ID: Drawing of a duck billed platypus underwater, they're wearing a rainbow coloured t shirt and a pink bum-bag, and saying: "Ally is not something you can self-identify as, it's a title that you earn. Let your actions speak for themselves!"
Credit: Sophie Labelle
No, indirect action is a form of action, stopping a transphobe from being transphobic is a form of allyship, because presumably, you've saved a trans person from feeling unsafe around that person.
Ok, so proclaiming yourself an ally doesn't make you an ally, unless 1 person notices it?
I feel that someone noticing it is a part of "proclaiming", but I agree with you. I do think you worded it rather strictly and awkwardly. Telling yourself that you're an ally is worthless, telling someone else has value.
Because you stated that, on the presumption their actions prevented transphobia, that person would be an ally. But that presumption can only be fact checked by themselves anyway; Does this not mean then, that a person should have the right to label themselves an ally if they self-assess their actions as allyship?
Or does someone have to ally-check each of their actions once performed with some sort of... council or committee, as I have here?
It's not that deep, we don't need a rigorous philosophically consistent way to measure allyship.
That's fair.
But this post posits that we do need to get philosophical as does your initial post. By claiming there's "theoretical allyship" we call into question the efficacy of small actions performed by allies and serve to weaken the cause.
Any action is action. No matter how small.