Imposter Syndrome and Some Other Complicated Things | Squat the Planet

Imposter Syndrome and Some Other Complicated Things

VariedValue

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Trigger warning; transphobia, sexual abuse, ECT.

Hello StP,

Just you're friendly neighborhood anonymous Antifascist here with some thoughts. Thoughts that I manically have nelsewhere to share.

So, I suppose I should just say this as frankly as possible. I've been severely and unforgivably transphobic at earlier stages in life. Growing up in the south east certainly didn't help, and being raised in an alt right family did even worse damage. I was raised to and did project homophobic rhetoric until I was 13 and finally came to terms with being queer, though at the time I had no idea how deep it would actually go (see, this is me still lying to myself and others. I knew from like 8 I wasn't a cis male, I didn't know that I knew but I fucking KNEW). I had been questioning my very species from a young age, regularly clawing at my skin wondering if I was from another planet. Something just... Didn't feel right. It evolved into me ripping my (to be fair baby) teeth out of my head when they showed the slightest bit of give. I spun and spun them until I could yank them out. Mind you, this was not a kid normally losing teeth, I fucking pulled those things out way before they were ready, even causing a severe infection that the docs said they "had only seen in 3rd world countries without access to antibiotics" (terminology theirs not mine) and landed me 2 weeks in the hospital. I experienced rampant sexual abuse from my mother's boyfriend's and was bullied and abused heavily in school from since I can remember. Wether for being a little weird or just wearing makeup to school or a patch jacket getting me suspended, expelled, or honest much worse, beaten down and humiliated in my EXTREAMLY small town (less than 1000 ppl)
without going into too much, what I'm saying is like lots of folx I experienced what I now realize is severe trama and abuse.
And I did not react well...

Long story short this self destructive behavior and outside abuse would soon evolve and manifest into toxic and abusive behaviors to family, friends, and partners. Including transphobic abuses when I still (unconvincingly to myself at least) contiuned to attempt to convence others and myself that I was cis. I have hurt a many of people. Yet, with support from an amazing queer community I was able to come out as non binary/gender queer but have honestly always felt and even more recently have been feeling as if I'd be more... Me, if I... How to say, acknowledge (?) myself as a trans women who uses she/her pronouns. However, even if I did, my past behaviors have made me feel.. in not sure how to put this, undeserving?... I don't know.
I don't feel like I have the right to change my pronouns because of my behavior in the past
Is this imposter Syndrome hitting me in a new wave? Am I just.. idk, looking for excuses for my toxicity..
sorry y'all, late night rant. Not so cohesive. Glad it's out there thou I guess.
 
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roughdraft

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sounds like guilt

you were in an environment that influenced you a certain way and you were younger, less developed and thought a certain way.

you brought yourself out of it and now you think differently, i wouldn't limit yourself based on your past errors. that you aren't "deserving" of whatever you want.

i can't relate to the pronoun issues but i see a sort of parallel between this issue you have with not feeling "worthy" to define yourself as you identify and people who have been thru certain traumas believing they aren't "deserving" of love, for example.

i wouldn't advise you to do it to yourself
 

feralautistic

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trans woman here. if you wanna use she/her and call yourself a woman, go for it. trans women aren't some special category of person that never fuck up.... going into denial and replicating abuse isn't even that uncommon, i've known plenty of other trans people who did the same at one point.

i agree with roughdraft here, you can't live your life worrying about whether you deserve happiness. you can't change the past, you can only decide how you live today.

good luck, i hope you win over the self-doubt :)
 

LEAN

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I catch myself questioning things I've done in the past and being hypocritical, then I realize that no one else is thinking about my problems because its all just in my head.

Do what makes you feel happy and secure in your own body.
 

salxtina

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Hey - I don''t interact here much any more because of the casual sexism as social bonding game
but I'm really glad you made it this far,
and I can't really know what it's like to be a trans woman etc, but if you ever want to chat feel free to throw me a line
 

MFB

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I dont know your age.
But for me, a lot of adulthood was running away from childhood drama.
The best advice I can give is to say focus on not being attached to your past. Accept it. Let it go.

Like a grand oak had everything it needed to grow strong in a tiny nut/seed, you have that same perfection in you to become what you should be. You just need to nourish that. 😊
 
D

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@salxtina feel free to contact any staff members if you feel like doing something about the sexism yer talking about. We are a pretty small team so if you see something I would personally be more then happy to address it myself as it's possible it was missed, all of us have lives outside of stp after all.

But if I had to take a shot in the dark I would say that ain't why you don't post much anymore.
 

salxtina

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I definitely already have, to the degree that it seemed relevant/productive.

And you, of course, don't have to take a shot in the dark - but since you already have, sure, why in fact do I not post here much in your imagination?
 

salxtina

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To be transparent and maybe save my breath, here's my own reply to the moderator message I just got:

Hi -

Right now I'm more curious about your guess that this was not really the reason I don't participate here much. There's some other reason you think is the real one that I don't know about?

But, yes, the reason I gave was my reason. Well, to be more specific, the sexism plus the ableism. And the common comparison of bureaucrats/tools/generally unpleasant people, to developmentally disabled people in various words. And the casual tossing-around antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Like I said, I already addressed this to the degree I thought it was useful for me to do so. When something's a casual/cultural attitude, appealing for Official Enforcement of Rules is only partially helpful. I understand that what's passable as "different opinions" won't be moderated in the same way as what's seen as "character attacks / hate speech" - and I wouldn't expect it should be! Unfortunately that doesn't stop it from having an impact on people's participation. When I engage with this happening, it's been more to directly challenge what other people are saying, or point out where I think they're wrong - not so much to ask moderators to 'stop them for me.' Or, I try to bypass biased speech entirely, and try to communicate directly with similar-effected people and let them know they're not alone- but this gets tiring, and also I trust people who've been marginalized to do their own networking and self-defense generally.

Also the last time I questioned moderation around these issues, you talked to me about your dick, which was gross.
 
D

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@salxtina I messaged you because I felt it was off topic to this thread. If you want to post my reply to that message by all means please do. Because at this point all yer giving me is a link where I used a dick joke as a nice way of saying "I'm kinda over trying to make you happy about this issue".

If you feel the apparent sexism on stp is on topic to this thread then fucking right on, keep on going. But I think for the second time now (terribly sorry I forgot the first you have to understand it wasn't the first time I tried explaining things like this to somebody) I'm gonna bow out. Up with sexism on stp!
 

salxtina

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Was I off the topic of the original post, sure, yes. But I was on the topic that you asked me about - I was just responding to what you said. Thanks for trying, I guess, to be helpful in private messages - But understand that people's expectations of a helpful outcome, might not be as high when the last time they brought up the issue you just replied with dick jokes.
 
D

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Was I off the topic of the original post, sure, yes. But I was on the topic that you asked me about - I was just responding to what you said. Thanks for trying, I guess, to be helpful in private messages - But understand that people's expectations of a helpful outcome, might not be as high when the last time they brought up the issue you just replied with dick jokes.

I'm sure people would appreciate some context, so here is the entire conversation I had with @salxtina

Edit: at this point this is extremely off topic, like I said before feel free to create yer own thread sharing yer opinions, you can even use our conversation as a jumping off point and that way we wouldn't be kinda hijacking someone else's thread anymore. So it's a win win yea?
 

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dumpster harpy

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Yo what the fuck? @SlankyLanky you are on some bullshit right now. you need to take some time to reassess where you're at. @salxtina is being totally reasonable and you are being weirdly aggro.
 
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dumpster harpy

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Your replies in this thread and in the screenshots come across as condescending, aggressive, and shady, which in the context of what they're about is kinda distressing, and comes off like you are essentially (maybe not intentionally) gaslighting this person
 
D

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Your replies in this thread and in the screenshots come across as condescending, aggressive, and shady, which in the context of what they're about is kinda distressing, and comes off like you are essentially (maybe not intentionally) gaslighting this person

um. i think yer misunderstanding, or possibly reading my replies in the wrong tone? i reached out to address something, was told i wasnt needed, and then went on with my day. i thought this was a pretty positive interaction. i guess i was wrong?
 

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