One of, if not the first major book burning in Nazi Germany occured on May 6th, 1933, at the Institute of Sexology, a foundation known for their advocacy for transgender and homosexual equality.
“Trans people didn’t exist in the past.”
You literally destroyed our history to perpetuate this myth. We’ll never erase your history, just show how it was a lie undeserving of respect.
When you’re on the right side of history it’s better to leave history intact. It shows what you had to fight. When you’re on the wrong side you need it destroyed, so people don’t realize how bad you are.
It’s quite interesting that academics back then knew homosexuality and transgenderism are completely normal and not aberrations. Even Sigmund Freud also agreed.
It’s just that society as a whole has been completely anti-lgbt. I always say it is the relic of homophobic teachings from Abrahamic religions. Ancient Greeks and Romans were completely fine with homosexuality until Christianity became enforced in Europe and elsewhere; then later Islam came along and did the same.
Eh, this is a bit of a half-thruth. Ancient Romans did not really categorize by sexual preference, but by gender roles taken on during sex. They basically had a penetrator-penetrated dichotomy, and taking on a “female” role was definitely shameful for men in their society, and taking on a “male” role as a woman would have been seen as a pretty big transgression, too.
This more or less continued into medieval and early modern times, until homosexuality was understood and categorized as an identity and concept. Together with a complete ignorance towards women’s sexuality, this lead to punishment of lesbians being rather rare (non-penetrative sex was basically not recognised as sex), while homosexual men were punished for basically perverting gender roles of sex (also for “forcing” a “female” role on another man), instead for viewing them as having a differing identity.
While religion played a huge role to justify the discrimination of homosexuals, I’d say the root cause is the ideological imperative of maintaining sexuality as something to produce offspring, patriarchical dominance, and having women maintain their identity for sexual gratification and reproduction unless they manage to get into a monastery or similar exceptional roles (and an inherent fear of men to fall out of the male gender identity and being objectified in the same ways). That’s why this is also not just an abrahamic phenomenon, but has been pretty widespread in patriarchal societies overall, although often with exceptions for “penetrating” men maintaining their status and power.
Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I am aware that some cultures are homophobic in spite of having little influence from Abrahamic religions; such as the case with East Asia. I omitted the latter because i couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I guess patriarchy is largely the major factor for homophobia. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I noticed that cultures that are less patriarchal and egalitarian are more tolerant to lgbt. These cultures are noticeably less sedentary. For example, Philippines recognise the gender “bakla” and Native Americans also recognise “two spirits”, before European colonisation came.
I’d say that analysis is on point. Usually, when patrilineal inheritance and patriachical power dynamics aren’t part of the ideological structure, the need to repress lgbt dynamics within the sexes and genders is less of an imperative. Although I would be cautious to simply equate third genders in general to nonbinary/trans identities of today, they always had their own, specific historical and ideological circumstances.
One example of what basically amounted to a “third gender” that was present also in western societies historically (although more so in other parts of the world), would be eunuchs. Created culturally (and very much materially by castration, of course) out of patriarchical concerns of inheritance and power dynamics, as a subset of people that won’t endanger inheritance and without the risk of them creating their own dynasty, they were seen as having completely different roles as to their sexuation and overall status. (Of course, it is interesting to note, that the power dynamics shifted and their position as reliable advisors “without ambition” actually led to eunuch shadow governments, for example in parts of Chinese history). Of note is, that for example castrated choir boys (done so to preserve their “angelic” voices) in western society were one of the few examples where we have evidence of them being idolised as desireable by a female POV sexually (most likely because there was no risk of pregnancy and thus a much reduced risk of an extramarital affair resulting in being shamed and/or even killed).
So existence of a third gender does not necessarily entail respect for inherent identities of people. There are also some instances of third-gender identities being crafted basically to satisfy the sexual needs of dominant homosexual men in positions of power, often arising out of/develooing alongside male prostitution, within history.
I am a Marxist when looking at history, so I view patriarchy as something that arose out of material conditions as a very “succesful” model to reproduce class society in the past, which is why it became so prevalent globally, even without taking colonial history into account. Reducing women to their reproductive role, while also giving them a “valued as an object” status, was beneficial to societies that impose their will violently through war and repression. You can survive and rebound from losing two-thirds of your men in war as a society, but not losing your women. And in times, where warfare and violence was much more heavily tied to physical fitness, the statistical biological differences in human sexual dimporphism further positioned patriarchical structures as a tragically succesful model - which of course did not just do good things for men at all, their lack of being valued in an objectified way also meant they were more disposable, if not in a position of power.
More and more archeological evidence, combined with anthropological studies of non-class tribal societies, shows that on average, our ancestors in pre-history were much more egalitarian, as this was conducive, even necessary, to their survival (imagine a tribal society that had hard rules against women hunting, even if they are very much capable to do so, in a season/area where hunting is the main source of food at the moment. It would have been just stupidity. Same for men foraging, etc).
There is also evidence, that organised warfare as we know it today only started alongside the creation of class society, as soon as a surplus of food and overall resources allowed for a surplus of people - where taking the risk of losing 2/3rds of your men to conquer territory, slaves and the surplus of others suddenly became a viable strategy. (Although, it is important to note, that there is evidence of sporadic, often genocidal conflict in pre-history as well, but it is reasonable at this point to assume those were exceptional cases, and more often than not, conflict was avoided if at all possible. For a deeper exploration of the cultural differences that arose from that avoidance of war-like conflict, I’d recommend checking out Raymond C. Kelly’s “Warless Societies and the Origin of War”)
The material conditions of post-industrialised society open up the possibility again, of overcoming class society and with it, patriarchical society. Including finding a new dynamic for lgbt sexuation, sexuality and identity. That’s one of the main reasons I view myself as a Marxist communist, pleading to re-invent and re-organise the communist movement without following Marxism-Leninism like a religious doctrine. IMO, the world will face crises in the coming decades that, on average, people today do not have the analytical tools and contexts to understand, many fleeing into either “maintain the status quo, we can do this somehow” or “everything will be destroyed anyway (so leave me alone and maintain the status quo)” narratives for the future. I say: learn how to organise, how to fight if you are able, connect with people, and be ready to take advantage of the coming chaos. There’s no shame to be a bit of a prepper, but please without the individualism and conspiracy-mindedness of what the stereotype would be.
OK, sorry, I went on a bit of a rant there, hope it was structured enough not to completely overwhelm. History, philosophy and politics are my special interest, I can get easily triggered into just typing out a wall of text.
This is the best kind of rant.
When people who know their stuff are excited to share their stuff it’s usually good stuff.
Do not apologize for summarizing lots of information into a shorter form for those of us with only a little context. It’s a valuable service. Thanks.
To be fair that’s mostly a case of “even a broken clock is right twice a day”. Psychology was still in its infancy back then and they had so few ideas how to actually help people that insulin shock therapy and lobotomy seemed like good ideas. When looking at it with modern knowledge it’s easy to say they already knew when pointing at the bits of decent ideas back then. In reality that’s cherry picking between the heaps of wrong and outright dangerous ideas prevalent at the time.
Yes. Look up Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld and his gender affirming care in early 20th century Germany. The Berlin “Institut für Sexualwissenschaft” was the world’s first trans clinic from 1919 until the Nazis destroyed it 1933.
Watch Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate about Berlin’s vibrant trans community and how the rise of the nazis destroyed them.
Iirc he also pioneered reconstructive surgery for World War 1 veterans
Hell yes, fucking slay queen!
She is the goddess of synthesizers and one of the first people I stumbled upon when I was learning about synths: https://youtu.be/UsW2EDGbDqg
She was not only a master composer, she also helped with the development of the Moog synthesizer, the first commercial synth.
Now i must learn as well, thank you! This is wonderful!
Synth sims are the cheap way to go. Cardinal is an open source fork of VCV Rack. It can be used standalone or as a plugin with your favorite DAW.
All the concepts are the same as modular “euro rack” synths. Voltage lines, oscillators, the works. You even use “wires” to connect everything.
All YouTube tutorials for VCV are generally applicable to Cardinal, btw.
If you want to go the DAW route, it should work with the free version of FL Studio. It’s just much easier to do full tracks that way. However: FL Studio is not easy to learn and even less so when you are integrating something like Cardinal.
Edit: I apologize in advance if this post is the reason you fall into the money pit that is digital music.
Thanks for the references
You left your SI in that link. It’s a tracking code Google uses to tell who you’ve been talking to on other websites.
Thanks. Got rid of it.
I had the switched on Bach cassette when I was a kid. I thought it was cool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn0HAWX1TSA&list=PLLICd7vQi7iGUyErozBAwgcr4F49kxiXY
5 years ago…
5 years ago was 2019, that statement is equally funny as it is horrifying
Five years ago a friend celebrated the 12th anniversary of her vaginoplasty…
If you live under a stone, that might be your first time hearing that trans people exist.
Wait…I exist?
holy shit me too
What is our purpose?
lead the revolution
Nah, it was around the time trans people became heavily politicized and their weekly outrage sources told them to be mad about it
If you live under a stone your first exposure might be tomorrow. Still doesn’t excuse the conclusion that we didn’t exist before that.
Those are some epic credits
Electronic music pioneer and fuckin LEGEND Wendy Carlos, thank you very much.
It makes me feel icky to type it out… The terms “tranny” and “transvestite” were very common nomenclature in the 90s. In conversation, movies, television. Trans people were often a punchline. And absolutely existed.
Transvestite, I believe, is also a term applied to intersex persons as well, as far as I know… At least historically.
The condition of being intersex, as far as I’m aware, is a well known condition dating back really far.
Those people truly have no gender (and/or they’re both genders? IDK), so “trans” doesn’t really apply to them IMO.
intersex people are exactly that - somewhere outside of the binary of the two sexes. Thanks to them we see the clearest example of how gender is simply assigned to a child at birth. Majority of intersex children are forced into one of the binary sexes and then forcefully assigned a gender to match so they can be “normal”.
and it honestly comes down to the individual if they see themselves as trans or not, some might see what their parents did to be a forced transition, some might want to detransition from that, some might not
People used to use hermaphrodite as a slur not that long ago for intersex people, as well.
I don’t think hermaphrodite was used as a slur. It was just a word that was replaced by intersex.
SRS in this context means sexual reassignment surgery. It also has many other meanings.
Supplemental restraint system
So that‘s what that stands for. I always wondered…
Synthesizer Relay System, aka a patch cord.
SRS wow
why trans people make music and not massive 8ft tall burger
¿Por que no las dos?
How long until chuds will claim historical records of trans people are falsified?
Already have seen this. I have seen arguments pointing out what the Nazis did to trans people, the first clinic for trans people, and the research materials on it, get met with replies that it’s revisionist, fraudulent, jewish, propaganda.
JK Rowling did that not too long ago. (She didn’t call it Jewish, but absolutely called it lies and propaganda that trans people and trans researchers were early targets for the Nazis and victims of the Holocaust.)
I don’t say this to obsess over the Harry Potter author, but to point out that you don’t have to go cherry picking to find this shit. She’s a prominent person using her platform to spread bigotry and misinformation.
oh yeah, i know about her, she is putting that stuff into the mainstream. Worst part is, she is likely so touchy about this because of her own gender identity issues that she has ignored rather than resolve.
Yeah. I know that calling bigots secretly closeted is problematic, but IIRC she has outright said that, if she were a young person today, she would question her gender identity.
Oh, I am not just saying this because she is anti-trans, I am saying this because she has been speaking about her issues with gender for like 20, nearly 20, years now. The more that she came out with, the more hard line anti-trans she showed herself to be. This is probably made all the worse from her trauma from rape. But hey, I am not her psychologist.
Totally understood, and I apologize for implying you might have. It was not my attention. I just meant that, even though it’s something I avoid jumping to conclude, it does happen, and there’s reason to believe it’s the case with Rowling. She’s got issues. It doesn’t absolve her of anything, but there’s a little pity in my condemnation.
Yeah, I didn’t take that comment as accusatory, just figured I would make my position clear. There is a body of evidence that shows that the more intense someone’s homophobia is, the more likely they are to be sexually aroused by homoerotic stuff. However, this does not mean homophobes are likely to be closeted queers. The vast majority of these bigots are not, in fact, homosexuals. However, every public homophobe gets a lot of reactions suggesting they are, often even from gay people. Not great.
Yo! I didn’t know she was trans!
As a kid I listened to Walter Carlos’ Switched on series, and was the kind of nerd to be a huge fan at the time. Then suddenly Wendy Carlos was continuing Walter’s work and claiming she was responsible for everything Walter had done.
I was like ten, and we didn’t have the internet or even CDs yet, so it sound like a sibling or marital spat, and eventually the news trickled down they were one and the same.
The first programmer was a woman (Ada Lovelace), the person who laid the foundation for all modern computing was gay (Alan Turing), and the person who revolutionized modern chip design was trans (Lynn Conway). Computer science history is filled with queerness and diversity.
How dare you forget Sophie Wilson, inventor of the ARM chip (which exists in literally every phone pretty much since… 1997?) 😆
She also partakes in Europython (though not sure if she joined this year, but she was there last year, even though I missed both xD), for the Python nerds.
Oh wow I didn’t know she was trans, that’s super cool
I’ve known about this woman for years and been a Tron fan since I wore out the VHS when I was six, and I never realized they were connected.
Yep. Made the Tron score sound like a video arcade, hence the ubiquitous discordances. This piece titled The Light Sailer features the Tron Scherzo (What I think of the Tron Theme, though now the love theme is called that).
Are They the ones with the sick sideburns playing with a homemade synth in that video from the 70s?
If you mean this video, then yes!
She was ahead of her time
wasn’t germany famously fucking around with some shit relevant to this before the whole “hitler arc”
sociology and psychology and one of the more fascinating concepts.
The fact that people try to argue that trans people simply did not exist prior to a few years ago is amusing to me.
I’m a passing, sorta stealth, trans man. I always find it funny when someone claims trans people didn’t exist five or ten years ago, because I stated medically transitioning in 2012.
even i don’t make the cut :( began transition in 2018 and though it feels like it was a week ago it happened 6 years ago, apparently
yeah, it’s been around in the “modern era” since the 90’s, but it’s only really picked up steam on the internet in the last 5-10 years or so.
I just wish more people would talk about her music instead of her gender. I know she’s bitter or dissatisfied about Switched on Bach, but I still listen to it regularly. There aren’t many pieces of instrumental music that can actually make me laugh, but it does. Bach works on synth so well. Largely due to Carlos’ efforts.
I was in a record store a few months ago, saw a copy of Switched on Bach, thought it would be interesting, and picked it up. Blew me away. Then I googled it, learned the story and how groundbreaking it was.
Now I’ve got a few albums of hers from that era. Great stuff.
