#cisgender privilege

[shamebats]

[prof-grace-aspen]

Cis privilege for women makes no sense. We are not privileged on the axis of gender, but oppressed by it.

See, this is a situation involving intersectionality and realizing there are many different axes of oppression.

You will have an easier time in the world than a trans person will, simply because you are cisgender. That is cis privilege.

Cis women have privilege over trans people. A cisgender woman will have advantages in a transphobic patriarchy that a transgender person will not have. Yes, women in general are all oppressed. But there are social benefits, legal benefits, medical benefits, housing benefits, reproductive care benefits, employment benefits and more, that all stem from being cisgender, and you have access to those benefits as a cisgender woman.

[tobylovesyou]

A Christian once told me that they are oppressed because they can be arrested in a non-Christian country for being Christian. Yes a couple of countries do this and that’s bad but:

Christianity is the biggest religion in the world

Despite the law of separating church from state many countries like America still base their laws around religion

The hate against Christians isn’t as widespread as the hate against the lgbtq+ community, Muslims, poc, disabled people and more minorities

Most people that are Christian (this is just an observation I’m not saying that everybody is this person) are: white, upper middle class, cisgender, heterosexual (or not lgbt in anyway) and able bodied

The PRIVILEGE that most Christians get is outstanding- stop saying you are oppressed

Here are some examples of actual oppression, I’ll be using being lgbtq+ and being disabled as an example because that’s the oppression I fight daily. If you have different types of oppression than me- feel free to express your experiences!

I can get killed in over 72 countries for being lgbtq+

People make fun of my disablity for no reason

The slur “retard” is one of the most normalised slurs and not many people talk about the fact that most people use it especially in a school setting with out consequences

My existence it constantly debated

I can’t have a day on the internet without being called “fag” “faggot” “tranny” or “retard”

I have to hide who I am from my family out of fear that I will be kicked out of my own home

I have to get screamed at everyday because of how uneducated my family are on my disablity

People think it’s okay to ask me about my personal life for shit like “finding out about my communtiy” like that can be okay but the questions are uncomfortable and the people asking them never listen when you say you are uncomfortable

I get bullied at school for being lgbtq+ and the school does nothing

I am meant to get extra help because of my disability in school- my school made amazing promises and never did shit. I’m at the end of my secondary school days and my school still hasn’t helped me one bit

Making fun of disabled people is way to normalised

I’m scared to be my self in certain places because I fear I will get hate crimed

I have no faith in myself because of my disablity, the jokes made about it and all the sympathy I get

These are just a few of the ways I am oppressed. But I admit I am privileged as I am middle classes, I have amazing friends, I am white, I have no sort of religion and I can hide the fact that I’m lgbtq+

Also please tell me your experiences because it’s a great thing to talk about it and an even greater thing to prove an idiot wrong

[lifeinthefreaklane]

I’m very put off by the use of the grouping “women and femmes”, because even though I do often identify as femme, I don’t mean for that to make you see me as a woman. Like I am femme, but I’m still 100% non-binary, and I feel like it’s just become another way to qualify non-binary people within the binary. And I also think that you would never see “men and butches” (maybe I’m with wrong, but I haven’t) so it’s also just another way of setting the non-binary default as woman. Seems like a way to say “you’re femme, so you’re basically a woman”...

[scarred-and-saved]

Do I have male privilege? A Dualistic - Privilege Model by a Trans Man

There have been many discussions concerning this question, both within the transgender community and throughout the community of people who regularly discuss gender as a whole. Do I, as transgender man, have male privilege? The general consensus is that, because I am a male (and perceived as such) that yes, I do have male privilege. I respectfully disagree... but not entirely.

The question of whether I have male privilege, of course, depends upon one’s definition of male privilege. The most common examples of male privilege (Source)  that I’ve seen often include not having to fear walking down the street and being sexually assaulted at the same rate as women, or being perceived as more competent, especially in professional environments. Other examples, such as those in the cited article above, are solely descriptive of cisgender men’s experiences. (At the risk of being called out for using a “Not all men” argument, I will add that I do recognize that even not all cisgender men may reap the benefits of any given example of male privilege at a given point. However, seeing as this article is directly addressing whether transgender men have male privilege, any concept of male privilege that claims to encompass both cisgender and transgender men will theoretically represent them at equal rates.) 

One of the most prevalent examples that come to mind of male privilege that primarily benefits cisgender men is representation. I don’t mean the representation in government, although one might argue that transgender men don’t reap the benefits of this kind of representation either. I mean social representation, specifically in terms of how people are represented based on their gender. Male privilege describes a scenario where boys see their gender being depicted as stronger and more competent in the media they consume. Growing up, I saw this too, and while it is arguable that my gender may have been “male” at the time, I did not reap this benefit of male privilege because I was not being told that that was me. I neither reap the benefits of previous exposure to strong male figures in media because I did not identify with those figures when I consumed that media. (I will state that I reap the benefits of seeing healthy and competent male figures now if I identify with them.) 

Another example of an area that begs the question of whether or not I truly have male privilege is space occupation. I have the privilege of being afforded the space to man-spread in public if I wanted to, without being questioned too much. However, I have not been afforded the peace of mind. I was socialized as a woman, who was not expected to take up too much space. This translates to other aspects of my life too. I was implicitly taught that my voice did not matter, but my face did. I was implicitly taught that I needed other people (especially men) to survive, and I was expected to be social and polite.

[Side Note to ignore if you wish: I acknowledge that both of the examples I have cited are inextricably tied to other (non-gender) aspects of culture.  The first argument is conflated by racial representation in the media, so that my experience as an Asian-American may be different from that of a Caucasian transgender man, or even another transgender man of color. The second example is dependent on regional and cultural social norms in terms of how much space one is expected are allowed to take. These conflations don’t negate my argument, as all privileges are situation-dependent anyway.]

This is all to say that I reap many privileges because of my gender, but all of these experiences are a result of me being perceived as male. Are they actually related to my gender though, my internal sense of being male or female (or neither or both, etc.)? Where does that leave transgender men who are not perceived as male, either because they have not yet or will not physically/socially transition (or because they aren’t transitioning in a way where they are perceived as male in mainstream society)? They are still male.

Perhaps then, I have “passing male” privilege? I undeniably benefit in countless ways because I am male and am perceived as male. Yet, I don’t benefit in all ways because I am not a cisgender male. Rather than creating a subsect of male privilege and calling it “cis male” privilege and exacerbating the convolutions already tied to social terminology, I propose a new model of privilege: a dualistic-privilege model.  Privilege can be broken into (at least) two categories based upon: perceived identity and socialized identity. Both categories are highly culture-dependent, but in very different ways. The privileges I am afforded by my perceived identity as a male is more dependent on the culture I am in now, and the privileges I am afforded by my socialized identity are more dependent on the culture in which I was raised. Because I have and continue to internalize messages directed towards females, I did not internalize a privileged identity. Yet, I am still bestowed one by society, who will (for the most part) listen to me, acknowledge me, and pay me as a man.

[minoritiesinpublishing]

Op-ed: Trans Women Deserve Better From Us

It’s International Women’s Day. What have you done to be a good ally to trans women?

“What disturbs me most, though, are cis women’s efforts to push trans women out of spaces where they deserve to be seen and heard just like the rest of us. It’s hard to not have even the smallest grasp of feminist history and not see what’s happening here. This cycle is repeating all over again. Including trans women in our spaces does not come to the detriment of cis women. To think this is the case, plays into the patriarchal bullshit we've been fed with the intention of keeping us divided. And cis women who call themselves feminists are doing this again — this time to trans women — while we’re at a pivotal moment in women’s history. Ending the cycle of patriarchal oppression can end with us, and we can do that by not only being better allies to trans women, but joining forces with them.“

[planetransgender]

Video: Sitting Congress woman acknowledges her cisgender privilege

Video: Sitting Congress woman acknowledges her cisgender privilege

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman for NY-14 (Bronx + Queens)

“I’m a cisgendered woman,” said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D). “I will never know the trauma of feeling like I’m not born in the right body. That is a privilege I have no matter how poor my family was when I was born.”

The historic admission by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(AOC) almost flew under the radar.

But AOC wouldn’t allow it…

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