like androgyne. get it?

"Crimes against trans men are committed by strangers as well as by close “friends,” and are undoubtedly motivated by a combination of transphobia and misogyny, performed as a punishment for violating gender norms in order to put them back in a "woman's place.""

"unique struggles that female-to-male trans people and other transgender and genderqueer people face"

"privileging transsexual women’s issues at the expense of other trans and genderqueer people was a mistake"

For anyone not in the know, a Black university of Cambridge professor was accused of plagiarism--multiple times, in previous cases the accusations were unfounded, and his most recent accusation was still being investigated. Since 2023 he has been harassed, accused of lying and plagiarizing and falsifying documentation. He has had to respond to multiple periods of smear campaigns where police were involved because he was being hounded so severely.

Given that this man taught sociology and specialized in Critical Race Theory and adjacent social concepts, it's not the least bit shocking that he had everything possible thrown at him. Damn near every academic in that field has been. Where this man is peerless is in where he taught. Prestigious elite academia. He was the youngest Black academic to ever teach at Cambridge.

He spoke a few years ago about how right-wingers will levy plagiarism and academic integrity accusations at socially-progressive academics to hide their underlying bigotry behind language of "fairness." This apparently was "suspicious" to attendees, who began to investigate him for plagiarism again. A man says "hey racists have a tendency to accuse you of things like fraud because it's a softer way to remove you than just being openly racist" and a room full of listeners said "hey what a great strategy."

His most recent investigation was covered extensively and exhaustively by British press. He was being talked about EVERYWHERE. And the potential of his academic fraud did not just reflect on him, but was explicitly declared by countless papers to reflect poorly on the field of Critical Race Theory (as if he is remotely the only large-platformed academic in the world or in the UK) and that it reflects poorly on Black people as a whole.

White academic fraud is a lone wolf outlier mistake. Black academic fraud is an inherent flaw of Black people. This is the base we are operating from.

Ultimately the abusive and repulsive dogpiling resulted in Arday's resignation before the investigation was ever completed, and about a week after his resignation, he was found dead in his home. He was 41.

This entire process is of course appalling if the accusations are false, but there is nothing redemptive about it if the accusations were true.

People who are not still navigating academic spheres maybe don't know how common plagiarism accusations are. There are sooo many cases that are falsely flagged, especially in the age of AI. And there are sooo many cases that are found to be true that not only do not become the center of a nation(and western world)-wide harassment campaign, but do not result in major punishment either. A lot of plagiarism is "solved" with corrections. A slap on the wrist. Nothing that he was accused of lying about resulted in harm, it did not cause death, it did not heavily impact legislation, it did not put anyone in danger. The accusations were primarily about embellishment.

There are scammers who get people killed, who ruin people's health, there are falsified scientific studies that change how society operates, that change how care is standardized--none of these things are the scale of harm accused of this man, and many people accused of those things remain in their posts, at their jobs, in the sphere of influence after a simple correction, but Arday is driven with pitch forks and racist tirades into an early grave.

It simply cannot be overstated how much his accusers wanted him lynched and in an indirect way they got their wish.

His treatment was utterly appalling before his death, but certainly now that he is dead. Papers are issuing retractions, posts are getting deleted, because rather than quietly remove him from public life, remove his public conversations about the relationships between people to each other and people to systems, he is dead visibly, and that makes people uncomfortable. If he disappears out of shame, that's one thing, if he's dead, well now you start to feel a little complicit. Not guilty enough to stop being a racist death mob, but guilty enough that you know it makes you look like less of a Good Guy.

Helio and Joris both make it clear that Arday is not an outlier in the way academia can mobilize to push out undesirables. It is not remotely lost on me that a professor in a highly controversial (unnecessarily but yknow white supremacy) field is the subject of this, because the field dissects the complicity of the establishment in the barriers that minorities--in this particular case people of color--are subjected to that bars them from accessing necessities. How it affects housing, healthcare, education, jobs--everything.

A man said "the system will work very hard to keep people like me out" and the system said "we'll kill you for that."

Jason Arday is going to become such a political cornerstone because if you still cannot see the way the system converged to make him dead, you will continue to be blind to the things the system is trying to prevent you from seeing. Arday was pulling back the curtain and the establishment said "you lied about how high up the curtain was raised" to shift conversation away from the very forces that drove him and countless others to death.

Note: If a definition in is in quotes, the source material it is quoted from is linked to by the relevant term.

Highly relevant terms

Extersex - "[A] term for those who do not know whether they are dyadic or intersex. It could be because one feels as though they might be some form of intersex, but are unable to medically confirm it, or cannot confirm what intersex variation it is. It may also be for those who have a variation that may be considered intersex, but are uncertain if they want to identify as intersex." - @themogaidragon

Inter-Questioning - "a term for anyone who is questioning if they’re intersex, for any reason. (Whether it’s due to one’s physical body, familial experiences that imply one is, or possibly simply a mental feeling that one is intersex.)" - @eldorr

Quoisex - "[An] umbrella term for anyone who doesn't quite understand their sex or doesn't want to define their sex." - LGBTQIA+ Wiki Note: I understand this as more general than extersex, and would include people questioning if altersex. See the wiki entry for subtypes (quoigonadal, quoichest, etc)

Altersex - "An umbrella term to describe having or wanting primary or secondary sex traits/characteristics that do not align with the binary sex model that a significant portion of society has adopted. It is primarily used by those who are not intersex and are trans+ and wish to or transition specifically to have a body that does not fit the aforementioned sex model." -@intersex-questions Note: Being altersex does not make somebody intersex. I include it because many people questioning their intersex status realize this is what they're looking for.

Anisohormonal - "Aniso (unequal/uneven) + hormonal (relating to hormones). An individual who has an imbalance of hormones for any number of reasons. Such individuals may or may not also be intersex." - @sproutflags Note: includes non-intersex variations such as diabetes.

Subtypes of intersex people

Note: In my experience most people questioning if they're intersex have a hormonal intersex variation like PCOS, so I'm skewing towards this accordingly.

Dysgonadal - "[having] dysfunctional gonads. This includes agonadal (no gonads) and hypogonadal. Also known as gonadal agenesis/dysgenesis, dyssex and nullogonadal/asexed (null sex or avaginal/aphallia)." - @arco-pluris Note: contrasted with eugonadal - "people with functional gonads (reproductive cells). Includes hypergonadal (hyperfunctional gonads)"

Interhormonal - "Someone who is intersex and anisohormonal and/or feels that being intersex has impacted their identity as anisohormonal in some way and/or that their identity as anisohormonal has impacted their identity as intersex in some way." - @sproutflags

Intermeer - "a term used to describe all intersex variations that are caused by an overproduction of horomones (testosterone, estrogen, or both.)" - LGBTQIA+ Wiki Variations include: AES, FMPP, PCOS. Part of The Autre System for categorizing intersex variations.

Intermindre - "a term used to describe all intersex variations that are caused by a lack of horomones (testosterone, estrogen, or both.)" Note: The wiki lists AIS and EIS as examples although they are not due to a lack of hormones, but rather a lack of sensitivity to them. Part of The Autre System for categorizing intersex variations. See the wiki for more subtypes. Thank you to anon asker who pointed out the AIS/EIS issue.

Mesosex - "[A] person who has an intersex variation, but one which does not conform to perisex (non-intersex) ideas of what intersex is. For example, people who have intersex traits that are considered "mild", or who have variations such as PCOS Hyperandrogenism and Poland Syndrome." - @ipso-faculty

More intersex terminology

Intersex Terminology Masterpost by @intersexfairy

Okay but trans women and fems do still face issues with regards to reproductive rights and even if they are different struggles (forced sterilization, being barred from saving sperm in case they want bio children in the future etc.). Trans women often directly experience those struggles when seeking out SRS in the first place and are often denied surgery if they don't agree to those archaic practices. What is that if not denying a woman the potential of motherhood just because she is not a woman in the way patriarchy wants a woman to be? Those are still reproductive injustices that stem from the same systems as our own.

Also do not forget that sex is a legal class anon, anyone legally classed female experiences sexed oppression and there are many, many, many trans women pre, post, and non-op who are legally female.

Oh, Dr. Alan Hart pioneered portable x-ray technology? Hope you didn’t need a scan any time soon!

Need a c-section? Well, Dr. James Barry was the first to perform a c-section where both the mother and child survived!

Oh, Dr. Michael Dillon performed Roberta Cowell’s orchiectomy and was instrumental in her being the first British trans woman to receive gender affirming vaginoplasty, so I hope you didn’t want gender affirming feminizing bottom surgery.

OP isn't oppressed for being a man, OP is oppressed for being a TRANS man. OP is a target of transphobia because OP is transgender.

im so confused how OP can accurately identify the oppression they experience as transphobia, but then proceed to say they experience for being a man, not for being transgender.

the reason trans women do experience oppression for being women is because we live in a patriarchal society. so women experience oppression simply for being women.

that is why trans women experience oppression for being women AND for being transgender.

in other words, transmisogyny.

Read the post again.

Why are you bring up cisgender men when I am talking about transgender men? I said this in the replies but why must you transphobes always go "but what about cis men???? Do you think cis men [xyz that I said about trans men]???" Like you must know how disgustingly transphobic & cissexist it is to constantly bring up and compare trans men to cis men when we're talking about trans men's experiences, right? Because it's so fucking obvious you bigots see trans manhood as an inauthentic poor imitation of cis manhood, rather than a unique and authentic, very real, manhood on its own that exists outside of cispatriarchal ideals of what it means to be a man and is therefore treated differently by cis patriarchy.

I've read Crenshaw multiple times. It seems like you haven't, or by "reading" you mean looking at words and not actually thinking about the meaning of those words strung together.

Because there is no reality in which transgender men are treated as nebulously "transgender" without an actual gender modifier changing that. The modality through which trans men are transgender is their gender identity as men.

It works like this:

Person identifies as a man > being a man is different to their socially imposed gender > because they are man that means they are trans > becsuse they are a man that is trans they experience oppression for their transGENDER identity > simplified, they are oppressed for their gender identity because that is what makes them trans, and thus open to oppression.

Nowhere am I saying "all man are oppressed for being men". I am saying "every transGENDER person is oppressed because of their GENDER identity, including trans men".

"Trans men are oppressed for being men", "trans men are oppressed for being trans", and "trans men are oppressed for being trans men" all mean the same thing.

I wrote this post because I'm sick of seeing anti-intersectional bullshit separating our gender from our troubles as trans, when the reason we are even trans is because we are men and those two things are inseparable parts of our identity. Bigots don't look at me and go "well you're trans so I hate you, but you being a man is fine". It is the very act of transitioning toward manhood that makes me open to transphobia and bigotry and oppression. The very fact of me being a man is very specifically what they hate about me.

Once you really look into it you realize just how much is written in our blood.

"If trans men are so important where were they at Stonewall?" Across the street locked away in an over crowded, rat infested prison. Thats where we fucking were.

Looking into The Womens House of Detention, located directly across the street from the Stonewall Inn was really the final nail in the coffin for me.

Its 12 story maximum security torture asylum, its estimated 75% or more of the THOUSANDS of prisoners kept there where WLW or transmasc. Gender non-conforming women and "women" where the main targets. You could be thrown in here for: walking alone at nightz wesring pants, being poor, "imporper feminity" and prostitution (which trans men and butch lesbains have a very expensive history with, I'd argue as expansive and soul destroying as trans women and twink history with it. However ours is heavily covered up. There where times in history the association between gender non-conformity and prostitution was so stronge a "women" presenting masculine was considered a flag for it.)

It was open from 1929-1974. Meaning it opened BEFORE any of my grandparents where born and didn't close until both my parents where well into being children. It is extremely recent.

During the Stonewall Rebellion the lesbains and trans men imprisoned there threw whatever they could at the cops, they lit stuff on fire, they screamed, they did all they could from their cells to aid in the fight against the police knowing it was certain to make their stay in Hell longer and far more brutal.

This prison was also a well known issue at the time, queer locals (Gay men, trans women and the lesbains and transmascs who managed to avoid arrest) where trying to get it shut down. You could hear the screams coming from withen just walking by it.

How fucking dare you all forgot these people. How fucking dare you act like our historical absences is because we abandon our community. By denying our oppression and ignoring our contributions you are not only spitting in the face of us. You are spitting in the face of every single queer elder who tried to fight for us. You are spitting in the face of every trans women elder. You are spitting in the face of the queer historical figures you pretend to respect.

please, please, please remember that this "hating transmascs" and "kill all TMEs" bullshit is just a few edgy weirdos on the internet who enjoy saying inflammatory things for shock value.

transfems are not your enemy, and YES, you do actually need to unlearn transmisogyny. Not because you're transmasc, but because we live in a transmisogynistic society.

transfems are not a hivemind, there's no broader transfem consensus that transmascs are Evil Privileged Abusers, but the small group of people who think that way WANT you to believe that they are representative of trans women everywhere. they're super not. they really are just a handful of angsty people online looking for someone to pick on.

all trans people have more commonalities than differences. there aren't two distinct species of trans people from two different planets, there are just trans people with a wide diversity of experiences and walks of life. we are all affected by the same systems of oppression.

As a trans-androgynous person, what the hell is this? Are we not allowed to be happy about who we are???