there was a reddit post i saw once that was in some game subreddit. it was advertising a "queer/lgbtq/women-only discord server" as a safe space in a gaming community that could be hostile to anyone who wasnt a cishet man.
and this was years and years ago. the discourse of equating women-only and queer-only spaces was not on most peoples minds at the time and this is not an endorsement of that. anyway
someone responded to the post like "if i made a server that was for cis straight men only yall would throw a fit"
OP responded "thats because when you change the words that changes the meaning <3." along those lines
i need a screenshot of that comment as a reaction image
because its like so succinct. its all i need to say. when you change the words it changes the meaning. most people know this implicitly, due to how language works.
when youre talking about trans men and you drop 'trans' it changes the meaning of what you said.
"why are men trying to insert themselves into trans issues" and "why are trans men trying to insert themselves into trans issues" mean two different things. you say the former when you mean the latter
because the latter sounds ridiculous and obviously wrong
obviously trans men have a place to discuss trans issues
but if you obscure that fact, if you change the words, you change the meaning of what youre saying
people lie about trans men and attribute the actions of cis men and cis women to them, or call them cis men or cis women depending on whats convenient. to transandrophobes, trans men are either basically cis women with extra steps or basically cis men with extra steps. they are never allowed to be trans men. they are never allowed to be wholely who they are
their language is scrutinized and deemed insufficient by people who arent them. the language used to describe them is inaccurate and often deliberately so. what was the term for that again? epistemological violence? etymological?
stop lying about trans men