#Transfeminism

[plaidos]

FACT: trans women experience greater rates of violence, homelessness and unemployment than trans men. mentioning that transmascs do in fact experience a privilege in comparison to their transfeminine sisters isn't "transandrophobic" nor is it "dividing the community" or "infighting", and the only reasons to suggest that are because you want to dismiss transfeminine attempts to describe & analyse their own oppression.

it would be nice if "we were all oppressed equally" or if the state truly did see us all as faggots, but Trump's executive order specifically highlights trans women, and many of the anti-trans bills specifically focus on "boys in girls' sports" and make no attempt to stop trans boys from competing alongside cis boys. so when you say shit like "we're all oppressed equally" or "they don't care what flavour of trans you are" just know that you are denying institutinal transmisogyny and are fundamentally no different to any other conservative antifeminist.

[velvetvexations]

I truly don't get how people can say things like this and not realize what a horrifically cruel person they are. By this logic no one should care about any trans folk, since we're all a statistically irrelevant and the more statistically dominant people would have much easier lives if they just went about their buisness not worrying about if the double digit trans girls on school sports teams gets to keep playing or not.

[princessefemmelesbian]

Ultimately the transandrophobia movement cannot be divorced from anti-Blackness, particularly misogynoir/transmisogynoir. Transandrophobia truthers are insanely racist against Black people, and this racism is a core tenet of the movement, and I’m surprised that I don’t see more people talking about it. When I first heard of transandrophobia truthers and why they are bad I heard about them from Black trans people who were talking about(in obvious addition to the transmisogyny, lesbophobia, and rape fetishism) the racism that they experienced from transandrodorks, and how many transandrodorks are white trans men who were bullying and sending threats to Black trans people(especially Black trans women) on this website, as well as encouraging their followers to do the same, to the point where they were even engaging in regular transphobia and misgendering these people and saying that they were lying about being trans. A friend of mine who is a Black trans man has also talked at length about how white transandrodorks bullied him and told him that he wasn’t a “real man” because he is feminine and genderfluid, because to them real manhood is white hegemonic toxic masculinity. And many white transmascs also talk over the Black transmascs in their own communities.

In addition, transandrophobia truthers regularly steal and misuse terms such as intersectionality, a term which was created by BLACK WOMEN in feminism to talk about the specific multiplied marginalization that we face that mainstream white feminism and the Black patriarchy do not account for, in favor of instead arguing that misandry is real and that they are somehow oppressed on the axis of a societal hatred for manhood, which defeats the entire point of the term existing in the first place. Not to mention how they regularly ignore and shove aside Black women in their discussions about oppression while using Black men as their shields to prove that they are not racist, often they will claim that Black men are oppressed for being masculine and “too manly” as proof that misandry is real, which ignores the fact that Black men are oppressed by ANTI-BLACKNESS, not anti-masculinity, and that they are often emasculated by white men under white supremacy as well(for instance, see how white men used to call Black men “boy” to infantilize and deman them and deny the fact that they are men) but more than anything it ignores the fact that a) Black men still have male privilege over BLACK WOMEN and are capable of weaponizing misogynoir against us and often do oppress or marginalize the Black women in the community, and b) Black women are also frequently masculinized and seen as “too manly” and aggressive under white supremacy, so it’s not specifically a man thing but a Black thing, that doesn’t make what Black women experience misandry as well.

And let’s not forget how they will respond to any trans woman talking about male privilege by saying that Black trans men don’t have privilege over white trans women(often illogically assuming that the trans woman in question whom they’re talking to is white), ignoring the existence of Black trans women, who have even less privilege than Black trans men, further proving that they don’t have the slightest clue how intersectionality works, yet continuously co-opt the term anyway. The vast majority of transandrodorks are white trans men who think that they can use Black men as a cudgel to segue into talking about their own fragile male tears while not understanding shit about the oppression Black people experience yet blindly thinking that they can talk about it anyway, and also pretending that Black women don’t exist and denying/downplaying our oppression, while also appropriating our language and terminology for themselves, which is peak culture vulture behavior.

I see it oft mentioned that transmisogyny and anti-Blackness/misogynoir go hand in hand, a statement I wholeheartedly agree with; because of that I really wish that people would acknowledge the intense racism in the transandrophobia community more, because it is a serious, severe problem that needs to be addressed. Thank you.

[sword93]

ooh this makes a lot of sense as to why its hard for me to talk about my gender ( Just A Guy™ )and also my experiences with misogyny as things that are not at odds.... while also trying to figure out how the fuck to talk about it without sounding like I don't think trans women experience misogyny too I don't engage much with online stuff about feminism and trans feminism because of all of the backlash and weird discourse I saw happening. I'm very relieved to see there are sources that acknowledge trans masc and trans mens unique issues- while compromising that trans women also have a unique oppression as well. In fact in this framework it makes much more sense.

On the limitations of 'AFAB' and its attendant epistemic anxieties

Like, let's actually talk about the shortcomings of these linguistic tools, and how we--all of us--have been failed by those at the supposed bleeding edge of gender theory.

[yuugiiohh]

Putting this on my throwaway because I don't want to clog my notifs

Prefacing this because I am Autistic: I am asking this in good faith, and not for a reason to argue or discourse. I genuinely want to be educated, and any follow ups I have will still be me coming from a place of genuine curiosity and willingness to learn. If I refute any points made, do not take that as bad faith - I want a rebuttal to the things I may refute to prove my pre-existing opinions wrong. I am open to having a genuine discussion. If at any point people start to belittle or attack me for wanting to educate myself and understand things better, I will cease the interaction.

TL;DR I want to have a nice discussion to try to enlighten myself and further my knowledge, not argue. If you're here to argue, move along.

Now, the genuine question:

How do trans men have systemic privlige and material power over trans women?

"Because they're men" is not a full explanation, before anyone says that. I'd like examples of real life situations and genuine explanations that use intersectional feminist frameworks. Also links, if at all possible.

Cheers

[punkeropercyjackson]

Y'all don't consider forcing trans women to be men to be a part of gender roles and it shows.Unlearn that or die.Better you than trans girls you want to keep on a leash

[ftmtftm]

Hi I've seen you use the tag transfeminism a lot but I've never seen anyone else talk about it? Would you mind explaining it, or if not maybe pointing me in the direction of what to read to understand it? Thanks a lot in advance! <3

Yeah absolutely!

The most broad and basic premise of transfeminism is: it is feminist practice that works to incorporate the experiences of trans individuals into a feminist framework.

Depending on what theorists you engage with transfeminism is either a framework for the liberation of all trans individuals from the Patriarchy - or it solely focuses on the experiences of trans women and fems. I personally ascribe to the theories of the former, not the latter.

The best, and easiest, place to start with transfeminist theory in my opinion is with Emi Koyama's "Transfeminist Manifesto" - [ here ]. The first 10 pages are the Manifesto as originally written. The last 5 are a postscript to the manifesto and a bonus piece about racist feminism. I highly recommend reading the postscript, I find it fundamental to my own understanding of transfeminist praxis.

You can read more of Koyama's work on her website - [ here ] - and I highly recommend it! She's a profound trans and intersex advocate.

I also recommend trans theorists that pre-date Koyama such as Kate Bornstein, Leslie Feinberg, and Judith Butler. They're all nonbinary trans theorists across a multitude of identities and experiences. I love this interview with Feinberg and Bornstein a lot - [ here ].

Feinberg was prolific and the first author to truly advance the concept of transgender liberation - hir website [ here ] has a free PDF download of hir book Stone Butch Blues and several other resources on hir work and life.

Bornstein's books Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us and Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation are go-to's of mine regarding a relatively modern history and understanding of trans identity. Her My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, a Real You, or Something Else Entirely really helped shape my own relationship to my gender identity really positively and profoundly!

Judith Butler's most recent book Who's Afraid of Gender is also incredibly good, however it is incredibly dense in an academic sense. It personally takes me weeks to get through Butler's writing because it is so jammed with information - and that's not to their discredit, it's just the way they write. I highly recommend looking up some of their talks and interviews on YouTube as they're an easier introduction to their work.

Personally, I don't like Julia Serano as an author all that much, but she is still an influential transfeminist voice to be aware of because she coined and popularized the term transmisogyny. I personally have a lot of criticism of her work - particularly her seminal work Whipping Girl - because it explicitly, in her own words, is intended to be distinctly different from the work of Feinberg, Bornstein, and Riki Wilchins (another nonbinary intersex activist) and is more interested in societal perception and binary trans womanhood over politics and liberation. It also stands in opposition to a lot of the liberationist ideals of the Feminists she claims to be inspired by. I've read the whole book twice over now and in my opinion it reeks of White Feminism. I don't recommend it outside of reading it for context to the wider transfeminist discourse.

Transfeminism as a whole is also deeply entangled with the politics of Black and Intersectional Feminist politics, as many of those previously mentioned authors worked with, worked around, or were inspired by authors like Audre Lorde and bell hooks. As such I highly recommend both of them as authors as well!! I think their work really helps set the framework transfeminist theory is also built around.

I hope this helps!!

[thetransfemininereview]

THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION. Censorship affects all of us, and if Project 2025 gets its way, the entire trans publishing industry is at a significant risk of criminalization. In this article, I lay out the problem and the stakes, and suggest a broad action plan with dozens of potential response ✊

[pretty-kitten-paw]

The UK government headed and run by many transphobes has decided to make the Trans Panic defense legal. If a trans person does not disclose their gender and the other party presses charges due to this, they can be convicted with sexual assault crime.

Furthermore any trans person, (tho particularly trans women), who has obtained a Gender Reassignment Certificate (GRC) will be put into prison of their birth sex if the matter is a sex crime

With these two bits of legislation Labour have made it not only legal but easy for trans people to be jailed and sexually assaulted by members of their birth sex. We know for a fact that sexual assault in prisons happen esp to trans women. We know that placing them in female prisons, whilst not eliminating sexual assault, does make it less common.

Labour are defining a movement based on fear. Based on the fact that any cis person disgusted by their own internalised transphobia at sleeping with a trans person will have the full backing of the law to punish them. Even if sexual consent was given. Even if you both got inebriated and fucked and the "victim" found out your transness later. This puts every stealth trans woman at risk. This puts every trans woman who enjoys hook ups at risk. This puts everyone at risk.

And yet people wonder why trans women overwhelmingly date their sisters and friends.

[hazelsmask]

You don't understand it's totally your responsibility as a trans women to deconstruct gender roles. And you do this by not transitioning. Women can have body hair so you shouldn't get electrolysis. Women can have flat chests so you shouldn't start hrt. Women can have deep voices so you shouldn't voice train. It's incredibly important for me as a woman that you don't transition so you can challenge gender norms! Trans women shouldn't transition trans shouldn't transition trans women shouldn't transition!!! It's for feminism and not because I hate trannies

[taliabhattwrites]

The Third Sex

After months of research and painstakingly connecting the threads of transmisogyny theory, queer activism, and field-wide epistemic injustice, I would like to present "The Third Sex": my treatise on a third-world transfeminism.

[velvetvexations]

The way the discussion around trans men having access to women's resources has been going is really distressingly ridiculous. Wild how people cannot process that society is cissexist so a lot of 'women's' stuff is tied to sexual characteristics that men also have. Like, a trans man can get pregnant, so he's going to need resources for people who get pregnant, but aproximately nine billion percent of that is labeled as being for women because "women' and "people who get pregnant" used to be synonyms for basically as long as the English language has existed, so that kinna thinking has kinna left it's mark on society even as we try to move past it.

But any of acknowledgement of that is like, construed as trans men being a bunch of radfems defining themselves as wymbyn-born-wymbn, which is completely absurd because the same people falling for that logic would never claim that a trans woman face at least some issues in life distinct from those faced by cis women.

"People AFAB can't be trans women, that's just a cis woman, and cis women don't have the specific, seperate experiences that makes someone a trans woman."

Are you implying there's a difference between cis women and trans women, you fucking transmisosis? Like trans women aren't real women? Transmisogeeks out here saying trans women and cis women are different from each other.

(this post was written by a trans woman and anyone may reblog it)

[femme-ressentiment]

“unlike Other Men, we [marginalized] men are actually structurally incapable of misogyny” is a disturbingly common belief that goes unchallenged on here

[genderqueerdykes]

just so we're clear, replacing patriarchy with a matriarchy would be just as bad because it's the same exact thing. it's a power structure. it lends to systemic abuse.

equality doesn't mean "one gender is better than the other". equality means all genders are on the same playing field. no one gender is better, or worse, than the rest.

women are not inherently kind. women are not inherently charitable. women do not inherently have other peoples' best interests in mind. women are not inherently gentle and nurturing. women are not inherently smarter or dumber than any other gender. women are people, and that means that women are varied. chasing men of that pedestal and placing women there instead will create the exact same problems.

you can run around saying "women are just better than men" but you're doing the exact same thing that's being done to you right now, and that's not how you collapse the structure. you're just taking the same abusive power structure and painting it pink. enough. equality means we are all on the same level. equality does not mean one gender is superior to the rest. got it?

[ftmtftm]

You all realize Feminists have been critiquing "women only spaces" for decades right?

I think often about Audre Lorde's critique of a women only event that welcomed her wife and daughter, but not her son. Because she questioned it - the function and purpose of barring even the sons of Feminist women from Feminist events. Especially the barring of her young Black son, who would otherwise be left alone in the city where he would be more prone to the very violence those same Feminist women claimed to want to change.

Because what functional, forward thinking Feminist purpose does it actually serve to do that? What message does that send to women with sons, husbands, brothers, lovers, friends, who want to involve the men and boys in their lives in their activism? Who want to build a functionally better world for us all outside of the oppressive grasp of Patriarchy? Especially for the marginalized men who often sit at their own intersection violent Patriarchal oppression, that still happens to be Patriarchal oppression despite it not being distinctly misogyny?

What purpose does it truly serve to sequester yourself away into a pocket of the world, detached from those you share it with? What bright and shining future does that really promise you?

[intersexfairy]

can't help but think about the trans palestinians who are excluded by the constant use of phrases like "men and women" and "boys and girls." so here's to remembering them. to every palestinian with neglected gynecological issues who isn't a woman or girl. to every nonbinary person who's fallen. to everyone who's lost access to their hormones, who wasn't able to get their gender affirming surgeries - intersex palestinians, too. to every unidentified trans person and every trans person who never got to be their true selves. to all of them, the martyred, and those still struggling just to survive. free palestine - trans and intersex palestinians included.