[Kilroy]

I was going to say that "Newhalf" seems to be referring to cartesian dualism, where "half" a person is their soul, which apparently has an essential gender, and the other half refers to the body. So I thought the implication was that the soul remains the same and the body changes. The screencap of your correspondence with the translator removes the possibility of that interpretation though. He seems naive but reasonable. Interesting that the term would be targeted towards pre-op transsexuals specifically (but then I guess you could probably say "shemale" is "mostly targeted to pre/non-ops" too). Good writeup. I wish I could be disappointed in Kojima but the truth is that I no longer believe a person can be both prone to exercising sound critical thought and successful. I wonder what horrific abortions of intellect Phantom Pain will hold.

[guest253]

[idle]

[guest253]

[idle]

[idle]

That's kind of rude! If also kind of accurate.

In all honesty I had a few more things I disagreed with in your piece, but I held myself back because the Yoshi bit was really the only glaring one. Baby steps, Rei. Baby steps.

[guest253]

[Talbain]

[allensmithee]

the only thing eggs gotta do with is gametes and reproduction or whatever. there is nothing inherently womanly about them.

i havent played Policenauts so i was surprised i could be more deeply disappointed with Kojimas insensitive ignorant bullshit but nope, he went for lower lows.

i liked the yoshi part fwiw
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[Kilroy]

[parker]

I didn't even know Yoshi talked I just thought he was Mario's dinosaur horse
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[allensmithee]

One thing I think is fucked is that wouldnt gene conditioning basically be like HRT? like thats transitioning. how is that not? what the hell.
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[Glam Grimfire]

this was a general brief of a gender brief!
it was pretty smartly written
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##SKELETON PARTY (new article as of 04/26/14)Grim

[1CC]

This was an interesting read, thanks!

I'm curious how much the translators added to injury in SSBB and Snatcher.

[Lick Meth]

[Levi]

rei are you still publishing this with your name in the url that remains a very very bad idea

[idle]

[Levi]

the quad damage you took must have been a headshot

[Kilroy]

[glossolalia]

i had to stop at "biovestites"

i think hideo kojima and my dad would get along pretty well

(edit: i think this is clearly well-written/researched, just a personal comfort thing)

[evnvnv]

I keep starting and then erasing a response to these threads! Basically I think it is great and I am glad you are doing it, Rei, you are an excellent writer and you're able to pick apart these things really well.

I think I enjoyed this one the most because it is not entirely focused on Kojima. It's true that he is probably an egregious example of this, but I think the more you broaden your attention to other things the better and more engaging this project will become. Snatcher has always been interesting to me because it seems like such a product of a really weird zeitgeist. That is, the convergence of 'cyberpunk' with the ultra edgy and graphic anime of the 80's-90's. I also think it's an interesting place from which to look at the way anime and Japanese pop culture in general was received and marketed in the west. There is this weird boundary when things that are edgy and risque in a really brilliant way cross the line into just being kind of repugnant and mean spirited. It would be interesting to see Kojima's work considered against the backdrop of all the other absurdly violent, dismal works filled with mean-spirited characters that sort of populate this period of media, and for the most part were the things that Americans (and probably others) found most exciting about anime and manga at the time. I think you've definitely shown with Kojima this goes beyond just participation in a trend, but I still feel like I want to see it contextualized a little more.

Anyway I feel like the more I write the less sense I'll make, so tl;dr is : Great job, keep writing these forever.

The part on the term 'new half' was particularly interesting to me as I've often wondered how various discussions about gender and sexual identity take place in different languages and cultures. This is kind of a tangent, but it partially reminded me of other recent events. In some ways it seems like the idea of a 'third gender' would be antithetical to idea of a complete transition. I mean it seems like in many cases being considered to be 'neither man nor woman' could be considered insulting or offensive, but in other cases it seems like that's exactly what people are seeking recognition as. I guess the short version of the story is there are all kinds of ways for this to play out beyond bluntly and stupidly equating external sex organs with gender identity, and that anything beyond that depends more on how individuals identify and live their lives rather than how they are defined by outsiders. But at the same time I can see it leading to some interesting debates. I dunno.
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The text will not live forever. The cup are small

[Glam Grimfire]

hello again, rei!

i dunno if my opinion is spectacularly valued around here when it comes to Matters Wot Wrote

BUT


i think the problem with heading from kojima trivia to smash bros trivia is that it doesn't necessarily flow very well together; the change is pretty abrupt from one topic to another. maybe you could keep this part if you managed to bridge the two different subjects in relation to your overarching one, it'd be fine I think
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##SKELETON PARTY (new article as of 04/26/14)Grim

[tiburon]

[guest253]

[Talbain]

Rei, due to Photobucket being a jerk, I would recommend using imgur to prevent the images from messing up. You can also use the ettugamer wordpress image uploader too, though re-posting those on other sites will probably cause them to load more slowly.
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[The King]

[idle]

[guest253]

yeah, fair enough. guess it hinges on the finer points of whether we count a mismatch between body and neurocognition as transsexualism, or define transsexualism strictly as mismatch between body and gender identity, and in that case on how exactly we define gender identity and to what extent animals can have one (which seems pretty hard to assess...). calling an animal trans presupposes the neurocognitive view, but that's not the only possible view. acknowledged.

[Kilroy]

Gender identity is irrelevant to transsexualism. Here's why: to say otherwise would be to say that it's impossible to be a repressed transsexual. The act of identifying as your birth gender would somehow erase the underlying fact of the mismatch. But in this case, we could say in a sense that reparative therapy is successful in its stated goals. The fact that it causes pain would be irrelevant to the fact that it could prevent a gender identity from forming. This seems like a colossal sophistry, namely of the red herring variety.
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DancefighterRedux | X | X

[meauxdal]

Yeah, Kilroy's totally right. I don't know why anyone would take the tack that trans status is contingent on conscious acknowledgement of a gender/sex mismatch.
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[Levi]

a couple reasons for such a posture do come to mind

none of them are nice

[guest253]

[Kilroy]

You could always just call the brain/body mismatch "transsexualism" and the body/identity match "transgenderism". It's reasonably compatible with what the words actually mean presently (as long as you disregard the associated baggages of politically motivated opinion, psuedoscience, and older transsexual's Stockholm syndrome with psuedoscience). A brain/body mismatch isn't entirely a matter of physical sex but that's mostly an artifact of physical sex being narrowly defined by only the sexually dimorphic properties involving chromosomes or gametes. If property x is also strongly correlated with sexual dimorphism you would think it could also be considered a sexual property. I don't get why people worship arbitrary definitions as sacrosanct anyway, it's like they think the use of words falls in the same category as fundamental physical laws. Probably just some weird authoritarianism.
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DancefighterRedux | X | X

[Brooks]

put it in a box, easier to file away

[wasted potential]

what do people here think of this, a bathroom for TG people:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/transgender-bathroom-policy-goes-effect-jan-1/ncWTw/
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[Kilroy]

Having unisex bathrooms makes sense. They fulfill a broad range of goals, and do help trans people stay safe. Having bathrooms specifically designated for transsexual people is sort of like segregation. Since transsexual people are still allowed by law to use whatever bathroom, it's sort of like a fondly expressed wish that trans people self-segregate. However, given the nature of institutional abuse, it could easily become more than that in practice, even with protection laws in place. You're also putting up a sign which not only outs trans people, but tells people with malicious intent where to find them. Could be well-intentioned, could be ill-intentioned, is dumb either way.
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DancefighterRedux | X | X

[glossolalia]

my first thought was of getting pointed and laughed at or worse coming out of one of those. seems predicated on the idea that trangenderism is necessarily a third gender and/or made to placate moral panic transphobes.

tw sexual assault as a child and teenager i was targeted for roughing up and even punitive rape in male-only institutional spaces just for having feminine mannerisms or wearing foundation. having access to legitimately unisex / gender-appropriate spaces is a matter of safety for trans people, not just respect.

[Kilroy]

Every bathroom is a safe bathroom when you carry three guns and two knives.
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DancefighterRedux | X | X

[Brooks]

i just scrolled down to the caption

[The King]

Agreeing with Kilroy on the bathroom issue.
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[tacotaskforce]

America will never have legitimate unisex bathrooms so long as fox news exists.
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