rhea

rhea

@pinkfoid.bsky.social

political theorist, grad student, photographer she/they

35 followers60 following25 posts

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

Just turned 24 and i can already feel my frontal lobe developing to its maximum potential, ill be unstoppable next year for sure 🎉🎉🎉

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

feeling extra motivated today so i’m going to make a thread going through the research i did on this very subject in undergrad! 1/12

Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief@katie.bzky.team

i really wish "children are people and people are not property" was not a radical opinion but unfortunately it's the central question up for debate with much of politics

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rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

if children are not also allowed to have their own autonomous experiments in living, including but not limited to transitioning, then any society claiming Liberalism as a guiding theoretical framework has failed. 11/12

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

to wrap it up, i argued that if the many self-described liberals in the world want to actually commit to their own ideas, they are obliged to fight for trans childrens rights and recognize that children have autonomy that needs to be respected. otherwise your principles are incoherent/hollow 12/12

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

feeling extra motivated today so i’m going to make a thread going through the research i did on this very subject in undergrad! 1/12

Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief@katie.bzky.team

i really wish "children are people and people are not property" was not a radical opinion but unfortunately it's the central question up for debate with much of politics

View full thread
rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

One of Mill's guiding beliefs is that "Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing." 9/12

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

Yet there are passages in "On Liberty" where Mill makes analogies using children as examples as to why society/governments might sometimes need to intervene in expression/liberty. this to me is inherently contradictory to his own argument, as a society cannot flourish long if it squashes kids 10/12

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

feeling extra motivated today so i’m going to make a thread going through the research i did on this very subject in undergrad! 1/12

Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief@katie.bzky.team

i really wish "children are people and people are not property" was not a radical opinion but unfortunately it's the central question up for debate with much of politics

View full thread
rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

the kernel linking this all together is that both arguments ultimately come from the same place that Katie pointed out. "my child is my property and i will do what I want with them" governs the parents rights crowd in its religious origin as well as its evolved terf-ified language 7/12

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

this notion that children are not autonomous beings with wants and desires but rather copies of their parents has a long history, as we can look back to the English legal system of coverture for its origins in the American context. Even Mill makes the mistake of not recognizing children 8/12

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

feeling extra motivated today so i’m going to make a thread going through the research i did on this very subject in undergrad! 1/12

Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief@katie.bzky.team

i really wish "children are people and people are not property" was not a radical opinion but unfortunately it's the central question up for debate with much of politics

View full thread
rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

as both a policy-based and theoretical paper, I focused in on the legal struggle to protect trans children from 2015-24 and fortified it with J.S. Mill's "On Liberty" to expose that the convictions of many self-proclaimed liberals and opinion columnists are rotten to the core 5/12

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

what stood out to me with the legal battles was how the case argumentation for parents rights evolved, as it often began with attempts to contest trans children on religious grounds before evolving into bioessentialism mixed with agnostic "wont someone think of the children" wording 6/12

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

feeling extra motivated today so i’m going to make a thread going through the research i did on this very subject in undergrad! 1/12

Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief@katie.bzky.team

i really wish "children are people and people are not property" was not a radical opinion but unfortunately it's the central question up for debate with much of politics

View full thread
rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

to be brief, i wrote the paper with the intent of proving why it is theoretically inconsistent to claim Liberal convictions without also supporting the rights of children. to ground the example I looked at trans children's rights and their biggest opponent, the parents rights movement. 3/12

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

though I am not a Liberal, I believe that in order for trans people to live their lives as they choose it is worth engaging with Liberal theory in order to show that if one does subscribe to such an ideology, there follows an imperative to support and protect trans children in particular 4/12

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

feeling extra motivated today so i’m going to make a thread going through the research i did on this very subject in undergrad! 1/12

Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief@katie.bzky.team

i really wish "children are people and people are not property" was not a radical opinion but unfortunately it's the central question up for debate with much of politics

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

worth noting that I wrote this from 2023-24 and have not really edited it since other than to cut it down for my phd writing sample, so bear with me as I summarize my argument 2/12

rhea reposted

tpwrtrdmn
@tpwrtrmnky.bsky.social

Replying to @tpwrtrmnky.bsky.social

You will need it by the end regardless, but the fact that you want to do a PhD in itself raises questions worth examining in therapy

rhea reposted

lauren
@lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com

what do you mean you hate black licorice? do you also hate picking at that itchy little bit of skin around your fingernail? do you also hate walking in the rain when a cold breeze cuts through you? do you also hate the feeling of knowing you've let down a loved one?

rhea reposted

Natacha
@natacha.bsky.social

A very, very important peer-reviewed empirical study published in the academic journal Pediatrics shows that hormone treatment of young trans people decreases suicidality very significantly. Doubtless it will be ignored by Simonoff et al, who are not even measuring this in the “Pathways” study.

sciencedirect.comChanges in Suicidality among Transgender Adolescents Following Hormone Therapy: An Extended StudyTo examine changes in suicidality following hormone therapy (HT) among transgender and gender-diverse adolescents and young adults.A retrospective cha…

rhea reposted

Zohran Kwame Mamdani
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social

On this Trans Day of Remembrance, we remember the bright and courageous trans people whose lives were stolen by hatred. Their absence is felt across our city. We will honor them by building a New York where every trans person can live safely, fully and freely.

rhea reposted

Miriam Posner
@miriamposner.com

WE WON. I am *begging* you to take note of who did this. *Not* UCLA admin—they’re still scuttling around behind closed doors, attempting to appease—but FACULTY AND STAFF, led by AAUP.

Veena Dubal@veenadubal.bsky.social

BREAKING: In AAUP et al v. Trump (wall-to-wall union lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful use of TItle VI to reshape the University of California system), the faculty and staff of the UC system WON!!! We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org

rhea reposted

Blake Emerson
@blakeprof.bsky.social

These are the Trump Administration’s demands on UCLA, in addition to a 1.2 billion dollar fine, as reported by the LA Times today. I must note again that the Trump Administration’s attempt to use title vi to enforce conservative agenda items is flagrantly illegal.

rhea
@pinkfoid.bsky.social

got my first phd offer (unofficially) today and it is just barely enough to keep me from breaking down over everything going on in the world 🎉🙃🎉

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