Some further reading/warnings about Empress: There's a more thorough/juicy overview of her history on /r/HobbyDrama to complement this article. Woof, I should have known better than to link to the...
Wow. That’s Terry A. Davis (Temple OS) levels of insanity. Also, what’s all this about men being jealous of women, wanting “a piece of the cake” etc.? Is this a common TERF talking point?
Wow. That’s Terry A. Davis (Temple OS) levels of insanity. Also, what’s all this about men being jealous of women, wanting “a piece of the cake” etc.? Is this a common TERF talking point?
Referencing "Having your cake and eating it too." Trans women, especially those transitioning in adulthood, are experincing femininity through a lens of male privilege. In the same way a white...
Referencing "Having your cake and eating it too."
Trans women, especially those transitioning in adulthood, are experincing femininity through a lens of male privilege. In the same way a white woman claiming trans-blackness is.
From what I've seen, transwomen are a generally more willing to 'out' themselves as such on the internet than ciswomen are. Particularily when using psudeonomous spaces like this one and in videogames. That tells me there's a grain of truth in that sentiment that goes unexplored in most online discussion due to the toxicity of discourse that tends to come with it.
I don't wish to really probe it now, but perhaps some other (tightly moderated) thread in the future. Agree that this rant in particular is a touch off the deep end.
I don't think you're likely to participate in such a discussion if you're going to lead with with comparing transgender to transracial. Even if you're intending to act in good faith and don't...
I don't think you're likely to participate in such a discussion if you're going to lead with with comparing transgender to transracial. Even if you're intending to act in good faith and don't realize this, statements like that are more a transphobic whistle than a dogwhistle, and I highly doubt anyone is going to want to discuss the highly fraught topic of gender socialization in that context, especially considering that calling all transfeminine people "male-socialized" is one of the classic TERF dogwhistles and rhetorical bludgeons. These discussions absolutely do happen, it's an interesting topic, but they only happen productively in places that are thoroughly vetted to keep TERFs and other bad faith actors out, if you're interested I'd highly recommend the Contrapoints video Gender Critical, she delves into it a bit in one of the subsections.
You are putting words in my mouth a bit, but I am certainly coming from good faith. I would even consider starting said thread. Because its a complex discussion, one that isn't really being had if...
You are putting words in my mouth a bit, but I am certainly coming from good faith. I would even consider starting said thread. Because its a complex discussion, one that isn't really being had if the staunchest good-faith critics are excluded from it.
I'll drop the most distilled version of my stances below to let others decide if I'd qualify as good-faith or not.
I oppose all laws interfering between a doctor and their patient.
I oppose all laws about bathrooms.
I support the inclusion of 'trans' as a protected status for the purposes of discrimination and hate crimes.
The discussion around trans topics is very toxic, particularly the relationship between transwomen and ciswomen. Bad-faith actors that oppose at least 2 of my above positions definitely deserve a lot of blame, because they necessitate more stringent rules for obvious reasons.
I see parallels between trans-racialism and trans-gender, because there are parallels to be made. A transwoman who transitioned at 25 has skipped over some of the most traumatic parts of being a young ciswoman. My wife was getting catcalled from the ripe old age of 9. I'm not saying being an abuse victim is (or should be) a trait of womanhood, but I am using it as an illustrative example of how transwomen have benefited from male privilege up until the point of their transition. There is a power dynamic at play of oppressor -> oppressed that is not (to my knowledge a part of most other social justice fights. Which I think is one of the other reasons the discourse is toxic. It's as touchy as being anti-Israel but not anti-semetic.
I don't see how I'm putting words in your mouth? Putting "male-socialized" in quotes wasn't me quoting you, it was me framing the phrase with the derision I think it deserves, and you're digging...
Exemplary
I don't see how I'm putting words in your mouth? Putting "male-socialized" in quotes wasn't me quoting you, it was me framing the phrase with the derision I think it deserves, and you're digging in on the transracial comparison, which most people consider extremely transphobic and insulting. If it needs to be explained, there's no biological basis for race in the same way there is for sex and gender, where regardless of genetics, any individual human has the potential to develop an either male or female-typical body, including sex organs, dependent entirely on timeframe of hormone exposure. The same is not true of race since it's just a vague collection of phenotype features plus typically an associated culture, not all societies have a concept of race, and self-described transracial people are viewed as, at best, not playing with a full deck of cards. The comparison is invalid and insulting. If that's how you talk about transgender people, nobody is going to want to discuss gender issues with you even if you think you have a valid point to make; I'm certainly bowing out of this thread after I leave this comment.
The fact that you don't support criminalizing the existence of trans people doesn't stop you from coming off as a transphobe who's Just Asking Questions, and it's not much of a defense against being called one either. Racists can still be racist while supporting equality under the law, if anything, that's the most common type these days. If you consider yourself an ally of the trans and broader LGBTQ+ community, I would recommend in the strongest possible terms, to trot out a cliche, educating yourself, reading some books like Whipping Girl, watching videos on the subjects from decent producers like Contrapoints, and maybe browsing through more trans-centric forums, because I guarantee this stuff has been discussed to death in interesting and productive ways, and I think that learning a little more about both common trans peoples' positions on topics such as socialization as well as common transphobic tropes and talking points will help you engage with these topics with the nuance that you want.
Equality under the law (systemic barriers removed/recified) and nonviolence is all one can ask from others. You can't demand acceptance, it must be given freely. I will take your advice. I will...
Equality under the law (systemic barriers removed/recified) and nonviolence is all one can ask from others. You can't demand acceptance, it must be given freely.
I will take your advice. I will start a thread sometime when I have finished doing so and share what I have learned. You may or may not wish to know I've fought those ideological battles on 1-3 in place that are not trans friendly. It is because of discussions like this on Tildes I have done so.
If it needs to be explained, there's no biological basis for race in the same way there is for sex and gender, where regardless of genetics, any individual human has the potential to develop an either male or female-typical body, including sex organs, dependent entirely on timeframe of hormone exposure. The same is not true of race since it's just a vague collection of phenotype features plus typically an associated culture, not all societies have a concept of race, and self-described transracial people are viewed as, at best, not playing with a full deck of cards.
If I'm recalling correctly, sex is biological. Gender is a social construct. On this we agree. Genetic makeup like skin color is biological. Race is a social construct. And I have bad news for you: There is a large contingent of people who think trans people are not playing with a full deck as well. Hence the bad laws even having the chance to exist, let alone getting passed. In the end it's about power dynamics.
With that, I'm off for my education. I will speak no more on trans issues until I have.
Ugh, I know I said I was leaving but... Nobody is demanding acceptance, I'm just explaining that you're unlikely to be seen as an ally if you constantly bring up talking points that could be on a...
Ugh, I know I said I was leaving but...
Nobody is demanding acceptance, I'm just explaining that you're unlikely to be seen as an ally if you constantly bring up talking points that could be on a TERF bingo sheet. I hope your research is enjoyable and productive.
There is a guide, called the Dysphoria Bible, written by transgender people for transgender people, that explicitly says gender is biological and decided at birth.
Human Sex (the adjective, not the verb) is broken down into three categories:
Genotype: The genetically defined chromosomal kareotype of an organism (XX, XY, and all variants there of)
Phenotype: The observable primary and secondary sexual characteristics (genitals, fat and muscle distribution, bone structure, etc)
Gender: The unobservable sexual characteristics, the internal mental model of a person’s own sex and the way that they express it.
Any of these three aspects can fall into a position on a range of values. Your elementary school health class probably taught you that Genotype is binary, either Female (XX) or Male (XY), when the reality is that there are a dozen other permutations that can occur within human beings.
Likewise, many people believe that Phenotype is also binary, but biology has recognized for hundreds of years that when you plot out all sexual characteristics across a population, you actually end up with a bimodal distribution where the majority of the population falls within a percentile of two groups. This means that some people will, simply by nature of how life works, fall outside of the typical two piles. Many people fall in the middle, with characteristics of both sexes.
Gender, however, is a lot more… esoteric. There are a lot of different ways that people have attempted to illustrate the gender spectrum, but none have quite thoroughly captured it, because the spectrum is itself a very abstract concept.
Gender is part social construct, part learned behaviors, and part biological processes which form very early in a person’s life.
Present evidence seems to suggest that a person’s gender is established during gestation while the cerebral cortex of the brain is forming (more about that in the Causes of Gender Dysphoria section). This mental model then informs, at a subconscious level, what aspects of the gender spectrum a person will lean towards. It affects behavior, perceptions of the world, the way we experience attraction (separate from sexual orientation and hormonal influences) and how we bond with other people.
Gender also affects the expectations that the brain has for the environment it resides in (your body), and when that environment does not meet those expectations, the brain sends up warning alarms in the form of depression, depersonalization, derealization, and dissociation. These are the brain’s subconscious ways of informing us that something is very wrong.
On the social side, gender involves our habitus: our presentation, our mannerisms and behaviors, how we communicate, how we react, what our expectations are from life, and the roles that we fulfill as we walk through life.
Okay, so, I'm not trans, and I'm also not an expert, but this is my understanding of sex versus gender, which I think answers some of your questions. "Sex" is referring primarily to genitals,...
Okay, so, I'm not trans, and I'm also not an expert, but this is my understanding of sex versus gender, which I think answers some of your questions.
"Sex" is referring primarily to genitals, especially genitals at birth (for people who have had bottom surgery). This forms a pretty good, but definitely not perfect, binary between "people who were born with penises" and "people who were born with vulvas".
"Chromosomal sex" matters less than a lot of people think, since bodily sexual dimorphism is actually primarily driven by levels of sex hormones, not genetics directly (e.g. androgen insensitivity). There are also plenty of viable nonbinary chromosomal distributions, so this doesn't form a perfect binary, either.
"Gender" is referring primarily to the brain. I don't think it's well-understood how (at any rate, I certainly don't have a good understanding), but brains are evidently sexually dimorphic as well, in that a given human brain "wants" to be attached to a more sexually female or sexually male body. (Or neither, or a complex, possibly varying, combination. Nonbinary folks' experiences are valid, too!) If a brain is in the "wrong" kind of body, it experiences dysphoria. We know that gender and sex are different—irrespective of scientific studies on the matter—because trans people exist.
"Gender expression" is the socialized, y'know, expression of gender. Stuff like "women wear skirts" in western cultures. Because the brain, and not the genitals, is the seat of the mind, people prefer to follow the gender expression for their culture that matches their gender (hence the term), not their sex. And because it's socialized, gender expression can change; perhaps because a person moves into a different society, or the normative gender expressions of the society they're in change.
The key thing here is that both sex and gender are inborn: you get one of each at birth, lucky you, and you're stuck with them for your entire life. (This applies to nonbinary folks, as well: they can't choose to be cis, even if they can be indefinitely comfortable with a cis gender expression.) If your sex and your gender don't match, i.e. you are trans, medical science is much much better at modifying bodies (through hormone therapy, surgery, etc.) than at modifying brains, and so that's the direction treatment takes to relieve dysphoria.
(Just to reiterate, I'm just a random cis ally who is not an expert on topics of sex, gender, or endocrinology. I would gratefully accept corrections from anyone with more experience or knowledge.)
lol really? A quick review of anthropology and the extremely wide array of 'normal' gender roles reveals pretty much all one needs to know. Perhaps it's you who is attempting to believe something...
I disagree, there are exactly 0 studies showing sex and gender are like that - it's a theory coming from the postmodernist ideal to reject a grand truth and the belief that whatever someone personally thinks is true
lol really?
A quick review of anthropology and the extremely wide array of 'normal' gender roles reveals pretty much all one needs to know. Perhaps it's you who is attempting to believe something you personally want to be true.
Hold on, are you suggesting the idea of sex being biological and gender being a social construct is just something people are making up as some kind of grand delusion? Or am I greatly misreading...
Hold on, are you suggesting the idea of sex being biological and gender being a social construct is just something people are making up as some kind of grand delusion? Or am I greatly misreading something here?
Probably. But from my vantage point, the majority haven't? Ancedote != data and all that. But the discourse makes me feel I'm not alone in seeing this.
Probably. But from my vantage point, the majority haven't? Ancedote != data and all that. But the discourse makes me feel I'm not alone in seeing this.
That is genuinely just horrible. I'm having such a hard time imagining someone typing out that statement without having even a hint of introspection. Save yourself the click and just skip it.
Regrettably, she went on a vitriolic transphobic rant after releasing her crack of Hogwarts Legacy. ;_;
That is genuinely just horrible. I'm having such a hard time imagining someone typing out that statement without having even a hint of introspection. Save yourself the click and just skip it.
The article is two years old; it was a lot more accurate back then. At any rate, I'm glad that I just stick to legitimately bought indie games nowadays.
The article is two years old; it was a lot more accurate back then.
At any rate, I'm glad that I just stick to legitimately bought indie games nowadays.
I don't follow the scene but Empress' antics have been cracking through over the last couple of years. She has definitely become much more unhinged over the pandemic years. She reads as having all...
I don't follow the scene but Empress' antics have been cracking through over the last couple of years. She has definitely become much more unhinged over the pandemic years. She reads as having all the hallmarks as Kanye or Azalea Banks with unprompted extreme hostility.
Also worth noting that she basically has no followers when it comes to her ideologies. She's popular only because she cracks Denuvo games, otherwise nobody in the scenes seem to pay her any more attention. That said, if she becomes a meme type after all this, there might be a cadre that decides she should be fawned over—this seems to happen whenever something becomes a source of memes.
Unrelated, but I wish someone would write an article on how people actually go about cracking Denuvo, at least with one of the older titles. It's a shame how secretive all the information in the...
Unrelated, but I wish someone would write an article on how people actually go about cracking Denuvo, at least with one of the older titles. It's a shame how secretive all the information in the cracking community is.
Empresses' predecessor, Voksi, actually made a few youtube tutorials detailing how to do it, but it's extremely technical and unless you have a CS degree you basically won't be able to follow. To...
Empresses' predecessor, Voksi, actually made a few youtube tutorials detailing how to do it, but it's extremely technical and unless you have a CS degree you basically won't be able to follow.
To simplify it: to avoid destroying the performance of the game, Denuvo triggers it's anti-tamper checks at specific points, that as far as I understand, are set by the devs, for example every time you open your inventory. Since these are manually placed, the cracker basically has to go through the compiled code, identify the API call, find each one and remove it alongside other measures like countering the fingerprinting of your machine. This I believe is the main reason why Denuvo will always at least guarantee a couple of days, even if it's dismantled completely: it forces a manual process.
This is my understanding anyway, and is probably outdated as it's months old.
Some further reading/warnings about Empress:
Regrettably, she went on a [vitriolic transphobic rant](link removed, don't read her awful words) after releasing her crack of Hogwarts Legacy. ;_;She's... a lot more unstable than the Wired article would have you believe.
Wow. That’s Terry A. Davis (Temple OS) levels of insanity. Also, what’s all this about men being jealous of women, wanting “a piece of the cake” etc.? Is this a common TERF talking point?
Referencing "Having your cake and eating it too."
Trans women, especially those transitioning in adulthood, are experincing femininity through a lens of male privilege. In the same way a white woman claiming trans-blackness is.
From what I've seen, transwomen are a generally more willing to 'out' themselves as such on the internet than ciswomen are. Particularily when using psudeonomous spaces like this one and in videogames. That tells me there's a grain of truth in that sentiment that goes unexplored in most online discussion due to the toxicity of discourse that tends to come with it.
I don't wish to really probe it now, but perhaps some other (tightly moderated) thread in the future. Agree that this rant in particular is a touch off the deep end.
I don't think you're likely to participate in such a discussion if you're going to lead with with comparing transgender to transracial. Even if you're intending to act in good faith and don't realize this, statements like that are more a transphobic whistle than a dogwhistle, and I highly doubt anyone is going to want to discuss the highly fraught topic of gender socialization in that context, especially considering that calling all transfeminine people "male-socialized" is one of the classic TERF dogwhistles and rhetorical bludgeons. These discussions absolutely do happen, it's an interesting topic, but they only happen productively in places that are thoroughly vetted to keep TERFs and other bad faith actors out, if you're interested I'd highly recommend the Contrapoints video Gender Critical, she delves into it a bit in one of the subsections.
You are putting words in my mouth a bit, but I am certainly coming from good faith. I would even consider starting said thread. Because its a complex discussion, one that isn't really being had if the staunchest good-faith critics are excluded from it.
I'll drop the most distilled version of my stances below to let others decide if I'd qualify as good-faith or not.
I oppose all laws interfering between a doctor and their patient.
I oppose all laws about bathrooms.
I support the inclusion of 'trans' as a protected status for the purposes of discrimination and hate crimes.
The discussion around trans topics is very toxic, particularly the relationship between transwomen and ciswomen. Bad-faith actors that oppose at least 2 of my above positions definitely deserve a lot of blame, because they necessitate more stringent rules for obvious reasons.
I see parallels between trans-racialism and trans-gender, because there are parallels to be made. A transwoman who transitioned at 25 has skipped over some of the most traumatic parts of being a young ciswoman. My wife was getting catcalled from the ripe old age of 9. I'm not saying being an abuse victim is (or should be) a trait of womanhood, but I am using it as an illustrative example of how transwomen have benefited from male privilege up until the point of their transition. There is a power dynamic at play of oppressor -> oppressed that is not (to my knowledge a part of most other social justice fights. Which I think is one of the other reasons the discourse is toxic. It's as touchy as being anti-Israel but not anti-semetic.
I don't see how I'm putting words in your mouth? Putting "male-socialized" in quotes wasn't me quoting you, it was me framing the phrase with the derision I think it deserves, and you're digging in on the transracial comparison, which most people consider extremely transphobic and insulting. If it needs to be explained, there's no biological basis for race in the same way there is for sex and gender, where regardless of genetics, any individual human has the potential to develop an either male or female-typical body, including sex organs, dependent entirely on timeframe of hormone exposure. The same is not true of race since it's just a vague collection of phenotype features plus typically an associated culture, not all societies have a concept of race, and self-described transracial people are viewed as, at best, not playing with a full deck of cards. The comparison is invalid and insulting. If that's how you talk about transgender people, nobody is going to want to discuss gender issues with you even if you think you have a valid point to make; I'm certainly bowing out of this thread after I leave this comment.
The fact that you don't support criminalizing the existence of trans people doesn't stop you from coming off as a transphobe who's Just Asking Questions, and it's not much of a defense against being called one either. Racists can still be racist while supporting equality under the law, if anything, that's the most common type these days. If you consider yourself an ally of the trans and broader LGBTQ+ community, I would recommend in the strongest possible terms, to trot out a cliche, educating yourself, reading some books like Whipping Girl, watching videos on the subjects from decent producers like Contrapoints, and maybe browsing through more trans-centric forums, because I guarantee this stuff has been discussed to death in interesting and productive ways, and I think that learning a little more about both common trans peoples' positions on topics such as socialization as well as common transphobic tropes and talking points will help you engage with these topics with the nuance that you want.
Equality under the law (systemic barriers removed/recified) and nonviolence is all one can ask from others. You can't demand acceptance, it must be given freely.
I will take your advice. I will start a thread sometime when I have finished doing so and share what I have learned. You may or may not wish to know I've fought those ideological battles on 1-3 in place that are not trans friendly. It is because of discussions like this on Tildes I have done so.
If I'm recalling correctly, sex is biological. Gender is a social construct. On this we agree. Genetic makeup like skin color is biological. Race is a social construct. And I have bad news for you: There is a large contingent of people who think trans people are not playing with a full deck as well. Hence the bad laws even having the chance to exist, let alone getting passed. In the end it's about power dynamics.
With that, I'm off for my education. I will speak no more on trans issues until I have.
Ugh, I know I said I was leaving but...
Nobody is demanding acceptance, I'm just explaining that you're unlikely to be seen as an ally if you constantly bring up talking points that could be on a TERF bingo sheet. I hope your research is enjoyable and productive.
That is not what it says.
Okay, so, I'm not trans, and I'm also not an expert, but this is my understanding of sex versus gender, which I think answers some of your questions.
The key thing here is that both sex and gender are inborn: you get one of each at birth, lucky you, and you're stuck with them for your entire life. (This applies to nonbinary folks, as well: they can't choose to be cis, even if they can be indefinitely comfortable with a cis gender expression.) If your sex and your gender don't match, i.e. you are trans, medical science is much much better at modifying bodies (through hormone therapy, surgery, etc.) than at modifying brains, and so that's the direction treatment takes to relieve dysphoria.
(Just to reiterate, I'm just a random cis ally who is not an expert on topics of sex, gender, or endocrinology. I would gratefully accept corrections from anyone with more experience or knowledge.)
lol really?
A quick review of anthropology and the extremely wide array of 'normal' gender roles reveals pretty much all one needs to know. Perhaps it's you who is attempting to believe something you personally want to be true.
Hold on, are you suggesting the idea of sex being biological and gender being a social construct is just something people are making up as some kind of grand delusion? Or am I greatly misreading something here?
Wouldn't most trans people prefer to transition earlier rather than after the wrong puberty and into adulthood?
Probably. But from my vantage point, the majority haven't? Ancedote != data and all that. But the discourse makes me feel I'm not alone in seeing this.
I’m definitely not qualified to weigh in. I was really just straw manning TERFs.
Yep, there's an archive of her NFOs that show she's certainly not all there: https://model-map.github.io/EmpressNfo/
That is genuinely just horrible. I'm having such a hard time imagining someone typing out that statement without having even a hint of introspection. Save yourself the click and just skip it.
The article is two years old; it was a lot more accurate back then.
At any rate, I'm glad that I just stick to legitimately bought indie games nowadays.
I don't follow the scene but Empress' antics have been cracking through over the last couple of years. She has definitely become much more unhinged over the pandemic years. She reads as having all the hallmarks as Kanye or Azalea Banks with unprompted extreme hostility.
Also worth noting that she basically has no followers when it comes to her ideologies. She's popular only because she cracks Denuvo games, otherwise nobody in the scenes seem to pay her any more attention. That said, if she becomes a meme type after all this, there might be a cadre that decides she should be fawned over—this seems to happen whenever something becomes a source of memes.
Unrelated, but I wish someone would write an article on how people actually go about cracking Denuvo, at least with one of the older titles. It's a shame how secretive all the information in the cracking community is.
Empresses' predecessor, Voksi, actually made a few youtube tutorials detailing how to do it, but it's extremely technical and unless you have a CS degree you basically won't be able to follow.
To simplify it: to avoid destroying the performance of the game, Denuvo triggers it's anti-tamper checks at specific points, that as far as I understand, are set by the devs, for example every time you open your inventory. Since these are manually placed, the cracker basically has to go through the compiled code, identify the API call, find each one and remove it alongside other measures like countering the fingerprinting of your machine. This I believe is the main reason why Denuvo will always at least guarantee a couple of days, even if it's dismantled completely: it forces a manual process.
This is my understanding anyway, and is probably outdated as it's months old.
Jesus, I feel my hands jittering after reading that, lol. Never expected this much drama in the game cracking scene, lol.
Already a bit older, but I found this to be an interesting read if you're interested in game cracking or DRM circumvention.