the discourse on shaving and wearing makeup is starting again so i'll say one of the more subtle and consistent ways tme ppl have consistently fucked with me is by saying i'm not progressive for wanting to learn makeup and shave my legs lol
noooo don't transition that's so regressive haha. I'm progressive btw 🙂
cis women are not on the hook for normalizing unshaven legs or bare faces because their performances of femininity are thought of as natural and innate. they go unremarked upon
trans women's femininity is treated as contrived and artificial, so every little thing we do to perform it is thought of as a Choice, which means we are Choosing to uphold regressive beauty standards
we and cis women are both held to the standard that women are supposed to have bare legs, but we are thought of as being responsible for this standard, rather than being influenced and subjugated by it just like every other woman is
part of this comes from the idea that trans women are somehow immune to misogynistic standards. people seem to think that we won't face any consequence for not performing patriarchal standards of femininity, unlike ~real~ women, who are under ~real~ pressure to do these things. so the responsibility falls on us to normalize these things, because we are supposedly in the best position to do so
distressingly few people seem to have gotten it through their skulls that trans women are held to especially high standards of femininity, and the consequences for failing to perform it are especially bad
yes, we are punished for our femininity, but this does not mean we are rewarded for not achieving patriarchal femininity either. it's not either or. we are punished for both. there is not actually a win condition, trans womanhood is a double bind under patriarchy
very worth noting, by the way, that testosterone puberty can give you very thick, dark leg hair, not to mention other body hair. I don't shave my leg hair, and sure I think of this as a partly political decision, but I also speak from a place of privilege, having very thin and wispy leg hair thanks to genetics and 8 years of HRT
it's already not my place to judge what other women do with their bodies, but it would especially not be my place to judge what women with thicker and darker leg hair than me do with it. absolutely goddamn ridiculous to ask the women who will be most affected by the stigma against women's leg hair to suck it up and deal with it lest they be called "regressive" by people who can absolutely afford not to shave theirs. be fucking for real
I swear, 90% of the talk about what's "more radical and progressive" in a queer context is just a smokescreen for transmisogyny. trans women are not your fucking radical "genderfucky" dressup dolls. we make our own damn choices about our own damn bodies and it's really fucking rancid that so many people feel entitled to have an opinion on what we do with OUR bodies
you assholes are no better than cis men
