Rhetoric and hashtag-tivisim

During this week's class, we discussed hashtags, topoi, and all things concerning Ruth Osario's text, "I Am #ActuallyAutistic, Hear Me Tweet: TheAutist-Topoi of Autistic Activists on Twitter" (2020). Within her article, Osario goes on to discuss to the reader what a topos is, and how such rhetoric assigned to a movement can help or hurt those the movement is about. An example of harmful rhetoric, in Osario's movement of supporting those with autism, would be that autism is something we "have to mourn" when it comes to a child or adult being diagnosed. Meanwhile, a helpful rhetoric would be one of acceptance, or understanding that having autism is quite literally just a diagnosis - and doesn't take anything away from the person.

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So, how does this apply to transgender youth? It's simple. There's always two sides that can easily be found in the discussion of transgender youth - one that is for, and one that is against. The rhetoric that kids are "too young to understand being transgender" is a harmful one - how do you know your child doesn't grasp gender? Gender is everywhere, especially when you're a child - we have gendered toys, outfits, colors, etc. that society has pushed onto kids to let them know they are either "this gender" or "that gender". Thus, the push back on letting young trans kids start hormone therapy. When people write #protecttranskids, it's from this harmful rhetoric of the idea that a child doesn't know themselves well enough to know they can't fit inside of society's perceived idea of gender.