my pithy observation is that the function of transfeminine political thought should not be directed at encouraging alienation in trans women.
now talking about transmisogyny at all is going to have a knock-on effect of inducing alienation because the experience of transmisogyny, let alone consciousness of it, *is* isolating, it induces paranoia, it induces neurosis. so I think in trying to balance the need for expressing accurate assessments of transmisogyny while not inducing or worsening forms of alienation that are debilitating, this requires trying to steer clear of wishful thinking and overdetermined pessimism, assimilationist cope or identitarian insularity. I don't like overoptimism about transfemininity because aside from being naive, it has the effect of amplifying self-hatred when it turns out being a trans woman sucks in a lot of ambient ways and people mistake that for just not being able to hack it or being wrongly fit for womanhood in some way. I don't like overpessimism because it ignores contingency, minimizes our already structurally discouraged agency, and encourages us to kill ourselves or, short of that, close ourselves off to others in a way that is cynical and often cruel (hard-identified detransitioners are an extreme instance but by no means the only instance).
I think the goal of transfeminine political thought should be giving trans women tools to act - concepts they can put to use to expand their worlds, ways of articulating themselves, ways of conceiving themselves as political subjects in conversation and conflict with other political subjects, motivations for how to act and assert themselves and take up space in a world that would see us shrunken and be in meaningful dialogue with others - rather than adding emotional or mental constraints on their power of acting.
