#to understand that bioessentialism can harm trans women and trans men and nonbinary people and and and

[anastacialy]

i do not know how to explain to people that "transmisogyny" is the specific transphobia that trans women + transfems face (often but not exclusively at the hands of cis people), and "transandrophobia" is the specific transphobia that trans men + mascs face (often but not exclusively at the hands of cis people), and that they all come together under the umbrella of "transphobia." these are not opposing concepts nor are they mutually exclusive, to believe in one does not mean non-belief in the other. is there a simpler way of phrasing this. can i be clearer.

[smallhorizons]

friendly reminder that gender essentialism, transmedicalism, bioessentialism, and intersexism are inherently transphobic (& often transmisogynist, enbyphobic, & racist). they recreate & uphold false colonial gender & sex binaries that can be and often are reinforced with violence and hostility.

the Powers That Be (transphobic governments, cis anti-trans 'activists', wealthy TERFs [cough cough]) use these talking points to shape legislature that is contributing to a genocide against trans people ... but we as trans people also have a responsibility to each other to not engage in lateral violence, especially when that violence can be used to push people out of spaces they rely on for much-needed support (be that support financial, social, or otherwise)

what does this look like?

claims that feminine trans men/mascs, butch/masculine trans women/femmes, and/or any trans & nonbinary people who present similarly to their gender assigned at birth, aren't 'really' trans, are 'appropriating' the trans experience, 'just want to be oppressed', or are somehow responsible for societal transphobia

claiming that medical transition is the central aspect of being transgender and dismissing trans people who can't or don't want to medically transition as not actually being trans

focusing on 'AFAB' as a 'safe' gender assignment or centering AGAB as your axis of (trans) solidarity, while holding trans folks who were AMAB to very high standards to 'prove' that they are safe

making claims that somebody's AGAB results in intrinsic experiences such as being 'socialized as male' that 'all A[F/M]AB people' experience, especially when you talk over trans people who are telling you that their own experience does not line up with your claims

transfeminized debt (expecting trans women & femmes to "make up" for their supposed past ~male privilege~) & its inverse, which I don't believe has an agreed-upon term yet, in which trans men & mascs are expected to make up for their current supposed ~male privilege~

saying that trans men who step out of line/talk over trans women & femmes are "male brained" and, conversely, blaming trans women's so-called 'male socialization' for if they talk over trans men & mascs

talking over or dismissing intersex trans folks' histories because they don't fit into your expectations of what an 'afab/amab' experience looks like, and calling intersex people's "credentials" into question if they talk about their experience in a way you don't understand

claiming that testosterone makes you uncontrollably violent, or otherwise anthropomorphizing testosterone as a uniquely powerful hormone that poisons/ruins pre/no-transition trans women/femmes as well as trans men/mascs/nonbinary folks on T (note: this does NOT include trans folks, esp trans women & femmes, talking about their own negative experiences with testosterone in regards to their own dysphoria)

and lots of other examples i'm sure folks can share

to be absolutely clear, there is no one 'group' of trans people who are ~solely responsible~ for the above. I've seen trans folks of pretty much all backgrounds, agabs, identities, transition status, etc. lash out at other trans people over any one of the above points. tho there are some trends that are more prevalent in some trans communities than others - e.g., belief in afab-ness as central to trans solidarity being almost exclusively in spaces dominated by afab trans people who have terf rhetoric to unlearn - all the above statements are connected in that they uphold rigid, colonial gender roles that are intrinsically separate from one another, and can be used to punish those who do not fall neatly into such binary.

further, no trans person or community is responsible for the oppressive, genocidal actions of the ruling cis patriarchal class. period.

we should be in solidarity with one another. and while we do not have the power by ourselves to dismantle the oppressive structures that harm us, we can at least reflect on our own beliefs and make sure we are not contributing to any lateral harm against each other.

[pbscore]

Mmm 🤔 I genuinely think another big reason that trans men and transmascs are holding onto the idea of ‘transandrophobia’ is because a good portion of them, including myself, grew up on this website where the early days of the trans community pretty much coddled and served us, all the time. And then, when many of us actually started to transition (be it socially and/or physically), it was a wake up call that reminded many of us that being read as a man by society means that your are going to be treated differently than how you were previously.

Like, this whole situation is just a giant example of ‘social amnesia’ because anyone who was on tumblr in the early days knows exactly what I’m talking about. There were hundreds upon hundreds of posts made specifically for afab trans/nonbinary people. There was constant encouragement for trans men to express themselves however they wanted to, especially if they presented in a stereotypically feminine way. There were whole ‘passing’ guides made predominantly for trans men and transmasculine people and rarely anything for trans women and transfems.

So to me, this whole ‘transandrophobia’ thing reads like a giant temper tantrum being thrown by grown ass people who cannot fathom that they are no longer those ‘uwu little soft boys’ from the early tumblr days of their own youth and that they actually have to be accountable for their behavior towards other people now that they are being read as adults/adult men. Particularly, towards women (trans women are obviously included when I say this but I’m just putting this here so there is no confusion).

Like, seeing some of them say such out of pocket stuff like ‘uwu I lost the privilege of having women as friends and being able to see myself as a victim and it feels so isolating being a man uwu’ just tells me how little they actually understand the ways in which systems of power and oppression work AND that they’re making their personal relationships with women out to be completely one-sided while suspiciously not ever considering their own behavior towards those women 🤔.

It’s never as simple as ‘women have it easy because they can become friends with each other and can see themselves as victims because of female socialization (which is literally a TERF term that blatantly supports bioessentialism…why are y’all using it???)’ Did y’all seriously forget that racism still exists for women of color? Did y’all seriously forget that many minority men will still have access to conditional privileges, as long as they can demonstrate ‘manhood’ in an acceptable way (which many of them do, so it ends up leading to serious misogyny in their own communities)?

And it’s really irking me to see not just some black trans men and transmascs feeding into this racist, MRA shit but to also see non black trans men/transmascs using issues specifically pertaining to anti-blackness (ex ‘masculine black people are seen as aggressive so therefore, it’s androphobia uwu’) to try to support their flimsy arguments and it’s genuinely infuriating. Even more specifically, it is white trans men and transmascs doing this while (ironically) denying transmasc poc their identities when we speak up against them. You are taking the context of anti-blackness away from those specific issues and trying to re-contextualize it to conveniently fit your ideas and it is incredibly harmful.

Victimhood has never been a ‘privilege’ for any women, except for cis white women (and even then, there can be limitations), so the fact that so many of these transandrophobia truthers see ‘womanhood’ as synonymous with ‘victimhood’ just tells me that they do not have enough nuance or even respect for what any women, especially women of color, have been through. Ask any woman outside of the US or Canada or the UK about their experiences existing as women. Hell, ask any woman here in the US how they’re feeling considering the insane amount of anti-trans AND anti-abortion laws that have been cropping up. Cis women, trans women, transfems, and afab nonbinary folks are all witnessing the same injustices of bodily autonomy as trans men and transmascs, yet this realization isn’t really hitting home to them.

They’re basing this entire ‘movement’ off of personal experiences where they are treated like the men they are, told to take some level of accountability for their behavior (which their tumblr addled brains aren’t used to), and then claiming that there’s some sinister ‘attack’ on masculinity when it’s far more complex than that. Femininity is in no way ‘rewarded’ as much as y’all claim it is, even in queer spaces.

Both femininity and masculinity can be rewarded and punished, in various ways, that are not going to be easy to understand at first glance. There are people who, when performing either of these things in the ‘acceptable’ way to a cisheteronormative society, will be rewarded the conditional privileges and acceptance that comes with it. And there are some people who will be punished for either not sticking to either of these or switching between them or mashing them together. However, there are many outside factors like race, sexuality, and culture that can also heavily influence who is more likely to be punished for these displays of rebellion than others.

I’m not sure how to end this but I do want to propose a question that more folks, regardless of gender, should start asking themselves before they start speaking on important social issues: is it really about you wanting to help the community or is it about you wanting to be noticed?

Because I’m gonna tell y’all this now…there is a world of difference between the two and you can’t have both, as much as tumblr will try to convince you that you can. If it’s just about you, then it can’t be about the community and if it’s about the community, then it can’t just be about you.

NOTE: if you’re not going to be nuanced or relatively understanding of the power dynamics I’m referring to in this post, don’t interact. I’m not about to argue with anyone.