Tag: transmisogyny

criticalinvert:

“While both trans men and trans women were historically required to meet the gatekeepers’ oppositional sexist ideals, trans women often faced an additional standard: They had to be sexually desirable in their identified sex as well. In the 1970s, Suzanne J. Kessler and Wendy McKenna came across several instances in which gatekeepers were rather blatant about this practice: “A clinician during a panel session on transsexualism at the 1974 meeting of the American Psychological Association said that he was more convinced of the femaleness of a male-to-female transsexual if she was particularly beautiful and was capable of evoking in him those feelings that beautiful women generally do. Another clinician told us that he uses his own sexual interest as a criterion for deciding whether a transsexual is really the gender she/he claims.””

— Julia Serano – Whipping Girl. 2007.

folly-of-alexandria:

You know, it’s constantly bothersome how the primary source of prejudice in Transmisogyny is the inability of the vast majority of cis people to see trans-women as anything other than purely sexual objects.

For the most trans-women, the mere act of existing in a space is considered as a sexual action by the majority of cis people around them. A trans woman (especially if she’s not-white) doing something as mundane as walking down the street or checking into a hotel room can be detained by police under suspicion of prostitution (having any condoms on her person will even be used as evidence against her). There’s the narrative that trans women shouldn’t be allowed in public restrooms because people think that they would only do so to sexually assault or harass cis women or children.

There’s the idea that the entire purpose behind transitioning was to trick innocent cis people into having sex with someone that’s secretly a man. Mind you, almost no trans woman would do this for the simple fact that it’s a quick way to get murdered; and this narrative is also played up in the defense of cis-people that do murder trans women in the “Trans-Panic” defense which is completely legal in 48/50 states in the US.

Then there are those that attribute value on trans women based on how fuckable they perceive us to be. Some people see trans women as freaky beings that straddle the line of the defined binary in appearance and due to their personal lack of attraction to us see us as not worth treating as human. Or those whom believe that their finding us fuckable is the goal and that simply saying “Hey, I’d totally have sex with you.” is what we want every cis person to say. But these people still operate view us as purely sexual individuals without and other facets of worth to our lives.

And then there are those that see our transitions as a sort of extreme masturbatory fetish. As if the entire goal of it was some sexual self-gratification. That the whole thing was to take our bodies and change and dress them in a way to get ourselves off with an autogynophilic pleasure.

A couple days ago I came across a post that was a screenshot of a post made by a man. The post was a man comparing a picture of a trans woman that fell in to conventional standards of beauty, to a picture of a TERF whom deviated greatly from those same standards. The man then wrote a caption saying “No wonder TERFs hate trans women.” The implication that trans women are fuckable (and therefore good) while TERFs are not (and therefore bad). A separate TERF had then taken this as a whole and left a comment claiming that the man’s comments of finding trans women fuckable (and therefore good), was proof that trans women were accepted by the systems of the patriarchy and therefore not only not oppressed but an example of trans women’s supposed true goal of being thought of as fuckable whether by men, women, or both. Now they’re both completely off-base because again some random dude telling me he’d like to fuck me is no comfort (and actually rather creepy) and it’s no indication of viewing me as a person, and the TERFs wrong because her statement is almost the same as saying a woman who gets catcalled is less oppressed than a woman a man decides isn’t pretty enough to catcall.

The thing that all of those kind of cis people above don’t understand, is that being a trans woman has nothing to do with any of that, at all. All of those assumptions hinge on the exclusion of the concept that trans women have any personal identity outside of our sexuality. The fact of the matter is that our goals as trans women begin and end with 1)Being comfortable in our own skin. 2)Being able to do so while being treated as human. 3)Living a happy, multi-faceted life. The listed cis people don’t comprehend that simple fact, and until society at large does, transmisogyny will continue to widely persist.

youareagoodperson:

the-four-humors:

Honestly, the reason trans men tend to fall into terf-y ways of thinking is not because all terfs are secretly trans men. most terfs are cis women and it lets cis women off the hook for transmisogyny otherwise. 

but take it from a trans man who used to hold proto-terf ideas – and who still has some transmisogynist beliefs he trying to work past – the reason trans men fall in with that group is for a similar reason to why cis white men have started going so far right politically.

for a breakdown on that phenomenon, i suggest watching this video, but i’ll sum up the parts that apply to trans men:

Trans men, especially those that are interested in social justice, are told that men unilaterally benefit from the patriarchy. But unless we pass fully in our day-to-day lives, trans men do not see all the benefits from patriarchy that we are told by multiple sources that we should. A trans man who cannot publicly pass will still experience misplaced misogyny, be it in the form of day-to-day interactions like catcalling, or institutionalized issues like birth control legislation or the wage gap. 

So you’ve got this man who does not see the benefits of cis manhood, and who is looking for support from people who understand him. And what system is there in place to defend reproductive health and end street harassment? Feminism. So he starts getting into feminism. 

And then he starts talking to women who are telling him that yes, yes he is being oppressed because he has a vagina. And that everyone with a vagina is oppressed by everyone with a penis. And that anyone born with a penis will never really know what it is like to be oppressed based on genitalia. 

Now you’ve got a trans man who is saying that because trans women were ‘socialized as male’ that they benefit from patriarchy but that he doesn’t. 

He got to that point because he does not benefit from (cis) patriarchy. But what he of course does not stop to think about is that trans women can never tap into the patriarchy. He also doesn’t realize that the feminists who are so much in support of him aren’t supporting him because they think he’s a man – they’re supporting him because they think he’s just a confused tomboy. 

Now, I think that there should be conversations about the ways in which trans men do and do not benefit from patriarchy. In some ways we do, in many ways we don’t. I don’t think it’s wrong to say that pre-transition or transitioning trans men are treated differently under the system than cis men are. But, that does not mean that we have the same disadvantages as trans women, or that trans women in any way benefit from patriarchy. 

Trans men can be TERFs. But they do not on their own perpetuate it. To say that they do a) ignores the ways in which trans men end up there and refuses to give them other alternatives, and b) lets cis women off the hook by implying that transmisogyny is purely trans male-on-trans female violence and not, y’know, a product of cis people.

Is this along the same line as why more truscum tend to be ftm trans people? Because I was thinking something along the lines of toxic masculinity

spiroandthelacktones:

homo-j-simpson:

spiroandthelacktones:

softtrade:

softtrade:

Wait are you trying to tell me that rupaul might have some questionable gender politics??

Can’t believe the person responsible for “female or shemale” and “you’ve got shemale” and was the center of a major community discussion around the word tranny isn’t good abt trans stuff! Really makes you think

Also trans women have been saying this for literally years and no one would listen to us and in fact we get accused of hating gay men for it, until this recent interview for some reason, like ru Paul has sucked all along and I’ve been shouting at the void about it on this website for literally years, it’s almost as if trans women know what they’re talking about when it comes to transphobia and letting this get this far was completely avoidable

“Also trans women have been saying this for literally years and no one would listen to us and in fact we get accused of hating gay men for it“ this is very important. 

He’s disgusting. Drag is a really awesome thing, but modern mainstream drag is fucking terrible

Yeah like it’s been difficult to kinda get perspective on drag due to some really bad personal experiences with drag queens but honestly, drag isn’t the problem the problem is that the drag scene has been largely over run by cis white gay men using it as a place where they can insult women’s looks and outfits, act out misogynist stereotypes, and touch other people innapropriately without fear of reprecussion, like, if you want to look pretty and perform a song that’s awesome, however if you create a character to act out misogynist stereotypes and insult actual women’s clothes/looks, you’re just a misogynist using drag as cover, and the drag scene is sadly currently completely dominated by these cis men who ruin it for everyone, and honestly we need to fucking take it back because drag could be an amazing thing if it wasn’t unwelcoming/unsafe for anyone who doesn’t want to blindly accept the toxic parts

Hey just letting you know, f*g isn’t a slur you can reclaim if you’re not a gay man. idk if you identify as that or not, just because in your bio previously you had written ‘transbian’, which I think insinuates you’re female aligned

patrexes:

i 100% understand why you think that! however! slurs are complicated, identities are super complicated (and i don’t feel like spending three paragraphs detailing mine), and not only is fag a term that’s levelled pretty indiscriminately against queers as a general rule and especially towards transfeminine people, the differentiation between feminine gay men and trans girls is… really new. fag is both of ours. fairy is both of ours. molly and baeddel and argr are all both of ours. 

end-of is really, not everyone agrees that only gay men can say fag, but even if they did, my identity is messy and complicated and not necessarily perfectly in line with current discourse on gender/sexuality theory, the word is an important part of my identity, and i apologize for any discomfort that (or any of the various slurs i use) causes but my identity is not for you to police. 

also, here’s a pretty great post.

seeing people thinking fag isn’t thrown at trans women because it’s a slur for ‘male aligned people’ is always a fun reminder that non trans women and esp cis people just have no fucking clue.

it’s a slur associated w gay men. & that’s Exactly why it’s used against us. it has the connotations that someone’s a failure for a lack of masculinity. did u really think people are looking at trans women and thinking, “i’m going to throw a slur at her, but i have to respect her identity and not misgender her with a male aligned term, i’m only verbally abusing her I don’t want to be cruel or anything”

galpalison:

when a terf calls me a heterosexual male i’m like, where’s the consistency? bc by their definition i’d be bisexual not straight. and if gender dysphoria is either a a priori mental illness or a maladaptive effect of our homophobic culture (which are two of the most common explanations that aren’t all-out frothing-at-the-mouth Transsexual Empire conspiracy theory) shouldn’t they be treating me with some degree of sympathy instead of absolute pitiless abjection? especially when i was like 16 or 17? i mean it’s not like their ideology is just founded in reflexive disgust and reification of heteropatriarchal sexual divisions or some nonsense like that, it’s clearly informed by careful, rational, radical feminist analysis of the material relationships within our society. so i’m just confused as to why they’d make such a silly mistake? it’s weird

“traps aren’t trans women, they’re effeminate gay dudes who crossdress to deceive and fuck straight guys”
ok but you’ve, just decided to counter an accusation of transphobia with “checkmate, i’m a huge transphobe AND homophobe. weren’t expecting that one hey?”. like you really thought your knowledge of fetish anime would make you look Less Gross

softtrade:

This is related but also like a larger point but why is it that people can conceptualize “men opening their legs on the bus” as like an act of oppression but once you get to trans women the bar is like… yr not affected or marginalized unless you’ve literally been murdered

if you’re transfem be careful about gaypeachs. tw for transmisogyny

anarchotransfem:

anarchotransfem:

eyeshadow2600fm:

femsaphique:

tiredoftiredofcishets:

clitcheese:

(their former urls are birobotic, aromasterchief, transkrem, bimonsters, zemyatta and robotcas)

don’t go and harass them, this is just a warning to people they’ve given off a lot of red flags and generally dismissed transmisogyny

  • made a post trying to reappropriate the idea of terfs to create the spectre of “Terfs 2.0″: “women and fem aligned NBs” who support trans women but are oppressive to trans men and masc NBs.
  • convinced that any transmisoginistic reading of their post was putting words in their mouth even after they admitted their post was vague and unclear
  • blocked me and @anarchotransfem and claimed they were being abusive, again just for asking them to clarify the meaning in their poorly worded post
  • whatever the hell happened in this reply they sent immediately after they blocked me, claiming that transfems being concerned about transmisogyny in their post was a purposeful attack on their mental health, that this was a concerted effort to gang up on them. it’s basically textbook “how not to react” after people tell you that you’ve fucked up.
  • generally going out of their way to absolve themself of any possible
    transmisogyny in their post    , acting as if any concern of
    transmisogyny on their part is us being manipulative, oversensitive and out to
    get them. which is, surprise, transmisogyny.

while a lot of their posts about how trans men’s access to male privilege is highly conditional is stuff i agree with, it does start to give a bad impression when coupled with; their dismissal of transmisogyny, their near constant assertion that cis women are their main oppressor on the basis of gender (cis women specifically rather than cis people generally), and their assertions that cis women and trans men have identical experiences of misogyny. basically, it starts to look like the common truscum assertion that trans masc people can’t possibly hold power over trans women (and the corollary, that trans women who talk about transmisogyny are misandrists). they outright claim “trans people have no power” in reference to trans men having no social power for being men.

tbh i don’t think they’re even aware that what they’re saying could have these implications, and by no means do i think they’re actually a truscum or absorbing any truscum rhetoric. please don’t harass them, this is just to get the word out to other people not to interact with them concerning transmisogyny, because it looks pretty futile and i don’t want any more transfems to have to deal with their childlike behavior.

the rest of this horrible interaction and related screenshots under the cut

Keep reading

This is…..some pretty gross accusations and more than one of your “receipts” is presented with a misleading description that shows you have a personal, petty agenda against this person. Seems like you’re mad they blocked you and that you didn’t understand them, and scrolling their blog there are a lot of explanations that say the opposite things of what you’re implying about them. Idk, this callout seems iffy and less about “warnings” than being vindictive to me

I would say that it is indeed a personal agenda! As personal preservation from a person that keeps on talking over transfems, and reinforces trans men’s male entitlement would be hard to not take personally!

And yeah like not all of these are straight up bigoted things.

But I am highly concerned with how this person keeps on writing really vague shit and trying to make misogyny about men with such desperation.

Like, I’d highly just advice people to stay away from this person instead of trying to excuse them, because this person is clearly in some kind of echo chamber of transmasc self-victimisation, and latches on to the “you all are using radfem rhetoric!” argument while using radfem rhetorics.

like look at this person’s blog. they’re clearly trying to shape trans men as having authority on misogyny. and i don’t know about you, but when they keep on insisting on crypto-radfem rhetorical use, they really should be analysing how their words and actions might be do similar things when they pull the same shit terfs do!

if you say misogyny is about trans men, maybe you should analyse what that says about trans women. how do trans women not have male privilege within a frame where trans men and all dfab people are targets of misogyny, and should be the authority of it.

this all isn’t an attack jfc. it’s concern. because this person is making no effort to look at their own words and how their words carry implications.. even when multiple transfems independently go “hey.. what the fuck.. have you maybe thought that the rhetorics you’re spreading carries a transmisogynistic undertone”.

Please stop saying “transfem” when you mean trans women, for frik’s sake

Hi I’m transfeminine and affected by transmisogyny but also not a trans woman

I got blocked for this reply omfg

hey hang on. my op was literally about gaypeachs refusing to address transmisogyny that impacts nonbinaries. literally their rhetoric was specifically aimed at ‘fem nbs’ with no regard for transmisogyny or power dynamics. limiting the subject to binary trans women would just make my post incomprehensible, and is basically the same as the problem this post was meant to address; erasure of transmisogyny aimed at non-women/non-binaries. gross.