Selena Vaughn

Please stop using terms like “biologically female” and “biologically male” when talking about trans people, even in your hypotheticals when you’re just discussing trans characters in your fanfiction.

This bioessentialist language is very frequently used in transmedicalist (”truscum”), trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF), and general transphobic rhetoric constantly used against us to suggest that 1) there can only be two genders because you are either “biologically female” or “biologically male”, and 2) that you will always be male or female because that is your biology and nothing can change that.

While I know you don’t mean it in that way, repeating that language empowers those who would use it to hurt us. In addition, it gives us the impression that that’s how you see us too: that you see us by our biology, that we will always be “biologically male or female” to you.

It can also be harmful because, other than playing a role in the harmful rhetoric used against us on a regular basis, it can be extremely triggering and dysphoric to see. You’re scrolling through your blog and all of a sudden that person you thought you trusted is demonstrating that they see trans men as “biologically female” and suddenly you feel very dysphoric. And even if you think you know that person well enough to know that they don’t mean it that way (and I say think because coming out as trans does show you that many people are very different than you thought they were), dysphoria is not rooted in logic. Dysphoria is rooted in trauma, depression, anxiety, etc. and can be triggered by anything as simple as using the wrong name, wrong pronouns, or the wrong terminology to describe trans people.

If you want to talk about trans people in your hypotheticals, I highly suggest you instead use terms like AFAB (assigned female at birth) and AMAB (assigned male at birth) because it takes the bioessentialism out of the equation and also does not imply that we are still - or ever even were - female or male, only that someone assigned us that label at birth. These are the terms that many trans people use to talk about themselves and their community (you know, except truscum) so even if you are cis - actually, especially if you are cis - I suggest you use these terms too.