The History of Transandrophobia: Losing the Youth to Anti-Transfeminism
Clarification Edit 05/08/2026
A clarification, since a few people have read this piece as saying "Transandrophobia is inherently Anti-Feminist": that's not my argument, and I want to be precise about what I actually said.
My point was about the word, not the concept of Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people experiencing Transphobia. "Androphobia" and "Misandry" have a specific history rooted in Anti-Feminist backlash. First against suffragettes, then again with 1980s men's rights groups. That history doesn't disappear just because "trans" gets added to the front of it.
What I'm concerned about is how some people on Tumblr are using "Transandrophobia" as an excuse to attack Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people, borrowing the logic and language of that older Anti-Feminist rhetoric, not the legitimate Transphobia Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people genuinely experience.
So to be clear: Transgender Men's and Trans Masculine people's pain is real. The Transphobia we face is real. My critique is narrower than "this word shouldn't exist"; it's that the etymology carries baggage, and some people are leaning into that baggage to punch down rather than to describe their own oppression.
--- About the writer:
The writer is a middle-aged Transgender Man who has been part of the Queer community for several decades in Bisexual, Gay and Transgender spaces. The opinions within this writing are those of the writer and based on his lived experiences. They are not an attempt at academic argument or trying to devalue anyone else’s lived experiences. However, the writer is a Feminist with friendships across the gender spectrum, living within the European Union, and he understands that this will affect his lived experiences and outlook on life. ---
As I write this, it is August 2026. The world is burning down around me, making it too hot to go outside and too hot to do much inside, so I had some spare time to browse Tumblr. I knew going in there that it was a hotbed of messy takes, radical thinking, and overly obsessive fandoms, but I was not prepared for the endless stream of incel rhetoric.
Well duh! You are probably thinking to yourself, of course women-hating rhetoric would be all over such a problematic platform. I agree, it’s pretty likely, but what I wasn’t prepared for was who was posting this stuff.
Young Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people.
As a Transgender Man, I have always taken great care to take the time to understand Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people. It feels important, especially given the endless attacks from rich high-profile bigots like J. K. Rowling and Elon Musk. Governments across the globe were either already targeting Transgender Women/Trans Feminine people or started to create new laws and guidance to target them.
Being a Feminist also felt important as a Transgender Man living in the EU, as the Data from the EU LGBTIQ Survey III (2023) published in July 2026 showed that only 15.09% of the Transgender community identified as a Transgender Woman, making them one of the smallest demographics (with Genderqueer, Gender-fluid, Agender, Poly-gender and others being the next smallest). With Transgender Women being such a minority within our own community, it drives me to want to do an even better job at listening to them, not turning against them.
Yup, you heard me right: some young Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people of Tumblr are turning against Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people. To be clear, this isn't a critique of the term "Transandrophobia" itself, or of everyone who uses it; it's specifically about how a portion of Tumblr users are deploying it as a way to direct anger at Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people. They are using the same playbook as Cisgender Misogynists against Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people, making bold claims of exclusion and oppression towards Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people by Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people.
#Transandrophobia is the hashtag where you will find Transmisogynistic posts scattered between Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people sharing their trans experience. But what is Transandrophobia? Where did it come from, and is it a valid argument?
What Does Transandrophobia Mean?
According to Tumblr user St. Dionysus, on 11th July 2024, they claim to have coined the term “Transandrophobia” and define it as: “the way that the fear of men impacts the material reality and mental/physical health of transgender men.”
St. Dionysus goes on to explain the term further with examples:
“... the way that the fear of men and/or masculinity effects transgender men’s ability to access queer and transgender spaces, sexual assault survivor resources, and reproductive health care.”
“… the way that the fear of men and/or masculinity holds back transgender men from transitioning or from presenting as masculine.”
“… the way the fear of men and/or masculinity results in the disowning of transgender men from previous found families and the isolation of transgender men in general.”
“… the way the fear of men and/or masculinity has resulted in people using their trauma as an excuse for abusing transgender men, physically, sexually, and emotionally.”
“… the way the fear of men has resulted in people refusing admittance to “male identified people” to certain queer events and safe spaces.”
“… the way that the fear of masculinity has led to people assuming that butches across the gender spectrum are inherently violent and hyper-sexual.”
“… the way that the fear of men and/or masculinity results in the forced feminization of transgender men in queer spaces, with the insistence that those who refuse to feminize themselves to make others more comfortable should not be allowed entrance to certain queer spaces.”
“… the way that the fear of men has led people to assuming that butches who were assigned female at birth, are at risk of becoming the enemy (a man) and should not be given the same amount of trust as a feminine presenting cis woman.”
“… the fear of men being in women’s spaces prevents trans men and non-binary people who present as male from accessing gynecological care, abortions, and birth control.”
“… when transgender men must make themselves smaller to be seen as “one of the good ones” and it is when a trans man who is loud or sexual or Black or Brown or too masculine is seen as a threat to the safety of other transgender people.”
“… when transgender men who speak up about how the normalized way of speaking ill about men in feminist and queer spaces has made them activity suicidal, de-transition, or prevented them from transitioning, are told to “shut up and sit down” or “good.””
To be clear about what I'm critiquing here: St. Dionysus's original definition frames Transandrophobia as being about the 'fear of men and/or masculinity' broadly; it doesn't name Transgender Women or Trans Feminine people as the cause. My concern isn't with this original definition. It's with how I've seen the term used in practice on the #Transandrophobia tag, where some users apply it specifically against Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people, treating them as the source of that fear, rather than the systemic Transphobia and patriarchal structures that actually produce it.
Many of these examples describe an online dynamic, and I want to be upfront that my own lived experience in in-real-life Queer spaces has looked different, though I recognise that doesn't make anyone else's experience invalid. As mentioned earlier, Transgender Women are a minority within the Trans community in the EU. The largest group is actually Non-Binary Trans people. While it can be difficult for me to express or explain my own Gender Dysphoria in these Queer spaces, I personally haven't felt othered or excluded for being a Transgender Man. If anything, in Belgium I find many LGBTQIA+ spaces are dominated by Conservative White Cisgender Gay Men, who don't tend to engage much with the wider Queer community, and I've noticed masculinity in general being welcomed there, likely because it's already so dominant in LGBTQIA+ spaces. That dominance may well make it harder for Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people to navigate the same spaces, since they're already a minority within them, though I can't speak to that experience directly and want to be careful not to assume.
When I went to a Queer market in July, there were a lot of stall holders selling Vulva-themed products and merch. A bit like bean-soup theory, not everything is made for me guys (shocking huh?), so I just didn’t engage or interact with those products. It was Dysphoria-inducing, but that does not give me the right to tell this Queer space to “de-centre” something that triggers my Dysphoria. I carried on shopping and smiled to myself when I saw other people interacting with the products and merch that I personally couldn’t. It was Queer joy on their faces! And that brings me Queer joy to witness.
Some of the other examples given are unique situations that Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people do face, such as the difficulties in accessing healthcare for body parts that are seen as “women only”. However, this would be systemic Transphobia in those medical settings. It is our transness that is being othered, not the fact we are Men. If there was less focus on the medically incorrect gender-binary in medical institutions, everyone would be treated and have access to the care they need, not be denied or made to feel othered. That is a much bigger problem that Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people also face; it is not unique to Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people.
As for the “fear of Men”, butches, and Black or Brown people in Queer spaces. Well, as I already mentioned, LGBTQIA+ spaces in Belgium do most certainly have a Racism problem. That does not make it a unique experience for Transgender Men or Transmasculine people; Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people also face this issue regarding Racism. It isn’t “the hatred” or “the fear” of Men that is causing the Racism. Queer spaces try to address this issue and tend to be more welcoming, but of course I cannot speak for all of the Queer spaces out there or their level of effort. As for the “fear of Men”. Well, this gets more complex.
In Queer spaces, there can be a genuine fear of Men because of past traumas with Cisgender Men. They statistically are the group most likely to cause harm to various minority groups. This can sometimes be expressed in the way an individual speaks about Men in general. I personally have heard such rhetoric, but it is important to remember, especially for Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people, that they are going through daily misogyny. This does not take away from the fact that Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people can and do experience hate crimes, sexual assaults, Transphobia, and other horrific things, but it’s our transness that makes us vulnerable. For Trans Women and Trans Feminine people, it is their transness AND their femininity that makes them vulnerable.
Keeping this in mind, when I am engaging with Queer spaces, I approach it as a Feminist man who also happens to be trans. I listen to Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people when they share their pain and lived experiences. As a Transgender Man, I personally do not know what it is like to be a Woman; I only know what it is like to live as a man trapped in a Woman’s body. I was not raised with gender expectations. I know that is a privilege that I can say that, and other Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people cannot say the same things, but at the end of the day Men are simply not oppressed in the same way that women are. It is just a fact of life. This is not an oppression Olympics; it is an acknowledgement of intersectionality. Intersectionality means that an individual can have intersecting identities which will make them more or less oppressed in different situations and cultures. I am a Bisexual Disabled Transgender Man; that means I have several intersectionalities, but the man part – that is not oppressed.
What exactly is Androphobia, and is it real?
There does not seem to be anyone who coined this term as such, but there are records of the word being used since 1844 to mean the fear of the male sex and as I have acknowledged there are some people who are genuinely fearful due to past traumas (This actually has a separate term, Viriphobia, a psychological fear of men which manifests in social anxiety, avoidance behaviours, or discomfort in male-dominated environments).
Because there are more appropriate terms like Viriphobia, and we have seen Androphobia be used by misogynistic “manosphere bros” against women, the word has also become synonymous with their other battle cry, Misandry.
The term Misandry originated in the late 19th century as a reaction to First Wave Feminism. From its inception, Misandry was synonymous with Feminism. Newspapers in the 1890s occasionally referred to feminist "new women" as "man haters” (which is the meaning of the word Misandry). It saw a resurgence in the 1980s among “Men’s rights groups” who were opposed to women’s rights, and we are seeing these terms being used again against women today to reduce and remove women’s rights.
As the originator of the term Viriphobia, David Gilmore puts it, Misogyny "targets women no matter what they believe or do". According to Wikipedia, Gilmore says that such a term as "Misandry" typically refers not to hatred of Men as Men, but to hatred of machismo or men's traditional gender role. Basically, Feminism is pushing back against the patriarchy and toxic masculinity, not hating men in general, which makes the term “Misandry” invalid and not a real thing, as opposed to the very real phenomenon of Misogyny, which hates women regardless of what they say or do.
To be clear, my issue here is with the word itself and its history, not with the idea that Trans Men and Trans Masculine people experience real transphobia. Androphobia and Misandry carry a specific anti-feminist lineage, and that history doesn't disappear just because 'trans' gets added to the front of it. This is exactly why people online say phrases like “Androphobia isn't real”. They are not referring to people who are having the trauma response of Viriphobia; they are reacting against the usage of the words Androphobia and Misandry and the Misogyny embedded in them. Knowing these words are the dog-whistles of Men who want to take away women’s rights, why would you want to align that with your own struggles as a Transgender Man and Trans Masculine person? It isn’t women’s fault we experience Transphobia, and at the end of the day, the patriarchy and toxic masculinity harm ALL MEN as well as women. Why align yourself with a group that only harms you? It makes more sense to align yourself with Transfeminism and fully understand the intersectionality called Transmisogyny.
Transmisogyny was coined by Julia Serano in the mid-2000s to describe a specific intersection of Transphobia and Misogyny that disproportionately affects transgender women and transfeminine people – but does she ignore the Transphobia and Misogyny that Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people face? What about their unique experience?
The Transphobia that Transgender Men face is real and valid, and like our feminine peers, we too can be on the receiving end of Transmisogyny. Julia Serano explains this well:
“Some have critiqued transmisogyny for down playing the role that misogyny plays in policing trans male/masculine identities. While said misogyny undoubtedly occurs, it may take on different forms—for example, a trans man may be perceived as, and ridiculed for, being a feminine man (which undoubtedly falls under the umbrella of transmisogyny described here), or alternatively, he may be invalidated as a “woman pretending to be a man” (which comes with a very different set of sexist assumptions and social meanings)”
- Julia M. Serano, “Transmisogyny,” in Abbie E. Goldberg & Genny Beemyn (eds.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2021), Vol. 2, 868–868. https://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781544393858.n296
TME/TMA
Another dividing language argument currently doing the rounds on Tumblr is the acronyms TME and TMA. TME means Transmisogyny Exempt; TMA means Transmisogyny Affected.
As Serano has said themselves, Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people are not the only ones who experience Transmisogyny; however, Tumblr users wrongly use TMA to mean Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people only. This incorrect usage entirely ignores the nuance and complexity of the human experience.
People constantly police Transgender Men’s bodies, much like the experience of other AFAB people, Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people. The way it shows up, however, is different, and it is not a constant state (whereas Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people are constantly experiencing Transmisogyny). As a Transgender Man, when I pass, I am perceived as a man, so TME. However (as given in the example by Serano), when I am not passing or perceived as an effeminate man, I am ridiculed, misgendered, and treated as a Woman (sometimes mistaken as a Transgender Woman, other times as a Cisgender Woman). In the instance where I am treated or seen as a Transgender Woman, I am TMA. When I am misgendered, I am experiencing Transphobia, and when I am treated as a Cisgender Woman, I am experiencing a mixture of Transphobia and Misogyny but not necessarily the two combined, as seen in Transmisogyny. This is because when I am being treated as a Cisgender Woman, the individual doing this behaviour is seeing me as AFAB only.
From my lived experiences, it seems more logical and appropriate to say that the state of TMA and TME changes for some individuals, and for others is a constant. It might be more helpful in discussions for there to be a “fluctuating” state acronym, something like TMC (Transmisogyny Conditional). I propose this acronym as a “conditional state” because it means a status that is dependent on specific factors, and not absolute or permanent.
Using a term like TMC could be a way of both acknowledging the very real and difficult circumstances that Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people face daily, whilst also acknowledging that other genders may also have moments where they experience Transmisogyny without devaluing the experiences of Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people. It would also acknowledge Serano’s argument that Transmisogyny is experienced by more people than just Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people.
What do we do about the increasing Anti-Transfeminism?
We need to ask ourselves as a community why this divide is surfacing, and why young Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people are falling for manosphere arguments in search of self-empowerment. How do we, as a community, reach these young men with the decades of love and empathy so many of us have experienced in Queer spaces? What can we all do to help raise the voices of Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people without allowing them to silence the voices of Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people?
I don't think I have a full answer. One small step in online discourse could be suggesting a new acronym like my proposed TMC, though that alone won't address the deeper Anti-Transfeminism sentiment growing within the younger population.
Perhaps this is where older Queers need to show up more, adding a voice of experience, maturity, and steadying presence to help pull the community back from self-destruction. After all, Transgender Men and Trans Masculine people turning against Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people only weakens our collective fight for our rights.
There was a wonderful speech given at a protest about the lack of connection with our elders, those who survived the crises before us. I'm not an elder myself, though I'm often one of the oldest people in a room of fellow Queers. I'm only middle-aged. So where are those older than me, to share their lived experience and help figure out how we guide the younger generation toward empathy, hope, and love instead of division? The only older Queers I've spoken to have dismissed the protests as "radicalism," insisting we should all "sit down and shut up," and that is not the answer either.
I don't have a tidy solution to offer here, only the question, and a hope that more of us start asking it together. I can't stop anyone from using the language that feels right to them, and I'm not trying to position myself as anyone's mentor. I can only share my perspective, and if something in it resonates with a younger Transgender Man or Trans Masculine person, and helps even one person step back from using "Transandrophobia" as an excuse to punch down on Transgender Women and Trans Feminine people, that's enough.
Stay united! Stand by your trans sisters!
Sources:
TGEU publishes Trans human rights, realities, and resilience in Europe: An analysis of the EU LGBTIQ Survey III 2023 - TGEU - Trans Europe and Central AsiaTGEU – Trans Europe and Central Asia
https://www.tumblr.com/st-dionysus/755668731267629056/what-is-transandrophobia-and-why-is-it-called
Misandry - Wikipedia
Whipping girl: A transsexual woman on sexism and the scapegoating of femininity – Julia Serano
Serano-Transmisogyny
