Acidious Raccon

pros: yay! i finally look like a guy! people think im a man!

On page 14 of the 2024 trade paperback addition where Serano says "[ . . . ] our society tends to single out trans women and others on the male-to-female spectrum for attention and ridicule. This is not merely because we transgress gender norms per se, but because we, by necessity, embrace our own femaleness and femininity. [ . . . ] While trans people on the female-to-male spectrum face discrimination for breaking gender norms (i.e. oppositional sexism), their expressions of maleness or masculinity themselves are not targeted for ridicule—to do so would require one to question masculinity itself."

My annotated note (underneath a note about the way she quite literally contradicts her own definition of cissexism on the same page): This section frames misogyny as a pure public spectacle. Serano is deeply blind to the misogyny present in the intimate lives of FTMs and trans masculine individuals and masculine/masculinized women.

Like. Just off rip in my own life before I ever had an inkling I was trans I was actively discouraged from cutting my hair despite desperately wanting to because I would "look like a boy" and then was literally bullied for half the 4th grade when I cut my hair short after having it down to my waist since kindergarten "because I looked like a boy". I was a quirky little 8th grader in the 2010's who liked wearing vests and bow ties because the 11th doctor was airing and I was ridiculed by my peers and family for wearing masculine clothing. There were several gender segregated events throughout my entire schooling where I was required to wear dresses at the threat of tangible punishment. It goes on that's just a handful to make a point.

That's quite literally as traditionally sexist as it gets. Punishing or threatening or ostracizing someone perceived as a little girl or young woman for defying the feminine gender role "she" is meant to fill. That's like. a very standard feminist analysis of baseline regular old sexism and the only reason that doesn't still happen to adults on a broad scale is because of feminist action.

It's like. sometimes adult trans people are like every other adult ever and they act as though their experiences once they came out and had the autonomy to express themselves fully after the age of 18 are the only experiences. Forgetting that often our most formative experiences with being oppressed, coerced, and forced into gendered categories happen in child and young adulthood.