So Let's Discuss "Emasculation"
A few people have expressed the sentiment that "transemasculation" validates certain forms of male grievance politics that are usually expressed through the word "emasculation", so I'd like to expand on this a bit!
Firstly: Take a look at this argument, and my commentary on it.
Keep that one in the back of your mind.
Secondly: Have you ever seen an anti-sexual harassment campaign that uses "real man" language? "Real Men Don't <XYZ>" as a slogan or a pithy shibboleth?
This is because even in liberal-feminist discourses that purport to be about sexed equality, many cannot let go of the sanctitity of manhood. Manhood is something sacred, sacrosanct, an ideal, an aspiration, synonymous with power and agency and humanity itself.
In other words: The heirarchy of manhood as distinct from, non-overlapping with, and superior to womanhood infects even well-intentioned attempts to address misogyny.
All of which obscures the central truth that we are all aware of, but never name: Manhood can be revoked.
It is revoked often, in fact, and--this part is crucial--most often by other men.
For what is the ideology that manhood ultimately protects? What is the implication that no man can abide, that reduced even the "feminist ally" from the screenshot earlier to homophobic, misogynistic mudslinging to rival the deranged reactionary? It is, and always has been, male supremacy.
Because when you are designated as a proud Citizen of a Regime, someone who is expected to be its pride and uphold its edicts, you buy into the ideology that enshrines your own superiority, and violently lash out against anything that challenges that.
Cissexual men do, in fact, fear being unmanned, fear being seen as or like women in any way, and fear most of all the punitive censure of their peers if they do not enact (trans)misogynistic and homophobic rituals of brutalization that reify their sacred hierarchy.
Something I can attest to as someone who was frequently subject to that brutalization, assaulted, and harassed, degraded without end so that The Boys could feel like The Boys and not like whatever wretched creature I was or would end up being.
Misogyny amongst men manifests as protectionism, as loyalty, as "Bros Before <misogynistic term>", as the knowledge that if you do not participate in manhood, you will be its target.
Emasculation is, sadly, very real, and among the cissexual it's a very real threat.
I call it transemasculation because that same pressure to participate in manhood exists, the pressure to "prove" it through participation in what manhood means. The threat is the same for the in-group and for those "without", who are "seeking entry": If you do not Embody Manhood Correctly, you will be cast out into the wretched wastes of the degendered.
dededos
kianamaiart
izzy806
blakekathryn
