loving it in so many ways; a lil worried for the show's trajectory after hearing vince gilligan leans conservative (its vague but he is as least a centrist) but the experience of speculating utopian outcomes for the conflict each week is pretty rad

By playing magical age, GCs can infantilise 18-25 yr old trans adults seeking healthcare WHILE calling a 17 yr old assault victim an adult. if your trans, your humanity is at the whim of vibes folks!
6/

"wait this doesnt make sense" you might say, "GCs have pushed for 25 year olds to be treated like children when accessing health care, thats contradictory!"

Magical age doesnt make sense and can go both ways. the point is political expediency - its tactic we should be calling out alot more!
5/

So when anti-trans groups play magical age, it's about deriving the cultural protections of childhood innocence from that trans child. it reframes violence committed towards a child (always unacceptable) as instead being (v acceptable) violence towards a trans woman. its about power. 4/

its sad to say, but being a material child and being "seen as having a childhood" (being innocent and deserving of protection) are different things. this is especially true for queer children, who can only be seen by GCs as symbols of a wounded (hetcis) childhood or as "perverse" adults. 3/

"magical age" describes the double standard for how the age bracket of what constitutes a child is shifted from its normal legal and social context. This commonly occurs when the child is from a minority group (this case LGBTQ+) that is dominantly perceived to not have childhoods to begin with. /2

This programming trend is pretty apparent in CBBC's content, with a trans affirming scene in transformers being cut, as well as the second season of First Day not being licensed

side note: unless there has been a mass turn round i dont know about can we not champion Tim Davies as some kind of trans ally pls. in the first few years of Davie's role there was in fact a shift towards conservatism in BBC's programming on trans issues. he's a fence sitter AT BEST folks.

been refreshing the nowtv player all day today lol

is it out yet???!

media companies colonise anti-capitalist critique all the time. often the main purpose is selling the image of utopian counterculture (that includes queer culture and subtexts) back to bougie educated straight cis white people.

queer time hasn't been done for comics yet tho! In the abstract the theory is a meme now, and the idealisation of queer temp as something automatically utopian and external to power miffs me off. but like most queer theory models its what its put into relation to that makes it interesting(i thnk)

Skin Shows. 1995.

90s queer horror theory with some interesting takes on embodiment. a ton has been written on queerness, body horror and the gothic since then, but it still holds up. actually kinda miss halberstam's spooky era.

soft toot.

female masculinity 1998.

a book about butches presented as curated collection of vibes. arguement on men's toilets being sexy utopias where no violence happens from the mind of someone who has likely never spoken to a trans woman before writing it.

BOOT

disclaimer: im autistic people who like the cold

i was gonna put Jules gill peterson's work (especially her article from a few months back) in there as a reference but surely this counter arguement to the halberstam-likes started before histories fo the transgender child