#whispered testimonies: transandrophobia

[the-life-of-a-herm]

In trans spaces there's something I like to call an "across the isle binary" and it's the result of a few different things..

An "across the isle binary" is the idea genderqueer people must transend to the "other side" of the (gender) isle to be truly trans.

[I'm in the hospital, I will do this better another time!]

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Term inspired by the phrase "reaching across the isle", just kinda stuck idk..

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Examples of what it may look like:

An AMAB nonbinary person must preform some sort of androgyny or (more commonly) femininity otherwise they have not transcended enough to be trans.

An AFAB genderfae is "too close" to where you started in the eyes of these people so they "aren't trans enough."

An intersex person being told their sex is (presumed to be) "too close" to their identitied gender to be trans

Policing how multigendered people express themselves and the language they use.

There are 4 categories in these people's minds:

• Cis female

• Cis male

• Trans woman/ transfem (male who is feminine enough*)

• Trans man/ transmasc (female who is masculine enough*)

You cannot transcend this binary. You are either cis, or One Of The Types Of Trans TM.

This is the isle. If you are Born A Girl TM, you must reach across the line enough. You must preform that "end of the spectrum" to be trans enough. And vice versa.

PROBLEMS WITH THIS:

Pt. 1 Reinforcement Of The Gender Binary

This places the Feminine/Womanly genders on one side and Masculine/Manly genders on the opposite side. They place man and woman as opposites inherently.

To enforce the idea that trans people are 'born on one side' and must transfer themselves across the isle enough to be valid is to enforce a gender binary.

Pt. 2 Enforcement Of The Sex Binary

This system cannot work without the sex binary. You must be male or female to 'start' on one side. Without being one or the other, you cannot 'transition' yourself enough away.

Sex is not binary. Sex in human bodies is a collection of characteristics commonly found together, we have a bimodal system. There's two big peaks of where things are commonly found, two buckets of traits.. But because of how humans develop, it is not binary. There is in between. There are people with mixed sex characteristics born all the time.

Intersex people are not born fitting into this male or female dichotomy. It does not matter if someone is forced through IGM or HRT to "become one sex". To believe that you can "fix" intersex anatomy is to support the same ideology that oppresses us.

It does not matter somebody's AGAB, what sex they're closest to, what sex they were "changed" into. These people are not that sex and enforcing the sex binary onto intersex people is to support the violence against us.

I won't get into it a lot here, but if people have questions about the effects of the sex binary you can ask me!

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You see the enforcement of the sex binary in this a lot when people say people who are afab/they assume to be female 'enough'/raised a girl CANNOT be transfem. Because they see that as starting in the same place. They ignore the experiences of intersex people to better fit us into this binary worldview.

EXAMPLE:

Even if you are closer to male, went through masculinizing puberty, were raised as a boy, if you are AFAB you are going to be regarded as a "fake" transfem. No reason other than the fact that you break the cross the isle binary. We do not fit into the sex binary, so it breaks the system.

Pt. 3 Exorsexism

This ideology commonly forces people into two groups. The AMAB NB, which is a person who is seen to be a future trans woman or trans woman-lite, and the AFAB NB, someone seen to be basically a trans man or trans man lite.

A Few Examples:

• When people kept headcannoning Ranboo as a trans woman

• People who use "transfem/transmasc" as the same as "trans woman/trans man"

Nonbinary people cannot seek validation in the community if they do not reject their presumed sex/AGAB and transend to the other side of the isle enough. They don't have to be binary, but they have to be adjacent in some way.

PT. 4 The Treatment of Multigender People and People With Complex Relationships With Gender

This screws over multigender people in a few ways.

A.) It enforces the social environment in trans spaces that you cannot be on both ends of the spectrum or slide around or anything. Or, at the very least, you cannot express both or have both be important parts of your identity. You have to abandon both the expression and the gender where you "originated" enough to be 'valid'.

B.) It ignores the fact not everyone's experience with gender will follow the This Side->That Side mentality.

A lot of people have a much more complex experience of gender. Especially when people still have a connection in some way to their 'original gender'. The trans dudes who say they used to be little girls, the trans women who still identitfy with masculinity, etc.

It erases these experiences and enforces A Shared Experience everyone has to have that doesn't give much 'wiggle room' at all.

Pt. 5 Enforcement Of Roles Of Gender Expression

Now, this is a multifaceted issue in trans spaces.

Masculinity is seen as "dangerous" in a lot of spaces because of how society aligns the gender roles, passing is seen as a whole issue. "Passoids are priveleged", anti Nonpassing trans person shit, etc.

But overall, if you present enough like the side of the fence you're supposed to be trying to move away from, you are treated poorly by trans spaces.

Truscum rhetoric, enforcing gender roles, etc. And, of course, this will always intersect with other issues. Like the hypermasculinization of POC.

But overall, this enforces you need to preform what side you should be enough. Gender is a preformance that is still demanded under this binary. You need to Put In Work to be the 'opposite' otherwise you are not really trans. Those "trans dudes with long hair and giant boobs" everyone loves to hate or those trans women who "look like a wojack" everyone loves to try and force out of the publics eye because they don't "look the part" enough or "try hard enough"

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Okay! So This is just a draft! I have a better essay working but I wanted to word-vomit a bit to get my thoughts out before my blood sugar took me away

theres a lot of different complexities to this but yea hope that all made sense and i covered enough bases vaguely enough. theres a lot you could say on this topic.

And all these issues can have a million more tjings said about them and the intersection between them i know.. i didnt have enough time to truly go through it all

[the-life-of-a-herm]

I remember, when I was a little herm, I was very naïve.

I remember being brave one day and, under the false assumption a REAL trans person would come out REGARDLESS of the consequences, I told my whole family.

They were disgusted. I had worked up months and months of courage, just to be met with distain and disgust. From then on, I was on lockdown.

They chose what clothes I had to wear, often sexualizing me as they did. They tore up all my clothes off my body if they didn't like them. In front of friends, family, guests, did not matter. I was just a doll to them. A broken girl, needing to be corrected.

I was told if I were to ever even have so much as a haircut above the bottom of my shoulderblade or cut my hair myself I would be thrown onto the street to rot.

I was deprived of all privacy (in sleep, in showers, in getting dressed, etc) and made to be a laughing stock. I w

a freak at every social gathering my family did. I was called a dyke and a tranny and harassed in my own home. I was in the 3rd grade, and it followed me since. I had no support system. People looked at what was happening to me with the same pity you would for a criminal getting caught. "Oh, that sucks but they brought it on themselves."

No one intervened. They either joined in or just watched.

So the next time you wanna come on tumblr.com and get up on your high horse about how easy it is to be transmasc (or adjacent in some way) or how "lesser" our experiences are compared to transfems because OBVIOUSLY we don't suffer! Why would we go through anything?

This entry level of understanding oppression does nothing for anyone. You insisting that trans dudes cannot suffer horrible oppressions because they are men is disgusting. This experience is not transmasc exclusive, but there's enough of you out there who don't even think we experience the baseline of transphobia and its disgusting. Hear our voices. Now more than ever. Our screams of mercy should not be muffled out in vain.

NOTE; i am delerious and will definitely rewrite this later. its just a debut

[the-life-of-a-herm]

This is a blog where I will talk about my life experiences. Mainly text posts, occasional reblogs.

Identity determination has no place here.

I don't care if something in your eyes is "misdirected". Opinions of other's matter not to me. I simply am sharing my own experiences and observations.

Feel free to ask questions, respond to things, share your own experiences, etc. Ask box always open.

ask me about the across the isle binary!

[the-life-of-a-herm]

I did not go through horrible nightmares at the age of 9 that i would be brutally killed for being a tranny in the wrong bathroom for people to tell me my oppression "doesn't count" or is "misdirected"