Oppositional sexism is a very useful term actually. Like, so much is better explained by the idea of “there’s a societal belief that men and women should remain opposites and should have no overlapping traits” than “this is homophobia/transphobia”. Why does society hate displays of femininity in men and masculinity in women? It’s oppositional sexism. They hate that you’re proof that masculinity and femininity aren’t inherently opposites. Thank you julia serano for another banger

the way this combines so well with her other term traditional sexism: the belief that masculinity and maleness are fundamentally better than femininity and femaleness. Like not only is there this pervasive belief that the two genders are mutually exclusive opposites that can/should not overlap, but also one of these two categories is considered fundamentally worse in every way. Like, it's such an elegant way of explaining why effeminate men are consistently such a media phenomenon in history compared to masculine women (giving up masculinity/embracing femininity is seen as embracing weakness, compared to vice versa), and it goes a long way towards explaining why being a trans women in particular is so stigmatized. thank you julia serano