#poketext

neither tras, nor radfems.

being deeply immersed in both communities, i’ve been observing the way that both of them function, and something i’ve noticed is– they both very often tend to claim to be gender abolitionists, and not only this– they both claim to profess gender abolition. they claim it is very near & dear to them, but as an autistic trans radfem whose special interest is gender abolition; i can confirm that both the radfem & the tra “versions” of gender abolition fail to be consistent, meaningful & coherent; both versions find the pitiful comfort in laying within the borders of the ever-raging status quo, fearful to challenge & genuinely step at its’ legs, to meaningfully cross the borders– both versions remain adamant on reformism & mere “gender fuckery”, all the while fervently shouting how progressive, how revolutionary, how status quo-breaking they are being. both versions advocate liberalism, more “wiggle room” & more leeway– but neither make the effort to go beyond the personal, beyond the individual and beyond free will/choice.

in order to be able to advocate for gender abolition in its’ truest form, we first have to understand that gender are not merely just aesthetics, outward appearances, self-expressions, or even just silly stereotypes. understanding this is the first step to being able to understand gender abolition, and more often than not, both tras & radfems fail at this very first step. gender is a lethal force, a superstructure, a class-based system; it is a tool of the patriarchy, a very dangerous one. it has a base and a structure.

gender dynamics are created & directed by reproductive relations, and how we engage & interact with reproductive labor shapes our relations to gender. this extends beyond cultural stereotypes & fluctuating aesthetics. it is neither individualistic in the reformist tra sense where Gender is A Social Construct in the way that it is merely our “sense of self”, and neither is it individualistic in the radfem sense where Gender is A Social Construct that we must fight on an interpersonal scale. gender cannot be fought on a personal level. gender cannot be “played with” in the tra sense where we all choose a set of attributes to ascribe to & then call them gender, and neither can it be “played with” by attempting to opt out of the gender class system by claiming you are a “genderless adult human female” in the radfem sense. both are essentially minimizing the significance of gender in our current society, and both are advocating for a utterly western-centric, bastardized, watered-down & individualistic form of “gender abolition”. the tra understanding of gender abolition is all about choice, breaking down the notion that women & men must look this or that way, and destroying parts of superficial personality stereotypes. the radfem understanding of gender abolition is similarly also all about choice– telling people that gender nonconformity is an inherent act of Gender Rebellion™ [tras also do this!], claiming that gender is oppressive but also refusing to do away with it because “how will women then speak of their oppression?” [are they incapable of imagining a post-gender world? possibly, because they claim to be passionate gender abolitionists, while holding so strongly onto gender, since that is all they know & they must rely on it to further their theory], claiming that biology has nothing to do with gender yet reverting back to connecting gender to biology when it is convenient to their cause.

both are ultimately misunderstanding both gender & gender abolition. both see it as a mere performance, as aesthetics. both are advocating for reformism & desperate attempts at opting-out [tras try to opt out by promoting medical supplements, creating multiple new genders, messing with mere accessories; while radfems try to opt out by using meaningless words & phrases such as “a woman is an adult human female, nothing to do with gender at all!”, by trying to ignore gender & then assuming that their ignoring will somehow result in gender abolition]. radfems advocate for gender contraction, not recognizing that we cannot “revert back to sex” when our own very understanding of sex itself is extremely immersed & rooted in the sex-gender system– we cannot “revert back” to something that never even existed without the thing we are trying to leave behind in the first place [i am not saying anatomical differences don’t exist outside of gender– our *understandings* of the sex categories do not]. tras, on the other hand, advocate for gender fuckery, not understanding that liberation will not come along if we simply “play” with our biology & try to desperately ignore material reality. while radfems claim gender isn’t something to be overthrown & rather something to be ignored, tras claim gender is our own internal sense of self & gender roles are the thing we must abolish (again, heavy misunderstanding of gender as a class system from both sides; radfems lean into thinking that gender is this social attribute that only slightly limits women [they see Woman as a legitimate biological phenomenal category, not as a gender], and not a lethal force of the patriarchy that limits female people & influences & creates/goes hand-in-hand with sex-based oppression, while tras lean into thinking that gender is completely disconnected from stereotypes & roles [again, roles & stereotypes {be they external or internal/aesthetical or personified} are only one sect of gender, not the whole of it], their view of gender being limited to Gender Identity/Gender Expression/Gender Roles, with gender roles being *the thing* they are claiming to want to abolish).

both will claim to be the biggest gender abolitionists ever, but both will cling onto it for dear life & get unnecessarily angry whenever you suggest to talk about actual gender abolition. both will say gender is limiting & restrictive, but the second you wish to talk about gender as a system in depth & analyze that the only way to go about gender abolition is by following principles of proletarian feminism, they will go back to treating gender as an extremely important & crucial part of society that we cannot live without. they both go back to proving they ultimately believe gender is Here To Stay. either out of their nonsensical “biological” reasons (radfem case) or out of nonsensical “self-expression” reasons (tra sense). gender is bad, until you actually want to suggest ways to get rid of it (radfem: “ignore it and it will go away! do to yourself whatever you want! man=adult human male! woman=adult human female! this is undeniable truth! men can like pink and wear dresses! women can like blue and do sports! this is literally how you do Gender Abolition™! there’s no one way to be a woman!”, tra: “just do whatever you want to yourself, stomp on those stereotypes! prove that there’s no one way to be a woman! [real gender abolition lays in destroying the class of woman by the way, and also probably introducing new simple terms for female & male humans that aren’t intrinsically linked to gender & contemporary sex categories; the english word woman is literally derived from words wife + man, so this just goes out to show that tras also don’t care about leaving the category of “woman” behind & only want to talk the talk] chicks can have dicks! lads can have vulvas!”).

perhaps radfems might say that their mere gender contraction is because they don’t believe that a woman is a gender, but this just goes to show that most of contemporary radfems have never read an ounce of radical feminist theory. radical feminist theory defines a woman as a social category to be abolished. the faves of many radical feminists, such as andrea dworkin, christine delphy, and monique wittig– all speak about genuine gender abolition, and they all correctly identify gender as a lethal tool of the patriarchy, not merely a passive social bystander to female oppression; but rather an active participant, encourager, and influencer of it. gender is so much more than mere aesthetics, roles, stereotypes, and attributes– and we just cannot “do away” with it if we cling onto some parts of it. we have to fully do away with it. we cannot abolish some parts, and leave the others intact. we risk allowing gender to recreate itself in some way by choosing this route. both tras & radfems are afraid of gender abolition because it forces them to challenge their set-in-stone beliefs, and their limited understanding of gender abolition is just not enough for genuine liberation. they don’t want gender abolition. in their ideal world, everything would stay the same; except maybe this time, boys would also be told to like pink & play with dolls and kitchen sets, while girls would be gifted action figures & be encouraged to play sports (goes to show how they have just no idea that gender is not locked in time– it fluctuates to adapt to new eras & time periods. giving action figures to girls will not end social misogyny nor will it liberate females in any way, shape or form. misogyny was also a thing back when gender didn’t take the shape we know it as today). maybe this time, women would regularly have beards and men would walk in dresses. will this stop femicide? child brides? pornography? economic exploitation more broadly? unethical misogynistic practices? no. i don’t think so.

it’s a known fact that trans people are very sensitive to any talks of biological sex, and that they refuse to analyze or hear out any form of sex-based oppression, however sometimes this discomfort can truly delve into a more dangerous territory. if we cannot talk about sex-based oppression, we cannot have feminism. something that has seriously been circulating around trans spaces recently is a very serious form of sex-based oppression denial, one that crosses the borders of “i’m uncomfortable with talks of biological sex because i’m dysphoric”. the outright refusal to acknowledge that female people are legitimately oppressed in ways that male people never will be, the outright denial of deathly forms of misogyny such as medical & reproductive misogyny that systemically only harm those born female, bold & vocal statements such as “transmisogyny is worse than misogyny” [why are you borrowing & coining a word that originates in *misogyny* if you are going to blatantly & boldly undermine the existence of misogyny?]– those aren’t harmless statements, and are actually actively contributing to the medical negligence of female bodies. they are supporting the continuation of this mystification of female bodies, the underresearched nature of female bodies; by refusing to acknowledge the very factual reality of the male body being seen as default, creating fallacies, hypothetical situations & people, engaging in whataboutism & overall denial of reality, to support their weak arguments of female oppression not existing on its’ own & genuinely asking questions such as, “what makes an afab person more oppressed than an amab person?” [but then again continuing to use the word “transmisogyny”, when, by their logic, the word would be an oxymoron, since they do not recognize misogyny as an actual axis of oppression], they are essentially saying, “medicine is correct for neglecting the female body, following the male model as the default, and should continue doing so”.

“what makes an afab person more oppressed than an amab person?”, they ask. “there isn’t some inherent oppression faced by afabs!”, they shout. well, i’m about to answer their so kindly articulated questions, although i’m very aware they are going to dismiss my words as bigoted attack against transfeminine people, as bio-essentialist propaganda, and “terf shit”. although male people absolutely can & do face sexual assault & rape [and the rates of prostituted & sexually exploited & brutalized trans women are alarming; which is something that should most definitely be discussed in feminist circles, as it is an issue of transmisogyny, which is equally damaging & oppressive], the ability to be impregnated is an additional vulnerability. the ability to get someone pregnant puts you in the privileged position here, no matter how uncomfortable that makes you feel. next up, female puberty is a very traumatic experience, as is female socialization. the stigma surrounded around “girlhood”, being locked away from freedom while seeing all your male peers enjoying a childhood of leisure– how is this not an advantage? add on the societal stigma around growing breasts, getting your period, developing a more adult-ish female body type– all of those are female-specific issues [trans women can add their insights about their experiences with hormone reassignment therapy & share their struggles with gender childhood trauma & unique discomfort with socialization + forced/unwanted male puberty, and their insights are more than welcome & appreciated]. furthermore, female infanticide is still unfortunately a form of oppression that we have yet to end, and bringing up the homicide of trans women is not at all comparable to this. a parent does not know their male infant is going to be sex incongruous, and this very much protects the male baby from being aborted or literally femicided after birth for being female, which is, quite literally, tangible proof of female-specific oppression existing on its’ own, starting even before or from birth, without any other accompanying & contributing factors. to add on, female genital mutilation is likewise still a sexist practice that is yet to be stopped. as is the existence of child brides. as are abortion bans.

strawmanning & using whataboutism, such as “there are cis women who cannot menstruate! there are cis women who cannot get pregnant! there are cis women without uteruses! there are cis women without *insert female organ*!” is not going to negate the fact that *trans women inherently remain without uteruses*. it is not going to negate the fact that historical medical misogyny, such as the misogynistic claim of “female hysteria” was intrinsically linked to uteruses. it is not going to magically make trans women the primary victims of the abortion bans. it is not going to negate the reality of negligence of female bodies in the medical field. it is not going to negate the historical reality of female people being unable to open their own bank accounts up, and male people of all sorts being able to. in no way am i saying that medical & reproductive misogyny are the only sorts of misogyny, nor am i claiming that period stigma is *the central* aspect of misogyny & *the deciding factor* to who experiences the worst of misogyny; all i’m saying is, that even female people who personally cannot menstruate/don’t have specific female sex characteristics/are intersex– still are systemically affected by medical misogyny & period stigma. trans women can experience female-specific misogyny when assumed to be female, medical misogyny is not the only form of misogyny nor is it the most important one, trans women can & do experience social misogyny, economic misogyny, cultural misogyny– but they are not experiencing medical misogyny. that being said, medical transphobia can absolutely be deathly, and should not be ignored in feminist discussions.

it is not a violent threat to your humanity to acknowledge that oppressed people are oppressed in different ways, holy fuck. it should not be seen as a direct attack against a minority group to analyze intersectionality & different forms of bigotry. we all have experiences that are equally valuable & we can all equally contribute to the fight against oppression, with all of our differing struggles & diverse battles. neither oppression is worse. both are fucking bad, and both suck equally, having both overlaps & differences in their manifestation. you just have to realize that you sometimes are, in fact, the privileged one. cis women may be at advantage in other situations, but you are at advantage in other situations. we all need to be good allies to each other. medical neglect of female people is real, but so is the medical neglect of transfeminine people. they manifest in different ways, which isn’t dangerous to point out, and it should be pointed out. neither is inherently worse or more traumatic & important than the other. both are oppressive to the core, and both stand in the way of feminism & anti-patriarchal action. it’s not going to fucking kill you to just be mature for once. i promise you.

when i learned what dysphoria was & began identifying as trans, i did not suddenly gain male privilege overnight. saying that transmascs are a category of marginalized men might seem like a harmless statement, but it is often used for erasure & furthering transmasc invisibility, violent invisibility. it might “gender us properly”, but saying we are a category of marginalized men often fails to fully encompass the factual reality that we aren’t seen as men. we aren’t marginalized just for being trans, we are marginalized for being female & for being transmasc. our oppression more aligns with the way that lesbians, especially gnc ones, are oppressed, than it does with the way that any other category of marginalized men are oppressed.

telling transmascs that we “need to make sure everyone else around us is comfortable” & that we “should pander to the women around us” literally reeks of this specific type of misogyny that targets us. the way that the trans community tends to treat us as “just queer men” & quite literally erase the fact that we are trans, is rooted in deep misunderstandings of lesbophobia, antitransmasculinity, misogyny & gncphobia. when we are punished for being gnc during our childhoods, we aren’t punished for wearing dresses & liking make-up– we are punished for not doing that. when we are punished for not being opposite-sex attracted (i know not all transmascs are same-sex attracted, it’s just that a lot of trans people in general do tend to be ssa), we aren’t punished for liking boys/men, we are punished for liking girls/women. in what world are regular men punished for liking women? in what world are regular men punished for not being feminine? antitransmasculinity in the trans community either malgenders us & paints us just as capable of perpetrating misogyny as cis men are (even when we aren’t even out, apparently it’s ingrained in us– does that smell of gender essentialism???), or it straight up attacks us on the basis of our observed sex without even trying to hide it– see “afab privilege”, “theyfab”, “tme” (not necessarily inherently bad, but the way in which it is used is bad), “trans guys need to be subservient & quiet”, literal fetish accounts made by transfems who openly misgender us & talk about “detransition kink”… it all goes back to the good ol’ “shut up and let the smart people speak”.

this is not the way that normie men, even normie marginalized men, are treated. the crowd that malgenders us & expects us to be okay with their little “kam includes trans men!”, “all men are bad! including trans men!”, “trans men’s gender identity harms trans women!” comments because they’re “affirming” us… no. shut up. i do not care about being “affirmed” if the way you are “affirming” me is dehumanizing. transmascs do not have the systemic power to oppress neither cis, nor trans women.

the baeddel belief system, that misogyny is born out of transmisogyny (& not the other way around, at the very least), is also so fucking wild and insane. transfems refusing to accept that they’ve generally been male socialized & that they were punished for being gnc in the way that they misaligned with the cisheteropatriarchal ideals for being seen as feminine boys & not for being seen as masculine girls is one thing– dysphoria can take a massive toll on your beliefs, and i get being uncomfortable with the whole gender socialization theory (although it is legitimate, even if some people do use it maliciously), but it is another thing to firmly claim you weren’t under any circumstance ever treated as a boy at one point (then are you denying transphobia exists?? what???), but at the same time, transmascs absolutely were socialized female & we have this nonexistent “afab privilege”, BUT we’re also evil men who hate & oppress women of all sorts. but god forbid we ever enter women’s spaces or connect with women in any way, especially not with lesbians. we have no right to those spaces, and we are “invading” women’s spaces even if we do not pass– but non-passing trans women who are literally hypermasc & would look like the average normie guy if people didn’t know their gender identity (i’m not talking about masc passing transfems, transfems def can both pass as women & be masc) are free to call themselves lesbians & enter women’s spaces, and we are evil and bigoted if we say that’s dumb as fuck. we cannot ever connect with lesbians or, i apologize for the heresy, do the vilest sin humanity has ever seen & even call ourselves lesbians. we are hurting lesbians! we are totally capable of harming cis lesbians, because we totally yield systemic power over them, even if we do not pass at all. the trans woman whose lesbianism is fully dependent on her inner identity is more free to enter lesbian spaces & her lesbianism is more valid than mine, a visibly gnc transmasc butch’s who-is-not-out-as-trans. the trans woman who didn’t even experience transmisogyny growing up & wasn’t ever even gnc at any point in her life, is somehow more valid to call herself a lesbian, than i, a person whose childhood was practically made of antitransmasculinity & lesbophobia, am.

baeddel ideology is inconsistent. they either use radfem talking points but flip them all the way around & turn them upside down, so trans men are now as evil and abusive as cis men & oppressive to both cis & trans women & the entire reality of us being assigned female is erased, or they straight up attack us based on the very fact that we are assigned female & treat us as if we are not Truly Trans. either way, we are never acknowledged as trans. the former sees us as “just guys” (but keep in mind that crowd never uplifts us & babies us in the way they do to cis men, so again we aren’t even really seen as guys), and the latter sees us as “stupid theyfab ftms tmes” “who aren’t really trans”. in simple words, the former sees us as cis guys undeserving of male privilege (but still claiming we somehow have it), and the latter sees us as cis girls undeserving of cis privilege. baeddelism was designed to harm transmascs, and while it can also do harm to cis women (with the whole misogyny part of it), it specifically harms transmascs & even just gnc cis women. it deeply hurts me when i realize that these sort of people are out there dating trans men & transmascs. some of them even actually do the next step & start with physical abuse. it makes me so incredibly sad. i will never shut up about antitransmasculinity, no matter what.

i will preface this by saying that i myself am not transfem, so take my words with a grain of salt. through this, i will be attempting to analyze the marginalization transfems go through, as well as propose the idea of a “third socialization” that some transfems might experience.

trying to look at transmisogyny as simple intersection of transphobia+misogyny is a false way to look at transfem oppression. more often than not, dysphoria manifests during childhood, and even if the child does not know/isn’t aware of their sex incongruency/and or dysphoria, they will experience alienation from their peers. young transfems might feel alienated from boys their age, and transmascs might feel alienated from girls their age. as such, young transfems a lot of times fall victim to various forms of homophobia, which manifests as something similar to, “you’re a boy, so stop engaging with “feminine” activities and clothing! stop trying to befriend girls! girls are supposed to be your crushes, not your friends!”. at first, transfems experience gncphobia, and this later escalates as homophobia against males. this serves as the ground framework for what will become transmisogyny– intersection of transphobia, gncphobia, homophobia & conditional misogyny.

as young transfems are exposed to various forms of gncphobia & homophobia (which does differ from the gncphobia & homophobia cis gay men/boys face, since the pain of dysphoria is present), coupled with the alienation from their male peers, they are often victimized by bullying & ostracizing. being perceived as an outcast during your early stages of development can take a toll on your mental health, which plays as a large factor as to why so many trans people in general tend to have more issues with their mental health aside from dysphoria. of course, this experience cannot be classified as “female socialization”– the bullying & homophobia transfems experience is more in line with the cis gay male experience, than it is with the cis woman/girl experience. this is why a lot of the times, transfems are in fact male socialized. however, not everything is black and white, and this is why i would like to propose the idea of third socialization– in some cultures, from what i’ve been able to gather & research, effeminate boys & men are oftentimes segregated in the “third” category in certain activities, neither female nor male. this is exactly how transmisogyny manifests in praxis. transmisogyny is not the mere intersection of transphobia & misogyny– it is the violent outcasting, dehumanization & alienation of transfems. it is not akin to simple alienation in terms of friendship, it is brutal & hierarchal, it is a unique form of oppression that deserves its’ own term. it is the process of demeaning a trans woman (or anyone seen as a trans woman, for that matter), and refusing to acknowledge her as a person worthy of dignity & basic human respect– thus dehumanizing, not seeing the trans woman as neither a woman nor a man, but a “secret third thing”– and by the “secret third thing” the trans woman isn’t seen as non-binary or something alike, but as below human race, as undeserving of being classified as a human woman or a human man. this extends to the nonconsensual hypersexualization of transfem bodies, disgusting remarks about transitioned transfems bodies, as well as sexual abuse & degradation specifically targeting transfems.

this persecution can be observed looking at the ways transfems are treated when dating heterosexual males. of course, it is every trans person’s responsibility to disclose the fact that they are trans to their partner– but looking at the violence against transfems (by cis heterosexual males) & the rigid brutalization, i believe that to reduce this to “trans women deceiving their partners” is to engage in direct victim blaming. trans women have no power over heterosexual males, and heterosexual males are trans women’s primary oppressors– on a systemic level. trans women’s existence, being dehumanized & casted in a “third category” under the cisheteropatriarchal system, raises anger & triggers the fragility of the cis(het) male. why, on earth, would a superior male want to transition to be a woman? to be of the lower caste? in this way, trans women in their eyes aren’t transitioning into the “inferior class”, but they are transitioning into something completely distinct– to them, they are the traitors of the male upperclass, because they are fighting to escape it– in the cis male’s eyes, they are wild animals that must be brutalized & exterminated, they are filthy & mutilated, they are undeserving of affection & love & respect & dignity.

this is where “conditional misogyny” comes in play. i do not believe trans women, as a class, experience regular or female-specific misogyny, a.k.a sexism. however, i do believe that they can experience what is called conditional misogyny. trans women who have transitioned, trans women who were allowed to transition early in their childhoods & trans women who have lived as women for longer than they haven’t, are most definitely affected by various (though not all) forms of misogyny. economic (pornography, prostitution, homelessness, pay gap, economic sexual abuse are all what i would consider to fall under this) misogyny, social misogyny (passing as a woman, being subject to catcalling & harassment, having disgusting remarks being hurled at you), cultural misogyny (seeing & hearing about femicides on media), are all the forms of misogyny stealth transitioned trans women can be victimized by. these trans women often move to larger cities, where nobody knows of their male past. this is called conditional misogyny, as these trans women still never experienced the trauma of female puberty, period stigma, strict female socialization, medical misogyny, religious misogyny and reproductive misogyny. furthermore, it is called conditional misogyny because if the trans woman’s agab is revealed, she will stop facing regular misogyny/sexism/conditional misogyny, and she will start facing transmisogyny– conditional misogyny being the highest stage of transmisogyny.

this way, we can see that the types of oppression cis women & trans women face differ (& sometimes they do intersect), and talking about which one is worse will always end up in failure. circumstances, areas, material conditions– all of that is important to consider, and choosing to make blanket statements such as “trans women are always more privileged than cis women & trans men”, or “trans women are the most victimized & the most oppressed than any other group in regards to gender relations” fails to encompass the very much needed elements when discussing any type of oppression– intersectionality and nuance. oppression is not based on identity. oppression is lived experience. oppression in regards to gender relations can manifest as fear of being victimized & dehumanized on the basis of your biological sex & biological reality, but it can also manifest as fear of being victimized & dehumanized on the basis of having your biological reality found out by the upperclass of the gender hierarchy. sometimes, transfems will undoubtedly be privileged over cis women & transmascs, but other times that really is not the case. you can choose to continue calling all trans women privileged & dumb for choosing to transition, you can say they aren’t real women– but what you cannot do is deny that under our system, trans women are undeniably persecuted & discriminated against. that is a factual reality. and i thought we were all about factual reality?