To act like cis men and trans men are sexist in the same way makes no sense.
Like YES, a lot of trans men have male privilege. YES a lot of trans men are sexist. YES, a lot of trans men embrace toxic masculinity, sometimes even in an extra passionate form of toxic masculinity because they believe being the biggest sexist out there will help them be seen as a ‘real man’.
But to act like that comes from the same experiences as the sexist of cis men is ridiculous.
Almost all trans men have experience being perceived as women in society and being treated accordingly, and many many trans men have experience being perceived as a gendernonconforming woman and being treated accordingly.
At the intersection of sexism targetted at gendernonconforming women and transphobia, trans men have often experienced a disproportional amount of violence that is specifically sexist in nature:
- being forced to act and dress feminine
- sexual violence
- forced sterilization and other restrictions on their reproductive rights
Trans men have on average more experience with all these things than cis women. To act like this has no impact on their life as men is ridiculous.
We need to acknowledge these experiences.
We need to acknowledge that there are a lot of trans men who are passionate feminists taking their fight into male spaces even at the risk of outing themselves and facing violence because of it. Trans men that have openly rejected toxic masculinity even at points in their life when not being masculine enough could get them raped or killed.
We need to acknowledge that trans men who are sexist are often acting from a place of trauma and a fear of how badly they will be hurt if they are perceived as not man enough. (& actually a lot of cis men sexist comes from a place of trauma and fear too but not to the same degree and not with the same experiences).
This doesn’t justify trans men’s sexist actions at all but it makes them fundamentally different from the actions of cis men and we need to understand that if we want to make these men less sexist.
I grew up on riot grrrl. I grew up wanting to be a riot grrrl, before I accepted my transness. I ain’t never gonna stop being a riot boi, ain’t never gonna stop being feminist and I sure as hell ain’t gonna sit down and let cis people do all the talking. Feminism taught me to stand up and fight back, and I’m gonna apply that full-force to my life as a trans man and ain’t nobody is gonna tell me not to.
Bless this post.
I just have a problem with this bit:
“Almost all trans men have experience being perceived as women in society and being treated accordingly, and many many trans men have experience being perceived as a gendernonconforming woman and being treated accordingly.”
because it sounds like the whole “you were socialized male so you can’t know what a real woman goes through” bit
Well, only if you think trans men and trans women’s experiences are somehow polar opposites, which they’re not.
If I saw ‘trans men look great with blue hair’, I don’t mean ‘trans women look bad with blue hair’. (in fact trans women look AMAZING with blue hair)
If I say ‘trans men have experienced sexism’ I don’t mean ‘trans women have not experiences sexism’. It simply doesn’t work like that.
(I wrote a shit ton about this in the past but can’t find it now. Any followers still got that shit?)
