Let me try to explain how I believe “transandrophobia” is a potentially beneficial term for explaining transmasculine specific experiences of oppression rather than just hand-waving these experiences away with “It’s just regular misogyny / transphobia!”
Recently, I was in a crash course for the National Emergency Medical Technician exam.
We got to the portion of the curriculum which was about OB/GYN.
The instructor paused on a slide with anatomy of the uterus to say,
“I know a lot of people identify as a lot of different things nowadays, but for the purposes of this class, this is the female reproductive system- and nothing else.”
Now on one hand, his comment represents generalized transphobia. My instructor bought into the belief that trans people are in denial about biology. And that we will get offended over people using a convenient, established shorthand for reproductive anatomy under the category of “female”- when that is not in fact the trans critique of biological sex categories, and when it comes to terms like “male” and “female” in a biological study versus a social context, we are intelligent enough to understand context. Our critique has to do with the assertion of biology as binary and fixed rather than flexible and bimodal. Our critique has to do with the gender essentialism of taking “female” anatomy as synonymous with “womanhood” and “male” anatomy as synonymous with “manhood.”
– The course did deserve transgender critique. Because it DID NOT simply follow that, “for the purposes of this class, this is the female reproductive system”, (as if it was only presenting a working definition for the course and establishing context.)
Throughout the course and the accompanying text, whenever talking about someone with a vagina, uterus, and ovaries- the patient was a “she”, a “woman”, and possibly a “mother.”
This language of gender essentialism made transmasculine people (afab men and nonbinary people) invisible. In this context, it impacted transmasculine people specifically. (This course did not have a similar segment on urology where it called all people with penises “men.”)
If a patient had a uterus, she was a woman. If a patient was pregnant, she was a woman. In these materials, it is assumed that trans men and afab nonbinary people simply do not exist. We are not considered as a possibility.
And this process of making transmasculine people invisible has tangible effects, especially in the healthcare system. Many of these practitioners in EMS, if they encounter a patient presenting as male who happens to have a vagina will determinedly misgender the patient throughout their documentation, if not also their interactions.
Because of this process of making transmasculine identity invisible, denied as even a possibility that healthcare practitioners should consider- it is incredibly difficult for transmasculine people to access gender-affirming gynecological care. In the absence of gender-affirming care, many of us avoid getting treatment for so-called “female” problems to begin with.
And among those who do seek treatment- I have absolutely heard stories from trans men who have been given questioning looks, dirty glares, or outright thrown out of women’s health clinics/gynecological offices/abortion services. A low blow, especially since for many of us, just visiting these clinics which were built for women and which necessitate that we surrender a part of our masculinity and any possibility of “passing” at the door is already an act of great precarity. Being mistreated during this period of vulnerability instills even deeper feelings of anger and shame.
What would you call that specific experience, unique to transmasculine people, if not transandrophobia?
It is not an experience a trans woman would experience, even if she were mistreated at the same clinics. Her shame would come from being denied her femininity. Ours comes from surrendering our masculinity in the hopes that someone will help us with a festering medical problem- and finding ourselves denied, misgendered, and sometimes defiled. (There are transfeminine parallels to this experience when a trans woman must visit a men’s health clinic. But it’s just so: A parallel experience. Those experiences, although similar, physically do not occur in the same space.)
This phenomenon applies to transmasculine people who seek assistance from abuse shelters as well. Trans men and nonbinary people might need to call a Women’s shelter for help because there is no similar service with adequate resources for their gender in their area.
And they can be denied aid in these circumstances due to the masculinity in their voice or presentation causing them to be perceived as an abuser rather than a victim. Transfeminine people should be able to sympathize with this because it is the same pattern of repression which is applied to them if they do not pass. It is the same system of misogyny and transphobia which affects us both and denies us care in this arena- but the impacts of that denial can be different depending on our bodies and the substance of who we are.
Trans women experience high rates of abuse- but so do trans men compared to the general population. And the nuance of those abuses and how it impacts someone psychologically regarding their relationship to gender, I do not think are the same. While both groups might have partners who try to dissuade us from transitioning for example, I do not think trans women can know the masculine experience of staying with a partner who sexually abuses you by denying your masculinity- or perhaps only subtly validates your masculinity- and insists you keep your breasts and vagina “for them.” That is transandrophobia. It is not just misogyny. Especially not since this can happen at the hands of cis lesbian partners who simply do not want to accept their partner as a man.
To make my conclusion with an even more pointed example: The experience of being a trans man and needing an abortion is not something that either cis women nor trans women will ever experience.
We should be allowed to have language and productive discussions surrounding these and similar topics for transmasculine folks.
Doing so does not mean we are positing that transmasculine people “have it worse” than transfeminine people.
It is about developing the language to discuss and recognize community needs, facilitate a dialogue, and then organize to address these disparities.
I am so, so very tired of people arguing about the language oppressed groups use rather than listening to what our needs are. And I’m tired of having to put on this performative game of “Oppression Olympics” regarding who has it worst when it is ultimately only distracting us from the tangible things we could be doing to help one another.
janainaart
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