Rough Cut: "Autogynephilia"

Thank you for that response! It was really helpful.

Kristina Foster

Natalie, I love you! I'd whistle at you in the street! ;-) Thanks for this video. As a transgender woman myself I can imagine just how hard this video was to make. It's really needed though!

i know you meant it mostly non seriously, but be a but careful "doing battle with the TERF hordes", if you get them too riled up they'll go take it out on trans women, so you may end up doing more hard than good

Kirt

it'd be probably be either: A. some people to use "transsexual" to mean people who transition medically, and "transgender" to be a broader umbrella term including transsexuals AND people who don't identify as cis but don't do anything medical about it. or B. because some people consider transsexual to be a slur and she's trying to reclaim it or maybe C. because the word transgender was coined by a TERF or D. she just wanted a noun to fit the sentence and "transgender" is not usually used as a noun

Kirt

I hope this isn't an ignorant question, but may I ask why the use of transsexual rather than transgender throughout the video?

Kristina Foster

I wonder what kind of nightmarish theories people have for ace's when they're done picking apart every other non cis/het sexualities. I'm afraid to try googling that. This was amazingly informative. Thanks for the recommendations. And I hope this video finds a few people I've met in the past who seem to have had very similar experiences to yours.

Undlark

"and just wait until you see my sex robot!" broke me. Well done, love your work :)

Probably my favorite video so far, great job.

You know why you love an artist when a video better than almost anything by her peers is the "rough cut". Thank you ^_^ Your style is developing at a breakneck pace. The title cards are so amazingly well done, in terms of aesthetics, visual and sound editing (what might be the main influence this time? Enter the Void?), the lighting schemes and production values are gorgeous. I hardly knew anything about Autogynephilia and the discourse surrounding it that I wasn't really able to follow most of the content the first time around, so I had even more opportunity to focus on the style and the attention to detail. Regarding the content, one thing I loved about this one - again - was that you are among the few content creators able to view a topic from the perspective of many different people involved while still presenting a clear opinion of your own. So your work never falls into the extremes of either being a rant (as often on Youtube) or succumbing to relativism (as often in academia). That's why your work, in its best moments, really represents the best of both worlds. I was also happy you continue to emphasize the central role of social power and heteronormativity in these matters, and that social justice movements don't hate "the normies", they just want to be heard (I think this is one of the most tragic misunderstandings, and not often enough dealt with). It's also really appreciated you are so upfront and honest about your personal experiences. I think that means a lot to many people, and it's all but taken for granted. Loved the little digs at the more intolerant strains within the internet trans community ^_^ And patient #655321 made me laugh out loud. (And yes, a Kubrick fan will probably get that it's the number Alex is assigned in prison in A Clockwork Orange. A nice cheeky reference ^^) And thanks for referring to Berger's Ways of Seeing, which I see as one of the most illuminating works on art history out there! Also, the longer video format is actually appreciated, as these are complicated issues that often can't be explored thoroughly within a couple of minutes. I was always hoping your video essays would get longer and very detailed. So for me, personally, this is wonderful, but it's also obvious that longer videos are much more work and will rarely be viable.

Benedict Marko

1) Thank you for being so courageous as to open yourself up in public like this. The bravery you exhibit is beyond admirable. 2) It seriously wouldn't surprise me if the reason transmen and non-binary individuals aren't touched upon by Blanchard is due to the fact that there's a *deep* stigma in Western culture about men acting like women (a surprise, right?): you can see it in the early 20th Century where effeminate homosexuals were "Nancys" while masculine ones just...*were*; among the Old Norse (the term "ergi" was used as an insult for someone who either adopted the "feminine" role in sex -- meanwhile, if you were the top then there was no questioning of your masculinity -- or performed "feminine" activities from things as mundane as spinning to things such as specific forms of magical practice -- in the "Flyting of Loki", Loki hurls an insult at Odin that he's "unmanly" for having learned and practiced the "feminine" magical art of seidhr) and the Romans (again, with the whole "if you're the 'bottom' you're unmanly", which extends even to being the one to perform oral sex -- even if you're a straight cis-man eating out a straight cis-woman, it was still seen as being "too feminine" since you were *technically* taking someone else's genitals into one of your orifices), and likely others in the Indo-European chain of cultures (the Greeks, obviously, figured out their own work-arounds for that particular misogynstic/homophobic hang up). So, yeah, in the eyes of researchers like Blanchard, women wanting to be men are understandable (being a woman sucks, being a man rocks) and individuals of both sexes wanting to define themselves as something "in-between" or "none of the above" is at least conceivable and tolerable, but men wanting to give up the awesomeness of masculinity? They must either be weird homosexuals or perverts who want to be able to fuck themselves. So, I guess Blanchard and his ilk are the academic equivalents of Banky from "Chasing Amy"? 3) As someone who is the first steps of transitioning MtF...yeah, Frank N Furter. Definitely been there, done that.

every time you shred it up on the piano it blows my mind

SurgeryHead

fantastic work as usual

SurgeryHead

You've outdone yourself babe, I learned a lot and really felt for you at the end. I feel better armed for doing battle with the TERF hordes. I like that you're taking on the sort of bigotry, jump-ed up transphobia that supposedly enlightened educated people suffer from and as far as people who can be reasoned with go you'e absolutely smoked Blanchard. You're awesome, keep up the good work.

Conor Mcvarnock

Really made me think. Thank you for all your candour and openness; I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision but I do think it might really help some people understand more.

BruceR

Fascinating! I'm shocked that such a theory even exists, but not really surprised

Madeleine Swann