Alice's Wizardly Void-Space

How does one identify people who are going to harm your community or movement and make sure that they can get help without gaining access to other vulnerable people, many of whom might be more vulnerable than them?

How does one build actionable, sustainable, effective security culture at all?

Also: "Nobody ever touches this subject. It's just corny little performative I Punch Nazis queers saying things that veer 50 miles south of the actual problem. Playing it safe, collecting your good little woke tokens. Never taking accountability." What the fuck is this ^ Like, the message started out trying to sound totally nuanced and reasonable, like an enlightened community member... Only to devolve straight into "perfomative queers" who are "collecting your good little woke tokens."

TME trans people often just say “I’m trans” and don’t clarify they are a man/masc, nor actually do any work to explain whether they are affected by transmisogyny or not. They love the rush they feel when the person they’re talking to takes a less defensive posture when realizing they aren’t TMA.

but there's another closet. there's the closet where on paper you're out and you're proud and maybe this is even a huge part of your identity--but you fear acting the way you'd like so much that you refuse it. this type of closet is used by the trans person who wants hrt or to wear clothing that would fit their gender or another act of transition, but fears it so much that they never allow themselves to do so. this closet is used by the out LGB person who fears so much being called a fag or a dyke that they refuse to dress how they want or engage in any intimacy--including friendship--with other gays.

this second kind of closet is common now. while straight society has the pretense of acceptance for LGBTQ people, it doesn't have acceptance for living LGBTQ lives. therefore, someone can be out, but never act like it.

There are SIX questions total in reblogs, the end will be marked by large green text. If you don’t see all six, check reblogs and grab the version with the ending note.

Answers amended from the 2025 census based on feedback. If you’re mixed, choose what feels right to you I’m not here to do phrenology or paper bag test you but don’t make it my problem either. When in doubt, ask yourself: would the whites kill you too in the race war?

This census is US-centric because so is tumblr, unfortunately. This poll is also starting with a heavy Black/racialized bias due to my personal followers. The main point of this census is to see how white-dominant the site is currently compared to prior years, as well

For the purpose of this census, Imperial Core will be defined as the following: United States, Canada, Australia, Aotearoa, basically all of Western Europe, Japan, and Israel. If you want to argue about any of these designations, too bad maybe they should stop colonizing.

Note for clarification:

*For those who don’t know, TMA means transmisogyny affected (such as trans women, some non-binary people, etc.) whereas TME means transmisogyny exempt (Cis men, cis women, transmasculine individuals, etc). If you want to ask for clarification for which applies to you for the purposes of this poll, feel free to ask and I’ll try to reply, but if you try to argue or quibble about the terms themselves, I’ll block you.

So I wanted to respond to this one, not to evaluate my features as “passing/not passing” but to talk a bit on racialization and transness as a larger Black trans woman. I am going to be speaking on the experience of cis women in addition to trans women.

Yes, I’m 6’2” and 260lbs. There are plenty of cis women my height/weight or larger/taller! It is not inherently a trait of solely trans women to be large. But this also means that I don’t always pass, because a lot of cis women who look like me don’t pass all the time either no matter what they do.

In this outfit running errands, I got hit on a bunch, gendered appropriately a bunch, and honestly felt the most femme I have in a while. Meanwhile, I still had a man start screaming at me on a metro train because he could see up my dress while I was sitting and “I DONT WANT TO SEE THIS MAN’S UNDERWEAR!”

Often, assumption of masculinity for largeness, for height, is something that gets inflicted on tall cis women as well, moreso if they’re an athlete or otherwise buff or “unfeminine”. Many end up with a complex about it that affects their comfort presenting anything less than high femme even as cis women by adulthood, because it’s implied they have to “make up” for their height/frame by being more feminine.

So despite this not being something limited solely to trans women, it does get significantly amplified on trans women when we have other features or traits that may affect it, such as voice, visible stubble, etc.

On top of that, Black women are often racialized as “more masculine” bc of systemic societal antiblackness. While it can happen to anyone that visibly reads as a Black woman, it gets notably worse the darker your skin is and the larger you are. I’m very lightskinned, so while I still experience it, it’s also not nearly as bad as it would be for someone much darker than me with my build.

So for larger Black trans women, we get a double whammy of “passing” tribulations, as we get the misogynistic assumption of “the larger you are, the more masculine you are” and the misogynoiric assumption that as a Black woman, we are inherently more masculine.

Both of these factors are completely out of our control as larger Black trans women. They aren’t something that can be changed by anything we do to try and “pass” because they are baseline societal bigotries currently - fuck, Megan Thee Stallion is quite literally one of the most beautiful cis women on earth while also being larger and she’s still CONSTANTLY accused of being a man/masculine online even in some of her most “feminine” presentations.

So when I say that I “often don’t pass” I’m not commenting on my features, what I think “outs me as AMAB”, etc. im commenting on the baseline societal transmisogynoir that states that someone who looks like me, transfemme or not, often does not pass.

Many people will still gender me appropriately from the jump, hit on me, catcall me, otherwise treat me like a woman - but just as often I will be categorically excluded from even possibly passing for people who have engraved these social bigotries to heart, and recognizing that doesn’t affect whether I’m “valid”, whether I’m attractive (bc I’m a fucking Goddess and stunning), etc. but affects my SAFETY and the likely of experiencing transmisogynistic or transmisogynoiristic harm or violence.

Before I transitioned, whites called me “boy” to make sure I knew they saw me as “Lesser Than”, as less than a REAL (white) man. Now, I’ve stopped using anything other than Fae or They with anyone other than other Black people or people I won’t see again, because whites - even other trans people - call me “girl/she/her” with the same energy I was once called “boy”. I still get hit with the “boy” sometimes, but more than anything I resent the loss of my ability to feel comfort in being called the objectively feminine.

For white trans people, gender is generally being viewed by others as either “man”, “woman”, or “something else” at any one time. For example, a white trans woman may be viewed as a woman, and then transmisogynistically called a man when it suits the antagonist.

For Black trans folks, gender tends to be additive rather than substitutive. What this means is that instead of being “either”, being trans while Black means we often experience the gendered racialization of both at the same time. For example, a Black trans woman may be viewed as both a “Strong and Angry Black woman” and a “Violent and Virile Black man” simultaneously.

As an aside, to be clear the effects of gendered racialization aren’t unique to Black trans women, but the intersection and effects of gendered racialization and transmisogyny in Transmisogynoir are.

I have two DC local examples of other Black transfemmes I’d like to give because I feel they’re an important illustration of how this can work, as all Black trans folks can experience the positive (racist) and negative (racist) sides of this.

First is a Black transfemme Domme/top. She’s well known, but when you bring her up and try to identify her to nonblacks, their immediate reaction is often “oh the one with the giant dick?” followed by more comments on her body and sexual prowess. These are not friends or partners, but relative strangers. This is an example of her being objectified, partially misgendered, and painted as both the “strong Black woman” and “virile Black man” simultaneously.

Second is a Black transfemme lesbian who was accused of being a “homeless attempted coercive rapist” by a white transfemme. The two were leaving the bar as it closed, and the Black transfemme said she thought she wasn’t fully sober yet so she planned to take a nap in her car. The white trans woman later claimed, repeatedly, that that statement was an attempt to coerce/guilt her into taking the Black transfemme home and sleeping with her, that she was scared of what would happen if she spoke up.

The Black transfemme in question is very reserved, rarely flirts with anyone, and has issues asking her friends for favors like staying the night, much less a stranger. This is an example of multiple oppressions occurring at once - being viewed as a predatory lesbian AND as an inherently violent man, etc.

This isn’t something Black trans people can fix ourselves, as this is something being done to us, not by us. Nonblack people have to learn to be aware of their ingrained systemic biases against us and actively work to avoid/defuse them.

As an example in a queer t4t party I have had my hair yanked on by a transphobic ‘queer’ person mad that the night at their fave bar had opened the door to “predators pretending to be women”. This was handled but that it went down in a space advertised as for being for us in a queer bar (underneath the flashing trans colored “you’re safe here” sign? The levels omg). It was not rlly a surprise when it came out that the place flipped to being a t*rf bar that exploited trans and sex workers when covid hit.

You’re 100% correct and I thought I noted that, but I also rewrote this like 6 times out of spite bc tumblr kept crashing at various points and deleting the entire post, including once when I was finished and doing tags.

Yes I could’ve written it in notes first then posted but you see

I’m sorry it’s taken me a while to get to this, I’ve had shit signal the past week or so, but I didn’t want to leave this longer.

To be upfront: Most of what you’re going to end up finding is either autobiographies/biographies that aren’t necessarily transfeminist but speak to TMA non-binary experiences (All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson is an example, possibly the most well-known one, of a Black TMA non-binary person growing up). If anyone has specific recommendations, please feel free to reply/reblog with them.

In function, I’ve found that a lot of TMA folks view “trans woman” as less their sole/primary gender and more a class marker of how society treats them.

For personal example, I may be medically transitioning, but “trans woman” or even just “woman” is by far the most reductive viewpoint I have of my gender, reduced to class solidarity rather than an intricate or nuanced view of how I experience gender. To anyone who should know better, I’m not a woman although I’m feminine, but to those who don’t or who I meet in passing, I am a trans woman, because that is how society sees and treats me.

I’m non-binary, genderfluid. I use Fae/Faer and They/Them, and only allow she/her if you’re Black or if you’re a stranger I don’t care about knowing more. My first year or two fully out, I was experimenting with various mixed gender presentations including keeping facial hair with otherwise feminine presentation. I didn’t know if I wanted to medically transition at all. I wanted to be able to present with whatever combination I felt looked good for me.

(Photos circa 2019-2021ish)

But eventually I was forced to make a choice as to what hurt more: being seen as a man in a dress constantly with no reprieve, or being forced into a select range of appearance in order to get baseline respect. The former hurt more, so my presentation ended up cut down to only things suitably “feminine” enough. Frankly, if I could present in a wider range and not be forcibly named a man, I probably still would.

Some other TMA non-binary people don’t feel this is a battle they have to fight. Some are treated as “lesser” or “not really” trans if they dont have suitably feminine presentation preferences (such as Butch non-binary/trans women, bi-gender/genderfluid TMA folks, etc.) or if they don’t want to transition/only want certain aspects of transition. For some of us, it is hard/currently impossible medically to achieve a presentation that fits our full gender ( @d-7th has spoken before on Agender medical transition/difficulties for example).