#Mascmisia

[transunity]

The Three Tools of Transphobia II- Misandry

This is the second post in this series exploring the three main tools of transphobia. The first post I will link after posting this one.

Misandry usually describes the experiences of men affected by a disdain for, or hatred of men. In cis society, misandry isn't systemic. But it is common nonetheless. Misandry becomes more damaging if someone is marginalised alongside being a man. Examples may include implying that maleness or masculinity is inherently harmful, or denying men access to comfort and safety on the basis of them being men (e.g. the defecit in mental health support or DV shelters for men).

But in a trans context, misandry takes on a different meaning to how it is used in cis society. If you have the cis definition in your head right now, throw it away. It does not apply here.

For trans people, misandry is a tool used against all kinds of trans people as a punishment for proximity to masculinity. Misogyny and misandrogyny are also tools used to control trans expression and existence. Specifically, misandry fuels a lot of terf hatred of trans people- but for each kind of trans person the reason for this differs. For trans women, terfs may apply misandry in a way which misgenders them and uses trans women's agab against them. Their fear mongering about 'male violence' usually revolves around misgendeing trans women in horrible ways and suggesting trans women's agab is enough reason to blame them for the wrongdoings of cis men.

For trans men, their transitions towards manhood instead of away from it causes an altogether different tactic of misandry from terfs. If a trans man is transitioning, terfs may fear monger that trans men are going to become vile abusers by taking T and that they betray women.

For nonbinary people it is varied. Terfs may either target amab nonbinary people the same way they target trans women, or they may target afab nonbinary people the same way they target trans men. But- this is not fixed. They may switch it up and apply blanket misandric rhetoric to all nonbinary people.

As with misogyny and misandrogyny, midandry is based on how the transphobes perceive trans people. Not how the trans people actually identify.

Of course, I can't list every example of how misandry gets applied to trans people as this post is general.

Remember - when misandry is mentioned on this blog it has a strong trans context attached to it. Applying this to cis dynamics doesn't work, just as applying cis dynamics to trans people doesn't work.

Thoughts welcome