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Alt text:
A screenshot of a Tumblr post from a user named demilypyro. The text of the post reads: "y'know some years ago I saw a conservative post something like 'transitioning is worshipping yourself when you should be worshipping god' and I was like hell yeah. hell yeah that's awesome. I'm turning myself into someone worthy of worship and spiting god at the same time. this rules".
I reject my God-given form and shall undergo a blasphemous and glorious transfiguration that shall rock the very foundations of this material world to their core.
(シ_ _)シ
Now repeat after me: "ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn"
I’ve talked about this AFK to varying degrees of reception. As someone raised going to a Roman Catholic Church but not by people explicitly religious, I got a lot of exposure to the concept of “god”. Some being capable of shaping the world and creating new things, yet possibly unable to change itself and without knowledge of who/what made it. Doesn’t seem particularly powerful all things considered.
We punny humans can shape the world, and create new things, but trans people are some of the only people I know that have gone through the work of changing themselves. The only people I know to be truly self made, and not in the tech bro sense. This makes the proximity of transness to godliness in most non-abrahamic religions and cultures make total sense to me.
In one of her books, Octavia Butler writes a character that falls out with the religion of her family and childhood and makes her own. Dubious choice to structure your thinking and community as a religion aside, the founding tenet is “god is change. The only consistent thing in the world is change, and it is the one thing that is inevitable. All things change.” While I’m not sure I agree with the characters mission/approach overall, (and I’m not going to spoil the book just to discuss that) I can very much get behind this concept and see myself and my trans siblings as very powerful beings. Beings capable of transmutation, illusion, and magic. Capable of change.
EDIT: sleight wording change to include more people this is applicable to
My take is that people who say "transitioning is worshipping yourself" mean it like "it's done for your own idea of yourself, not for your god-given one".
It seems very unlikely to me that any transphobic Christian thinks transitioning is anything like "surpassing" God by being able to change oneself, because:
On the other hand, "it's not God's will" is given as a reason or excuse to oppose many things that can be seen as "unnatural". More innocuous examples are the many religions and denominations which forbid cutting (some of) the hair, often with the reason that God gave it you so you should keep it how it is.
And while this principle generally isn't applied consistently at all - (uncontroversial) medical interventions are surely as "unnatural" as transition, but are opposed only by the loopiest of religious people - that doesn't mean it isn't the principle behind any particular bit of thinking, such as opposition to medical care for trans people. (I think folks often call out inconsistencies of thought as if it reveals that the true reasoning must lie elsewhere... as if humans are incapable of holding inconsistent beliefs :P)
Oh many more people than trans people undergo changes, and I thinks it’s why I’m also drawn to tattoos, piercings, and body mods, as various ways of claiming agency of ourselves. I think learning, like you said, is a very neat example of that. There are many people that choose to live in ignorance of things and thus stagnate on their understanding of the world as a whole. Choosing to engage fully with the learning process of anything also feels the same kind of magic. Transitioning has also included a ton of learning, so I thinks it’s interesting linking those things.
Just as change is inevitable so is our ability to learn and adapt to that change.
I also find the argument itself interesting because I'd honestly call it easier to compare my transition to joining a religious order than self worship. After a long time seriously considering what was wrong in my life I humbled myself to accept that I needed to live an uncommon and difficult path that would completely change my life from what had always been expected of me.
It pushed me away from religion, but it also called me back to the divine.
Well religious types are gonna be mad at that too, of course! You picked the wrong religion!!
Ah memories of being a kid and being told I wasn't a Christian because I was Catholic
i mean i'd say people who go to the gym are self-made, too
Also see: "Who tf are you to speak in the name of God????"
There are no Gods. Only me.
Why would i worship random ass dude who does not want me to exist? Of course i would worship myself, as a person who actually loves me and wants me to outlive all of my enemies.
But what about your cat?
idk if she even knows she exists tbh
It just wants food and wants to be left alone (unless it want some attention). It will not do anything in return.
You mean the God that allowed all this suffering cuz he wants to play games with his creations? Yeah, that ass isn't worth worshipping. God(s) are dicks. They always are in stories and mythology.
So, are we transitioning God by worshiping it?
Hail yourself!
Me, trans and goddessgender: uh, yeah
I appreciate this thread but i just can't get past the whole "god isn't real" thing lmao