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So, honest question. Where does the association with becoming trans or cross dressing come from when it comes to Linux? I always see the memes and appreciate the pictures but I'm ootl on this.
Edit- lot of interesting takes on my question. Thanks for the info everyone 💜
As a trans woman using Linux, imo it's using something beyond it's original design. Similar to how we 'hack' our bodies to go beyond our AGAB, a lot of us run Linux (on machines that come with windows) or hack consoles such as a 3ds we take machines with inferior software and make them better.
Or a may just be reaching and it's just that security concious and nerdy communities are also largely queer ¯_(ツ)__/¯
It's natural as a queer person to seek to protect yourself, because the world is more dangerous for us.
Isn't there something also about expressing oneself in here? With the limited freedoms society gives our bodies and behaviours, hacking our hardware to get it to do as we please is a form of liberty, and of self-expression. With a healthy dose of show-them-the-middle-finger to everything oligarchic, capitalistic and conservative that dominates the world around us.
That, of course, with the desperately needed privacy on top.
Yeah I can express myself like this without worrying about what people irl think of me.
This sounds a lot like how one of my friends describes it. She's a riot — she jokes that she came out as trans because as a chronic tech nerd, she reached a fork in the road where it was either "libertarian tech bro" or "anarchist cat girl".
Unrelated to that anecdote, as a queer cis woman, certainly a lot of the joy and catharsis I get from tinkering with tech feels like the same fulfillment I derive from queer community. I think there's a lot to be said for how a person's perspective influences how they approach problems. Like, as a scientist, there are definitely areas where I feel like being a queer, autistic woman affects how I approach a problem.
As a Marxist cat (?) girl, the barricades will be stormed by people in thigh highs and cat ears.
E: took me a while but I finally found a photo I was thinking of lol
There seems to be large overlap between queerness and nerdiness. Although that just replaces one question for another, and idk why it is what it is.
I think I've read once that niche communities tend to have notably higher rates of things like trans people. It might be that it's because these niche communities are more welcoming, so those people like LGBT+ who feel unwelcome in more mainstream places find a home there and bring their friends.
I don't remember the source and I'm half-remembering the point anyway, so make of it what you may. The context was actually speedrunning (like AGDQ).
@LogicalDrivel @snowsynth i would say that it's related to Unix socks. You know, these long striped socks that a proud Unix user should use.