I appreciate your tags but like, please don’t do this.
Cis women being transphobic to trans men isn’t Just Transphobia™. Cis women target trans men specifically, because they know they can get away with it in more spaces.
A cis woman being transphobic toward trans women, or trans people in general, is going to be seen as a transphobe. They’ll likely, and rightfully be criticized and/or ostracized from certain spaces because of it- especially in most feminist circles. If they want to be a part of mainstream, non-TERFy feminism, they’re gonna have to meet some bare minimum behavior expectations where that’s concerned.
But when cis women are transphobic to trans men, most people won’t even notice it’s transphobia at all. Plenty of people will even cheer them on:
Trans men get acne and oily skin on T? Men are so nasty! Trans men have bottom dysphoria? Lol, just like a man to be insecure about his penis! Trans men are sexually abused at higher rates than any other gender and we’d like that addressed? Men are so whiny and fragile! Fight the patriarchy!
They’re women! They’re feminists! when they say horrible, violent, stomach-churning, bigoted shit about trans men, they’re just railing against their own oppressors. It’s justice!
There are so many more insidious forms of this, too.
Cis women who infantilize us and try to revoke our autonomy are seen as “allies”, because they’re only trying to protect us!
Cis women who fetishize us as small, soft, effeminite versions of “real men” are still seen as “trans allies”. It sounds so positive; who wouldn’t want to be seen as inherently sweet, safe, and pretty? Who wouldn’t want to be grossly othered and fetishized for qualities we are stereotyped to have? Surely not the men who already have to fight tooth and nail to define our own relationships with masculinity and manhood.
Cis women who quietly refuse to use make reproductive healthcare more inclusive, who go on making that fight about Women’s Bodies, who continue to say things like “men can’t understand misogyny” and include trans men in their “kill all men” jokes… well, they’re just affirming your gender!
Why would trans men want equal access to healthcare? Why would trans men want our suffering acknowledged? Why would trans men, the group with about a 50% rate of attempted suicide, not want to be told that everyone else would prefer we were dead?
This isn’t even touching on the very intentional predation of trans men by cis women. Trans men and transmascs are targeted by cis lesbians in particular for corrective rape, and by abusive cis women as “easy targets” due to the lack of support networks, resources, and community for trans men and transmascs.
These things are said and done by cis women who tout themselves as “trans allies”. These are women who share those “share to make a TERF mad” posts and call themselves “TERF destroyers”. These are women who say “trans women are women”. These are women in your spaces, and in your community; people you follow and admire. They’re even people I follow and admire; women I’ve followed for years have called me a misogynist for pointing out the problems in things like “men can’t know what it’s like to be expected to have children”.
It’s not just a transphobia problem. It’s not just a cis people problem. And it’s hilariously symbolic that you erased that meaning from my post, because the erasure of trans men and the silencing of our voices is exactly why this shit continues to happen.
