#you can claim you're not a t*rf all you want

[backtothebog]

if you consider yourself a radfem/ter"f" please do not follow me, there's nothing for you on this blog

[letssendacountrysomecupcakes]

So I got dumped yesterday for saying I believe that transfemmes do experience male privilege pre-transition. My ex did not give me a chance to expand on that belief *at all*, just got triggered and decided I'm unsafe.

I'm going to expand those views here because I genuinely think I'm approaching the topic pretty reasonably and at this point I need to get the processing I've been doing written down.

First off, let me say that my opinion here comes EXCLUSIVELY from transfemmes I've talked to over the years as well as my own experiences with transmasc erasure. (My ex claimed that ALL of the transfemmes I know who've said that they've experienced male privilege only think that because of "internalized transmisogyny" while simultaneously refusing to engage with any of my experiences with erasure that are *specifically* things that happen bc of the learned behaviors inspired by the external factors of male privilege and socialization.)

The actual line that I have on this is that male privilege is an *external* force, not an internal one. It is entirely based in how you're perceived and how *others* interact with you based on that perception. It is based in the *societal and systematic* benefits someone receives based on the fuckin gender marker on your ID.

I absolutely do not think that that means transfemmes *interact* with male privilege in the same way as any c*s person, especially pre-transition. I do not think the *effects* of that privilege are the same and in almost every case it's going to be extremely complex and nuanced based on the individual. I *do* believe that, because that external force is applied *constantly* from a very young age, some aspects of that force can and often do come through even after transitioning.

Part of this being so upsetting for me is that it sounds like a rehashing of the "gendered socialization doesn't exist" argument that was going around here in like 2016 and is apparently resurfacing again. As far as I remember, when that argument stopped because the people who were pushing the conversation were outed as t*rfs who'd been posing as queer teens. The intent was to confuse the community and divide the younger and older trans folx.

The argument that gendered socialization doesn't exist (which, as far as I can tell, is the same argument as "transfemmes never experience male privilege) is laughably dichotomous at best and harmful at worst.

On the dichotomous end, we have someone who talks *frequently* about missing out on "being raised as a girl". If that person also does not believe in gendered socialization, they have the belief that they were also "not raised as a boy". Unless you come from a family or culture that has a third option or treats their kids the *exact* same (unlikely), you were fuckin raised in a way that was distinctly *gendered*.

That can transition to the harmful end *very* easily simply by not processing, analyzing, and questioning your learned behaviors. My ex spent the whole conversation calling me misogynistic and denying/devaluing my friends' experiences. She also very specifically made all of her points while simultaneously telling me I wasn't allowed to respond. At the point that I said, "Hey, I can't keep getting messages tangentially related to this when I'm not allowed to respond so I'm going to respond to a couple things, please keep your boundaries in any way that makes you feel safe", she immediately reengaged herself into the conversation fully, sent 3 messages - one of which was the dismissal of my friends' experiences, and blocked me.

I want to make it very clear that I put my responses under a break, specifically so she wouldn't have to read them immediately. I cannot be the one to enforce *her* boundary that *she* was repeatedly breaking. At the point that someone tells me they want a break from a conversation, I say okay and don't fucking respond until they do. I got two additional texts from her, both of which emphasized her points while continuing to disallow me from rejoining the conversation.

If that ain't the EXACT shit I've dealt with for my entire fucking life 🙄

[daffodi1]

Fellow trans men, we need to fucking talk.

STOP smearing trans women's names when talking about trans men's oppression. STOP acting like they are responsible for our problems and the lack of coverage on our issues.

I saw an informative post talking about how J/K/R wrote a whole manifesto about how trans men, specifically AUTISTIC trans men, were too naive to make their own decisions and shouldn't be allowed to transition. It highlighted her transphobia and ableism, and would have been a good post if it didn't blame trans women for the lack of coverage on the issue. Blaming trans women for what T*RFs do is literally evil, and no matter how informative something is, it cannot be condoned under any circumstances.

Y'all. Trans women are our sisters. I am begging you to stop smearing them when talking about our problems. Our oppression isn't a fucking contest on who can get the most attention, and frankly, you can't sit here and claim that you're never allowed to discuss your issues without trans women being brought into it when you're the one dragging their names through the mud every 5 seconds. You don't get to claim that they're stealing some kind of spotlight from you when you can't keep their names out of your mouths. And YOU are directly contributing to the lack of coverage on our issues by alienating us from the rest of the trans community. Our side of this community is a fucking joke, nobody respects us because you all can't go 5 minutes without making asses of yourselves. I am livid because there are those of us who need to be heard, and you are contributing to people not wanting to hear us out by making all of us look bad.

Here's a simple rule: if you mention trans women at ALL in your post about trans men's oppression, and that comment isn't uplifting their voices? Don't make the fucking post.