I joined the queer community as a newly out asexual person back in 2015, during the height of aspec discourse. The amount of abuse, harassment, threats, etc. that I got sent my way for being openly ace during that time was substantial. All of my words and anything I said about my asexuality was used against me to show that I was a regressive, dangerous bigot who hated “real” LGBT people and wanted to invade and steal their resources. A prominent example I remember was when I used “flaming” as an adjective to describe something relating to asexuality (I don’t even remember what it was at this point), only to end up being brigaded and harassed for weeks, being labeled as a homophobe and bigot, proof that aspecs are cishet invaders stealing resources and hurting actual LGBT people. Why was there such a massive reaction to me using the word “flaming” as an adjective? Due to the fact that “flaming” is sometimes used as a way to describe gay people in a homophobic manner (ignoring that it’s a self descriptor used by gay people themselves). Aspec discourse was brutal and unforgiving, with aspecs being treated as acceptable punching bags for the rest of the community to harass and take their frustrations out on.
Transmedicalism, that occured around the same time as aspec discourse, had many of the same problems. GNC trans people, non-binary people in general, and non-dysphoric trans people were painted to be privileged white kids who didn’t have any real problems and wanted to be trans for fun. They were painted as thieves of life saving transition resources such as HRT and binding/tucking resources. Any little thing that they did that didn’t fit truscums exact experiences was labeled as cringe and mentally deranged. MOGAI identites, gender nonconformity, and non-binary people were so heavily harassed and mocked that even right wing cishets started jumping onto the transmedicalism train. Aphobia and exorsexism went hand in hand during the mid/late 2010’s with both aphobes and transmeds being proud of their exclusionism and bigotry without any pushback.
It’s been stated before that the patterns of aspec and transmedicalism discourse have shown up repeatedly, just attacking new targets instead. Pan discourse, mspec lesbian/gay discourse, etc. but I’ve never seen it truly flare up with the same vitriol with latter discourses (not to say thay these discourses weren’t wide spread and community destroying); that is, until discourse around transandrophobia started. I have seen harassment campaigns, callouts, threats of sexual and physical assault, threats of murder, etc. continually thrown at trans men and transmasculine people for daring to state that they need language to describe their experiences with oppression. Every single little word and opinion that an individual trans man or transmasculine person stares is put under such severe scrutiny, and anything that’s deemed as “bad” no matter what it is (which, to be honest so much of it is just bad faith reading of what trans men and mascs are saying) is met with abuse and exclusionism not just against the individual, but against the entire trans man/transmasc community. Like aspec discourse and transmedicalism, it’s gotten to a point where cishets have their opinions and support the exclusion; in the case of transandrophobia, it’s cis women saying that exclusionists are right about trans men always being privileged over them.
Trans men and mascs are just privileged white boys pretending to be oppressed while taking away resources from trans women and fems who are actually oppressed (mirroring how aspecs and gnc/non-dysphoric/non-binary people were always characterized as white and privileged, to the point where people stated it was racist to be aspec or gnc/enbian if you were a PoC or make/headcanon PoC characters as aspec/enbian). Trans men and mascs are never black, never indigenous, never east or southeast asian, never SWANA, never desi, never latino. They’re always, always white and deeply privileged in all other aspects of their life (they’re not disabled mentally or physically, they’re not poor, they’re not intersex, etc). And if their racial/ethnic group is recognized in discourse, they’re also aggressive and violent, or submissive and meek depending on their racial/ethnic group or how they’re perceived.
Aspec, transmedicalism and transandrophobic discourse parallel each other in so many different ways. Making aspecs/enbian/trans men and mascs out to be privileged invaders who want to take it out on lesbians/binary trans people/trans women and fems (who often didn’t agree with this rhetoric and are just being used as bludgeon by exclusionists who don’t actually care about their oppression). Calling aspecs, enbian/gnc/non dysphoric people and trans men/mascs “cishets” or “MRAs” to paint them as bigots as opposed to people trying to talk about their experiences with aphobia/exorsexism/transandrophobia. Because of this perceived and assigned position of privilege and invasion, it’s fair game to harass and abuse aspecs, enbian/gnc/non dysphoric people and trans men/mascs. It’s fair game to ignore and belittle them when they talk about their oppression and call it mundane, including but not limited to:
•All groups dealing with astronomical rates of sexual assault and rape
•All groups being just as prone to poverty as other queer/trans people
•All groups having some of the highest rates of suicide in the queer/trans community
•All groups having some of the highest rates of partner abuse in the queer/trans community
Aspec discourse, transmedicalist discourse and transandrophobia discourse are parallels to one another, fueled by reactionary exclusionary gatekeepers (REGs) who refuse to take any perspective that isn’t their own into account, and will fight so hard to exclude others that they’re willing to destroy people’s lives (and I don’t state that lightly as members of all the groups mentioned above have been doxxed and falsely reported as bigots and predators to their communities and the places that they work). People (especially people who call themselves inclusonists) who say that what’s happening with trans men and transmasculine people online isn’t the same or isn’t as severe as what happened with aspec discourse/transmedicalism are wrong. People who say that transandrophobia discourse is good and justified are wrong. It’s the same exclusionism with a different coat of paint, plain and simple.
Honestly, I don’t even think “discourse” is a proper word for what’s happened and is happening to these communities. It’s harassment and abuse from other queer/trans people, full stop.
