This is also what frustrates me about the "do trans men have privilege" conversation- because I do not think a discussion of privilege is ever as easy as a "has" and "has not"- but especially so with something as changeable as gender presentation and transness.
I find it inarguable that I have some access to male privilege. I do. I think those saying that I don't are being completely absurd and disingenuous when they deny it. I am, in fact, materially treated differently and at times even better than many of the women within my social sphere. It is plain as day when I no longer need to be spending my money on period products, when male clients defer to me despite being the newest on the team, when interacting with other men who do not know that I am transgender.
This, to me, is the white passing privilege argument. It is equally inarguable to me that my mother and my nephew who are completely white passing have some access to white privilege. They are treated materially differently than the rest of our family- including my nephew's own little sister who while being light skinned is clearly of color somehow, including my mother's somewhat darker brother who has since passed away. While the rest of us must deal with the more overt and violent racism that comes with being native and black, they are spared this experience, watching from the outside, knowing that if they speak up it will be their heads next on the chopping block.
However, like my mother and my nephew, I still am affected by laws that this conditional access to privilege do not protect me from. Any laws that is designed to hurt cis women will inevitably hurt me, someone with an "F" marker. Any laws designed to hurt intersex people with hurt me, someone with an intersex variation and extensive medical history of such. Any laws designed to hurt transgender people will hurt me, as I am someone that is transgender.
Often when we talk about male privilege, we talk about freedom from laws restricting reproductive rights, body autonomy, and social movement. This is why arguing if trans women have male privilege is also a moot point- as they are also not free from these laws and on fact are directly targeted by them much the same. Thus an "M" marker is not a guaranteer of privilege *either*, as more and more nations impose tighter restrictions on trans women specifically.
Often when trans men point out how we are affected by things, there is a sense that this implies that trans women intrinsically aren't affected- but they are. We are hardly mirror images of each other in anything except presentation goals, and even there we find common ground frequently outside of primary or secondary sex characteristics. This is what I mean when I say that I truly don't think there is anything that one type of trans people experience that other types of trans people don't in a similar manner- and what is there as a stark difference usually has an answering stark difference elsewhere.
As I begin to take steps towards bottom surgery and everything it implies, as I am accepted by those who don't know me and don't see my legal or medical documents more and more as a cis man, as I continue this walk through life as a cis-passing trans man, I do see more and more the social privileges I am afforded as a result of my transition.
It's just, as the leader of my country is poised to end all gender transition for all transgender people and specifically cites my presumed fertility as a reason to save me from myself, as I race against the clock to at least remove my uterus before he stops that from happening too, I realize that this privilege stops at "social". And that I have a very narrow window to be able to hold onto what transition I've already done, if I don't want a single signature to completely undo everything I've worked for over the past 20 years.
And that doesn't really sound like freedom from laws restricting reproductive rights, or body autonomy, or social movement, to me. It's nice to be treated nicely at work. I would like to not have to worry about someone forcibly impregnating me because the president has degreed the only thing I'm good for is breeding, whether I want to or not.
tangentwithtanner
theartofmadeline
amandla
ellievsbear
origamiaround
andulkaphoto
areudirty
germansingergirl
