#male-aligned woman

[lazycranberrydoodles]

diversity win! your doomed greek tragedy ship is genderfluid!

[uncannyarcade]

Aporvir: A term for someone whose male and/or male-aligned gender is aligned to qualities or attributes that aren’t masculine, feminine, or gender neutral in nature.

Aporlier: A term for someone whose female and/or female-aligned gender is aligned to qualities or attributes that aren’t masculine, feminine, or gender neutral in nature.

————————————————————

These terms are somewhat based on the already existing term Neuvir, which is similar but is connected to being gender neutral rather than Aporine, an Abinary Allogender quality, and/or any other qualities.

An example of another quality could be one that belongs to someone’s self identity rather than specifically their gender.

The definition for these terms are broad even though they have semi-specific names, so I may add other things to call them later.

[dykemind]

desperate to create a spreadsheet of lesbian movies... I can't keep all of them straight in my mind!

[the-eclectic-wonderer]

Alright, technically I am a cis woman. But if we had to get really specific with it, then my gender is ‘cis woman with some good old-fashioned lover boy mixed in the batter’.

[beyond-mogai-pride-flags]

Woman-Aligned Lesbian Man Pride Flag

Woman-aligned man or lunarian man: someone with a male gender identity (miaspec) and a female/feminine gender alignment (female-aligned/fem-aligned); a cross-aligned guy that is artemian/selenian; a boy who shares experiences with womanhood/girlhood and feels it is an important part of their personhood.

Lesbian man/lesmian/lesmain/mainsbian/mainbian (mansbian/manbian/menbian/mensbian or lesman/lesmen, lesmale/lesbimale/malesbian/malebian): a man with homo attraction to women; a femaric (woman-attracted) man that is also non-man; a boy that is queer/gay for girls; a lesboy/saphboy; a lesbiagender miagender/maingender folk (lesmiagender/lesmaingender); or a cusper dude that is wlw.

[catgirltoes]

Gotta be honest the constant objectification of women's bodies is a bit tiring sometimes.

[alvie-pines]

cannot express the pain and disappointment of going from tmnt (which has themes that are fairly left-wing) directly to transformers and being like ah. so this is the right wing propaganda show,

[isolatedphenomenon]

anyone else hate the terms "female/male presenting"???

[hantii]

I… I think I’m genderfluid, and I think I need to start actively accepting it. Most of the time, Im so comfortable with they/them and identifying purely as androgyne non binary, that I suppress the part of me that, at times, longs to be viewed as male, and to be called he/him. Im so, so scared to accept that part of my identity. Being androgyne is so important to me, and having a more masculine identity is scary because it feels like it invalidates that.

Im going to start asking some trusted close friends to start experimenting with more masculine language and name for me. And allowing myself to present masculine and acknowledge my manhood at the times when I feel like one.

Its scary, because so many people seem to hate men. I don’t wanna be something people hate… Yet I’m sick of hiding this part of me just for the sake of other people.

[muu-kun]

marine serre

[disengaged]

I fall down at ur altar. when I'm really mad at my amab partner I print off copies of the scum manifesto and leave them in the library for women to find

yeah man idk, i’m kind of a known Man Lover. yknow. i do love men. i recognize that the patriarchy enacts violence against me (“us”) every day on a broad scale and it’s soul-crushing and awful ………. but also i’m very much a 3.2 on the kinsey scale and i really just. i’m glad to have a large number of boys and men in my life who are good people & whom i love and respect. sometimes i look at my cousin’s 3 year old kid playing in the dirt & i think he is maybe the most beautiful thing in the world

[coochiequeens]

If Drageset’s verbal commitment is finalized, it will result in a male seizing one of just twelve D1 scholarships intended for women’s volleyball at the University of Washington. The twelve scholarships are often spread out over the course of four years, with as few as two to three being offered per year."

He's OK with taking a full scholarship ment for a woman and women who object are told to "be kind". Kindness goes both ways, as in not taking scholarships and opportunities ment for others.

By Anna Slatz December 13, 2023

Reduxx has learned that a volleyball player from California is reportedly set to become the first known male recipient of a women’s Division 1 (D1) athletic scholarship. Tate Drageset, 17, has verbally committed to the University of Washington, and, if the offer is signed next fall, he would be seizing one of only twelve D1 volleyball scholarships available for females at the University.

The announcement of Drageset’s verbal commitment to the University of Washington was made in June to much fanfare within the volleyball community, with multiple sporting magazines and social media accounts covering the verbal commitment.

Drageset has long been considered a rising star within women’s volleyball, and he was the dominant force on two USA Volleyball teams in two separate age groups that both claimed national titles last summer. He was also named an MVP at the Girls Junior National Championships earlier this year. In addition to his club volleyball accolades, he was awarded the title of the California Interscholastic Federation’s Division 5 Player of the 2022-23 Year.

But Drageset’s transgender status has reportedly been concealed from public knowledge, with coaches, parents, and opposing players being left uninformed of his biological sex ahead of games.

Now, for the first time, a source close to the situation has anonymously come forward to reveal concerns about the steady escalation of Drageset’s participation in women’s volleyball, something which has now resulted in him preparing to take a rare, all-expenses-paid athletic scholarship opportunity

If Drageset’s verbal commitment is finalized, it will result in a male seizing one of just twelve D1 scholarships intended for women’s volleyball at the University of Washington. The twelve scholarships are often spread out over the course of four years, with as few as two to three being offered per year.

The source, who is the parent of a minor player within the Southern California Volleyball Association (SCVA) community, said suspicions were raised years ago when Drageset’s performance far surpassed that of his teammates. At the time, Drageset was 12-years-old but was playing against 14-year-old females in one effort to make up for his obvious advantages.

“You could tell even back then that he was different from the girls,” the parent says. “As he got older, it became more obvious that something was off. Anytime the subject of [Drageset] would come up EVERY PARENT from any SCVA team already knew about him. Parents look around before they speak in hushed tones. Some will wait to discuss until outside the gym.”

The parent revealed that most families have been hesitant to speak out due to fears that their daughters will be penalized.

“Everyone is scared of how their child will be treated if they speak up. It’s already so competitive to get on a good club team,” the parent said. “The stealing of positions and opportunities has been infuriating and so sad when you see how it affects the girls. There is no concern for their mental health or safety after being replaced.”

Speaking to Reduxx, representatives from the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) noted that a number of local families have become aware of Drageset’s participation in women’s volleyball, but that there had been silence from his family, who appears to be actively obscuring his status.

“We know many of the girls he’s playing against do not know that they are competing against a male. There has been no consideration from his family to tell female athletes or coaches the truth. They have not been transparent, so girls are repeatedly and unknowingly put at a disadvantage and not given the chance to opt out over increased safety risks,” Marshi Smith said.

Her colleague, Kim Jones, added: “We also know that many local families do know and they are angry that their daughters are continuously put in a position to lose to a male player in girls’ sports. They recognize it is unfair and potentially unsafe as more instances of concussion injuries inflicted by male athletes arise.”

ICONS, a non-partisan campaign group, was launched in 2021 to address the issue of male self-identification into women’s sport, with co-founders Smith and Jones both being former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes. Jones’ daughter was also one of the female swimmers forced to compete against transgender athlete Lia Thomas.

While Drageset’s transgender status appears to have been carefully concealed by his family in recent years, his mother, Stacey Drageset, reportedly commissioned a short film to be made about Tate in 2016. Titled “Trans-mission.love,” the documentary-style film was produced when Drageset was 12-years-old. While his face is not shown in the film, Drageset can be seen holding a volleyball with his first name on it, and playing volleyball on the beach in sections from the trailer.

Around the same time, Drageset’s mother took his story to the Los Angeles Times, where she revealed that she became convinced her son was transgender due to his preference for “feminine” clothing and colors as a toddler. In the article, Drageset’s parents state that they showed him an interview with Jazz Jennings at age 6 and felt their son “related” to Jennings.

Curiously, the year before Drageset’s family began touting his journey as a “trans kid,” his mother published a children’s picture book on gender identity, one which was recently named in during inquiry into age-appropriate books in Texas schools.

While identifying as a “girl,” Drageset’s athletic performance has been far and above that of his female colleagues and competitors. Earlier this year, he took home a silver medal and $2,000 prize while competing against mature professional female volleyball players at the Teqvoly World Tour.

When compared to same-height female athletes within his volleyball club, Drageset’s standing reach, vertical jump, and other key physical metrics are all more favorable, something ICONS says is unsurprising even if Drageset had been placed on “puberty blockers” at a young age.

“No male is ever going to go through female development. Their bodies are not comparable in thousands of ways. Puberty blockers do not remove predicted adult height and males have a 5 or 6 inch advantage that influences athletic performance particularly in sports like volleyball,” Kim Jones said, pointing to a literature review completed by Drs. Gregory Brown and Tommy Lundberg.

The review, released earlier this year, stated that “the current evidence suggests that male children retain sex-based advantages in body height and lean body mass which may allow for retained male athletic advantages” even when placed on hormones or puberty blockers at an early age.

Jones also points to the fact that the net in women’s volleyball is set over 7 inches lower than in men’s, not just because men on average are six inches taller, but because the male vertical jump is at least 20% higher than that of a woman of the same height.

The ICONS representatives place much of the blame on the NCAA, the governing body which regulates collegiate athletics in the United States. Following the Lia Thomas controversy in 2022, the NCAA attempted to clarify its position on transgender athletes, but just sowed more confusion amongst critics.

“Right now, the NCAA guidelines and the upcoming Biden Administration’s Title IX reinterpretations incentivize male athletes and their families to hide their sex from women and girls,” Marshi Smith says, noting that the NCAA largely does not question any athlete’s biological sex, or allow for such interrogations to occur under “discrimination” policies. She likens it to “showing someone a pile of treasure” and then leaving it unguarded, as the NCAA provides substantial financial and professional incentives for athletes.

“We’re facing a situation where women aren’t even allowed to know if they’re putting themselves at increased safety risk. It’s as if men are allowed to do what they want to women so long as they can get away with it. The message to teams across the country is that if men excel at deception or if the NCAA effectively silences women, men are allowed to compromise women’s safety, dignity, and privacy.”

Smith adds: “The only solution to provide women with fair and safe sport is to have a female-protected category with no exceptions.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this article mistakenly attributed a study on trans-identified male participation in women’s sport to Byron Wolter of the Center on Sport Policy and Conduct. Mr. Wolter provided editing, but the article was written by Dr. Gregory Brown of the University of Nebraska-Kearney and Dr. Tommy Lundberg of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The article has been updated to reflect the correction.

[beepbeepbithc]

my gender? so glad you asked

it’s actually [the agonizing screams of every conservative being shown a picture of a happy drag queen]

[salt-blog]

Literally cannot stand the people who hate on Imane Khelif for... punching another female competitor during AN OLYMPIC FUCKING BOXING MATCH??? The sport is about PUNCHING THE OTHER PERSON. They're evenly-matched competitors at the top level of their sport. This was no street fight, it was AN OLYMPIC FUCKING BOXING MATCH, which is, may I remind you, highly structured, regulated, and publicised like all Olympic sports. If the Italian had any issues competing against Khelif due to rumoured hormonal differences, she could have refused to participate in the first place. But she agreed to the match, and at a certain point she felt she had hit her limit, so she tapped out. If you think she was a victim of misogynistic violence or something, you've lost the fucking plot.

[catboybiologist]

“As a biologist, the terms biological woman and man don’t make any sense to me” okay then you’re an idiot and a terrible biologist. I swear to god, morons like you only become biologists just so you can hold it over others, when in reality, if biology deniers like you can become biologists, then being one really doesn’t mean much anyway. But this probably just gave an autogynophile like you a boner to read, anyway.

Oh fun! Haven't gotten one of these in a while. Disregarding the fact that you somehow think the qualification for being a biologist entirely hinges on defining womanhood, I do need to ask some clarification. I know I'm feeding the trolls here, but here we go: does your definition of "biological woman" mean:

Sociological woman? Eh, context dependent, I'm not fully out of the closet, but oftentimes, I am and present femme. So let's call that one 50/50.

Psychological woman? Because I am one.

Neurological woman? Because I am one [1].

Physical woman? My soft tissue redistribution is handling that well.

Hormonal woman? My blood tests are within cis female ranges.

Transcriptional woman? As a signalling molecule, the downstream effects of estrogen have broad transcriptional effects, completely changing the profile of gene expression and functional genomics of my cells. [2]

Genetic woman? I mean, see my above point- as far as my genes that are actually active, I have all of the same transcripts being produced, controlling which genes are expressed.

Karyotypic woman? I actually have a few signs pre-HRT that might point to a non-XY chromosome pair, but I haven't had a karyotype. We'll put that down as unknown. And hell, even if its XY, there's plenty of cis women who are karyotypically XY, with suppressed sry or complete androgen insensitivity. Interestingly enough, a completely androgen insesitive woman can go her whole life without knowing- and functionally, is very similar to a trans woman, actually. Fancy that. [3]

Reproductive woman? I can't produce an egg cell, but neither can significant fractions of cis women. Also, this is all gonna change soon, which is fun. [4]

There's also a lot of understudied aspects to the biology of HRT and even pre-HRT that are emerging, largely demonstrating widespread cellular and genetic remodeling of trans individuals undergoing hormone therapy. The field is a bit behind due to constant political pressure to revoke funding, but a lot of the results are extremely exciting in both testosterone and estrogen hormone therapies. I'm sure that, as a self professed biology As someone who presumably has a lot of expertise in biology, I'm assuming that you're aware of all of this cutting edge research, and are keeping up with modern papers, including but not limited to these cool findings:

Trans men on HRT exhibit significant genetic and transcriptional changes that make them biochemically male. [5][6]. It's a good hypothesis that the same happens with estrogen treatment, but those studies don't exist yet- I'm sure you're reserving judgment until more publications exist, of course.

Trans men on HRT develop male cell types and tissues. [7]

Trans women experience muscular and blood cell changes that align with cis women moreso than cis men [8]

And many, many more! This is an exciting, underserved, and groundbreaking field of research, and I'm sure you're keeping up with the latest in scientific journals about it.

I'm sure, of course, that you understand that it becomes impossible to draw a distinct line anywhere in here, and that words like "woman" are shorthand for the myriad of traits that invisibly synthesize in our mind and in society to represent a concept? I'm sure you understand that science is fundamentally descriptive, not prescriptive? I'm sure that you understand that these findings, while really cool and interesting, actually don't mean jack shit about what the word "woman" means or not?

As someone who is the ultimate decider in what a biologist is, I'm sure you know that bioessentiallism is a childish mindset that completely ignores and disregards the constantly changing, dynamic nature of biological systems, something that extends well beyond biological sex and its relation to gender.

I'm sure that also, that you understand that beyond just this, that the role of science in society is to advise how to achieve our moral principles, not create moral principles in themselves. And I'm sure that understanding means you know that trans affirming healthcare and supportive societal treatment leads to reduced mortality and increased happiness for everyone, right?

So great to talk to someone who is surely a scientist on this. You are a biologist, if you're talking like this, I assume? I assume you're not going to spit complete misreadings of scientific language from the background sections of these papers that only reveal you've never read a scientific paper in your life if you're thinking this way? I assume you have experience interpreting data like this?

Also, imagining my genitalia while writing this? Ew. Please stop projecting your fetishes into my inbox.

Works cited:

Kurth F, Gaser C, Sánchez FJ, Luders E. Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity. J Clin Med. 2022 Mar 13;11(6):1582. doi: 10.3390/jcm11061582. PMID: 35329908; PMCID: PMC8955456.

Fuentes N, Silveyra P. Estrogen receptor signaling mechanisms. Adv Protein Chem Struct Biol. 2019;116:135-170. doi: 10.1016/bs.apcsb.2019.01.001. Epub 2019 Feb 4. PMID: 31036290; PMCID: PMC6533072.

Gottlieb B, Trifiro MA. Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. 1999 Mar 24 [Updated 2017 May 11]. In: Adam MP, Feldman J, Mirzaa GM, et al., editors. GeneReviews® [Internet]. Seattle (WA): University of Washington, Seattle; 1993-2024. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK1429/

Murakami, K., Hamazaki, N., Hamada, N. et al. Generation of functional oocytes from male mice in vitro. Nature 615, 900–906 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05834-x

Pallotti F, Senofonte G, Konstantinidou F, Di Chiano S, Faja F, Rizzo F, Cargnelutti F, Krausz C, Paoli D, Lenzi A, Stuppia L, Gatta V, Lombardo F. Epigenetic Effects of Gender-Affirming Hormone Treatment: A Pilot Study of the ESR2 Promoter's Methylation in AFAB People. Biomedicines. 2022 Feb 16;10(2):459. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines10020459. PMID: 35203670; PMCID: PMC8962414.

Florian Raths, Mehran Karimzadeh, Nathan Ing, Andrew Martinez, Yoona Yang, Ying Qu, Tian-Yu Lee, Brianna Mulligan, Suzanne Devkota, Wayne T. Tilley, Theresa E. Hickey, Bo Wang, Armando E. Giuliano, Shikha Bose, Hani Goodarzi, Edward C. Ray, Xiaojiang Cui, Simon R.V. Knott, The molecular consequences of androgen activity in the human breast, Cell Genomics, Volume 3, Issue 3, 2023, 100272, ISSN 2666-979X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2023.100272. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666979X23000320)

Xu R, Diamond DA, Borer JG, Estrada C, Yu R, Anderson WJ, Vargas SO. Prostatic metaplasia of the vagina in transmasculine individuals. World J Urol. 2022 Mar;40(3):849-855. doi: 10.1007/s00345-021-03907-y. Epub 2022 Jan 16. PMID: 35034167.

Harper J, O'Donnell E, Sorouri Khorashad B, McDermott H, Witcomb GL. How does hormone transition in transgender women change body composition, muscle strength and haemoglobin? Systematic review with a focus on the implications for sport participation. Br J Sports Med. 2021 Aug;55(15):865-872. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2020-103106. Epub 2021 Mar 1. PMID: 33648944; PMCID: PMC8311086.

[genderkoolaid]

tbh my opinion isnt so much that trans men cannot have male privilege. its that the way we understand male privilege is based in cis women, specifically otherwise privileged (esp. otherwise-gendered privilege, i.e gender-conforming/straight/perisex) cis women's understanding of gender as something static and inherent to who you are, rather than something fluid which is, in part, constructed by society and placed onto you separately in every moment.

can a trans man experience (cis) male privilege? yes. can a trans woman? yes. and so can a cis woman! hell, a femme perisex cis woman with a gender neutral name could if she's assumed to be a cis man on a resume. male privilege is not an on/off switch. the idea that it is stems from cissexist understandings of male/female as entirely separate and static categories which everyone can and must be understood through. trans people in feminism are expected to constantly defend and deflect accusations of being Privileged Male Oppressors by promising cis perisex women that our experiences are just like theirs! we don't have any scary opinions that don't align with their worldview! we swear we won't ever make them have to reflect on how being cis+perisex has biased them and potentially made their analysis of gender at all inaccurate! trans experiences are only considered valuable to cisfeminism to the extent that they reaffirm what cisfeminists already hold true. thats why they only ever want to talk about a very simplistic narrative around wages pre/post-transition. its extremely unthreatening to cis people because it presents transness in patriarchy as just going from one cis role to another; it doesn't ask cis feminists to expand their paradigm to include the ways in which trans people are treated as a class and their own complicity in transphobic oppression.

which is why trans men have been getting fucked over by trans-affirmng cisfeminism. because by virtue of having our gender acknowledged, we are expected to forfeit our place in the feminist movement and adopt the role of outsider along cis men*. and its also why trans women and MTX people get fucked over the minute they cannot or refuse to describe their experiences through the one or two approved narratives. cisfeminism cannot tolerate transness-as-transness. it has to be compressed and reduced and diluted into something that fits within a cis-centric framework. we aren't allowed to have nuanced and intersectional conversations about trans men & other trans folks relationship with male privilege, the things we have to sacrifice to there, how fleeting it can be, the fact that for some of us being read as "biologically male" is actively more dangerous than being read as female... if it isn't familiar to cis women, then it means you aren't really oppressed.

*cis men should not be outsiders in feminism either btw but thats another post