Just making this post to say that I read @photomatt ’s statement yesterday and it was horrible. I won’t be reblogging it because I try to not put hate reblogs and stuff in my blog and I don’t like getting involved in drama, but I just wanted to point out something interesting
For Matt, predstrogen “threatening” him was a big enough issue that in the statement, he said that he was working with law enforcement for harassment. But of course, the fact that the threat made him feel unsafe, which it does seem to have, I want to absolutely clear that I am not denying that it might have made Matt feel unsafe, but that is only a problem because he is a white cishetallo male. Trans women on the Internet as whole, including Tumblr, are never safe, and yet Matt refuses to address this very problem. Why when Matt’s safety is even seemingly under threat (and whether it even counts as a threat in beyond dubious, the “threat” was not realistic or very threatening), does he get to call the police, but when predstrogen’s safety is actually under threat, Matt and Tumblr refuse to do anything? The clear answer would be that Matt thinks something is different about this situation, but every variable I can think of actually makes this worse for this case with Matt compared to trans women generally. The threat was not credible, it does not serve to further some larger oppressive structure, like nothing here is even comparable. This leaves the only real interpretation of Tumblr’s and Matt’s actions being that they value the safety of a white cishetallo male over that of a trans woman.
At the same time, threatening (diction intentional) to get law enforcement involved is itself an act of violence. And a much greater one given how much more credible it is, and how much power Matt specifically has. But Matt doesn’t seem to recognize this. He doesn’t see police violence as violence because he’s a sheltered cishetallo rich white male. He simply doesn’t have the experience of being illegal like many of us queer people (and sex workers and black people and homeless people and a bunch of other people the ruling class don’t like) do, of what happens when the police are called on you. To him the police are protectors, but to most, they’re oppressors. You can learn this perspective, I even have, I’ve never been arrested, but it seems Matt doesn’t care to do so.
This is to say nothing of why predstrogen was banned originally or anything else, but this is the part I thought I had a comment on.