hii! this is a blog about transfeminism and a safe space for all trans people.
my main aim here is to make the transfeminist community a little more welcoming to non-transmisogynised trans people, such as expanding acceptance of the concepts of exorsexism, transandrophobia and anti-transmasculinity, and calling out exorsexist or anti-transmasculine rhetoric where i see it amongst transfeminists.
i do not believe that exorsexism and anti-transmasculinity are corollaries to transmisogyny, but i believe a complete transfeminist analysis of patriarchy has to include the perspectives of trans men and nonbinary people, transmisogynised or otherwise, as well as incorporating intersectional analysis of race- and class-based oppression.
i will not interact with anti-transfeminists or transmisogynists, and those who come into my comments will be blocked on sight.
bfâs blog (who edits many of my posts): @tguy-transgressions
my conversations with anti-transfeminists have been mostly unproductive and quite mentally taxing, so instead of trying to reach out to non-transmisogynised folks directly, i'm going to try to make the transfeminist community a little more welcoming for non-transmisogynised folks from the inside, rather than trying to bring them into a house that's already on fire.
on this note, i will no longer be interacting with transmisogynists. i'm here to build a loving and welcoming transfeminism which uplifts all of its trans members, not trying to convert people who have no interest in transmisogynised people's wellbeing or liberation. much love to my transfeminist followers.
my conversations with anti-transfeminists have been mostly unproductive and quite mentally taxing, so instead of trying to reach out to non-transmisogynised folks directly, i'm going to try to make the transfeminist community a little more welcoming for non-transmisogynised folks from the inside, rather than trying to bring them into a house that's already on fire.
i'm sorry, did you say in your most recent post that trans men (who are notably erased and underrepresented in the queer community) must use their privilege to uplift silenced people? when they are indeed the people being silenced and ignored most??
i thought we understood that trans women hypervisibility and trans men hyper invisibility were both very notable things in the community and both harmful. how do you expect people who aren't even considered as an after thought in the community to use their "privilege" to uplift others?
hiya, i think i slightly miscommunicated what i meant with that one. trans men do benefit from some privilege over trans women on account of being transmisogyny-exempt (see my previous posts on this terminology if you like!) but the situation regarding visibility and erasure is a little more nuanced i think. when it comes to the common public, trans men are generally ignored and erased and trans women are generally focused on. i would say within the general queer community neither group is listened to (cis people lol) but when it comes to the trans community on Tumblr, trans men's voices are notably more represented compared to trans women's, notably because of the banwaves that staff love to go on targeting us. what i'm hoping for is that trans men on this platform use that increased visibility to bring attention to the transmisogyny that thrives on Tumblr and therefore combat it, that's all.
i've made a small edit to the original post to correct the miscommunication :)
Do trans men oppress trans women? If yes, how and how can I avoid doing that? Sorry if it's a stupid question
Hi! Very interesting concept you've given me...
I want to start first by saying: if you have privelege in a society and you are an oppressor class, there is no real way to "opt out" of that system - but you CAN do something about thay privelege and unlearn bigotries, like any other group. It should be more them-focused less you-focused ykwim? Better framing for everyone.
And wether or not trans men "opress", is a different story... lemme boot up the ol' nuance machine..
First of all let's define oppressor! Is it someone in a class priveleged above you? Able to enact axes of oppression against you? Or, do we mean someone who has the social capability to oppress? People will disagree on this.
.
If we say "trans men cannot be oppressors since they are transgender, giving them no social power because they are oppressed under the patriarchy" I wanna bring up 2 points.
The first being "what about cis women?" They are oppressed under the patriarhy, misogyny is real, yet they are priveleged and oppressors. Are the complexities here deeper than just "has social power entirely/has none"? And if so, how nuanced is it? Does it change anything?
The second thing I wish to bring up is as a priveleged party you DO have social/political/etc power, maybe not the equivalent to a patriarch, but you DO have power over others.
Mmm... I think that gets into an additional nuance of "systemic, social, political, etc" privelege, and what we define oppressor as there too. Is an oppressor only someone who has political or systemic power over you?
There is a very large discussion here.
....
And as you may notice I have been hinting at the idea trans men have privilege over transfeminized people, (which inherently is a different conversation), because that's truly what this question should be. Now I am unsure if I am the best to explain this because I feel like someone who more muses, asks questions, posits things occasionally, not an authority figure (go see @/the-whipping-girl or like @/transsexual-feminism or something to ask for/read up on what trans-misogyny is better than I can ever explain it.)
But I will try!
So, in a lot of transfeminist theory for decades people have been discussing transfeminization under the patriarchy and how anyone who is not transfeminized has the ability to enact trans-misogynistic violence against us.
What IS trans-misogyny?
Well, Julia Serano once described it as oppositional sexism (as it pertains to us so transphobia) intersected with traditional sexism (femininity is somehow lesser)..
"But don't other trans people face this?" yes, but arguably to a lesser extent and in an entirely different way. The transfeminized/trans-misogynized class in the patriarchy is inherent to someone "transitioning into femininity" so to speak..
Of course, that's the shoddiest explanation ever and I wouldn't take to heart - I'd find someone who knows how the fuck to describe this and the theory around it and take their shit with more grains of sand - but at least you have an idea of where to look discussion-wise..
-==
"But how does any of this make us privileged?" Well, you see, the basic idea is that by not being trans-misogynized you are privileged, and you hold the societal power over trans women to use this bigotry against them. And more than any "trans person is transphobic" situation.
It's been explained to me like this:
Patriarchs (societally-cis men)
->misogyny->
Societally-cis women
->Transphobia->
TME societally-transgender people
-> trans-misogyny->
TMA people
===
Now, to explain this,
a patriarch holds privileges on the axes of misogyny, transphobia, and trans-misogyny.
A societally-cis woman is, of course, oppressed by misogyny. Now, cisfeminism will have you believe these are the only categories - but we know better! We, as transfeminists, know this class is privileged on the basis of trans-misogyny and transphobia! YES, you can be privileged and oppressed by the patriarchy in different ways. [some fake-cis-feminists claim gender-based oppression is all the patriarchy pertains to, and transphobia is its own separate axis that relates none. AKA "trans men oppress cis women cuz men - but they oppress trans men cuz they're cis" - this is just wrong. On the face of it. Not how reality works.]
TME trans people are oppressed by both misogyny and transphobia - now many non-transfeminists stop here. They think "cisfeminism + a class for trans people! This is the patriarchy's set-up" - but for a while transfeminists have been theorizing about it differently. THIS is where trans men are, and, as you can see, it isn't saying "privileged on basis of transphobia/misogyny" BUT it IS saying privileged on basis of trans-misogyny. THAT is what people are discussing - even if they don't use this model.
TMA trans people, oppressed by misogyny, transphobia, and, of course, trans-misogyny.
===
Now, some say that transphobia inherently carries misogyny as an axis of oppression, so they'll describe this more-so as subtypes of misogyny beating down on more marginalized groups under the patriarchy (as best as I explain it). This is why you may see people who discuss things like this say "you don't need an intersection of transphobia and misogyny for people who aren't TMA" - because the misogyny came free with the being abused by the patriarchy.
The key difference is that when people say we need words like isomisogyny or to let trans men into trans-misogyny - there is no analysis. No understanding of theory. Just "they have this and I feel like I should too" <- mainly because people centre their validity in how oppressed they are, causing a bunch of fakewokes who cannot admit privilege at all. Even outside of this context.
So, a transfeminized person talking about theory will be met with ignorance and insecurity. There is a specific reason why trans-misogyny was coined, and the theories built off of it was all with reason. There is no "I feel like I should have this" - there is no coining on twitter for the fun of it - there is just actual active discussion. Transfeminists are not concerned with the tumblr hub-ub of it all.....
Which is all to say: the difference on why we get our own "special" word and other ones seem to always be riddled with flaws is because we don't see it as a special word. We just discuss with each other, and new words come when they are needed. So, unless someone wants to read up on actual theory and then make their own special literature for other groups (which has never happened).
IDK I feel I gotta include that because every time a transfeminist mentions theory there's always complaints "why don't I get my own?" - but the issue is the thought pattern of that in general. It's not that you're not allowed, it's that it's never been about being unique and affirmed in your own oppression! So if someone tries to respond to me explaining this theory on why transfeminists might believe in trans men's privilege with "what about me?" - what ABOUT you? WHY do you need your own term? What's your analysis? How does it fit in with the current analyses being discussed? <- Think that to yourself.
^ SORRY FOR TANGENT. I JUST KNOW HOW IT SOUNDS TO MENTIION TRANS-MISOGYNY THEN MENTION HOW A LOT OF PEOPLE DON'T BELIEVE YOU NEED A WORD FOR THE MISOGYNY/TRANSPHOBIA INTERSECTION... BUT TRUTHFULLY, IT'S IN THE THEORY, YKWIM? OPPOSITIONAL SEXISM X TRAD SEXISM AS IT AFFECTED PEOPLE WHO ARE SOCIETALLY-TRANSFEM IS SOMETHING, YOU GOTTA START WITH SOMETHING. that's why these beliefs form, i think.
==========
I really disassociated and forgot a lot of what was supposed to go here I'm sorry. I had more to say on the model and different modes of thought..
....
NOW, it's important to reexplain nobodies arguing against the oppression of trans men, and if you have a societal force that needs a name that isn't better described as misogyny or transphobia - let us know! Do that work! Make that theory! But until then, this is what we got lol.
Now, "trans men are privileged", how is this different than cisfeminism or general fake-feminism?
The difference is, we are acknowledging that societally-cis and societally-trans people have different placements under the patriarchy. The patriarchy doesn't care for gender labels; the fact the enforced classes are man and woman are because they want you to conform to that. They want you to be born M or F and conform to the role it enforces. A gender-identity-based patriarchy does not exist.
[this is also why transfeminists say "you are oppressed for being trans not being a man" - because it's true - your gender labels have nothing to do with it. it's oppositional sexism. Transphobia. Your patriarchal class is because you are trans solely.]
In the transfeminist mindset, though, you are not privileged for your labels, but your societal standing as a non-transfeminzied person. Because you don't experience transmisogyny and benefit from that, you have privilege.
This is also different from the TERF idea of "transitioning into privilege" - being trans inherently makes you not privileged! Nobody is saying you become a patriarch. I know it may feel that way if someone says "male privilege" for trans men - which yea, I think the term will always cause confusion, but people who say that mean this as well.
Any transfeminist view about trans-misogyny and TME privilege will be based on this idea that you are privileged for not being trans-misogynized. No, not that you have "female-privilege" or are the equivalent of a patriarch.
===
Okay, now I have deliriously explained the concept of WHY people may say trans men have privilege, let's talk about what we are really here for: not understanding what it means to be an oppressor, or discussing theories that pertain to TME privilege while I stumble through trying to explain the thought processes behind them, we are here cuz you asked a probably bad faithed question that if answered in earnest would always lead here:
Unearning trans-misogyny.
And to unlearn trans-misogyny, we need to first understand what it is. How it functions.
Trans-misogyny comes with a lot of things,
We are hypersexualized and fetishized, we are seen as sex dolls, we are seen as less-than for our femininity, we are forced to strive to perform womanhood as best as we can even if we are GNC or have a complex experience due to being seen a pervs and invasive cis men if we don't (even allies uphold this) - we are held to an impossible standard, people literally wait for us to fuck up to go "see ? I was affirmed in my inherent distrust!",
i am literally too sick to continue this post which sucks cuz this is what the post was always going to be and it'd ve a really cool and loong explaination and sruff but im so sick
go read up on transfeminist lit and lurk in our discussions . be educated.
i think you're a little uncharitable to trans men and other TME trans people here. it's a pretty good post to be clear (especially for one made while sick and delirious lol, i hope you're alright!), but i do think there is a lot of intelligent analysis about trans men's oppression that has come out on this website in recent years that is perfectly compatible with transfeminist analysis, it's just accompanied by a lot of unhelpful argumentation between trans folk that can be difficult to sift through.
most of the theorising that has come out historically about trans oppression has been written by trans women, which has given a pretty clear picture of transmisogyny but less so for anti-transmasculine oppression (as manifested through elevated rates of sexual abuse, infantilisation, etc) and i think the disparity mostly comes down to epistemic injustice.* but to suggest that the lack of academic discourse surrounding specifically anti-transmasculine oppressions is evidence that there is no such thing as transandrophobia / anti-transmasculinity i think is a little unfair. do lots of TME trans people need to unlearn transmisogyny? yes!!! but i think that their own issues can just be ignored.
side note: a book that i read recently that does touch on a couple of the above topics re. transmasculine people was DILF: Did I Leave Feminism? by Jude Doyle, as well as his Medium posts. it's not perfect and by no means is it a complete analysis, but it did leave me feeling a little clearer about it than i did before.
*epistemic injustice: when a group is less able to produce knowledge regarding their experiences than another, e.g. trans men struggling to enter this particular academic space (this is such an oversimplified explanation, Miranda Fricker has a whole book on it that you can read lol)
PSA: experiencing privilege does not make you evil! Trans men & mascs, being largely exempt from transmisogyny doesnât make you evil, and any transfeminist that says so is wrong. Like any other privilege (white, abled, cis male, etc) it comes with it a responsibility to uplift and include the people in your community who might be marginalised. That is all.
One of the ways transmisogyny manifests is in default-uncharitable interpretations of ambiguous meaning.
Last week I was at a meetup where I was the only transfem. I checked the groupchat when I arrived and there was a message from the organiser: "We have a newcomer called X, can you look out for him if you get there first?" I located X, introduced myself, sent a message to the chat say, "I have located X," and continued to talk to him until the organiser arrived. When the organiser arrived, she was not happy with me. It turned out my phone had autocorrected, "I have located X," to, "I had located X," which the organiser interpreted as me passive aggressively telling her that I had already done the thing she was asking about. Her conclusion: I was unreasonable and aggressive in responding to her reasonable request. My explaining what had happened didn't convince her otherwise.
A different occasion last week: in a local trans groupchat, a trans man sent a link to a drag event happening in our town. A few people said they were already going, some said they might go. Then a trans woman replied saying, "Thanks, but I don't really like drag." Her tone was immediately called into question. Her words were assumed to communicate: "I think you are a terrible person if you like drag," even though she never said that. Several non-transfems who had never even heard that drag might not be universally-beloved by everyone were upset to discover that fact. A trans woman simply saying she didn't like this thing became A Big Deal.
Meanwhile, at a different event again, a trans man told a group that he was straight and attracted to women, but he wouldn't feel comfortable bringing home an "AMAB woman" (yes he actually said that). It was quickly brushed over, and after he had left even trans women tried to defend him by saying "he probably didnt realise people would be offended" etc etc. In contrast to the examples above, he is not even aware that anyone was upset by what he said, never mind worrying about what consequences he might face.
Whenever I go to an event, I often spend the next 24-48 hours ruminating over every single thing I said to check if I did anything at any time that could even vaguely be construed as annoying to anyone. I have often put this behaviour down to severe anxiety, but I think I am realising that it is actually a rational response to a world where even the slightest social misstep could be blown way out of proportion and result in my later social exclusion. It's one of those things that existed long before I was aware of my own transness but while I was nonetheless transmisogynised by society, a crippling fear of the slightest imperfection that I assumed everyone else felt too but apparently they don't. I guess when other people go out of their way to smoothe over the damage your words or actions might cause, you don't need to stress about that damage because there are no consequences to it! It sounds very nice to be able to live like that.
i think lots of you folks on the internet are doing TMA/TME discourse wrong. lot of transfeminists on this website are using this terminology in a way that isnât helpful, whereas many anti-transandrophobia advocates block anyone who defends the use of this terminology, which means that everyone is talking past each other. so! letâs go again.
transphobia is a system of oppression that exists to punish the gender transgressions of people who transition. since patriarchy likes to think of the two sexes as discrete, non-overlapping entities (see Julia Seranoâs definition of oppositional sexism) anyone who falls outside of the category of cisgender and gender-conforming is punished by transphobia.
under patriarchy women are thought of as the lesser of the two sexes. the existence of people who transition to a comparatively âlowerâ gendered status presents a particularly pressing threat to the existence of the patriarchy, and so patriarchy punishes these transgressions in a way which we call transmisogyny.
the existence of transmisogyny as a systemic impulse does not negate the oppression of non-transmisogynised trans people. the position of trans people who begin as perceived females and transition to a ârelatively higherâ gendered status are particularly vulnerable to corrective sexual assault and will be rigorously infantilised by patriarchal forces in order that the boundaries of womanhood remain strict and discrete. this is the oppressive system we call transandrophobia.
the terms âtransmisogyny-affectedâ and âtransmisogyny-exemptâ exist as an inclusive alternative to just saying âtrans women and transfemsâ or likewise. these terms should be used inclusively by default â inclusive of nonbinary people and intersex people who want to describe themselves as such.
transmisogyny overlaps with a lot of other gendered oppression systems in terms of the tropes it uses (for example, casting a demographic as inherently violent, especially sexually) but it is important to remember that it is not the same as misogynoir or intersexism or any other oppressive force (although itâs possible to experience those things and transmisogyny at the same time).
if you are someone who is trans, but is not the primary target of transmisogyny, please please please try to be aware of how it affects TMA people e.g. hate campaigns, bullying and pedojacketing in queer and trans spaces. if youâre a transfeminist, make sure youâre being a transfeminist inclusively. all in all, listen to other trans people, they always have interesting things to say. <3
re. the internet is a machine that destroys nuance: the other side is not a monolith. donât be out here like âtransfeminists / transandrophobia believers think this,â there is an infinite amount of positions that someone could conceivably take on these matters. for one, you can be a transfeminist and believe that transandrophobia / anti-transmasculinity exists.
this also applies to name calling: TRFs, transandrobros, theyfabs and whatever else you guys come up with to avoid empathising with âthe other sideâ is anathema to having good discourse and one step closer to dehumanising people outside of your in-group and killing your movement-building momentum.
vague posting about how xyz group think so and so about your group gets you nowhere near productive and is just a way to build resentment within our communityâthe trans communityâwithout building any kind of mutual understanding.
can we stop dunking on TME/TMA please? its kinda pointless at this stage
like donât get me wrong, i donât hold a lot of love for the terms but the way the terms themselves are being mocked when the problem is very much more so the way people are using them feels weirder and weirder every time i see it
like, for example, a lot of people argue that asking someone if theyâre TME or TMA is essentially the same as asking what someoneâs AGAB is or âwhats in their pantsâ. this idea is firstly coming from a broader trend of the most controversial and ridiculable takes from transfeminists being prescribed to transfeminism as a whole - specifically the idea that TME = AFAB and TMA = AMAB which while i have seen adjacent ideas to this being pushed it is usually by fairly small accounts and the vast majority of transfeminists - and notably the ones who receive the most attention - have from what iâve seen consistently denied this idea and included cis men as TME. however iâd also like to point out that these ideas that TME/TMA was made specifically for the purpose of being invasive about peopleâs genitals, which is an actual claim iâve seen circulating, or that its inherently invasive to ask someone if theyâre TME/TMA, are a continuation of the transmisogynistic stereotype of trans women as sexual predators, and in this instance is used specifically to dismiss transfeminism. because, regardless of TME/TMAâs flaws as terms, they are undeniably attempts to create terminology for transfeminist discussions and ultimately terms like them are necessary for talking about transmisogyny and how it affects transfeminised people specifically.
and then obviously you have the other arguments of creating a binary and/or grouping in other trans people with our oppressors which while on the surface seem to be valid criticisms which i myself agreed with for a time do kinda just collapse when you think about it a bit deeper. like, at best its a nothingburger argument if youâre perfectly okay with terms like transfeminised and non-transfeminised + transmasculinised and non-transmasculinised which are also binaries and do the same sorting of trans people as TME/TMA do, and at worst is an argument against transfeminist terminology and the discussion of transmisogyny. because when we create transfeminist terminology and talk about transmisogyny, the fact is that the main targets of transmisogyny make up less than 1% of the worldâs population and does not include the majority of trans people (before anyone gets in my comments arguing with a point iâm not making, this isnât me saying transmasculine people are less oppressed than transfeminine people, iâm just talking about the specific intersection of transphobia and misogyny that transfeminine people experience. notably the problem iâm talking about here with transfeminist terminology also applies to any terminology we may use for the specific intersection of transphobia and misogyny transmasculine people face - transmasculine people also make up less than 1% of the worldâs population) and as such this grouping in of other trans people with our oppressors is unavoidable.
its just kind of infuriating to me that people are taking much more time to dunk on transfeminism than they are actually engaging with and arguing against the points being made that theyâre disagreeing with. because thatâs what iâm here to do, and thatâs what i thought most other people were here to do? to get people to broaden their conversations about transfeminism and the way misogyny affects trans people to be more inclusive of transmasculine people and be based on the lived experiences of trans people rather than cisgendered gender dynamics? i thought our issue with TME/TMA was people hiding behind the broadness and vagueness of the terms to express their bitterness (bitterness which in this case is often informed by transmisogyny within the trans community, not a justification of what these people are saying but i think it does need to be taken into account) towards other trans people while hiding behind the veneer of complaining about oppression, rather than just with transfeminised people having terminology for our specific struggles?
also its near hilariously silly when people talk about TME/TMA âinventing a binaryâ as if transfeminists are sorting people into these boxes purely for sport and not describing a structural force of oppression and the way it targets one specific group of people (while situationally affecting people outside that group of people)
one thing that irks me about "just do diy!" when i talk about how expensive it is to get on T legally is like. i don't hear that with any other illegal/controlled medications. i take concerta for my adhd and have not once heard someone tell me to just go get street adderall
I haven't posted on this blog in a while but I thought this post could use some nuance, especially given the misinformation that I saw in the comments. I agree that statements like "just do diy" is reductive and unhelpful. However, statements like "if DIY is an option for you (based on your location, your awareness of and willingness to mitigate potential health impacts, and your means) then you ought to consider it," are very important.
DIY testosterone is not comparable to taking street adderall. As far as I know (I do not take DIY T but have trans guy friends who do / are looking) the main source of DIY T in most countries is cis bodybuilders. I would assume that bodybuilders are a community who are generally more careful about what they put into their bodies than most recreational drug dealers. Also, depending on your location, DIY T might not be illegal. I live in the UK, where androgenic steroids are not illegal to possess for personal use. I assume that the situation in the US is different.
Now to address some misconceptions I saw in the comments / reblogs.
DIY HRT is potentially more unsafe than prescribed options but if you are well aware of the potential health impacts and make sure that your supplier is chemically tested by a third party, you may be able to mitigate most of these health impacts.
DIY T is generally cheaper than prescribed options (this is of course location and context dependent).
Most DIY users do not synthesize their hormones themselves, they source their hormones online. This might be from clinicians in other countries or from domestic informal outlets.
Needles are easy to acquire online on Amazon or elsewhere or, if you live in a mid-to-big sized city, for free from needle exchange or harm reduction programs.
People telling you to "just do DIY" are probably trans people who don't want to write out paragraphs as I have just done rather than feds. AFAIK the US federal police are preoccupied with other things right now than infiltrating trans communities online to spread misinformation.
DIY T will not give you STDs unless you use a contaminated source or contaminated needles, which will not happen if you are careful.
Yes, DIY HRT is more accessible for trans women in many circumstances. That doesn't mean that it is impossible to access as a trans man.
Finally, the steps to take DIY are not so overwhelming as you might imagine. If you are aware of your own health and live in an area where it is accessible as outlined above, you too can take DIY HRT.
Other trans people, please do not spread misinformation about what DIY HRT does or does not do. I haven't sourced any of the above claims because I do not have infinite time (if you pester me I'll give sources and resources later) but a quick Google search and a probe around Reddit or the like will lead you to many, many online resources detailing how to do DIY and the associated risks. Stay safe and love and cherish the other trans people in your life, online or offline, if you have them.
the trans community is amazing. if the state of things is getting to you, whether it's internet discourse or the outside world, please remember that it's okay to take a break. talk to some of your trans friends you haven't spoken to in a while. listen to them infodump. ask them about their interests. things can get ugly sometimes, especially on the internet, but never let anyone make you believe that we cannot find comfort in each other's company.
