#Transfeminism

[witchytakes]

"well a cis man can just pretend he's a trans man and be considered female for TERF's and get access then, TERF's don't know about that" Yeah they fucking know, it's not something like the "we can always tell" if you think this is some kinda of gotcha it's not

This gives even more ammo for TERF's to keep their radfem belief that men are rapists by nature, yeah this also hits anyone born with a penis, not only cis men

generally speaking a lot of people wrongly take TERFs and other transphobes at face value when assembling their awesome rhetorical gotchas in a way that makes them seem like gullible suckers

[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

[8aeddel-vriska]

Updated an older image I made since I remembered the massive document that leaked a while back. (It's directed at TERFs, if it wasn't obvious enough.)

[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.

[femme-ressentiment]

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

[trans-androgyne]

I want there to be fewer MRAs. Do you want that too? Do you want to know what helps us get there, from a feminist perspective?

You may not like my answer: acknowledge that sexism can affect men. Recognize that, although the patriarchy generally privileges men, they are also subject to restrictive gender roles that are harmful to them (shunning all things “feminine,” not showing emotions, being protectors/strong, never admitting being victims of SA/IPV, having to “earn” their manhood, etc.).

Give young men a place other than the right-wing manosphere to be heard about the issues they experience. If these grifters are telling them “only we understand how hard it is to be a man, the left hates you for your gender” and they look to the left and see “men claiming they have ‘problems’ are losers who just hate women, all men are trash,” do you think they’re going to be drawn towards or away from feminism?

Before you leave an angry response: no, this does not mean to center men instead of women in feminism, it just means including them at all. No, it is not “coddling” men to treat them with human dignity, you can and should continue to hold them (and every other gender) responsible for unpacking sexist beliefs. No, this does not mean it is every individual woman’s and feminist’s responsibility to prioritize men’s issues, it just means at the least not shutting them down when they do speak up about sexism. No, it is not “not all men-ing” to point out that “men are trash” sentiments hurt the feminist movement rather than helping it. Ask questions before you make accusations on this post, please. I have been abused by men too, I get it, this isn’t easy to hear.

[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 ✊

[witchytakes]

I agree by a lot

I'm not into giving blockers from 12 to 18 why not HRT instead? kids aren't that dumb to not know what HRT does

Also how many trans people I know who started after 18 years old would want to start at 12, including myself, some are even more doomed due to precocious puberty

"what if they regret", well you know, just detransition then, the detransition process is the same as a late transition person would have, this "what if they regret" is just a major skill issue, come on, trans people who transition very late have the same disphoria and they didn't campaing against trans rights because of that, they are even some of the more happiest people I know, they didn't had much brainworms like the ones who started between 18 to 24 years old have

So why did some isolated detransitioners do that, my brother in christ you took the change gender fluid by your own fault

I'm lucky that in my country you can start HRT at 12, if you are a trans woman, you can just go to the drugstore and bought estrogen easily, I know plenty of trans women here who started at 14, 13, 12, there's no need for a doctors letter, just buy like a headache pill, there's even some pharmacists who offer to inject for you

Actually I DO think twelve year olds should get hrt. That’s the normal age to start puberty, so why does it have to be different for trans kids?

[slayercain]

When a straight man lashes out after dating or having sex with a trans woman, he is often afraid of the implication that his sexuality is joined to hers. When a gay man anxiously keeps trans women out of his activism or social circles, he is often fearful of their common stigma as feminine. And when a non-trans feminist claims she is erased by trans women’s access to a bathroom, she is often afraid that their shared vulnerability as feminized people will be magnified intolerably by trans women’s presence. In each case, trans misogyny displays a fear of interdependence and a refusal of solidarity. It is felt as a fear of proximity. Trans femininity is too sociable, too connected to everyone—too exuberant about stigmatized femininity—and many people fear the excess of trans femininity and sexuality getting too close. But sociability can never be confined or blamed on one person in a relationship; it’s impersonal, and it sticks to everyone. The defensive fear and projection built into trans misogyny, whether genuine or performed, is an attempt to wish away what it nonetheless recognizes: that trans femininity is an integral part of the social fabric. There will be no emancipation for anyone until we embrace trans femininity’s centrality and value.

Jules Gill-Peterson, A Short History of Trans Misogyny

[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.

[velvetvexations]

Gender is entirely made-up and I don't understand why some people are so fixated on it being "true" in the sense of like...are trans women women? Of course they are, insofar as "a woman" can be said to exist in the first place. But people have gotten obsessed with proving objectively that a trans woman is a woman, when the actual core of trans liberation is that anyone forcing their preferred gender on you is fascist. It's missing the forest for the trees. When all you do is play the "I am [x] really truly deep down just like everyone else" game you're meeting the transphobes on their level and accepting their premise that "man" and "woman" are distinct, tangible things.

To be clear, it's not that you CAN'T feel gender is a kinna spiritual force within you, or something to that effect. I think we all do on at least some level. But my point is that trying to rip that spiritual force out of our bodies to dissect it and prove all the haters wrong because look it was here all along is just a waste of time and effort.

The truth of the matter is that the goal is not to get people to see trans women as women, it's to get them to stop feeling like clothes and pronouns and names and locker rooms should be dictated by what some asshole wrote down on your birth certificate.

[tortuah]

.

I want to tell y’all a story.

This aint fun, aint easy, but it’s mine. But it’s not just mine. I’ve heard it so many fucking times from other Black folks, from other transfemmes, whispered behind doors because they’re scared it’ll happen again.

We deserve to tell our stories.

Share this, because even if you don’t need this story, there are others who do. The number of other Black transfemmes I’ve met at this point who went through similar, who told me that *this was their story too*, is too fucking many.

We can’t let fear stop us from speaking.

We deserve to speak about what happened to us, what was done to us, how we are just another one in a long chain, spread across numerous communities.

We are being genocided, and we are running out of time. We have to stop sacrificing each other because we’re all traumatized.

Yeag we’re all human and we do fucked up shit to each other and were traumatized by living in a white supremacist society but we can’t keep playing the same fuck-fuck games we have been because we are fucking being killed. We’re being forcibly erased. We HAVE to save each other.

[agendercryptidlev]

There's this weird disconnect I see from people against transandrophobia theory where they seem to think people speaking about transandrophobia are anti-feminist, even going as far as to say "You dumb boys just need feminism!" as if transandrophobia theory isn't part of feminism, the same way transmisogyny or misogynoir theory are part of feminism. Feminism has always been necessary for the liberation all trans people, yes even trans men!

I've talked with a LOT of people about transandrophobia theory, and you'll find most people talking about it are doing so through the lens of trans feminism first and foremost.

[tortuah]

The thing is about trans headcanons is that transfem headcanons are usually because of the character's theming deeply overlapping with the transfem experience, with things such as like dissociation, depersonalization, dehumanization, struggle with femininity/masculinity, social isolation, etc. And transmasc headcanons are usually cause like. There's a guy and they like him. Like ultimately both of these should be fine, but guess which one is endlessly picked apart for being "unrealistic" or "unwarranted" or "overdone" or "too generalized" and which one is seen as good in every scenario :)

[jingerpi]

i think the main character that differs transmisogyny from transphobia + misogyny, is the goal.

trans masculine individuals experience what we'll call "corrective misogyny", where they experience a derision of their chosen gender in an attempt to push them back into the class of [cis]woman this is transphobia + misogyny.

People I think confuse this with transmisogyny because it involves transphobia and misogyny, but transmisogyny is not "corrective". The point of transmisogyny is to push trans feminine individuals out of both the class of man and woman, into a gender underclass, a subaltern as some have called it. There is no premise of "rescuing" trans women. trans men are abused in attempt to bring them back into the protected underclass of women, while trans women are abused in an attempt at the opposite, the intent is explicitly to push us out of all protected classes.

[puppynametaken]

Reblogging because HDG needs more critique like this to drive it forward. Excellent post OP

Trans Feminism and the Human Domestication Guide

Or

Wishing on a misogynistic star won't make your dreams come true

Thesis: A running theme in some parts of the HDG sphere is the unintentional chase and valorisation of misogynistic standards for women in the pursuit of validation.

“The most radical thing that any of us can do is to stop projecting our beliefs about gender onto other people's behaviours and bodies”

― Julia Serano, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity

I would like to open by declaring my own identities, both as a shield against a particular kind of bad faith criticism, but also to demonstrate that I’m operating in good faith here. I’m a fat, hairy, physically disabled, transgender, butch dyke who writes within the HDG setting with great joy and greater love for the community. I’m also hot as fuck. That established, I’ll continue:

There is a particularly pernicious lie that revolves around the state of women's bodies; that there is a correct way to have one and that those who do not meet these standards are unfeminine or otherwise worthless. It must have a vagina, of course, but it must also be white, thin, able, hairless, youthful, fit but not strong and, of course, soft. 

Trans feminism, and by that I direct my attention to feminist speech within trans and gender non-conformist spaces, has managed to, if not defeat, then at least combat one of the great evils of cis sexism, the necessity of the vagina. The ongoing and necessary validation of the girl cock as beautiful, as wonderful, as feminine is a wonderful, joyful thing. We (trans feminine people) exist as part of the spectrum of womanhood, and that means that our bodies also exist within and without that spectrum of womanhood as well. 

However, trans feminism of a particular kind has - rather than continue the work done to uplift the gock - has embraced a particular kind of ugly lie we’re taught. In many cases - due to a perceived desire to be as close to flawlessly woman as we can be - the focus will instead fall on a particular kind of trans feminine person who manages to engage with and evoke those standards aside from the obvious. To paraphrase Julia Serano in illustrating this point:

“Whether unconscious or deliberate, the gatekeepers clearly sought to … ensure that most people who did transition would not be “gender-ambiguous” in any way”

― Julia Serano, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity 

One of the beauties of the class-G is that it allows the character to experience their body in an idealised form. I recognise and applaud this position, it is beautiful to see a writer able to imagine themselves completely idealised, completely transformed into something that doesn’t hurt. However, therein lies the rub; the ideal depicted displays some of that ugliness, some of the roots of misogyny that thread their ways through our brains like poison and make us into useful fools for its goals.

The thought that brought about this essay is a repeated phrasing that appears across several works within the HDG milieu; that to be hairless and soft is to be feminine. A character will have their body hair, all their body hair bar that on their head, removed and thus will be made ‘girly’. They, and other characters, may remark on how much more they feel like a woman, unconsciously or consciously linking womanhood to that hairlessness. 

You may note that this directly plays into another cis-sexist standard of beauty; that to be feminine requires a certain girlishness, a pubescent budding that belies the possibility of cellulite or wrinkles or the consequences of living a life where one is not simply a doll.

What is my objection to that? Surely, every writer has the right to depict their own wish fulfilment fantasies. Certainly yes, but also… one must ask at which point we celebrate their dreams and at what point we ask people to engage with their biases and question what they consider to be true. Women, all kinda of women, are hairy. Women have pubic hair, arm hair, leg hair, chest hair, even facial hair. The seeming desire to be completely hairless is as ‘unnatural’ a goal as any other, as ‘unnatural’ as any expectation set for us by the white supremacist culture most of us are steeped in. To return to whipping girl:

“Rather than question our own value judgments or notice the ways that we treat people differently based on their size, beauty, or gender, most of us reflexively react to these situations in a way that reinforces class boundaries: We focus on the presumed “artificiality” of the transformation the subject has undergone.”

― Julia Serano, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity 

It must be noted that at least part of this problem is with what the reader brings to the table. When something goes unstated, we resort to the baseline of our biases and, due to the way society is structured, that baseline is generally white, thin and physically able. Beauty and femininity are racialised concepts, and I think we fall into traps headlong that white supremacy establishes for us. I am not the person to write an essay critiquing race in HDG, but I recognise the consequences of race and the expectations of white femininity on the work. Thus, then, we must consider the text, and the text is very often pretty clear about its characters.

How many protagonists of a human domestication guide story are textually fat? How many are stated in the text to be people of colour? How many of them are, if not stated to be, then implied through lack of mention, white, and thin? These questions ignore the many that are actively identified as those things. (I will pause here to note that Dog of War - notable as the most popular piece of work in the setting - features a protagonist who is both brown and fat, and I’m extremely happy to see it).

Collectively, as writers, we have seen a future where everyone is accepted and have created a world where the depictions of acceptance come with conformity to modern misogyny. We create a world without boundaries, where a person can be digitalised or made into a dog, and our characters are still aping their ancestors of five centuries prior in seeking validation of self. We are, I would argue (and borrowing heavily from Butler), ‘uncritically mimicking the strategy of the oppressor instead of offering a different set of terms.’

This is not, I would like to be clear, an attack on any particular story. You may recognise elements of several stories in this essay, and perhaps there are particular things I am drawing on, however, this essay does not charge the product of the writer's work with anything. That body of text can exist and be critiqued, but does not exist as a thoughtful, philosophical actor. Rather, I would charge us writers, all of us, with being more thoughtful as we engage with what femininity means to us and what is and is not feminine in a world where anything is possible.

Finally, a quote from Gender Outlaw that I direct at myself as much as anyone else:

“Let's stop pretending that we have all the answers, because when it comes to gender, none of us is fucking omniscient.”

― Kate Bornstein, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation