I really enjoyed this week’s reading. I am familiar with Alok through social media and television, and I’ve always appreciated the joyfulness of their gender expression, though I have never taken it upon myself to seek out their work until now. As I read, their writing would spawn trains of thought or ideas which they would then address as if they anticipated them. These are such logical arguments, and so concisely laid out that is frustrating to consider that anyone would argue against it. I appreciate that beyond specific arguments around gender, they refute styles of arguments that are used across a number of issues and are universal in their illogic. “I get that you’re different, but why do you need to shove it in my face”, “You are making everything about ‘blank’. Stop bringing it up if you want it to go away”, “It’s common sense that ‘blank’, “You are not normal…”. These are all arguments that have been used against me in my homosexuality, and are similarly used in arguments against feminism. Again, I do feel that these issues are both strongly linked to an unhealthy conformity to the gender binary, if not caused by it. I would also say I appreciated the optimistic tone they illustrated for a future in which we are not fighting for dominance of one group or another, but finding our common ground. A world where we are not weaponizing our differences against one another, but celebrating our diversity. And a world in which everyone is afforded the same comfort and acceptance in expressing themselves.