With Imzy shutting down, /binding has moved to dreamwidth as diybinder, come join if you want :)
But more on topic…
In my experience, interest-based and identity-based groups have very similar issues: Assumptions are being made about the people who want to join them, which may result in dynamics that drive people away from community and information that they need, or sometimes even result in rules that explicitly exclude people who do not fit a certain narrative.
In a thematic group that is theoretically open to everyone who needs the information, that could present as repeated assumptions about who will want to take which kind of hormones. In an identity-based group, that could be a "your look is feminine, are you sure you're nonbinary"-type mindset.
I think that it's more about how these issues are handled than about the focus of the group.
For example, I know a meatspace nonbinary group in which these fuckups are not unheard of, but are usually confronted in some way, often by the person who said it themself because it is really just internalised transmisia directed against themself or something, and the people that I worry about being put off usually return and the issues don't get repeated and the group keeps getting more ~diverse~, not less.
And while I sometimes like the focus on a certain topic (binders are fun! Pretty colorful patterned binders are fun!), I'm usually too shy to actually join a group that is for example about top surgery, even though that is something that I want, and instead enjoy being in a group that doesn't have this focus, but still lets me gather some information about it.
The question about transmaculine/transfeminine issues is always a bit complicated because it tends to ignore both intersex trans people, and non-intersex trans (often nonbinary) people that are, for example, usually assumed to be transfeminine but are really afab. I mean… these things tend to assume a continuity of experiences that just isn't there for some people.
Both trans groups with a broader focus and lots of different people and topics could be a solution in that case, and thematic groups that don't assume that the participants have anything in common except that one topic of the group.
I guess ideally there would be a lot of different kinds of trans* communities, so that we can support each other without any pressure to fit into some One True Way.
Yes, this. I really don't think it's one or the other. Both can work in different situations and for different people, and both need some commitment to make them as inclusive as possible.
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no subject
Date: 2017-05-28 11:53 am (UTC)But more on topic…
In my experience, interest-based and identity-based groups have very similar issues: Assumptions are being made about the people who want to join them, which may result in dynamics that drive people away from community and information that they need, or sometimes even result in rules that explicitly exclude people who do not fit a certain narrative.
In a thematic group that is theoretically open to everyone who needs the information, that could present as repeated assumptions about who will want to take which kind of hormones. In an identity-based group, that could be a "your look is feminine, are you sure you're nonbinary"-type mindset.
I think that it's more about how these issues are handled than about the focus of the group.
For example, I know a meatspace nonbinary group in which these fuckups are not unheard of, but are usually confronted in some way, often by the person who said it themself because it is really just internalised transmisia directed against themself or something, and the people that I worry about being put off usually return and the issues don't get repeated and the group keeps getting more ~diverse~, not less.
And while I sometimes like the focus on a certain topic (binders are fun! Pretty colorful patterned binders are fun!), I'm usually too shy to actually join a group that is for example about top surgery, even though that is something that I want, and instead enjoy being in a group that doesn't have this focus, but still lets me gather some information about it.
The question about transmaculine/transfeminine issues is always a bit complicated because it tends to ignore both intersex trans people, and non-intersex trans (often nonbinary) people that are, for example, usually assumed to be transfeminine but are really afab. I mean… these things tend to assume a continuity of experiences that just isn't there for some people.
Both trans groups with a broader focus and lots of different people and topics could be a solution in that case, and thematic groups that don't assume that the participants have anything in common except that one topic of the group.
Yes, this. I really don't think it's one or the other. Both can work in different situations and for different people, and both need some commitment to make them as inclusive as possible.