what i need you to understand is the only place for transfeminine people in the art world is the stage because transmisogyny teaches you that our genders are themselves only performative and because of that the only artistry we are capable of is our appearance.
what i need you to understand is that transfeminine people are constantly made aware of the fact that we are the only one in the room, in the gallery, in the curation. we are made aware of this fact by constantly being misgendered even if our work is being used in the service of branding as "progressive" or "inclusive."
what i need you to understand is that it is a very different project to advocate for more cis women artists than it is to advocate against (trans)misogyny. the thing is when we say we want "more women artists" without saying "we want to challenge the very conditions that made it so impossible for women's artistry to be recognized" what you get is a feeble and symbolic gesture of progress, not a substantive shift in paradigm.
what i want you to understand is that transfeminine people are some of the most brilliant creatives I have ever met in my life it's just that you don't know of them yet not because they aren't making work, but because you don't regard it as real work -- and at a more fundamental level you don't regard them/us as real people.
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