I’m glad trans people and non binary people feel comfortable in Linux spaces. Everyone should feel accepted in what is ultimately about computer software. At the same time, I find it a little confusing just how much content seems to find 1:1 equivalence between trans/enby movements and using not-windows.
I really want trans people to feel comfortable here, but I also feel like the frequent repetition of content like this post sort of commoditizes transness. Am I not a valid trans person if I prefer Macs? Am I not a valid Linux user if I’m happy with my AGAB? Again, really happy trans/enby people are happy here, but when we start saying group 1 equals by definition group 2, people from both groups get left out.
It’s an eye roller for me. Feels like a really played out joke at this point but this is the internet where there’s apparently no such thing as a dead horse
It’s a crossover meme from trans/gender-nonconforming spaces. We have ways of finding humor in what is often an frightening and deadly serious situation (being trans in this world).
One of the in-jokes we have that I saw quite a bit on reddit, is that especially trans women and femboys “are all programmers or IT people” and being technical minded, use Linux. (I’m a trans woman who uses Fedora… Hi)
I think there is also the political and economic association that comes with FOSS – it’s a sort of disruption of the norm in capitalism, which is to have proprietary secrets as a store of value. FOSS challenges the notion that the fruits of labor should be privitized. In that sense it’s a radical movement, always has been, even if it has been adopted by the world at large.
Trans folk are as a rule, politically left-leaning, it seems these days we must be to exist, and so FOSS like Linux naturally appeals to the community.
Obviously there are going to be many non-technical trans people, and tech trans people alike who use proprietary OSes; and conversely most Linux users aren’t trans or GNC. The meme isn’t meant to be taken literally or to change anyone’s beliefs or actions.
I think that you hit a key note here: it’s a crossover meme from other spaces. They’re not Linux memes. I do get the joke, and why you make it, and I understand the concept of intersectional solidarity, and that it’s a good thing.
I also think that when people who have been marginalized for a long time find spaces that accept them, tend to treat any space that accepts them as a space made “for” them and their issues, when really Linux has nothing to do with what’s in my pants or yours or anyones. Linux isn’t a men’s thing, or a women’s thing, or about gender at all.
I (don’t) appreciate the fact that instead of empathizing and trying to address my concerns, you’re telling me I’m overthinking it, and explaining it to me like I wouldn’t understand the concepts of let’s see, the meme itself, capitalism, socialism, and FOSS software.
It’s a joke, yeah, I get it, but jokes are supposed to be funny and instead this one is using harmful language about trans people and FOSS software. Stop. And don’t act like anyone who doesn’t agree with you just doesn’t get it.
I’m glad trans people and non binary people feel comfortable in Linux spaces. Everyone should feel accepted in what is ultimately about computer software. At the same time, I find it a little confusing just how much content seems to find 1:1 equivalence between trans/enby movements and using not-windows.
I really want trans people to feel comfortable here, but I also feel like the frequent repetition of content like this post sort of commoditizes transness. Am I not a valid trans person if I prefer Macs? Am I not a valid Linux user if I’m happy with my AGAB? Again, really happy trans/enby people are happy here, but when we start saying group 1 equals by definition group 2, people from both groups get left out.
It’s an eye roller for me. Feels like a really played out joke at this point but this is the internet where there’s apparently no such thing as a dead horse
Horses went extinct same time shame did.
You are waaaay overthinking this.
It’s a crossover meme from trans/gender-nonconforming spaces. We have ways of finding humor in what is often an frightening and deadly serious situation (being trans in this world).
One of the in-jokes we have that I saw quite a bit on reddit, is that especially trans women and femboys “are all programmers or IT people” and being technical minded, use Linux. (I’m a trans woman who uses Fedora… Hi)
I think there is also the political and economic association that comes with FOSS – it’s a sort of disruption of the norm in capitalism, which is to have proprietary secrets as a store of value. FOSS challenges the notion that the fruits of labor should be privitized. In that sense it’s a radical movement, always has been, even if it has been adopted by the world at large.
Trans folk are as a rule, politically left-leaning, it seems these days we must be to exist, and so FOSS like Linux naturally appeals to the community.
Obviously there are going to be many non-technical trans people, and tech trans people alike who use proprietary OSes; and conversely most Linux users aren’t trans or GNC. The meme isn’t meant to be taken literally or to change anyone’s beliefs or actions.
I think that you hit a key note here: it’s a crossover meme from other spaces. They’re not Linux memes. I do get the joke, and why you make it, and I understand the concept of intersectional solidarity, and that it’s a good thing.
I also think that when people who have been marginalized for a long time find spaces that accept them, tend to treat any space that accepts them as a space made “for” them and their issues, when really Linux has nothing to do with what’s in my pants or yours or anyones. Linux isn’t a men’s thing, or a women’s thing, or about gender at all.
I (don’t) appreciate the fact that instead of empathizing and trying to address my concerns, you’re telling me I’m overthinking it, and explaining it to me like I wouldn’t understand the concepts of let’s see, the meme itself, capitalism, socialism, and FOSS software.
It’s a joke, yeah, I get it, but jokes are supposed to be funny and instead this one is using harmful language about trans people and FOSS software. Stop. And don’t act like anyone who doesn’t agree with you just doesn’t get it.