banneret

In my first pass over the strip, I thought Tedd might have stepped away from Elliot due to something she saw through her powers. There was, and is, a suspicious dearth of blush.

That article is a mess as written, I'm loathe to engage with it at all, since it primarily cites previous articles from the same site and is a collection of five incidents that it presents as "'transgender' men" abusing restroom occupants, where only one of the five involves an offender identifying as trans in their incident. The first case is man, who makes no effort to identify as a woman, attempting to excuse his entry by suggesting it is enabled by the law, which it is not. The third and fourth cases are men using drag to gain access, which has been happening for decades. The fifth is men taking photographs of women in a neutral bathroom, which is not substantively different from them doing it in a women's bathroom, or taking photos of men in a men's bathroom, both of which have been happening for decades. The second case, it doesn't seem - having followed the article trail through several different deeply partisan sites - like the offender genuinely identifies as trans, nor that he made any effort to present as a woman. It isn't the same sort of opportunism as the first case, because some authority did give him access when he made a claim. There isn't a lot of information out there, beyond the fact that he is mentally ill and was already a convicted sex offender. So, there is that one, I shouldn't have been absolutist. Beyond that, the fact that this article can be presented as five cases of "'transgender' men" abusing restroom occupants, and read as "at least three, arguably four" is very telling. Every single one of these incidents was perpetrated by straight, cis men against women, and that is the only common element. One offender claimed identity to gain access, one offender attempted to invoke the law as a defense, and the remainder did things they could - and probably would - have done regardless of the law. When all is said and done, which of these cases could have been avoided by removing restroom protections for transfolk? Not one. While the article is not persuasive, I do understand what you are getting at, Don Edwards, and I do not think you are transphobic. I apologize if I inadvertently gave you that impression, I am merely frustrated with the red herring, and in fact I was responding to Scotty. Personally, I would prefer neutral, single and double (for diaper stations) occupant restrooms with actual doors and locks. Moving over to that standard could actually have an impact on restroom comfort and safety.

As it does not solve anything, it is, by definition, not a solution. Can I just say something? The whole "dangerous pervert" angle is a red herring, and we have to dispense with it. Even the hypothetical you've presented - "could there be... probably" - is ridiculous. Not one person is going to attempt to pass themselves off as trans to gain access to other people in a restroom. It requires a lot of effort to present, and presentation will make you visible or notable, either because you do not pass, or because you perform femininity/masculinity to a prototypical level to pass. There are probably hundreds of ways to sneak a peek, and not one of them is going to be more difficult, nor expose the hypothetical pervert to greater risk of discovery and/or violence. The whole legal push against transfolk is not about public safety. It won't improve the safety of any restroom occupant. It does not address the incidents that do occur in restrooms. All it seeks to do, and all it does in real terms, is make a subset of the population more vulnerable.

I don't think there is anything questionable in those undertones. If anything, they afford some answers.

No disagreement here, Scotty. I was dancing around the gatekeeping role of medical professionals. They have a lot of latitude in how they approach treatment, and many do demand a period of living as the target gender prior to surgical and, in some cases, hormonal intervention. This was more common in the past, as the DSM-V and the most recent revision of the WPATH Standards of Care no longer treat gender dysphoria as pathological, but these demands do persist in some practices. Where you are and what insurance you are on can lead to a completely different experience with the establishment from another person. Sometimes, there are a lot of hoops.

That is a good question, but I think institutional sexism in the standards of care is beyond this thread.

Oh dear.

I always miss calls, and nobody ever leaves a message. Texts are simply better until we've mutually decided to have a call.

As I do not have an income at present, I do not participate in the Patreon, but I am not that fond of the recent output either, with the exception of Dan's choices. Touch Practice and Noah with Elliot were both head and shoulders above the other recent pinups. Perhaps it is the fault of the backing, voting public - though they haven't done as poorly as I expected with the major January polls. We will get Mechanic Tess, at least. Anyway, I miss the commentary as well.

An unconscious response? I mean, I don't choose when or where to blush. Nonetheless, I concede the point.

I expected a faint blush. Where is the faint blush?

Ahem. One man's junk is another man's treasure, and I'm always up to abscond with a fortune. I'll see myself out of this thread.

El Goonish Shive is the only comic I was reading fifteen, or even ten, years ago which I am still reading today. As I grew old and tired, other media failed to grow with me, but El Goonish Shive has. That is all I can say, for the moment.

Was the enchantment on the boar permanent, or merely open ended? The boar sought calories - presumably it could not merely tap into the ambient energy of Moperville, perhaps because it did not cast the spell itself - to maintain the enchantment. I suggest there is a difference between the two, a permanent enchantment would be self-sustaining, an open ended enchantment would last as long as it was fueled. As for Sarah, she's effectively creating a delusional space. People do that all the time, this one merely starts with an explicit replication of her locale.

I'm concerned about this shift, though I have long felt that EGS should have a dedicated, independent forum which is tailored to the community. This is the only forum I visit, and I seldom use the various "social media" platforms, because they are all unsuited for conversation. Indeed, the centralization of communication has had no real benefits in my opinion, the quality of discourse has dropped for almost all subjects as they've moved from traditional forums to platforms like Reddit, Tumblr, and Facebook - and without any sort of focus, shallow and fleeting participation has become the norm.