yknow I heard the first definition first, years ago, and I think I’ve just been assuming the second definition for a while now without really thinking about it. Because... obviously transphobia and misogyny also intersect to oppress transmascs, just in a different way and for different reasons.

I mean, a lot of transmasculine people are still viewed as women in socially conservative subcultures, and these same cultures often tend to be pretty misogynistic. So like, a trans person having their trans identity ignored, erased, or denied while also subjecting them to misogyny? How is this not a form of intersection of transphobia and misogyny?

Any kind of “you can’t possibly know your own identity” rhetoric is rooted first in the classically misogynistic idea that “women” can’t be trusted to know themselves, make decisions for themselves, or possess the autonomy necessary to do things like transition.

Any kind of “gender traitor” rhetoric is rooted first in the classically misogynistic idea that “women” have certain duties, roles, and responsibilities to fulfill, and that by transitioning, transmascs are abandoning them in some way: abandoning our pre-destined roles as daughters, mothers, sisters, sexual partners, caretakers, etc.

In feminist spaces, we’re scorning women by becoming the “enemy”- because we’re obligated to fulfill our predestined roles as female feminists. We’re trying to escape misogyny, because we must just be bad, incorrect decisions out of fear and stupidity.

In queer spaces, we’re abandoning lesbians and other wlw- because we’re obligated to to fulfill our predestined roles as sexual partners & sex objects, even for queer women. We’re obligated to fulfill our roles as wlw activists and figureheads, a la Elliot Page. We’re “confused lesbians” who are just too stupid to know that we can be masc, and queer, and still be women.

Even within the trans community, AFAB trans people in general are most often targeted with the “transtrender” rhetoric- because we obviously can’t know our own genders, and we need “real” men and “real” trans people to tell us better.

Clearly this stuff is not what the term “transmisogyny” was created to talk about, and I think a different word to cover the different ways in which we’re targeted is clearer and more helpful. But the idea that we “escape misogyny” in any sort of way, that we’re not targeted by both transphobia and misogyny, is just deranged.

Ppl: but men aren't oppressed for their manhood. It's just transphobia.

Us: The transphobia we face is absolutely tinged with how we are considered to be "appropriating" manhood and masculinity, thereby neglecting the "biological duties" of our agab. It's not *just* transphobia.

Ppl: but men still aren't oppressed for their manhood.

___

Recently, I was in a crash course for the National Emergency Medical Technician exam.

We got to the portion of the curriculum which was about OB/GYN.

The instructor paused on a slide with anatomy of the uterus to say,

“I know a lot of people identify as a lot of different things nowadays, but for the purposes of this class, this is the female reproductive system- and nothing else.”

Now on one hand, his comment represents generalized transphobia. My instructor bought into the belief that trans people are in denial about biology. And that we will get offended over people using a convenient, established shorthand for reproductive anatomy under the category of “female”- when that is not in fact the trans critique of biological sex categories, and when it comes to terms like “male” and “female” in a biological study versus a social context, we are intelligent enough to understand context. Our critique has to do with the assertion of biology as binary and fixed rather than flexible and bimodal. Our critique has to do with the gender essentialism of taking “female” anatomy as synonymous with “womanhood” and “male” anatomy as synonymous with “manhood.”

– The course did deserve transgender critique. Because it DID NOT simply follow that, “for the purposes of this class, this is the female reproductive system”, (as if it was only presenting a working definition for the course and establishing context.)

Throughout the course and the accompanying text, whenever talking about someone with a vagina, uterus, and ovaries- the patient was a “she”, a “woman”, and possibly a “mother.”

This language of gender essentialism made transmasculine people (afab men and nonbinary people) invisible. In this context, it impacted transmasculine people specifically. (This course did not have a similar segment on urology where it called all people with penises “men.”)

If a patient had a uterus, she was a woman. If a patient was pregnant, she was a woman. In these materials, it is assumed that trans men and afab nonbinary people simply do not exist. We are not considered as a possibility.

And this process of making transmasculine people invisible has tangible effects, especially in the healthcare system. Many of these practitioners in EMS, if they encounter a patient presenting as male who happens to have a vagina will determinedly misgender the patient throughout their documentation, if not also their interactions.

Because of this process of making transmasculine identity invisible, denied as even a possibility that healthcare practitioners should consider- it is incredibly difficult for transmasculine people to access gender-affirming gynecological care. In the absence of gender-affirming care, many of us avoid getting treatment for so-called “female” problems to begin with.

And among those who do seek treatment- I have absolutely heard stories from trans men who have been given questioning looks, dirty glares, or outright thrown out of women’s health clinics/gynecological offices/abortion services. A low blow, especially since for many of us, just visiting these clinics which were built for women and which necessitate that we surrender a part of our masculinity and any possibility of “passing” at the door is already an act of great precarity. Being mistreated during this period of vulnerability instills even deeper feelings of anger and shame.

What would you call that specific experience, unique to transmasculine people, if not transandrophobia?

It is not an experience a trans woman would experience, even if she were mistreated at the same clinics. Her shame would come from being denied her femininity. Ours comes from surrendering our masculinity in the hopes that someone will help us with a festering medical problem- and finding ourselves denied, misgendered, and sometimes defiled. (There are transfeminine parallels to this experience when a trans woman must visit a men’s health clinic. But it’s just so: A parallel experience. Those experiences, although similar, physically do not occur in the same space.)

This phenomenon applies to transmasculine people who seek assistance from abuse shelters as well. Trans men and nonbinary people might need to call a Women’s shelter for help because there is no similar service with adequate resources for their gender in their area.

And they can be denied aid in these circumstances due to the masculinity in their voice or presentation causing them to be perceived as an abuser rather than a victim. Transfeminine people should be able to sympathize with this because it is the same pattern of repression which is applied to them if they do not pass. It is the same system of misogyny and transphobia which affects us both and denies us care in this arena- but the impacts of that denial can be different depending on our bodies and the substance of who we are.

Trans women experience high rates of abuse- but so do trans men compared to the general population. And the nuance of those abuses and how it impacts someone psychologically regarding their relationship to gender, I do not think are the same. While both groups might have partners who try to dissuade us from transitioning for example, I do not think trans women can know the masculine experience of staying with a partner who sexually abuses you by denying your masculinity- or perhaps only subtly validates your masculinity- and insists you keep your breasts and vagina “for them.” That is transandrophobia. It is not just misogyny. Especially not since this can happen at the hands of cis lesbian partners who simply do not want to accept their partner as a man.

To make my conclusion with an even more pointed example: The experience of being a trans man and needing an abortion is not something that either cis women nor trans women will ever experience.

___

ERGO

We should be allowed to have language and productive discussions surrounding these and similar topics for transmasculine folks.

Doing so does not mean we are positing that transmasculine people “have it worse” than transfeminine people.

It is about developing the language to discuss and recognize community needs, facilitate a dialogue, and then organize to address these disparities.

"No one is oppressed for their association with manhood and/or masculinity, it's just transphobia/misogyny," is just

"No one is oppressed for their attraction to a binary opposite gender, it's just homophobia/misogyny" of bi exclusionism, is just

"No one is oppressed for (not) fucking, it's just homophobia/misogyny" of aspec exclusionism, is just

"No one is oppressed for being nonbinary, it's just transphobia/homophobia/misogyny" of nb discourse.

Rinse and repeat all the way down the line to "No one is oppressed for being trans, it's just homophobia/misogyny".

Every single time it's a previously invisible and/or silenced marginalized group starting to put words to their experiences and then people who, for whatever reason think that erasure=privilege and oppression is a competition, get big mad about "barbarous invaders coming to pillage our fields and murder our women" or being confronted with the fact that the breadth of human experience doesn't easily fit into, like, two or three neatly labelled pre-approved boxes.

Then they start a campaign of either going "actually, this doesn't happen because I haven't seen it happen, you're just a (privileged group) trying to feel special. Invisibility whomst?" Or "actually, what you're describing is something else that I'm an expert in, which means I don't need to listen to what you're saying because I don't think you're bringing anything worthwhile to the table. Erasure whomst?"

Transandrophobia as a term doesn't imply anything about people facing transmisogyny, just like transmisogyny doesn't imply anything about people facing transandrophobia. They aren't connected beyond the fact they both concern transphobia. You don't make a statement about one when you discuss the other, and it is quite frankly insulting to everyone involved to use one as a bludgeon to silence discussion of the other.

They are not two opposite ends of a scale where if you tip one, you tip the other inversely. That's not how it works. It's more like a complicated venn diagram with a lot overlap and a lot of differences, but we share the struggle with transphobia in whatever form it is expressed, and getting different perspectives helps us support each other better.

Please share this!!!!! As you resident vitiligan and fellow artist I am here to educate people on how to properly create a character with vitiligo and other things to keep in mind about the disorder.

Only 1% of the entire world’s population has vitiligo but I see so many artists making characters with it when they sometimes don’t even know what vitiligo is and pass it off as “skin pigmentation”. Like— what does that even mean??? XD

Im-Peck-Able Bird Houses

The Im-Peck-Able bird houses are fully functional bird homes but using the objects from other packs - as requested! They work exactly the same as the 'Flock Of Wild Birds' that came with Cottage Living... with some improvements. The biggest one is that I removed the intense amount of birds flying around the house at all times.

Now birds just fly onto the bird house and chill, fluff their feathers... you know, the usual. They also will fly onto the ground surrounding the houses and peck for food. But what it won't be is an infestation.

I also customized the bird placement for each of the bird homes so they land on the little peg that comes out or on the roof. But all the functionality remains the same!

This is not a replacement - the original EA bird home is still available.

============

Out now early access for patrons with a public release of August 19th!