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RaveA conversation with Generation Z
I’m visiting family, and had a discussion this morning with some relatives in their late teens through early 20s. One of them, who will be entering her sophomore year in college in autumn, told us about how several adults of different gender identities had been invited to speak at her psychology class about gender. She was very careful to hedge it around with statements about how it wasn’t her place to tell people how they felt but:
She said she admired the older transsexuals she met, who didn’t care about pronouns or passing and were just happy to dress and present how they liked.
She wondered whether the young TIF who spoke would have felt the need to be male if society wasn’t so sexist.
She said people needed to acknowledge what kind of body they had as part of their medical history, or they ran the risks of misdiagnosis and mistreatment.
She said everyone was uncomfortable with their body in adolescence and that stopping puberty robbed kids of the possibility of growing out of it before they even really knew what being a man or woman was.
I played it very cool but encouraging, mostly tried to draw her out, but also talked about the harms of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, talked about a friend of mine whose testosterone use had given her a life-altering heart condition and how if only she had been able to live as a butch woman, she’d be healthy today. We all ended up having a very friendly and compassionate conversation about the reality of sex and the psychological and social aspects of gender, even about social contagion, no-one called anyone names but everyone seemed to agree that we would be cancelled for most of what we’d said if anyone online knew about it.
The cherry on the cake? Another teen quoted a friend who had once identified as non-binary and now acknowledged herself female, who had recently told him “if there were no gender stereotypes, there would be no trans people”. He thought maybe there would be a small number regardless (I’m not sure one way or the other) but generally seemed to feel, as apparently they all did, that this was on the right track.
I said (carefully) some pretty terfy things, that no-one blinked at, and all in all, I feel far more optimistic about Generation Z than I did yesterday.
I read it years ago, but I've been meaning to see how well they adapted it. I both love and hate Stone Ocean for a myriad of reasons:
Love:
Hate:
I am! I'm not done yet though with this last season. I like to see how Araki got over his misogyny while he was writing his series, he improves a little bit with every chapter. I think his art is also a way for him to explore the world around him and his psyche. He confronts and resolves his 'mommy issues' (for a lack of a better world) with season 4, with season 5 he finally creates a complex and round female character, and now with Stone Ocean he gets to... Make peace with women in general. In the first seasons you could see how icky he felt towards the female sex - I sternly believe he's gay, so I've always thought about the first chapters like a "how am I supposed to feel towards these beings" phase. He literally wrote lines for (supposedly) straight male characters that sound like Captain Holt in Brooklyn 99 when he's trying to pass for straight. "Yes I'm such a manly man I like boobz and to kiss women... Not those sexy half-naked muscular menz over there nope sireee only... Boobz... I guess."
Anyhow, I'm really liking this chapter so far, F.F. is my fav character for sure and I have a soft spot for Weather Forecast. I speak Italian so I can't take Emporio seriously with that name lmao. Jolyne is amazing and I'm always stoked to see muscular girls cosplaying her in anime/gaming conventions.
I know I wrote a poem but I'm always happy to discuss this sort of stuff with you ladies!
F.F. was awesome! Pitty she ended up getting the short end of the stick of all the characters...
By complex and round female character from part 5 are you referring toDiavolo's daughter Trish by the way?
It is indeed awesome to see a male author like Shingo Araki growing past his misogyny on his series over the years! What you said about the creator of Jojo possibly being gay may explain all the fabulous males in Jojo certainly... I mean just look at DIO, Kars, Diavolo and Annasui\Anastacia among many others! XD
Does " emporio " mean something funny in Italian by the way? XD