberally minded fur at that, I cannot help but think that I am somewhat a contradiction in terms. Furry fandom is commonly associated with deviancy, similarly to how gender non-conforming individuals are. Now, I don't associate with being an "otherkin" in that I actively believe that I have the spirit of a fox encased within a human body, unlike gender non-conforming individuals who believe that, for instance, "agender" is an actual gender that needs to be recognized by wider society. But I still enjoy the art and have role played before using my fursona in both platonic and romantic situations. Yet, I don't really engage with the wider community, especially in the murring and cuddling and fondling of random characters I like.
Yet, I reject the idea of there being any more than two genders on the basis that gender and biological sex are synonymous. And, for the most part, they were until this tumblr movement really got started. Now, gender is not synonymous with biological sex, but rather is an expression of how you as an individual FEEL. Futanaris and intersex, as fun as they are to imagine, don't exist in humans (as we are a sexually dimorphic species and our primary sex organs can develop into either a penis and testicles or a vagina and ovaries) even though members of our species have developed breasts and a penis. We still refer to those individuals as male since the primary sex characteristics are male and only the secondary sex characteristics are female. Not that you would be able to necessarily tell at a glance, like we do with the majority of our population. That in and of itself is another problem: the labeling we do in our own minds as to whether we address individuals by male or female pronouns.
And now the political debate gets REALLY heated, since pronouns are a big subject of debate. Asking each individual what their pronouns are, or using gender-neutral pronouns is also a subject of debate. I am a classical liberal, so I advocate for people's freedom to say what they want within the confines of harm. Some argue that harm is done when individuals are "misgendered" but I am so far unconvinced by the arguments presented. Words, by definition, are harmless in my mind. One needs to allow words to do harm. They are not intrinsically harmful on their own. Therein lies the perplexing situation. I'm into "reals" and not "feels" as some say. I would rather defer to what is objectively true instead of how individuals "feel" as that is inherently subjective.
But being a furry inherently relies on how one feels and (more often than not it seems) comes with the territory of being some kind of non-conforming gender that most people who put "reals" before "feels" would say is made up entirely in the imaginations of those "hipsters" on tumblr who want to redefine what gender and biological sex are. I don't want to deny anyone their right to identify however they wish (why should I care if "agender" is a real gender or not?) as long as nobody is coerced into treating it as if it were a real thing. You are a real thing, and by extension, your gender would also be a real thing simply because you identify that way?
And now that term goes on birth certificates, employment payroll, marriage licenses, etc? Literally all aspects of society must bend to accommodate how individuals feel? Usually, updating forms to add even one section of a clause is a months-long process, especially when online forms are involved. And when they're government-controlled online forms, it gets even worse. Simply adding a new gender to these things can take hundreds of hours of man-power. Whoops, I said I didn't want to get too political. I guess I blew that.
So, regardless of national recognition of gender non-conforming individuals, there's the personal level of interaction I certainly don't change my behavior around people in public to ask about their pronouns. How many in the furry community do this? I'm not even sure if there are meaningful statistics on this. As more and more people request this behavior, I wonder if society actually will start to bend. Maybe I will be the future's conservative telling those darn kids to use "he" and "she" in the spirit of saving time as opposed to asking about what pronouns they use. I wonder even when I'm still a part of the furry community that seems to have embraced this new cultural aspect of adopting non-conforming genders. I wonder what others in the community think. It is not an easy train of thought to follow, nor does it seem to provide an easy answer to the nuanced. Many people would either embrace it with open arms or shun it with utter condemnation.
Regards,
Nero
To make a long story short, I identify as a classical liberal where I want to grant the most freedoms possible within reason. The word "reason" can be interpreted differently by many, but suffice to say, I consider "within reason" to be anything that does not adversely impact or needlessly coerce individuals to give up that freedom. But lately I see the social justice crowd, feminists, gender non-conforming individuals, and the like taking to tumblr and seeing more and more the "normalization" of gender as being a social construct. Now, I enjoy a good futanari cock or pussy, and the idea of the "girly man" or "masculine woman" does not phase me. Why should anyone be constrained in how they identify personally? I don't see any harm in that. I do see harm in being taught that masculinity is "toxic" or that femininity is "weak".
But, as a furry, and a liberally minded fur at that, I cannot help but think that I am somewhat a contradiction in terms. Furry fandom is commonly associated with deviancy, similarly to how gender non-conforming individuals are. Now, I don't associate with being an "otherkin" in that I actively believe that I have the spirit of a fox encased within a human body, unlike gender non-conforming individuals who believe that, for instance, "agender" is an actual gender that needs to be recognized by wider society. But I still enjoy the art and have role played before using my fursona in both platonic and romantic situations. Yet, I don't really engage with the wider community, especially in the murring and cuddling and fondling of random characters I like.
Yet, I reject the idea of there being any more than two genders on the basis that gender and biological sex are synonymous. And, for the most part, they were until this tumblr movement really got started. Now, gender is not synonymous with biological sex, but rather is an expression of how you as an individual FEEL. Futanaris and intersex, as fun as they are to imagine, don't exist in humans (as we are a sexually dimorphic species and our primary sex organs can develop into either a penis and testicles or a vagina and ovaries) even though members of our species have developed breasts and a penis. We still refer to those individuals as male since the primary sex characteristics are male and only the secondary sex characteristics are female. Not that you would be able to necessarily tell at a glance, like we do with the majority of our population. That in and of itself is another problem: the labeling we do in our own minds as to whether we address individuals by male or female pronouns.
And now the political debate gets REALLY heated, since pronouns are a big subject of debate. Asking each individual what their pronouns are, or using gender-neutral pronouns is also a subject of debate. I am a classical liberal, so I advocate for people's freedom to say what they want within the confines of harm. Some argue that harm is done when individuals are "misgendered" but I am so far unconvinced by the arguments presented. Words, by definition, are harmless in my mind. One needs to allow words to do harm. They are not intrinsically harmful on their own. Therein lies the perplexing situation. I'm into "reals" and not "feels" as some say. I would rather defer to what is objectively true instead of how individuals "feel" as that is inherently subjective.
But being a furry inherently relies on how one feels and (more often than not it seems) comes with the territory of being some kind of non-conforming gender that most people who put "reals" before "feels" would say is made up entirely in the imaginations of those "hipsters" on tumblr who want to redefine what gender and biological sex are. I don't want to deny anyone their right to identify however they wish (why should I care if "agender" is a real gender or not?) as long as nobody is coerced into treating it as if it were a real thing. You are a real thing, and by extension, your gender would also be a real thing simply because you identify that way?
And now that term goes on birth certificates, employment payroll, marriage licenses, etc? Literally all aspects of society must bend to accommodate how individuals feel? Usually, updating forms to add even one section of a clause is a months-long process, especially when online forms are involved. And when they're government-controlled online forms, it gets even worse. Simply adding a new gender to these things can take hundreds of hours of man-power. Whoops, I said I didn't want to get too political. I guess I blew that.
So, regardless of national recognition of gender non-conforming individuals, there's the personal level of interaction I certainly don't change my behavior around people in public to ask about their pronouns. How many in the furry community do this? I'm not even sure if there are meaningful statistics on this. As more and more people request this behavior, I wonder if society actually will start to bend. Maybe I will be the future's conservative telling those darn kids to use "he" and "she" in the spirit of saving time as opposed to asking about what pronouns they use. I wonder even when I'm still a part of the furry community that seems to have embraced this new cultural aspect of adopting non-conforming genders. I wonder what others in the community think. It is not an easy train of thought to follow, nor does it seem to provide an easy answer to the nuanced. Many people would either embrace it with open arms or shun it with utter condemnation.
Regards,
Nero
