Whenever my trans friends hear about a cis person with ANY hobby they’re always like “oh yeah they’re gonna be coming out any day now”.

What do only trans people have hobbies?

    • Hyper_red [she/her, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      4 days ago

      Hello trans historian here who has written about sports and currently lives in Europe but is from America

      The reason why American sports and European sports have such wildly different cultures is the history of how the leagues were formed.

      European professional sports come from the British. The Brits pro sports leagues were just the amateur leagues which eventually allowed professionalism. This meant that since the beginning the crowds have always been super hardcore into it and less family oriented and mostly adult working class men. It was the same people on the teams who was watching it.

      In America professional sports originated with the creation of professional leagues separated the wildly popular amateur college sports system. These leagues like the NFL and MLB were able to have more dictation over security and over what kinda people they wanted at games.

      So all these baseball and football teams in America very very very early on did promotions for families and for people to bring their wife and kids. Make it a family friendly event. That’s because before the 70s basically all the money was tied up in seat sales at games and they wanted more money. Instead of the working class did, you got two more tickets with his kid and wife.

      Europeans were unable to follow this because teams were financially hostage to their fans and couldn’t risk changes that would make them leave. So instead they did the opposite where they did everything for the fans which created a culture that only allowed straight cis men. (This also led to clubs excusing hooliganism and white nationalist elements in their fanbases)

      You see now since Americans and Arab gulf countries have bought all these teams, they’re trying to make the teams more 'family friendly " to sell more tickets and there’s been some backlash

      It’s crazy that American sports are so much more welcoming to women and queer people because they know they can more money that way

      • Lussy [he/him, des/pair]@hexbear.net
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        4 days ago

        Great comment. Football teams formed as workers’ rec teams in many Western Eruopean countries, and simply became a reflection of the surrounding cultural milieu and material conditions.

        • Hyper_red [she/her, she/her]@hexbear.net
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          4 days ago

          Also America has the same rec sport history with college football which was amateur for over a hundred years and took until only a few years ago to officially go pro.

          For over decades the second largest sport in america was the amateur college football conferences which are now professional

        • Hyper_red [she/her, she/her]@hexbear.net
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          4 days ago

          Similar working class sports leagues used to exist in America but they all died probably like, 80 or so years ago.

          The MLB and NFL were truly revolutionary in their tactics and ability to demolish the competition and monopolize a country the size of a continent.

          There used to be dozens of baseball leagues for instance, separated by prestige, class, region, and race

          They’re all gone now

    • Lussy [he/him, des/pair]@hexbear.net
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      4 days ago

      Football fans are so queerphobic and misogynist

      This is true but a minor counterargument is that lots of women love football and women’s football also tends to be very queer friendly.

      This is a trans topic so I’m digressing but my point of contention is that the op mentioned minorities in their comment. Warhammer and DND might be more welcoming spaces for certain trans folk but can be extremely classist and unhealthy environments for lots of other minorities

      • This is true but a minor counterargument is that lots of women love football and women’s football also tends to be very queer friendly.

        True, although unfortunately men’s football really overshadows women’s football in most places outside the US.

        This is a trans topic so I’m digressing but my point of contention is that the op mentioned minorities in their comment. Warhammer and DND might be more welcoming spaces for certain trans folk but can be extremely classist and unhealthy environments for lots of other minorities

        Sadly correct as well. I’m also a bit torn on the trans inclusivity of Warhammer and D&D - post gamergate a lot of traditional “nerdy” spaces have gathered a small, but extremely vocal and organized minority of reactionary weirdos that will do everything in their power to make these hobbies as hostile to marginalized people as possible. It has gotten to the point that some TTRPG communities i know have sparked private, secluded offshoots intended as safer spaces for women, racialized and queer people.

        Also, i’ve found it pretty easy to look for new groups mostly in trans communities. I think that can make the supposed trans relatedness of certain hobbies a self fulfilling prophecy, when you’re feshly outed and looking for trans friends the easiest way to do that is to pick up TTRPGs, TCGs or WH40k.