just what it says on the tin

...besides just the self-segregation. The differences in severity between transmasculine and transfeminine experiences wasn't "acceptable" to talk about because it would somehow undermine unity and so we never learned as a community to talk about oppression that isn't universal. I think that gave the wrong impression to many young trans people.

I'll never know how someone assigned female at birth may have been abused, humiliated, harassed, raped, belittled, forced into roles that even without dysphoria are something no one should be forced into before they could recognize it as abuse, and that's completely fine. I don't need to be re-assured that I'm just as valid as any woman who's assigned female at birth because being transfeminine before coming out isn't like being a young boy. None of these things were the same to begin with.

It's logical that being forced into the political class of woman, and dealing with the physiological consequences while identifying as a man, dehumanized as a result, results in a shitstorm of consequences that leads to abuse trans women can't (by definition) experience (and higher rates of abuse where it overlaps). Trans women of course have a shitstorm as well but we never experienced the humiliation of second class citizenship in that specific way before coming out.

None of that makes us more virtuous or more authentically man or woman or anything, we should be able to talk about like mature fucking adults because we should commit to making sure NO ONE is dehumanized.

I simplified it, since most transphobic people's brains turn off when they hear "transandrophobic", so I used a more familiar word to get through their dense skulls.

“let’s ignore all people who experience this transphobic violence except for men. For solidarity.”

I simplified it, since most transphobic people's brains turn off when they hear "transandrophobic", so I used a more familiar word to get through their dense skulls.

I posted screenshots of how I was being targeted by one blog in particular who's post telling people to report me got over 4k notes.

We knew who exactly got me deleted but people did not go to bat for me the way I've seen happen today. Nobody made call out posts or block lists of the racists queer phobes who engaged with the main post and helped harass me until I was nuked. There wasn't an influx of people who went to that person's blog to convince them to remove it. There weren't people flooding tags talking about how upset they were and demanding accountability from staff or the other involved parties. There were not messages of support in my asks or dms.

Despite the way white queer people loved reblogging my posts about being two spirit, white supremacy, and native rights to prop themselves up as allies, there was no outrage about the queerphobic racism of staff.

Not like this.

And I just want to clarify that I'm just using my experience as an example since it's obviously what I'm most familiar with, but I am so extremely far from being the only person of color this happened to. I'm certainly not the first queer person of color it happened to, either.

I am just a drop in a bucket. This is bigger than me.

After all, the way Black bloggers got targeted by both Tumblr staff and its users multiple times until they were chased/purged from the site is infamous. And everyone knows it was wrong now. In retrospect. And everyone swears they'd never do the same thing again.

But that's hasn't stopped black trans femmes from being anxious that at any moment they will be next.

So yeah, revel in how good of an ally you are for calling out the transphobia and transmisogyny we've seen in the last 24 hours. Pat yourselves on the back for protecting trans people.

all trans people experience more oppression than their cis counterparts.

This is from an older post of mine someone recently reblogged- discussing how PCOS was discovered to also affect people assigned male at birth, as ovaries and polycystic gonads were discovered to not be a requirement despite the name.

And this response really got under my skin. Every single one of these people responding this way were cis women.

This is what I and other trans men are talking about when we say that unfortunately we are being left out-deliberately or accidentally- of discussions that affect us- and that we are at an increased risk of medical malpractice and medical neglecy.

Over 10% of people with PCOS are trans men or trans masc. Over 50% of trans men and trans mascs actively avoid going to the gynecologist, and this number jumps to over 90% reporting feeling anxious about making and attending appointments. Anywhere from 40-60% of trans men and mascs WORLDWIDE report intentionally poor care from medical professionals, including and especially at a gynecologist.

PCOS has already dramatically affected men, even before it was discovered to affect those assigned male at birth. While I understand the bitter response, as medical misogyny affects both cis and trans women alike, the choice to leave off the three little letters which would clarify the point also serves to silence and erase the way trans men and mascs are and have been treated by the medical community.

“you’re gonna look ugly as a man” “but you’re such a pretty girl, don’t change that” Wrong. You will look different after T, but you will look happy. You will probably grow hair and gain weight and look pretty different, and none of that is bad or makes you less desirable. You are going to look like you and that’s all that matters.

“T makes you angry” “you’re gonna be a scary man i won’t feel safe around you” Wrong. Testosterone does not “make” you angry. Messing with your hormones will mess with your emotions for sure, but you will not immediately become some scary predator when you start T. Being a man/masculine does not make you a threat, a predator, or inherently angry. That’s radfem shit.

“bottom growth is gross” “no one will want you with bottom growth” Wrong. Bottom growth is cool and a LOT of guys end up loving theirs a lot more than they thought they would. For a lot of people it is a desirable trait, there are people who find bottom growth hot and attractive. And! If you’re sure you don’t want it there’s things you can do to work around that, just talk to your provider.

“bottom surgery is super painful and not worth it” First off, call it phalloplasty, because that’s what you’re talking about. Second, yes it’s painful, it’s surgery. There are risks to it and complications can happen, but that’s true of any surgery. Phallo might not be for you, but it is life saving care for other folks. It is beautiful and should be talked about as life saving care and not as some afterthought thing that no one actually does.

A few months ago I ended up having a very long talk with a friend of a friend. She told me that she'd never really spoken to a trans man before, the only trans people she knew were trans women. There was a point, after the third time I reminded her that I was a man, that she just sorta of slotted me into her mental box of "man", and I could tell that happened because after that point she started trying to explain things to me as if I was a cis man.

I categorically do not "pass" and likely never will. I'm very short, my hips are prominent because I'm fat, I keep my hair long, charitably I could be said to have a baby face, I have D-cups and cannot bind due to spinal problems. To the majority of cis people I do not "look like a man".

But for the rest of the conversation I had with this friend of a friend I had to keep reminding her of how other people are going to view me, because there was no room in her mental idea of "man" for a man who is not treated as one. This was not malicious on her part, she was very nice to me, and I believe her when she says she wants to support trans people. I do not think she was lying when she told me how horrified she was to learn about how her trans woman friends were treated.

She said she was envious of me going out alone and how I need to understand that's a facet of male privilege and I asked her to look at me and explain why I'd be any safer. She was shocked to learn that I've been catcalled, been assaulted, that I regularly get spoken down to by cis men, shocked to learn I don't have a single transmasc friend who hasn't. She couldn't understand that I'm going to be treated the same by misogynists as any fat cis woman who doesn't wear makeup. There was no room in her feminism for trans men, because there was no room in her understanding of gender for men who are not cis.