A particularly good Pervocracy post

[highlyeccentric]

Asyouknowbob, Cliff Pervocracy's Tumblr got deleted just before the porn filter came into effect, and AFAIK he never got an explanation. Some of his posts are still out there in circulation (because Tumblr's architecture is awful - deleting an account doesn't delete its content, and while I'm glad Cliff's words are still out there, that is on principle a stupid way to run a site).

I used to read Cliff's work back when he was Holly Pervocracy, a sex-positive blogger with some good takes on sex and gender and occasional straight up anti-feminist (or anti-feminISM as a movement) stances. I stopped reading when the anti-feminism bit got a bit ridiculous, and was delighted to discover him again some years later as a queer, feminist trans sex educator. He described, if I recall correctly, his earlier hostility to feminist thought as fundamentally a hostility to being treated as part of the lump category 'women', and once he got his head around not having to be a woman at all, he developed a much more positive relationship with feminism.

Here is a still live reblog copy of one of my favourite posts of his. Because Tumblr is eminently unreliable, I reproduce the text here:

I used to think people called me irresponsible, dirty, immoral, or speculated about me having diseases because I wrote about having multiple partners.

Then I changed my name from Holly to Cliff.

I used to think people called me fat because I’m overweight.

Then I changed my name from Holly to Cliff.

I used to think people talked about whether they’d have sex with me (and somehow managed to make “yes” and “no” equally disdainful) because I wrote about sex.

Then I changed my name from Holly to Cliff.

I used to think a certain level of trolling and insulting was just the base state of the Internet, just something you had to thicken your skin to because Internet’s gonna Internet.

Then I changed my name from Holly to Cliff.

—

My initial conclusion is, of course, “damn, everyone should change their name to Cliff,” but as that seems to not be right for everyone, let’s try:

“Damn, never think that abuse is inevitable or something you deserve”

and

“Damn, never think your judgement of a person is unaffected by your knowledge about their identity.”

and

“Damn, you can live in the same spaces with people for a while and still have no idea what a different view of the world and of human interaction they’re getting.”

Last I heard Cliff was looking at self-hosting his own site, and I look forward to it.

Comments

[lazaefair]

Trans folk observing and analyzing the (often radically) different ways the world reacts to them Before and After is one of the most fascinating topics to read about.