Yes, that explains the misgendering, the use of “freak” and “pervert” and call for arrest and placement on a sex offender list. Totally a personal, private thing.
Just like the casual breaking and entering. Just a barrel of laughs.
Yeah, “gender” is a social function. Calling it private is oxymoronic. Gender is all about social constructs. It’s the opposite of private. Anyone who insists that it’s a private thing doesn’t understand the meaning of the term.
Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over time.
I remember the rules from my shop class. For the simplest machines (brakes, shears, hand tools), no safety equipment was necessary, beyond common sense. For everything else (drill presses, lathes, jigsaws, spot welders), it was: long hair had to be tied back, face shields had to be worn, and watches and rings had to be removed. There were even more precautions when it came to blacksmithing (the above, plus asbestos gloves), and welding (the above, plus face shield with dark goggles).
Looking at the photos, it seems to me that while the teacher’s hair could be tied back (or removed, if it is a wig), those breasts would get in the way. Remembering those long-ago shop classes, and their emphasis on safety, I find it hard to believe that anybody carrying those could operate a lathe, or a table saw, or keep them out of the way of welding equipment, in a safe manner.
Not a comment on anything other than the shop safety rules I learned, and how I feel that those breasts would get in the way of safely operating shop equipment.
Because something is a social construct doesn’t require to be public information. If that was the case, trans people that haven’t “come out” would, by definition, not be trans. Your gender may very well be constructed around what society has defined as man or woman, but it doesn’t mean society has to know which label you feel defines yourself in order for you to use it.
Something can absolutely be both private and a social construct.
But we also have non-gendered pronouns.
I’m not quite sure I follow how public weddings have anything to do with gender. But in any case, just because something is typically a public affair (be it a wedding or your gender) doesn’t mean it’s required to be public. A private wedding between two people and a judge to preside over it isn’t any less valid than a wedding that’s announced in the local newspaper and attended by hundreds of people. People elope all the time just to avoid having a public wedding.
The wedding comment speaks to homophobia. Yes, it’s generally inappropriate to discuss your partner’s sexual organs in public. But, “our bed is really old, so Steve and i went shopping at bed-o-rama Saturday. We bounced on mattresses and felt like little kids” is perfectly normal water cooler fodder at work, and it shouldn’t matter whether the speaker is male or female. Unless you are a homophobe.
And to be clear, if you are suggesting that trans people and gay people have an obligation to stay in the closet to keep their status “private”, then you are transphobic and homophobic, and harming those people. So that you-tuber is a transphobic homophobic asshole. Maybe he can be amusing on other topics. He’s still an antisocial piece of shit.
Quick question. If I find the use of gigantic prosthetic boobs to be insulting and demeaning to women (emphasizing one physical externality that defines “womanhood” and making it ridiculous; created for the male gaze; belittles the pain/experience of women who have to deal with it), am I transphobic? Even if the gender of the person using them is irrelevant?
Not as you describe it, but you’re assigning motivations to the person that may or may not be true. Is she emphasizing breasts with the intent of making it ridiculous, and wearing them for the male gaze? Who knows. Maybe she always wanted huge breasts for herself, and you telling her she’s ridiculous is at least a little misogynistic, if not transphobic.
My feelings about all this are completely dependent on what is really going on here, and no one in this thread knows that. If she’s a newly out trans woman celebrating her freedom, I’d congratulate her and then have a polite talk about appropriate dress for a shop class. If she is doing this as a protest against anti-trans policies at the school or transphobia from colleagues, my concern would be less with her and more with those policies/fellow teachers. If this teacher is not actually trans and is doing this to make fun of “woke policies”, I’ll think he’s a complete asshole who should be fired.
Setting the transphobic OP aside, I remember a funny line in the dress code for student teachers: No visible underwear. No visible lack of underwear. And I remember an ex-girlfriend who worked at a bank and who got called in by HR because of her habit of wearing filmy tops without a bra. Wear your undergarments, she was told.
Until we accept total nudity in all social situations, there’s going to be a dress code. “No outfits that showcase nipples” might be a reasonable item in the dress code. Obviously some folks have bodies that show nipples even through heavy fabric–but that’s different from a sartorial choice that emphasizes them.
I took a shop class before secondary school, which is what I remembered. We made a chess board. I also took some technical high school courses. In university, we had to do take a Machine Tools course using expensive pieces of industrial equipment, numerical controls and massive machinery where the consequences of not taking appropriate precautions were very significant.
But I can’t say we did much blacksmithing. I also did not get to make any chainmail or broadswords. We built very few ships, and no tanks at all. That seems like a shame, but probably it isn’t really.
We also had to do home economics. Part of it was making and eating food, then getting criticized by the teacher for not cleaning up well enough. She would put white gloves on and then rub them on the top of the fridge, then scowl. We also had to use the sewing machines and a handful of random thread patterns. I have never used a sewing machine since.
No, that’s not transphobic. My guess is it’s an opinion shared by most people, including most trans people.
But as Troutman says, the context matters. And none of us knows the context.
I watched about half of it and then skipped to the end to see if there was some form of “Gotcha” that might involve finding something in the thrift store that would in some way support/contradict his screed, but nope its just 9 minutes of bigoted commentary while winding his way through unrelated crowded shelves of junk.
I couldn’t see her using the pottery wheel with hair that long and in her face – I always had to tie mine back. I can think of a number of classes where you’d have to have your hair tied back. But I imagine shop would be one of the most dangerous ones.
(SHe’s also not wearing her mask properly – isn’t it supposed to bo over your nose?)
So like I said: she might just be stupid. A trait that does not discriminate, unfortunately.
The person is real. The portrayal? Who can say?
When does Homecoming usually start? When I was in school, we usually had goofy theme days for Spirit Week, and maybe she’s dressed for one of them? (Although I think it’s usually not until October)
Good question to ask of the shop teacher about her obsessive penchant to present phony pendulous palookas bassoons and expect to be taken seriously.
I think engaging in international shaming campaigns of private citizens over their fashion choices is nasty shitty behavior, and I think the people that propagate such campaigns are nasty shitty small-minded human beings that need to find a better use of their time.
Are you unable to say “breasts”?
Is this a serious conversation?
Oh so it’s a fashion choice?