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not.dingherself.com
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@not.dingherself.com
530 followers 470 following 200 posts
philosopher @barnard.edu working on conceptual, normative, and jurisprudential issues about gender and its embodiment; “has a very specific sense of humor” and an em dash problem; they/she/my love; not.dingherself.com
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not.dingherself.com
So thrilled & grateful to be part of this! My essay, “The Cisgender Tipping Point,” subjects being cisgender to the kind of scrutiny often confronted by trans people. What do we know gender to be if we treat trans ways of doing gender as paradigmatic? (Spoiler: The answer is not gender identity.)
Screenshot of the start of my essay, “The Cisgender Tipping Point”: “Cis people puzzle me. Please don’t get me wrong—my feminism most definitely includes cis people. I believe that justice requires us to treat cis people’s sincere gender avowals as if they are legitimate. I defend cis people’s freedom to prefer names and pronouns that reflect their identification with their genital status even though this regularly weirds out trans people. I have no problem with cis people peeing where they like even though this poses real safety risks to trans people in general and trans women of color in particular. Hell, I can even get on board with the inclusion of cis athletes even though they dominate every single Olympic sport out there thanks to what I can only speculate is a biological advantage. Whatever allyship demands of me I’m here for it. “No, when I say that cis people are so puzzling, I’m talking about them as a philosophical problem: What gives cis people the genders they claim to have? What do cis people mean that they are cis? What is it like to have a cisgender identity? Why do so many teens identify as cis now? Are cissexuals products of some sort of gender ideology—cissexualism, let’s say? Is cissexualism a diagnosable mental disorder? Do we want it to be? Are cis people just whining for attention because they are jealous of us? Could they be a counterexample to our metaphysics of gender? …
October 23, 2025 at 8:53 PM
not.dingherself.com
i so love my students here
A page from a satirical newspaper edited by Barnard/Columbia students. The headlines read: “Barnard College to Sell ‘Entry Swipes’ Packages to Enter Campus” and “Columbia to House Overenrolled Freshmen in Tents on Butler Lawns”
October 7, 2025 at 5:36 PM
not.dingherself.com
My fav scene from Reverse Tomboy: Not its insightful analysis of (hetero)sexuality as inseparable from (normative) gender, or the retroactive meaning-making we do for early exp., or even the malleability of embodiment desires. Just a girl over the moon about the smallest thing—being called daughter.
Photo of a page from Reverse Tomboy: “I just don’t see why a trans woman has to be more feminine than the average woman. It would be a little insulting to cis women wouldn’t it, if all trans women went around done up like Don Draper’s wives.” “Yes, I suppose so.” “But you are being careful, right? No more walking at night in empty parks?” her father chimed in. “Yes Dad, I promise I’m well aware I’m a trans woman.” Naomi said happily enough. “I think any father would worry about his daughter.” Joy flooded through Naomi, as it did each of the three times she has heard her father refer to her as his daughter. She could think of nothing better from him. Suddenly, the dress felt a little more comfortable. “Thank you.” It was a simple thing to say, but so is ‘daughter’. Besides, Naomi was grinning.
September 27, 2025 at 7:16 PM
not.dingherself.com
An actual job ad: “When we refer to ‘women’ we mean those assigned female at birth. . . . Successful candidates will be asked to produce [a] passport or full birth certificate. . . . It is expected that this documentation will be in the female gender.”

What a disgrace @newnhamcollege.bsky.social
Screenshot of part of a job ad posted on the website of Newnham College, University of Cambridge: “Following the Supreme Court’s decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025], when we refer to ‘women’ we mean those assigned female at birth. . . . The successful candidate will be asked to produce identification documentation (e.g. passport or full birth certificate). It is expected that this documentation will be in the female gender.”
August 27, 2025 at 7:31 PM
not.dingherself.com
got @autoanon.bsky.social ’s new release in the mail (in physical form no less)!! still working my way through it so will have more to share, but this is the kind of texts I wish I could’ve held in my hands when I was figuring things out, and I really can’t wait to see how Naomi’s story unfolds 🫶
Cover of Auto Anon’s Reverse Tomboy: A Novel, photographed against the background of a backyard. The back cover, which reads: Naomi Soloveitchik has taken the first steps towards the womanhood she hopes to embody but does not yet understand what that means for her relationships to friends, lovers, and her own body. She wrestles with the more masculinized womanhood she aspires to, asking herself if it is possible for a trans woman to be a tomboy. In addition to the central story, also included is a small collection of poems and a brief essay on trans femme butch identity. "Sweet, poignant, and achingly honest, Reverse Tomboy is a gorgeously-sketched portrait of trans loneliness and pleasure." - GRETCHEN FELKER-MARTIN "An extremely personable writing voice, with moments of various joy - overwhelming joy, a stopping joy, a we-must-sit-in-this-joy — cut against usual romantic woes and the sense a fuller life, a social life, can lead to total ease, the opportunity to be newly still. Allusive and sweet and insightful with no caricature bogeymen or manufactured hand-wringing necessary, as AA brings an incredible millesimal fineness to bear on the Bildungsroman to fill out its every nook and cranny instead. In turns light as Hemingway and as funny and sharp as Torrey Peters, Reverse Tomboy is a remarkably brisk and exacting novel of small and sure steps toward grace in the garden of untamed harmony that is made by trans people alive and well in the public sphere." - BENJAMIN C. DUGDALE "Reverse Tomboy offers an intimate exploration of the lives of trans people today. Following in the footsteps of Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues and Imogen Binnie's Nevada, Auto Anon shares a semi-autobiographical narrative of how one becomes oneself. Wedged in the intersection of trans literature and philosophy, readers won't be able to put down the hilariously scathing — and satisfying — critique of the gender roles our society still clings to." - ELI ERLICK
August 18, 2025 at 10:09 PM
not.dingherself.com
doctoring ☀️🌵🎶
screenshot of ding's dissertation defense on zoom, with lots of friends attending; i look like i'm pondering super hard but in fact not really.
July 6, 2025 at 4:18 AM
not.dingherself.com
so a trans masc spotted me at the SF trans march and handed me an invite to an a&pi trans masc support group 🎩🎀
selfie of Ding and Willow at Dolores Park just ahead of the march. I'm wearing a green baseball cap backwards, a black shirt under a dark red corduroy jacket, and a silver metal chain necklace. Me holding the invite card I got. Behind me is Nico, holding a sign that says "Fuck you you fucking fuck" (not a reference to the card!).
June 28, 2025 at 4:35 PM
not.dingherself.com
shaved off some hairrrr
This is a selfie to show off my new haircut—shaved sides, eyebrow length hair on top, parted in the middle! It's very cute and dykecore.
April 30, 2025 at 2:56 AM
not.dingherself.com
happy girl with their birthday mail 💞
This is a photo of Ding holding their article (alt text in the post quoted below) in the spring 2025 issue of the Signs journal. There are cute trees and clear blue sky in the background. It all looks really joyful!
April 4, 2025 at 3:48 PM
not.dingherself.com
no tdov at stonewall inn it seems
a photo of marsha p. johnson at christopher park just across from stonewall inn. people have surrounded the photo with flowers in what seem to be trans flag colors and text that reads “marsha p. johnson is here” a photo of sylvia rivera, also at christopher park, surrounded by what are definitely trans and probably pan (?) flags-colored flowers and text that reads “sylvia will always be here [trans flag]” photo of stonewall inn. lots of pride flags but nothing happening on tdov
March 31, 2025 at 6:31 PM
not.dingherself.com
video evidence courtesy of rose fonth
March 31, 2025 at 3:38 PM
not.dingherself.com
Can we still make sense of reproductive rights & pregnancy discrimination as a gender equality issue if we need to (1) affirm that people of all genders may and do become pregnant and (2) not alienate the many cis and trans women who do not? I argue that yes ofc!! Come find out how (link below)! 1/6
Screenshot of the first page of my article, "Pregnant Persons as a Gender Category: A Trans Feminist Analysis of Pregnancy Discrimination," which just appeared in the Spring 2025 issues of Signs. The start of the introduction reads: "Since 1974, the United States Supreme Court has recognized a constitutionally significant distinction between discrimination against women and discrimination against pregnant persons—for all the wrong reasons, and reaching all the wrong results. Upholding the State of California’s refusal to cover uncomplicated pregnancies under its otherwise comprehensive workers’ short-term disability insurance program, the court held in Geduldig v. Aiello that differential treatment based on pregnancy is not in and of itself a form of sex discrimination within the meaning of American gender equality law. Writing for a 6–3 majority, Justice Potter Stewart explained that this is because pregnancy as a “physical condition” is itself neutral on sex and fails to carve the social world at the gender seam between women and men. “The lack of identity between the excluded disability [i.e., pregnancy] and gender as such under this insurance program becomes clear upon the most cursory analysis,” Justice Stewart claimed. “The program divides potential recipients into two groups—pregnant women and nonpregnant persons. While the first group is exclusively female, the second includes members of both sexes. . . .”
March 20, 2025 at 9:32 PM
not.dingherself.com
heartbreaking
screenshot of some text messages: Unidentified texter: “A friend of mine literally just showed me a copy of your euthyphro paper and it looks anonymized. She hasn't actually read it. She's not a philosopher and got confused by your saying ‘metaphysically appealing.’ She has no clue what that means. She just read the sentence and I don't think she understands any of it tbh” Me: “well, so much for the hope that this paper might get read by regular trans people because it's short”
February 23, 2025 at 7:15 PM
not.dingherself.com
👀
This is a photo of the backcover of the most recent issue of the Signs journal showing the articles forthcoming in the next issue; it’s taken outside and you can see some cute pink prickly pear cacti in the background. There is a pen pointing to my forthcoming paper, “Pregnant Persons as a Gender Category: A Trans Feminist Analysis of Pregnancy Discrimination.”
February 19, 2025 at 7:43 PM
not.dingherself.com
so that was the 6th FemPhilAZ! ☀️🌵🏜️🤩
it’s photo time! here is me and sofia weiss goitiandia. i’m wearing a light green sundress with yellow floral patterns, and sofia a black top. it’s sunny, we are outside on a restaurant patio, we are both smiling, and you can see some saguaros in the background. we are so cute! and here’s me and rowan bell! i’m wearing a semi–see through dark red top, and rowan fun-colors sunglasses and suspenders. it’s a selfie, we are in a seminar room, we are both laughing, and i’m placing my paw on rowan’s shoulder. it’s a good time!
February 16, 2025 at 10:54 PM
not.dingherself.com
masculinity in crisis
Photo of the door to a men's bathroom, covered in red tapes that read "danger"
February 16, 2025 at 5:56 AM
not.dingherself.com
Photo of a graffito featuring a blindfolded angel surrounded by the texts "Grand Central" and "Boys Lie," against a background of flowering saguaro and prickly pear cacti.
February 15, 2025 at 3:20 AM
not.dingherself.com
didn’t expect to be flooded with so many wonderful emotions seeing your name on the page proofs for the first time! (and at a journal you’ve always looked up to ever since reading your first piece of feminist theory!!)

so excited (and anxious!) that this will finally get to see the world
It’s the first page of the proofs! My name can be seen in the top-right corner. The paper's title is “Pregnant Persons as a Gender Category: A Trans Feminist Analysis of Pregnancy Discrimination.” It will be appearing in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, volume 50, number 3 (Spring 2025 issue). The beginning of the first paragraph can also be seen: “Since 1974, the United States Supreme Court has recognized a constitutionally significant distinction between discrimination against women and discrimination against pregnant persons—for all the wrong reasons, and reaching all the wrong results. Upholding the State of California’s refusal to cover uncomplicated pregnancies under its otherwise comprehensive short-term disability insurance program, the Court held in Geduldig v. Aiello that differential treatment based on pregnancy is not in and of itself a form of sex discrimination within the meaning of American gender equality law. Writing for a 6–3 majority, Justice Potter Stewart explained that this is because pregnancy as a ‘physical condition’ is itself neutral on sex and fails to carve the social world at the gender seam between women and men. ‘The lack of identity between the excluded disability [i.e., pregnancy] and gender as such under this insurance program becomes clear upon the most cursory analysis,’ Justice Stewart claimed. ‘The program divides potential recipients into two groups—pregnant women and nonpregnant persons. While the first group is exclusively female, the second includes members of both sexes.’”
January 16, 2025 at 7:45 PM
not.dingherself.com
You know it, you love it, it’s the FemPhilAZ 2025 program!! Go tell everyone, go throw a party, go bring your grad students!!

Fully hybrid in person & on Zoom
Free to register & open to all
Fun activities to bridge the spacetime between in-person & Zoom participants
February 7–8, 2025
FemPhilAZ.com
It's the FemPhilAZ 2025 conference program Day 1! Zoom participants: Please note that we do not observe Daylight Saving Time here at the University of Arizona. All times listed are in Mountain Standard Time (MST or America/Phoenix), which is not the same as Mountain Time (MT) or Mountain Daylight Time (MDT)! Friday, February 7, 2025 8:45–9:15 Breakfast 9:15–10:15 “Sexual Racism as Perception” Yixuan Wu (University of Michigan) Comments: Ella LaRose (University of Arizona) Chair: Isabel Herburger (Rutgers University) 10:30–11:30 “A Beauvoirian Analysis of Ageism: Children & the Elderly as ‘Other’ ” Adelle Goldenberg (Cornell University) Comments: Urna Chakrabarty (Cornell University) Chair: Luke Golemon (University of Arizona) 11:30–12:30 In-Person/Zoom Lunch-Together (feat. The FemPhilAZ Playlist) We will have lunch together while listening to a conference playlist! 12:30–1:30 “Swimming Upstream Together: Catharine MacKinnon’s Alternative to Consent” Yana Stoykova (Nuffield College, Oxford) Comments: Ding (University of Arizona) Chair: Sofia Weiss Goitiandia (University of California, San Francisco) 1:45–2:45 “You Lied to Me: Transphobia, Intimacy, and Intimate Deception” Rose Fonth (Rutgers University) Comments: Kexuan Liu (Duke University) Chair: Giannis Vassilopoulos (Georgia State University) 3:00–5:00 Keynote Address/Philosophy Colloquium Rowan Bell (Assistant Professor of Philosophy & SXGN, University of Guelph) Chair: Ding (University of Arizona) 5:45–7:15 Dinner at La Indita (722 N Stone Ave) [TBC] And here is Day 2! Saturday, February 8, 2025 10:00–10:30 Breakfast 10:30–11:30 “Oppressive Acts and Pornography” Shiying Li (University of Wisconsin–Madison) Comments: Shramana Pramanik (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) Chair: Rose Fonth (Rutgers University) 11:30–12:30 In-Person/Zoom Lunch-Together (feat. Feminist Poetry Open Mic) Bring your favorite poems to read, by anyone & in any language! 12:30–1:30 “Loving Places: Murdoch, Candiotto, and Zwicky on Learning to Look and Listen” Madeleine Léger (Georgetown University) Comments: Jacob Blitz (University of Arizona) Chair: Yixuan Wu (University of Michigan) 1:45–2:45 “ ‘Woman’: From Semantics to Pragmatics” Isabel Herburger (Rutgers University) Comments: Yashin Voss (Arizona State University) Chair: Kyle Kirby (University of Arizona) 3:00–4:00 “A Defense of Allyship as a Political Commitment” Giannis Vassilopoulos (Georgia State University) Comments: Will Cailes (University of Arizona) Chair: Henry Weiss (University of Arizona) 4:15–6:15 Keynote Address: “Aestheticizing Rape” A.W. Eaton (Professor of Philosophy & Associate Dean of LAS, University of Illinois Chicago) Chair: Ella LaRose (University of Arizona) NB: Please note that I will be discussing rape culture and “high art” pictures that glorify and eroticize rape, as well as pictures that condemn rape. 6:45– Unofficial dinner/hang-out in person & social hour for Zoom attendees
January 12, 2025 at 7:36 PM
not.dingherself.com
LOOT in the mail !! @littlepuss.net
A photo of three books from LittlePuss Press on a foldable wooden table: Log Off by Katherine Cross, Girlfriends by Emily Zhou, and Faltas by Cecilia Gentili. On top of the books are two stickers from LittlePuss Press, featuring their LittlePuss cat. One reads "LittlePuss," and the other "Books Booze Belles Balls."
December 26, 2024 at 6:37 PM
not.dingherself.com
is it too late to fall in love with chappell roan because wooaaahhh this rocks so hard
Screenshot of a selection of the lyric from "Pink Pony Club" by Chappell Roan: [Chorus] Pink Pony Club, I'm gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club, I'm gonna keep on dancing down in West Hollywood, I'm gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club, Pink Pony Club [Verse 2] I'm up and jaws are on the floor Lovers in the bathroom and a line outside the door Black lights and a mirrored disco ball Every night's another reason why I left it all
December 17, 2024 at 9:50 PM
not.dingherself.com
kudos to the UC campuses for actually figuring out how to do chosen names on job apps (it's not rocket science!!)
Screenshot of the explanatory text under the name box on an job application: “Provide your preferred or lived name [i.e., a self-chosen personal and/or professional name], which may be the same or different from your legal name. Please note that you may be required to provide a legal name at a different time.”
December 17, 2024 at 3:39 PM
not.dingherself.com
so thoroughly touched by @tagreathouse.bsky.social 's words from the very first page in the new collection. simply can't stop thinking about it for over a week straight now
Photo of a poem titled “T4T” by torrin a. greathouse There is no known root for how the word cum came to mean what it does. But imagine if you could stitch a lineage back to the Latin *cum* meaning *to step*. Hence: movement. Hence: a destination. The body moving, perhaps dancing, toward a kind of end. Vanishing point of flesh—trembling tongue -fucked apocalyptic. *Apocalypsis*. A veil shifted & what awaits beneath. A rose by any other given name could still draw blood if it wanted. But shit, turns out there’s no emoji for a rubber dick sat heavy on the tongue. Go figure. I can still feel it twitch. Hold you in my mouth spit slick apocrypha. Sweet faggot magic the way we speak organs out of their Christian names—lick cock to clit, bruise breast to flattened chest, bury knuckles inside a redrafted anatomy. Sucked finger shudder. Lust -hot alchemy. Holy, how even the air becomes *wind* when moving. Holy, how you fuck me by my one unburied name. & when I tell you how beautiful you are, you riot-laughter, kiss me & call me a *dyke*. Your smile arrives, day-bright, unburdens the slur of all its blood.
December 17, 2024 at 4:44 AM
not.dingherself.com
Photo of the cover of a book titled “Philosophy Gone Wild: Environmental Ethics,” by Holmes Rolston, III. The cover is mostly brown, displaying a giant painting of nature/mountains.
December 14, 2024 at 10:16 PM
not.dingherself.com
do we think my student was doodling me haha
photo of two doodles on a piece of paper that kind of look like me? the person has short-ish hair, wears glasses, and wears what looks like t-shirt.
December 3, 2024 at 9:49 PM