I don't want harassment. But I need to speak out. I am a trans woman.
Before we learn about trans feminism, we need to learn about feminism. Does it include us? Not often. Is it all trash? No.
We need to learn about the history of sexism and the struggles people with uteruses have to be seen as more than property. We need to be able to empathize and realize that we are co prisoners, not enemies.
I think this hatred of trans men and denial of their pain is rooted in a lack of understanding of feminism. We spend so much of our energy suffering, and trying to find help and community (which is good), that we stop being able to understand other people's problems (which is bad).
It's also rooted in the top down system. The biggest feminists tend to be the most privileged, so they see ultimate privilege man as the default. You can add black or trans or disabled to him and he becomes more oppressed.
Kimberle Crenshaw thinks of things the opposite way. In her 1989 intersectionality essay, she describes a room where everyone is trying to get out by the ceiling. She says that white feminism wants to put a ladder down from the ceiling to the bottom. Only the people near the ceiling (more privileged people) benefit. They might not keep building the ladder. They might fight over it. What she is doing is building a staircase from the bottom to the top. Everyone gets out. (Her essay is much better than my bad memory attempt to explain it. Go read it.)
Cis and man and rich and able and white and etc. can't be the default. They are already the way we see the world. We need to look from the bottom up. If we help the most vulnerable people, we help everyone.
Example. We make law that says no discrimination against women. That doesn't help Black people.
Versus we make law that says no discrimination against any marginalized person. That helps everyone.
The people who hate trans men see it as them stepping up on the ladder, and trans women stepping down. This doesn't reflect what happens. And it isn't helpful to fight over who has it worse because we're just fighting over the ladder.
We need to build the staircase. We need to build the stairs according to what everyone needs. Laws against trans discrimination. Laws against racism. Laws against body discrimination. Laws for bodily autonomy. Laws decriminalizing sex work. Converting hotels into shelters so homeless people can stay safe and not have everything stolen from and have showers. Universal basic income and healthcare so people are never hostages. Etc.
And as the trans community, it's our responsibility to make sure we take nonbinary and intersex people with us. We can't lose them in the shuffle. Let our rainbow raise us out of the room and into the sky.
