Andrew Booker. Call me Andrew, Drew, Booker, or Books. He/him.
I’m a crotchety trans man with a butch history. I am also an intersectional transunitary feminist of over a decade of study. This blog exists because I am peeved that people are spouting off literal MRA and radfem rhetoric while calling themselves intersectional and transfeminist in order to justify their cruelty.
I know what this rhetoric is because I spent years in the trenches fighting it. I’m going to fuck up from time to time, but I’ll keep going anyway.
My original posts are to be pre-written and queue’d; some are thoughts I’ve had from as far back as 2024. Please do not expect me to open my askbox. Trying to debate me in DMs will result in a block. This is not where I relax with my community; I do not socialize via arguments with internet strangers. My notifications for this project are off.
Free Palestine. Free Cuba. Free Ukraine. Freedom for every country which has ever been battered by imperialist aims. Death to US supremacy, and reparations to immigrants, indigenous peoples, the Jewish diaspora, and Black people.
Mad pride. Disability rights. Liberation to all women, queer people, all trans people, all intersex people, all noncomformers.
Acknowledge that effective feminism is about legal rights, civil rights, and social equality — not hatred of an enemy.
Acknowledge that intersectional feminism began with Black feminism.
Acknowledge that anti-incarceration is about justice for minorities targeted and used by the carceral state, not about extending friendship to predatory or abusive people.
Acknowledge that one’s material circumstances are not a pure result of gender identity, and that financial class and other intersections affect whether or not one can transition at all.
Acknowledge that truly uplifting transfems and women does not require hatred towards others, but real love and a listening ear towards their struggles with transmisogyny.
Acknowledge that trans men are trans, and have their own tribulations to reckon with.
Acknowledge that my nonbinary and intersex siblings are also under attack.
Acknowledge that body-shaming is not activism.
Acknowledge that “protecting women”, like “protecting the children”, can be a dogwhistle for controlling them and hurting people deemed undesirable.
Acknowledge that transfeminism did not start and will not end with Julia Serano; remember Emi Koyama.
Never restrict your activist homework to a single work. One perspective is not enough to grasp systems so broad that they swallow the world. We forge ahead hand-in-hand; we do not become the boot.
Links to come;
Useful Posts on Transmasculine Oppression
The Rules of Anti-Transmasculinity (also on [Neocities])
having institutional access never stops feeling sort of crazy to me because you can literally type in any country and time period and find at least a handful of peer reviewed articles somewhere that discuss a specific aspect of people's lives in depth and at length like "what was considered pop culture in late imperial russia" or "how did the textile trade work in northern mali in the 1600s" or "children's toys in pre-colonial philippines" and it's just sitting there but the majority of people on planet earth aren't allowed to read any of it
I have a hard time making original posts on here because every thought I have on transmasculinity exists in a broader context than a quick thing I can spit out on social media can deliver.
It’s not just anti-transmasculinity that I want to dissect. It’s all the systems of oppression that contribute to it, and how the systems that hurt us twist around and hurt others too, because all of this is connected and I am not free until all of my breathren are too.
I’m just so sick of watching cycles of exclusionism repeat over and over and over.
amazing how we are to understand that the transfeminists face an undue amount of criticism and struggle to get traction and are eternally silenced meanwhile there's like four blogs that i know of with single digit notes posting about transandrophobia that have been nuked in the last four days after they got the ire of twitter transfeminists screenshotting them. it's all a numbers game when it comes to reporting and granted there are dynamics there re: how easy it is to mobilise numbers against certain groups but safe to say if you're trans, period, and express an opinion sufficiently divergent from the community overton window you'll get mass reported into oblivion no matter how obscure you are; we are to understand that transfems are uniquely vulnerable to tumblr staff nuking them as opposed to it being blanketwide trans people, but i don't really see any noted transfeminists having to worry about groups on twitter mobilising against them like this over single digit note posts that get crossposted to transandrophobia groups on twitter constantly combing the tags for targets! the transandrophobia corpus is so atomised that you can do single target elimination shit like this and have it hurt. there's so many 'transfeminists' now that if they lose a blog then they can pretty quickly recover their posts and get back to it, and they have a lot of shared reference material maintained on big blogs that simply isn't at risk in the same way that posts here are. the people doing this understand this and are consciously exploiting it
the transandrophobia corpus is so atomised that you can do single target elimination shit like this and have it hurt. The people doing this understand this and are consciously exploiting it
-Anti-transmasculinity is real, and presents in real life, in ways that consistently and materially affect our real lives.
-The discourse around anti-transmasculinity is uniquely bad online, especially here.
-Not everyone has the opportunity to interface with queer community outside of the internet.
-Everyone CAN and should take breaks from the more uniquely horrible platforms where anti-transmasculinity is particularly magnified.
You can still take measures to take care of yourself without conceding to dismissing the problem. Not everyone can "go touch grass/do irl community," so I won't tell you to. That rhetoric reduces our struggle to an online issue anyways, and our oppression very much exists outside the internet, though the tumblr discourse is particularly rough. But please take breaks from debating your humanity online, for the sake of your health.
Call me crazy but I do think that trying to apply a cisgender based framework of gendered oppression onto intercommunity trans dynamics — in any capacity — will always have one major, glaringly obvious point of failure, which is:
NONE of us are fucking cisgender and the gendered privileges afforded by cisgender society are never genuinely or fully afforded to ANY of us.
It means that trying to assign any kind of "male privilege" to ANY category of trans people will never truly be fruitful, because the concept of "male privilege" was created by cisgender women to discuss cisgender men under cisgender gender dynamics without the experiences of transgender people in mind.
I think we can all agree that transgender women, transgender men, and nonbinary people are NOT cisgender men.
Even when we are discussing trans people who are externally perceived as / assumed to be cisgender men within society because they are stealth, closeted, or non-cis passing — those trans people are experiencing something conditional that can be stripped from them the moment anyone in a position to harm them finds out they are trans.
I think we can all agree that being misgendered and/or having to hide a part of yourself so you do not get hate crimed and/or lose employment or benefits or housing, etc. is NOT an exercising of privilege.
Even when we are discussing misogyny, an important and longstanding part of feminist discussion on misogyny is the fact that everyone is capable of being misogynistic. Misogyny is not stored in the assigned sex or gender identity. We all live in a patriarchal society, NO ONE is immune from internalizing misogynistic, patriarchal worldviews and acting upon them.
I think we can all agree that there is no transgender person who is incapable of being misogynistic, because there is no person in general who is incapable of being misogynistic.
To act as though privilege and bigotry are stored in a sex assignment or gender identity is to be gender/sex essentialist.
To try to apply that essentialism through a feminist lense IS radical feminist and there IS better feminism than that out there.
Rather than distinctly male or female, the human brain is much more like the heart, kidneys and lungs – basically the same no matter the sex of the body it's in.
“This collapse is a telltale sign of a problem known as publication bias. Small, early studies which found a significant sex difference were likelier to get published than research finding no male-female brain difference.”
I’m reading the book “before we were trans” and I am FASCINATED by how much trans history we miss by sticking to defining historical figures by modern definitions of gender. I didn’t even realize that “that’s just someone cross dressing for [money/power/rights/opportunities]” is the equivalent of “they were just friends who never married and lived together the rest of their lives:)”. Sure, it’s technically possible, but it’s disingenuous to assume that the default will always be cishet unless explicitly stated and that it’ll fit what’s considered queer nowadays, not to mention how different cultures handle gender.
Anyway, the book brought up that historically there were two kings who, despite being AFAB, ruled and lived as men and were accepted as such. From what I understand, this isn’t common knowledge for trans history because both kingdoms were African, and while the people accepted the rulers as men, most of our records are from colonial powers who assumed they were both women who faked being men to gain more power.
Highly recommend reading this book, because I’m barely halfway through and I’ve already learned about these two kings, well respected “men near indistinguishable from women” who had political power in England, and a nonbinary celebrity whose fame and adoration was partially based off intentionally breaking gender norms very visibly.
Queer people getting to be open and talk about their desire for sex is important in a world where queer people are prevented from being with the people they want
Asexual people getting to be open and talk about not wanting sex and never having sex is important in a world that tries constantly to sell sex to us as an inevitable activity
Disabled people fighting for the right to marry is important in a world that holds life-saving benefits hostage and prevents one from marrying
Women fighting for the right to divorce or to never marry is important in a world that pushes women into a subordinate role of "wife"
Ex-Religious people fighting for the right to leave a religion or not be forced to convert to a religion is important in a world that subjects everyone to predatory missionary work
Religious people fighting for the right to practice their religion and do so openly is important in a world that prioritized religions over one another--often Christianity but not always
And you could substitute many more things into this. Young people fight to not be infantilized by authority, but they also in some areas fight to not be adultified. Some people have to fight so hard for a variety of reasons to be able to grow out their hair. Some people have to fight so hard to be able to cut it. Some fight to be allowed to wear coverings, some fight to be allowed to wear nothing. Some fight to be left alone, some fight to get the care they need. Some fight to be able to leave, some fight to be able to stay.
None of these comparable fights are opposed to one another, because the fight isn't about the specific thing, it is all about the same thing: autonomy.
Someone's fight to wear a dress is someone's fight to wear pants is someone's fight to live alone is someone's fight to live with someone is someone's fight to be left alone by medical institutions is someone's fight to be able to medically alter their body.
It is the same fight. People who want the opposite for themselves that I want for me are my siblings. We want the exact same thing: the choice to be who we want, how we want, on our terms.
And I WANT that for everyone. I want people to be allowed to choose what I wouldn't, do what I wouldn't, because then I would be free to do what I want and need.
a lot of people think being female and/or a woman gives you an inherent understanding of feminism and naturally a good feminist but there is no innate female knowledge, there is only learning from your lived experience, and just as importantly, learning feminist history and reading feminist theory. your gender or assigned sex do not grant you mystical female knowledge. you are a scholar of feminist theory and history, or you aren't. something something ursula le guin.
just read "the lottery" by shirley jackson for the first time, and I've never read a better story for thinking about the functioning of systemic violence in real life. Systemic violence as perpetrated by people who are friendly and occasionally fumbling, who are primarily occupied with their everyday concerns of home and family. Violence perpetrated by people who believe their actions are perhaps regrettable but ultimately necessary, even though the system could be reimagined at any point. People who comprehend that the violence would not happen without their compliance, but feel a squirming discomfort at the idea of change. Systemic violence stripped of its original symbolic meaning and logic, perpetrated through tradition and the vague sense that all this violence must be serving some purpose. Violence as evident in the predilections of unruly little boys who can't wait to pick up the stones, even against their own mothers. Violence perpetrated against the one who loses the luck of the draw, and therefore deserves what she gets, no matter how she protests that it isn't fair, it isn't fair.
YEAEAASSS oh man I am so happy to come across a post about my favorite of the Short Stories That Will Mess You Up In Twelve Minutes, because I reread it recently and I have so much to say
First of all, if anyone here hasn't read it yet, GO. I promise. Go now, trust me.
You can read it in like twelve minutes!
And it'll mess you up! :D
Fiction, from 1948: “The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions; most of them were quiet, wetting t
Ok spoilers ahead baby here we go
So: of the many many incredible themes and messages here, what do we want to dig into first? Op mentioned systemic violence being perpetrated by well-meaning people against themselves, for reasons no one even remembers anymore. You're right; they believe this violence may be regrettable but it's ultimately necessary, even though they could stop doing it at any time. And some cities have stopped, a fact that makes our characters uncomfortable in ways they can't fully articulate.
YES.
And the really striking thing (pun intended because I'm terrible) is that it's direct and visceral violence. They're not just pushing a button or signing an executive order; they're not even just throwing the rocks from ten feet away. The haunting last line is "and then they were upon her." This violence is intimate.
But they still consider themselves good people. They consider their traditions a sacred link to their past and a safeguard for their future. These are normal average people who gossip with each other and tut-tut their children and bitch about taxes.
They are just like us.
And once a year, they commit an act that in any other setting they'd rightly consider an atrocity. And then they all look at each other, their faces covered in blood and dirt and brain matter from someone they've known all their lives (someone who, incidentally, was on board with all this right up until she was the one sacrificed), all of them equally complicit in cold-blooded murder.
And then they go home and have lunch, and the box is carelessly put back in storage until next July.
YESSS
But can we also talk about the gender divide in the story? How the proceedings are run by men - but when a woman is selected, it's the women who move in first? Did you notice that the last thing the victim did in her life was finish up the dishes? Wanna delve into the psychological implications of one woman picking up two small rocks, just enough to be seen participating but not enough to be lethal, while another woman weilds the biggest rock she can lift? Is that second woman succumbing to rage and bloodlust - or is she hoping to end the victim's suffering as quickly as possible?
Want to talk about class divide? Like how wealthy Mr Summers is the one who gets to handle the box and preside over the event, and he's the one who made the black spot and folded all the papers... so it would be incredibly easy for him to mark them in some subtle way that nobody else would notice? Which would explain why he's the only person who's chill and convivial the whole time, because he knows he's gamed the system?
What about the generational divide? How the oldest person in town, oblivious to his own survivor bias, is the most vocal supporter of this tradition with a catchy slogan that ryhmes and everything? How he's the first to loudly shame and scold anyone who might someday question this tradition, because he can't imagine not beating someone to death once a year? Because the only thing more painful than having to think about all the people he's helped slaughter would be if everyone else decided that all those deaths had been pointless? When those children grow up, how many of them will remember all this with disgust - and how many will advocate for bringing the lottery back?
You could even talk about the difference between city folk and country folk, because the larger your population is the better your odds are. How many people moved away from this particular town for that very reason?
Actually wait, I think I first want to talk about something that just recently occurred to me: this story was first published in 1948, just a few years after World War II.
I can't believe I never realized it before, but among all its other messages, "The Lottery" is also about the draft.
The US has always had a... complicated relationship with WWII, because it wasn't fought on our soil but it absolutely shaped our culture. For a lot of Americans, their experience of the war boiled down to various fundraisers, general frugality, and watching Donald Duck's fever dreams about being a Nazi. (For real!) It was something important but distant - something that happened, as the one song put it, Over There.
Oh except for almost every man aged 18-45, who was enrolled in the draft whether he liked it or not. And if your number comes up, well, off you go! Time to fight and kill and die for a good cause! Thank you for your service and/or sacrifice! We're all cool with this, for some reason!
When this story was first published in the New Yorker, it received severe backlash. People were super duper mad. As a teenager, I assumed it had offended so many because they thought there was some small town really doing this, in the same way that Jonathan Swift published "A Modest Proposal" and then immediately had to publish "What?? No, God no, I didn't mean we should ACTUALLY start eating Irish babies, Jesus Christ, what's wrong with you people".
But upon reread, I realized that everyone in 1948 would have immediately spotted the parallels to conscription, because everyone knew someone who'd been torn from his home with no apparent rhyme or reason and either came back broken or never came back at all. And people were told that this is all very good and normal - that your loved one was a hero who died making the whole planet safe for democracy, somehow, a line vague enough to still work today.
So these readers had offered up their sons and brothers and husbands while they held parades and waved banners and felt really good about themselves for being on the right side of history... and then Ms Jackson (I'm nasty) rolls up and says "Actually, what if it wasn't worth it? What if we just killed a bunch of people in horrible ways because that's just what we always do in war? Hey, hey you - yeah YOU, reading this right now. Set aside all the propaganda you've been taught, and ask yourself: how complicit are you in these deaths? How many rocks did you throw in the town square today? How many will you throw next time? How many next times will there be?
This gives transmasculinity a difficult, but radical potential. In taking on an identity deemed the “neutral” universal, we are given the opportunity to contest its very universality from within, to build new forms of solidarity outside of hegemonic masculinity.
These new forms of solidarity will require a rethinking about how we draw the lines of gendered solidarity today. We should invent parallel forms of solidarity outside identity, based not only on categories, but our relationships to these categories. Whether your manhood is cis or trans does not negate the integrity of your manhood, but it absolutely changes your relationship to this manhood.
— Alexander Avila, Do Trans Men Experience Womanhood?
You can't, for the record, trust any feminist theory that comes from someone who is hostile to nonbinary or intersex people. If they later grow and confront their beliefs, their later works could be useful, but the works from before this period are fruit from a poisoned tree and need to be discarded.
Your feminism MUST make room for intersex and nonbinary people.
Genuinely HATE how pervasive this anti-trans man sentiment and TME/TMA bullshit has seeped into so much discussion by and about trans women to the point reblogging anything from a trans woman or a trans feminine person's experience feels like such a fucking minefield because I really really would love to talk and share more about issues unique to trans women because, you know, I AM one and there ARE issues unique to trans women. I'm absolutely not here to have a "who has it worse" argument because that is fucking pointless. There is no award for proving you have it worse, it just poisons the well for trans unity.
People of color. People of color of any identity or gender.
I think we should be listening to them more because they've been fighting for liberation for a long long long time and have a lot more insights into intersectionality.
happy pride! remember that being transgender is everything but fiction. there are so many real historical figures from every century about whose transgender identities we aren't even aware of
on this picture i drew Alexandr Andreevich Alexandrov - cavalry officer of the russian imperial army that participated in napoleonic wars. people persistently keep on misgendering mispronounsing deadnaming and calling him a crossdresser although alexandrov clearly stated that he didn't want to be called by his deadname and being treated like anything but a man. that's an interesting historical figure and i wanted to draw attention to his person. i can't tell everything about him in only one post so i recomend you to read about alexandrov by yourself
also be proud of yourself and remember that you're valid! 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
I feel very dark at times these days, but I become happy again when I read more about queer history.
Currently digging into trans and genderqueer history in the middle ages. Hagiography is a very easy place to find genderqueerness, surprisingly. I'm fond of stories like Saint Marinos, who was a trans monk, or at least as close to a trans man as we in our current era would recognize it. He's another case of someone who didn't get "found out" until after his death, and continued to live as a man even when he was accused of fathering a child he physically could not have.
Everyone go read Alexander Avila's latest Substack article NOW!!!!!!
There are not just masculine or feminine genders but also trans and cis genders. To be trans-gender is to be conscious of multiple forms of gendered becomings and belongings. Belonging to gendered categories is just as important as the process of coming to and coming from them. Trans-gender solidarity is not just a claim about the right to belong to a category, but a claim about how we unbelong to categories, how we create free access to the technologies that define these categories, how we affirm the agency to re-define these categories, and how we can enable each other to become more of ourselves.
A T-Guy’s Guide to Intersectional Transfeminism @drew-booker-books - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
