#transmisogyny

[jingerpi]

this is like the crown jewel of transmisogynist liberal pseudoscience

[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, depersonilaztion, 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 :)

[garethgobblecoque]

See, what's funny is that I can only think of one time a trans man has actually been transmisogynistic toward me.

That was the time some no-mark told me I wasn't really trans because I think Transandrophobia is real. And thought he was being such a good ally to trans women.

As it stands, most of my friends are trans guys, my boyfriend is trans and none of them have ever been anything less than supportive of me and vice versa.

The primary source of transphobia and trans related insecurity in my life has been cis people and transfems with very stringent standards for what other people need to experience to qualify as trans in their book.

[futch-disaster]

If mfs want “““better””” terminology than TME/TMA, then they should let us develop our language and theory rather than force transfems to fight for every inch we gain against transmisogyny literally killing us

[geeneelee]

@ the danganronpa fandom: has it occurred to you that perhaps if there’s a character that is a trans woman except for when the narrative abruptly says “oh but she’s not REALLY a girl”, that reflects badly on the writing and isn’t just some weird coincidence?

If you can recognize that “she has to wear a bikini for her powers to work” is stupid, you can recognize that this is stupid too.

[starryjoy]

yall theres a terf going through the transmisogyny and transandrophobia tags both documenting trans infighting and saying that we all sound exactly like terfs. their account is @/theyjustadmitthathuh and i do just hope that we can all come together and band against this person before long. we need to be united together

[fleshengine]

I want to talk about representation a bit, because I see the "trans women have more rep, so they are privileged/can't be oppressed/are more societally accepted" thing thrown around a decent amount. Let's take a game I'm playing right now, Cyberpunk 2077.

I love how for trans characters in Cyberpunk 2077 we have Claire, a tough looking bartender who's into cars, and the random girl in Lizzie's who drops a line about how she's a woman and that demands sacrifice, a sex worker who immediately gets played for laughs as her (floating) co-oworker makes fun of her.

Claire is fine representation in my eyes. Sure, she has "guy" hobbies but like genuinely so do most of the girls I know. We get interested in things as kids and that stuff stays. She's a little tough looking, but it's 100% in a definitely masc woman way. She's great, I love her, best girl. The mox is representation, but like... harmful rep at that. She's literally just a side character in this one scene who says "yeah being a woman is rough but it's worth the effort huh?" and gets made fun of for being trans. Her entire point is people pointing at transwomen and saying "haha you're all sex workers and ugly and everyone can tell you used to be a man lol." and frankly it's infuriating. She even uses the male character model! I don't know if cyberpunk 2077 has any definite transmasc characters, and so the case could be made that trans women "have more rep" in it. But when half the rep is this random mox who exists to be made fun of, I don't see the point.

And this is what I mean when I say recognition is not representation. Claire and the mox are both recognizably a trans women, but only Claire is a character who has depth and is a person and actually represents anyone. Being a trans woman is a tiny part of her, but it's there, she has a flag on her truck and mentions it in dialogue exactly once! You don't even really learn she's trans until later, so she's barely recognizable in the text.

So much of what people refer to as "transfem representation" boils down to characters like the mox who are just stereotypes of transwomen who exist to be made fun of. They do not represent anyone, no lived experience, no depth of character. They exist entirely to be recognizable as transwomen and nothing more. They are jokes and to say they represent trans women in any way is deeply revealing to how tme people think of us.

When you clock me in the street, what kind of trans woman will you recognize me as?

This is an idea I've had kicking around in my head for a bit. I'd love feedback/ideas on it so I might uhhhhhh @plaidos hopefully that's okay. You don't have to respond, I just want my thoughts out there.

[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.

[usefuljesbian]

If you want a simple demonstration of transmisogyny as distinct from and worse than the transphobia trans men face, just remember that silence of the lambs was a horror movie about a crazed serial killer and Mulan was an inspiring story about a badass hero.

[weepingfireflies]

Anyway, my opinion on the current trans infighting is that any portrayal of intracommunity discourse as transfem vs. transmasc inherently obfuscates the shared fight against transmisogynists and transandrophobes. It simplifies a complex and varied community to two opposing sides instead of as a fight against transphobia in all its forms. Every trans person is systematically oppressed due to being trans, sometimes in noticably similar ways and sometimes in different ways depending on various factors; Any trans person can be victimized by any other person, trans or cis, and the overarching transphobia and bigotry can be used to excuse it. One's own oppression cannot and should not be as a weapon to silence another's, no matter how well-intentioned it may seem.

PLEASE listen to other trans people in good faith and understand that we're all in the same boat, regardless of our specific trans identities.

[ladytimpaniii]

has anyone else seen this phenomenon where (usually liberal) cis people will sort of vaguely allude to topics related to trans oppression when it's relevant to a topic of discussion, but they don't actually say that they're talking about trans people or trans rights because they think the discussion is too controversial? i feel like i've observed this a few times in academia but i'm sure it's prevalent in other spaces as well. they're so uncomfortable talking about us that they can't even say the word transgender out loud

[muttknot]

hello, tumblr user. before you are a cis lesbian who calls her girlfriend mommy and a trans lesbian who calls her girlfriend big sis. you have one hour to articulate why the former is good and the latter is bad without being transphobic before the puppygirl gets detransitioned. your time starts now

[jam-n-jay]

It frustrates me to no end that some people assume queer communities being open to and accepting of cishet men is more beneficial to trans women than actually treating trans women with respect and decency

[jerrycummblr]

It's really simple. If you're born with a vagina and you naturally have elevated testosterone levels, you're a man. If you have a vagina and you take testosterone, you're a woman. But also if you have a vagina, you'll never be a man. But also if you have higher testosterone then you were never a woman. Woman never yes man a vagina testosterone no was an elevated. Vagina man.

[canonkiller]

I just think everyone should take a moment to consider the question "what is your visual shorthand for cruelty?" and then follow it up with a critical "and who taught you that?"

specific examples include but are not limited to

why is an evil timeline character design disabled? (why do the heroes go through equally punishing battles and never lose an arm, a leg, an eye?)

why are the futuristic scifi terrorists uniformly darker skinned? (why are the heroes so much lighter?)

why is the greedy boss fat? (why are the heroes skinny?)

why is the criminal mastermind heavily scarred? (why is the brooding, traumatized hero unscathed?)

why is the predatory creep a bearded person in a dress and makeup? (why are none of the heroes trans women?)

who taught you that this is how things are?

how long do you plan on repeating it?

[briarrolfe]

Sometimes I think about my old manager at work who, in order to prove that the organisation was safe for trans people, told me about a fellow trans employee—a woman who was passing! who wasn’t out to me or to anyone else!—and about how chill everyone in management had been about her needing to take time off TO GET VAGINOPLASTY. He was not her manager! He was not her friend! He did not work in HR! There was no way he could have come into this PRIVATE MEDICAL INFORMATION without being told by another manager who had gossiped. And even if there had been, why the fuck was it any of my business!

Likewise, a friend of mine was just told by a school principal about how a prospective school was safe for trans kids… because a trans girl whose parents don’t affirm her at home is able to be affirmed at school. This information about this child’s gender and home environment was relayed along with her FUCKING GRADE LEVEL. This incredibly vulnerable kid was wheeled out as a selling point by the school with way more than enough information to figure out who she was.

In order to make the argument that a place is safe for trans people, cis people are wayyyy too happy to give out private information about trans people. With allies like these, who needs enemies!!!