Let’s get something clear: TERFS have never been good to trans men.
TERFs have always held trans men hostage.
They accept trans men looking for safety and shelter in feminist spaces as long as those trans men are not too vocal and do not contradict TERFs in any way. The moment trans men speak their mind, support trans women, speak against misgendering or are in any way honest about who they are, TERFs are ready to bully trans men and excile trans men into a hostile world.
To TERFs a silent trans man is a nice tokens for their claim that they’re totally not transphobic. A vocal trans man is just another enemy.
So while it is 100% true that almost all TERF violence is directed at trans women and TERFs are a lot more dangerous to trans women in every way, it is a mistake to speak about TERF dominated spaces that ‘welcome’ trans men or ‘accept’ trans men. That is not welcoming, that is not acceptance. That is a hostage situation.
They see us as ~poor oppressed women suffering from internalised misogyny~ if we’re silent, and they see us as ~aggressive oppressive misogynist men~ if we speak up. Plus they constantly misgender us, talk about our genitals as if they’re public property, and the second you say shit to them, most are perfectly happy to jump down your throat about your appearance. I’ve seen a lot of fetishisation of trans men in TERF lesbian communities as well.
It doesn’t compare to the outright violent aggression trans women face from TERFs, but their microaggressions cause a lot of dysphoria and self-hated.
Yes yes yes. And it comes with a heavy dose of offering someone support first and then turning on them and going: “we are the only people who will ever love and support you if you just admit that you are what we think you are and fight your trans brainwashing, because if you don’t we will hurt you so badly”. It’s a manipulative abusive game.
Which is why I make the distinction between TWERFs and TERFs, cause not every TWERF is a TERF.
I don’t think that’s a useful distinction. A looooooooot of TERFs claim to only be TWERFs (not using that word of course but claiming to support trans men and not trans women) but as explained above none of them are. You can not have the opinion ‘trans women do not belong in womens spaces, trans men do’ and be good to trans men. It’s not possible when you are denying the core of what trans men are. Hence every single TWERF is also transphobic to transmen.
Not quite what I was referring to.
There are trans men who are significantly transmisogynistic and I’ve had to deal with them myself.A transmisogynist and a TWERF (Trans Woman Exclusionary Radical Feminist) are two different thinks though. Every TWERFs is a transmisogynist but not every transmisogynist is a TWERF.
A transmisogynist practices of set of behaviors that enforce the oppression of trans women, this is possible while supporting trans men. A person can simultaneously support trans men and practice violence and oppression again trans women.
A TWERF subscribes to a specific ideology that excludes trans women from women’s spaces on the ground that they are ‘not real women’, and as a result 99.999999999% of TWERFs also believe trans men are ‘not real men’. This is mot possible while supporting trans men as you can not support trans men while denying the core of their identity. As a result TWERFs can claim to support trans men but TWERFs that actually support trans men don’t exist.
You’re right, mostly, about that last part, except you miss the point that there are trans men who either identify as or support radical feminists who don’t believe trans women belong in women’s spaces, that still recognize trans men as men.
It’s illogical, obviously, but they are adamant on reaching to try and argue that trans women are invading women’s spaces or that trans men have it worse or some other shit.
I’m familiar with them. I think these sort of people are rare but exist in every group. I have seem trans women claim that all trans people are mentally ill, I’ve heard gay men say that they know all gays go to hell, I’ve heard LOTS of women defend sexism, and so on. In any group you will find a few people actively, passionately defending their own oppression.
I think the fact that there are a few trans men defending TERFs is a logical result both of this general phenomenon and of the hostage situation I described: the fact that TERFs accept trans men looking for survival in feminist spaces as long as those trans men are not too vocal and do not contradict TERFs in any way.
QueerAnarchism 