#lmk if my tldr sucks i can try to write another one. i'm not good at those lol

[gay-otlc]

Something I am completely unable to wrap my head around is how so many people seem to think trans men and other transmascs are immune to misogyny with the magical shield of perceiving themself as male or masc. That's just... not how anything works. How does anyone reach this conclusion? Misogynists aren't going to stop to ask your pronouns. If they read you as a woman, you're a target.

When I was, I don't even know, seven? Maybe? A boy in my math class told me I couldn't be good at math because I was a girl. If I'd had the words back then and told him I was actually a boy, he probably would have said something like "don't be stupid, of course you're a girl." My intelligence would not be more respected if I chose that moment to come out as transmasc.

(content warning on this paragraph for sexual assault, skip to the next one if that's an issue) A boy who thought I was a girl tried hitting on me once. I said no. I was also terrified of the consequences of saying no. I knew I wasn't a girl, but he didn't. In his eyes, I was a girl who rejected him, and he could have gotten mad. I was not thinking well, I'm actually genderqueer, so if he assaults me that's okay because it's not really misogyny. I was thinking oh fuck oh shit he's a lot bigger than me and we're completely alone, he can do whatever he likes and no one will see, fuck fuck fuck. I'm lucky- he didn't do anything to me. If a rapist thinks they are entitled to women's bodies, they believe themself entitled to any body they think is a woman's.

If a boss pays female workers less than male coworkers for the same job, an employee coming out as transmasc will not get a raise the next day. A trans man in labor because abortion isn't accessible won't think "thank goodness I wasn't the primary target of this abortion ban" because pregnant trans men who don't want to be pregnant are still forced to put their bodies through nine months of hell and then potentially raising a child. Masculine identity doesn't suddenly make that whole negative experience go away.

Transmascs don't get exempt from misogyny, and if they aren't white, they're not exempt from the intersectional misogyny that women of color face. We get misogyny and also antimasculism and also transphobia. We get male privilege if and only if we pass, which is expensive and difficult and impossible for some.

(It's not even truly privilege, then, not if privilege relies on hiding a part of your identity. If you think being accepted but only if you hide counts as privilege, congratulations! You're biphobic.)

TLDR: Transmasculine people are not safe from misogyny. Misogynists will target you if they think you're female, regardless of whether you think you're female. Examples of this are the idea that women are intellectually inferior, sexual assault, wage gaps, and anti-abortion laws. We still face misogyny as well as antimasculism and transphobia, and even passing as male does not provide access to true male privilege.