FUCK I didn't know where else to post this. So... just like the title says, what's the deal with MOGAI? As far as I understand it, it was a term technically meant to be more inclusive than LGBT+ without adding a million and a half letters, but I also know it is supposed to include all "marginalized sexualities and genders" which it is also my understanding that, by that definition, people think it's not a good term to be using because it would include pedophiles, people who like bestiality, and other non-queer people of the like an excuse to call themselves queer or make their way into queer safe-spaces. So... yeah. I personally don't like the term because of the above reasons, but what are your guys' thoughts on it?
I'm of the opinion that it's functionally useless, because cis women are a marginalized identity in most cases anyways. So it's slapping together a multitude of communities in the interest of being 'inclusive' without really setting proper boundaries on what should or should not be included, because 'queer' is an icky word so it's not good enough anymore and we need an acronym. [/sarcasm] Which... okay, the intents behind coining 'MOGAI' were pretty good. It's got similar problems to GSRM, which has been around longer, and I never expected it to get off the ground anyways, but these days it's used as a beating stick on either side of the issue. I get to see tumblr kids foam at the mouth over someone not using MOGAI because it's less inclusive, and I get to see tumblr radfems foam at the mouth over someone using MOGAI because that includes trans people who are The Devil. It's not a functioning acronym anymore, it's a flag to wave. So the problem with MOGAI becomes the problem with any inclusive/exclusive debate: at what point do we draw the line? Where do we draw the line? Which line is being drawn? (Also, if you're interested in a discussion that's tangentially related to this, there was a thread debating the history/functionality of various labels a few months back.)
i thought that was why it was changed from marginalized orientations and gender identities to marginalized orientations and gender alignments.
Both were used interchangeably back when I was seeing them pulled out as properly terminology and not beating sticks, but that would explain the split, yeah. I wasn't under the impression that "alignments" and "identities" were meaningfully different, but I'm also not an expert by any means, so that's a fair correction to make.
i'm pretty sure alignment refers to identifying with a gender outside of your birth assignment, hence aligning yourself with it.
Oh is that why there's the split? Huh, yeah, guess you do learn something new everyday haha. Of course, whether or not it includes cishet people leaves the issue of it technically including... everybody else haha. As for where the line of who is and isn't included in MOGAI... you then have the issue of people forcing their way in anyway, because "well I'M marginalized too! why can't I have a safe space too?!" when really... they're not. Stuff like that. And this is just a personal observation of mine but it feels like most of the people using MOGAI and/or attacking others for not using it are the people who so badly wanna be oppressed because tumblr makes it seem cool to... idk. fear for your life because of who you like and what not. but maybe that's just my angry-bitter-anti-sjw attitude showing LOL.
this, definitely. it's like a clubhouse kinda thing, or like weird hazing rituals at frats. you don't want to drink a gallon of water that fast and you know its bad for you and might cause death, but you do it anyway because you want to be part of a group and this is how you get in. the need to feel like you belong can override a bunch of common sense things and i like queer as an umberella tbh but acronym wise im a fan of QUILTBAG, queer undefined intersex lesbian trans bisexual ace/aro/ally gay. it also avoids the drama around who should go first, because it is arranged to spell an actual word (or 2) and thus it's harder to interpret the order as indicating levels-of-importance. which is why GLBT became LGBT, if i rememeber correctly? (also i think this can fit in the XX/XY subforum? but it fits here too so idk)
quiltbag is such a wonderful little acronym omg... though I must agree with you on queer being my go-to umbrella term. until i get the swarms of young'un's in my inbox telling me it's a slur and i can never ever ever EVER use it for anything ever how dare i. it's been so long since I saw the "this letter is more important" debate though omg is it still a thing?
quiltbag is cute! but it runs into the same problem as other stuff in that it's really hard to make something standard because there's just? very little communication. go to 3 different queer centers and you'd probably find at least 6 different versions of the acronym and/or some other umberella term. like i've known of quiltbag for years but ive never seen it on a poster anywhere. and idk if it's still a thing that's actively debated but ive heard of the controversy enough that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
to be fair, your post is the first mention i've ever seen of quiltbag haha, so... yeah. it's my conclusion that there is just never ever going to be a standard for what to use, since there's always going to be somebody that has an issue with it and raises a stink. i say we just use... "meh", cause it doesn't matter we're all in hell already
honestly the first thing i think of when someone says MOGAI is mogai-archive which was a fucking joke
i know they deleted the blog after harassment and then recreated it, password protected. idk whats up with it right now? it sucks that they were harassed tbh but they made themselves into a colossal joke im not sure on the details of what exactly went down other than their usual stuff (like, LABEL FOR EVERYTHING kind of stuff)
thaaaat's the one i remember. they have a deviantart equivalent (who is an extremely nice person but... why do we need this many labels... why)
mogai-archive had a real problem determining who was a troll submission and who wasn't, and also in declaring mayonnaise a gender. like, for instance, "autigender" which was defined as "a gender experience only understood in the context of being autistic." that's... not a gender. that's a metacommentary on your interaction with your gender. mogai-archive was kind of infamous for that, including a lot of "gender"s which were "only in the context of" a given mental health issue. mogai-archive also had a tendency to turn kin into genders. bunnykin? nope, you're bunnygender now, time for bunself pronouns.
