Deconstructing Transphobia

Deconstruct (v.): to take apart or examine in order to reveal the basis or composition of often with the intention of exposing biases, flaws, or inconsistencies This blog will address transphobia regardless of what sex it targets. That said, the content is very much limited by what I can find. I encourage submissions of posts and links for analysis. Assume that all trans-related trigger warnings apply. Note: I will only take the time to criticize radical feminists if they post with trans-related tags on their post. Put your hate on the tags for trans people or on cis and cis privilege tags, and I will pull no punches. Also, I have had enough of arguing about what sex trans people are. I am not going to debate who I am. If you think trans people are the sex they were assigned at birth, you are wrong, and I will ignore all the wrongness you say to the contrary. Links: Cis Privilege Checklist Cissexism and the Structural Nature of Gender A Field Guide to the Common Tactics of Radical Feminists Trans Socialization Julia Serano on why people reject the term cis Self-posts: On Appropriation Deconstructing radical feminist cis privilege denial Being a Trans Woman All self-posts

[bubbly-suffer-girl]

Okay I wanna talk about “sex based” oppression for a moment. That word has become the new smokescreen for the exclusion of trans women and I just can’t get over how useless of a term it is because people have decided with very little critical theory that somehow biological sex is both a value neutral law of the universe and wholly separate from “gender” (in this case meaning gender roles).

I’m a trans woman so apparently I experience gendered oppression. Which defined by the people using it in comparison to sex based oppression means that I am oppressed because I do not conform to the gender roles assigned to men. According to them regardless of what my genitals look like I do not experience “sex based” oppression.

Now then we’re going to play a brief guessing game before I move on:

When my breasts were groped from behind in middle school by a boy a year older than me was that gender based or sex based?

When my teachers paid less attention to me than boys in the class was that gender based or sex based?

When bros online tell me that I’m being a bitch and need to get off my period is that gender based or sex based?

When a male therapist made inappropriate comments about my the suppleness of my body was that gender based or sex based?

When a 70+ year old man asked my gf and I if he could sit on our laps, while we were waiting at the DMV, was that gender or sex based?

I mean according to the people who say that trans women don’t experience “sex based” oppression I sure do seem to run into a lot of the same shit that people who experience “sex based” oppression run into. The fact is most people don’t actually give a shit about what is in my pants. In fact up until the old man each one of those people had good reason to believe that I did not have a vagina in my pants though for varying reasons.

My genitals don’t stop men from giving me honks and waving while they drive past me, or stopping on the sidewalk to look me up and down and give my male friend a visual thumbs up. They don’t stop me from looking over my shoulder to see who’s there when I hear foot steps behind me at night. They don’t really stop anything at all. Because among strangers I am seen as female, and among those who know me I am still classed as female but often seen as more vulnerable because I am trans.

Is it really so hard to stop and acknowledge that maybe just maybe, trans women aren’t men? That in fact for many of us cis women and trans women actually have many overlapping experiences, systemic obstacles, and shared pain? Yeah there are some differences but they really don’t out weigh the similarities.

[deconstructingtransphobia]

Attempt 1.0 at Making Sense of the Clusterfuck That is "Trans-Critical Theory"

Here goes: 1) According to trans-critical theory transsexuality is conservative and upholds gender. There is no privilege in being cis, and cis women cannot oppress trans women.

2) Because the only way trans people are oppressed is by patriarchy for being gender non-conforming.

3) It is harmful to cis women that trans women equate femininity with being female and embrace the ways patriarchy oppresses women.

4) But butch trans women are inherently a joke and men appropriating from lesbians.

5) And all queer and/or feminist trans women are just trying to invade cis women’s spaces and movements.

6) Trans-critical theory is radical and seeks to overthrow gender.

7) Even though their agenda against transsexuality has been shared by most of western patriarchy since medical transition became available, and even Sheila Jeffreys admits she has more more in common on trans issues with politicians on the right than the left.

8) But it is still feminist and not at all transphobic to exclude trans women from female-only spaces and seek to eliminate medical transition.

9) It’s just a coincidence that transphobic anti-feminists seek to accomplish the same goals.

Every single one of these I commonly see written by trans-critical feminists.

I wonder if it’d be polite to point out that the above makes zero sense.

[deconstructingtransphobia]

Remember this? Good times, good times.

[bubbly-suffer-girl]

Over the years I’ve pretty much come to find that every single story of shitty trans women that TWEFs tell is never the whole truth because they are dishonest. Like that tweet they’re all passing around is out of context so that they can try and play it off as trans women being sexual predators. The bottom line is that TWEFs are fundamentally liars who distort the truth because the truth is antithetical to their hatred.

[snowflakeespecial]

[...] But Bruce’s “feminine” face is at striking odds with his body language. There is nothing remotely feminine about his speech or behavior - not even compared to an autistic female outlier like Temple Grandin! Seriously!! Actually, his body language, speech patterns, vocal inflections, and thought patterns are 100% man! Gender feels or not, he’s completely gender-conforming in every male sex role stereotype, except perhaps his grooming habits. So really Bruce, you want to say you’re “mentally a woman”? Cause I’m not fucking seeing it!

[...]

[deconstructingtransphobia]

This whole post is really a trainwreck, but this paragraph is its nadir. There is absolutely no way to defend this as being at all radical or feminist, instead of HBSer gender-policing crap. For someone who believes all trans women are male, Snowflake Especial is awfully obsessed with who is a true transsexual.

Of course, that is not inconsistent with the general TERF habit of mocking trans women’s appearances and using when they don’t adhere to stereotypes of how women should behave as evidence they are really men (and then attacking them when they do adhere to stereotypes as upholding patriarchy). “Gender-critical” radical feminism is neither radical nor really all that feminist.

[lady-feral]

Hello!.I'm sorry if this comes off as rude.I'm just a little confused and wish for some clearing up. My sex is female. But, I still don't understand how one could "feel" like a female. Is there an emotional stigma attached to "female"? What does it mean to feel womanly? I've asked others and I've been met with the answer of "wearing lipstick, high heels, skirts,"but surely men could do these actions and still be a man? How does one feel like a certain gender? What does it mean to be a woman?

This is a very obvious attempt at baiting me with TERF logic.  I’ll answer it anyway.

I don’t “feel” like a woman.  I AM a woman.  I don’t know what it is to be anything else.  Wearing lipstick and high heels and skirts don’t make me a woman any more or less than riding a harley or being a blacksmith.  Clothes, interests, and actions don’t have a gender.  People do.  I can’t describe to you what ONE THING makes me a woman, because gender isn’t as simple as that.  Some women, even cis women, don’t have vaginas or ovaries or breasts.  Many cis women never have periods and can’t give birth.  It doesn’t make them any less female.  My being trans doesn’t make me any less female.  I’m a woman because I AM.  Can you tell me what makes you a woman?  Hint:  if there are other women who don’t have it, it’s probably not that thing.

[rambleonamazon]

Great answer, and as an aside: I can’t see pretty much any trans woman actually saying “wearing lipstick, high heels, skirts“ for what it means to be a woman, because I promise you every trans women out there tried to sate their dysphoria at some point using all those in private and it didn’t do shit. Yes, a lot of us turn there first—because that’s what society tells us are extensions of femaleness—but just like cis women we very quickly discover that’s bullshit and move on to understand and define ourselves on a deeper and more intrinsic level.

Tired of this TERF rhetoric that says trans women only transition to look pretty/wear dresses, and it tells me that TERFs know nothing about actual trans women and simply have this ridiculous stereotype in their heads that they want to pick a fight with. Trans women are nothing like the ridiculous stereotypes your community keeps passing around. It’s difficult to talk reason and reality with someone who assumes your lying about everything and believe your reality is some kind of ridiculous Monty Python skit.

[expertpedestrian]

Regarding the ridiculous stereotypes, this is Julie Bindel in 2004: “Also, those who “transition” seem to become stereotypical in their appearance - fuck-me shoes and birds’-nest hair for the boys; beards, muscles and tattoos for the girls. Think about a world inhabited just by transsexuals. It would look like the set of Grease.”

[cannibality-deactivated20250227]

a huge element of trans women’s marginalisation is our construction as dangerous predators who need to be preemptively attacked and destroyed and acting as though your characterisation of us as such is apolitical because it stems from trauma is about as material as saying you’re only kicking me in the guts because i’m wearing a shirt that looks like one your abuser wore - i’m really, truly sorry that that happened, but please stop harming me. 

[radicalfeminisms-blog]

[snipped, no one should have to see this]

[proletarianprincess]

fuck you you absolute scumbag, a GIRL has died because of people like you who misgendered her, you dont deserve the air you breathe

[ghastlyparody]

you’re a fucking heartless monster; how dare you take advantage of a young girl’s suicide as a platform for your murderous ideology. i guess this is the perfect time for you to jump in and cause as much pain as possible, which shows exactly what you are: a predator.

it’s you and your ilk that drive us closer and closer to death with your violent and rampant misogyny

there’s fucking blood on your hands.

honestly an abused girl is dead, you’d think that you people would have at least a sliver of empathy, but i guess you can’t help yourself, attacking vulnerable women is just too important to you good fucking job

[deconstructingtransphobia]

If you dig deep enough, the motivation for both dedicated TERFs and transphobic religious conservatives is the same. They both see trans people as unnatural and are disgusted by them, and the difference is that religious conservatives go on to try to justify this disgust by claiming we are abominations under god while TERFs try to justify it by arguing we are agents of patriarchy.

[deconstructingtransphobia]

The TERF signature tactics: cherry-pick, distort, and just make things up.

(Source)

[deconstructingtransphobia]

In case you had any doubts about how Blanchard's Two-Type Theory is patriarchal medicine, look at it this way: instead of thinking that maybe the feminine essence theory was a grossly reductive idea promoted by men and recited by women who needed their approval and that the truth was actually more complicated than the psychiatrists were willing to listen to, he basically went, "nah, they're all just lying bitches."

[deconstructingtransphobia]

It is so wonderful that you define maleness by genital here. Yes, society sure loves pleasing pre/non-op trans women’s dicks. Oh wait, a women with a dick is considered the most hideous and/or dangerous thing ever. Patriarchy wants lesbians to please dicks, but it is cis men’s dicks, not trans women’s. If patriarchy saw trans lesbians as agents against cis lesbians, you would think it might hate trans women less.

From this reply to an argument that trans lesbians are showing male entitlement by wanting to not be desexualized.

[deconstructingtransphobia]

The main critique of the concept of cis privilege [by TERFs] that I have seen is the categorical denial that the cis-trans axis of oppression even exists. They argue that trans women are really gender non-conforming men, and then argue that since women cannot systemically oppress men, cis privilege would negate the gender hierarchy, and thus that cis privilege = “female privilege.” By saying that trans women are just gender non-conforming men in the context of the societal power structure, they are arguing that trans women are treated as full members of the male gender class, and are benefited with male privilege by society. It is not possible to take any half-way position here. If you say that the cis-trans axis of oppression does not exist and that trans women are just gender-nonconforming men in the gender hierarchy, you are saying that they are treated as men by society and are to some degree granted most of the powers and rights normally granted to men. To say that they are so gender non-conforming they slip out of these is the same as saying they are not in the same gender class as men within the context of gender-based oppression.

From this reply.

[skysquids]

whenever i hear someone say

that trans women reenforce gender stereotypes, i really wonder.  have any cis women ever been shamed by being compared to the high standard of femininity set by trans women?

[witchbornwitch-deactivated20150]

"The fact that you wish to be treated like a woman shows how much male privilege you’ve enjoyed and how you’ve romanticized or fetishized womanhood. You want to be catcalled, ignored, disrespected, raped, ridiculed and de-humanized. You want to be treated like property? You want to be afraid of saying no to any male who wants something from you? You want to be victim-blamed and told you wanted it and how you deserved it. You want to be forced to wear painful high-heals and stupid dresses and told you can’t do whatever you want to because you don’t have piece of meat dangling between your legs. You want to have lower pay for equal work. You want all your spaces invaded and you want everything about you erased, you want to even be deprived of the ability to speak about your body and its functions without some gender-fucked idiot claiming ‘cissexism’. You want death threats and rape threats on weekly basis. That is what womanhood is. You are more than welcome to it. But until you suffered through all of that, you shut your fucking mouth about ‘feeling’ like a woman.”

realmofvikings (via witch-hag)

Amazing how trans womyn actually experience a lot of this and how realmofvikings and the-uncensored-she are trash.

(via baeddelpherneliatakesthesquare)

I know, right? And a lot of it starts before transition for many of us. 

It’s funny how the realities of our lived experiences are meaningless. I have put up with a ton of sexism, misogyny, catcalling, sexual harassment, victim blaming, ridiculous beauty expectations, fat shaming, body shaming, and threats in the 27 years since I began transition. None of it was anything I wanted or asked for (and that entire quote is one gigantic swath of victim-blaming BS of exactly the variety the author wants us to believe she’s against). 

But, I think this actually illustrates how trans women are not doing this on a lark. We risk all these things, risk violence, risk discrimination, risk everything not just because we’re female but also because we’re trans. 

This isn’t a fetishization or romanticization. This is real life. Daily life. This is preferable to the alternative of not transitioning. Not because we want these things any more than any other woman. But because transition is necessary for each and every one of us to take care of ourselves and our needs.

So go to hell if you think I set out to transition with the intention of having employers offer me ~private auditions~ as an exotic dancer or offer to exchange a blow job for a ride home (and losing said job for turning down said boss). Go to hell if you think any trans woman sets out to be treated like shit like it’s a goddamned lark. And go to hell for trying to reduce womanhood to a “feeling” and then trivializing that feeling.

I’ll tell you what womanhood feels like for me: It means not wanting to kill myself every single day. It means not being ashamed of who I am. It means not hiding who I am. It means knowing who I am. And it means living a genuine, honest, straightforward life in which I know who I am.

I don’t have time for self-centered cis women whose politics apparently extend exactly far enough to complain that trans women exist and in some inexplicable way are stealing something that doesn’t even exist from cis women. If you find yourself making trans women’s existence about you and how you’re being erased maybe you need to stop and think for two globdamned seconds about the possibility that the universe doesn’t revolve around you any more than it does anyone else. 

And if you’re taking that personal sense of offense at all these things you’ve invented about trans women to the point to argue that trans women are dangerous predators who must be stopped, and join in with such ~wonderful~ fucking organizations and people like Focus on the Family, the Pacific Justice Institute, Peter LaBarbera, and other right wing fundamentalist anti-LGBTQIA individuals and groups to assault trans women’s rights, then you’ve basically crossed the line into actual fascism and your so-called “feminism” is harming cis and trans women alike. And you need to check yourself and stop being an asshole.

Let us know when you’ve decided to join the rest of us in the 21st century. Until you’ve made that critical step and stopped aligning yourself with misogynist right wing bastards, you shut your fucking mouth about trans women.

(via lisaquestions)

[kinkykinkshamer]

These are women who have to fight to be included within the category ‘woman,’ in a way that is not dissimilar from the earlier struggles of black women and women of color who were assigned the gender female at birth.

Angela Davis on trans women, from this talk (via kinkykinkshamer)

[deconstructingtransphobia]

Attempt 1.0 at Making Sense of the Clusterfuck That is "Trans-Critical Theory"

Here goes: 1) According to trans-critical theory transsexuality is conservative and upholds gender. There is no privilege in being cis, and cis women cannot oppress trans women.

2) Because the only way trans people are oppressed is by patriarchy for being gender non-conforming.

3) It is harmful to cis women that trans women equate femininity with being female and embrace the ways patriarchy oppresses women.

4) But butch trans women are inherently a joke and men appropriating from lesbians.

5) And all queer and/or feminist trans women are just trying to invade cis women's spaces and movements.

6) Trans-critical theory is radical and seeks to overthrow gender.

7) Even though their agenda against transsexuality has been shared by most of western patriarchy since medical transition became available, and even Sheila Jeffreys admits she has more more in common on trans issues with politicians on the right than the left.

8) But it is still feminist and not at all transphobic to exclude trans women from female-only spaces and seek to eliminate medical transition.

9) It's just a coincidence that transphobic anti-feminists seek to accomplish the same goals.

Every single one of these I commonly see written by trans-critical feminists.

I wonder if it’d be polite to point out that the above makes zero sense.

[deconstructingtransphobia]

This is obvious, but the majority of transphobia can be traced back to cis people thinking their opinion is more important than whatever trans people need.

[mediocremediocremediocre]

What the fuck are you on about that’s not equality that’s oppression against cis...

[deconstructingtransphobia]

Hey, remember when this post happened and some cis people lost their shit because I said that their feelings aren't more important than trans people's actual needs?

Good times.