Read on Twitter
As always the discussion around trans men in the public discourse (now that attention has been brought to us by terfery) has been about how we are erased and underrepresented, treated as traitors to women and invaders in all other spaces
And trans men and transmascs show up in the comments taking the opportunity to be heard: we have some male privilege, but we also experience misogyny and transphobia. Our experience is NOT a cis man's. Our identity does not invalidate the sexist violence we have experienced.
And almost always, I see at least one (I must assume) well-meaning trans woman saying: This rhetoric is used by terfs to harm us. If you say you've experienced sexism from your past, it gives them ammo to say I have male privilege from my past, which I don't.
I understand that the sociopolitical needs of transmasc and transfem people will sometimes be in conflict with each other. Something similar sometimes happens with accessibility needs in disability advocacy.
And I definitely don't mean to generalize transfems or create a broad """"ideology""""; trans women and femmes have been just as integral to my understanding of gender as the transmascs in my life. Moreso, in some ways.
But I have also been in spaces that were mostly older (40+) trans women where I didn't feel comfortable speaking because I didn't feel like my experience was being respected (being misgendered in a trans support group bc i was the only guy there!!!?)
I worry about the rhetorical path where those clashes in sociopolitical needs turn into a revamped trans version of Boys vs Girls. We are not on opposite teams!!
I do my best to understand the areas where my needs conflict with the needs of trans women and transfems and and happy to let them lead. Most of the time a trans woman's opinion is simply more important than mine.
So where do we draw the line?
So where do we draw the line?
I think, maybe, probably, if your praxis involves silencing victims of abuse, self harm, and suicidality from talking about gendered trauma because they are talking about "women's issues" while being too male, I think I would draw the line about there
We need to be able to talk about our issues and our trauma. This does not come at the expense of transfems right to talk
about their own trauma. Please do not close your eyes and pretend we are a privileged class.
about their own trauma. Please do not close your eyes and pretend we are a privileged class.
Don't build a narrative for your transgender advocacy that's built on the idea that masculinity is poison and then tell transmascs to sit down and shut up because their oppression doesn't fit the narrative, especially if you think this is the narrative cis people want
I'm sorry for this thread being so spicy, I don't usually do this. Again it is a tiny minority of replies on the TL these past two days (+ some digging up of anti-transmasc rhetoric thats been in the community for years) but it was enough to get me really upset.
And, as pertinent as i think this thread is to the twittersphere right now specifically, my white transboy feelings are tiny problems compared to everything else on your tl.
Your support is needed with black trans women right now: https://www.gofundme.com/f/homeless-black-trans-women-fund?utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_nacp+share-sheet&rcid=dcd80166e42e41ed82dd7078ae178461
Happy pride. fuck
