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Alt title: Is This the New "Transandrophobia"?
So, is this the new Transandrophobia? No. This is what transandrophobia means and what it was coined for, but with a different ending as to find better words to describe how transandric+ experiences are held to sexist standards and are reinforced as anomalies in society. It is to not label our term as a "fear" but rather a blatant form of violent and repeated sexism against transandrics and transmasculinity.
I once called this misabviriy, but noticed that I was mostly focusing on all types of masculine individuals and not specifically transmasculine or trans men. This made it harder to pinpoint exactly how this group was targeted by the general public.
I'll be going over the points I made in this original writing: https://azrielpierce.gumroad.com/l/fvbzb and my previous post: https://blog.spacehey.com/entry?id=1804113
Superiority
There is a rewards system created by the patriarchy and it's agents. The way this system works is simple; Take men who are "young and impressionable" or are new to masculinity, tell them that they are slightly more important than other genders as a "male protector" if they partake in the trials of toxic masculinity and misogyny against their femininity and that they will be protected by other men who will take them in ans teach them about masculinity. There has been a huge uptick in this since TikTok's usage blew up in the 2020s.
If they don't partake in this and instead choose to go their own path, they are "soyboys" and are lesser men than the real ones, especially if they're transitioning because their "only chance" at being a man is abiding by the patriarchy. When young men fall into this, they are greeted by their variety of (low quality) rewards and have the expectation that they are to be rewarded from bad behavior. If they preform this trick again and they are not rewarded, they then feel like their masculinity is threatened and they choose to double down rather than admit that their masculine form is not real, but instead a construction of the rules of others.
Because transandrics are usually masculine, the community and the outside puts them through the same rewards system, with almost all of them coming out as failures to masculinity, then being seen as fetishizers if they're too feminine or evil when they're "too masculine" for queer. Transmascs do not have male privileges if the privileges are "being seen as a woman dressed up as one of the boys until "she" isn't patriarchal," and "a man with a womb and vagina who can be used." Those are not privileges, there is no privilege in transphobia.
Invisibility
The claim of invisibility comes from the fact that many transmasc sources, figures, history, and statistics are hidden as stories from females, pregnant women, or girls. Recently, there were people online saying that a historical trans man "hid as a man" to reap the benefits of manhood rather than transition. We know that this is not true but it furthers my point - why misgender a trans man and tell him how many benefits he will have if he just became his cisgender cissexual counterpart? It's deeply engraved sexism against the women who weren't allowed anything for over 200 years, to claim that a trans man would transition exclusively because "she" didn't have the power to own anything and had to "dress" as a man in order to own land.
Also recently, statistics were posted to subreddits regarding FTM transition and violence against the community. In the trans circles, transandrics had higher numbers of sexual assault, sexism, and abuse, closely tying in were the transfems and nonbinary folk. The original post was made to signal about how quiet it was when these results came out, and how transmascs are a silenced subgroup for their connection to masculinity and the preestablished belief that men are not "really victims".
You are see-through and they don't care, but will tell you how much you contribute to the community as a whole all while not being able to point to any transmasc creator or historical figure that survives the painful misgendering and sexism.
Sex(uality)
HRT is expensive. This is why so many teens and older folk are going DIY or stockpiling. Of course, you can only stockpile certain ones without being tangled in legal trouble. In most cases, the distribution and sale of testosterone without being prescribed is illegal because of it being a controlled substance. It is not banned, but it has to be sold through certain companies.
From Cattle Boy: Performing Masculinity Wrong, "Queermascs who have vulvas are also expected to bottom in pornography and in relationships, leaving a hole of content and resources when it comes to topping after phalloplasty or with a tdick. In this area, queermascs have higher rates of suicide and the possibility to be sexually assaulted, and yet the only aid a queermasc will get is if they are feminine enough on the outside to hide it. Queermascs are also more likely to detransition or become feminine at the wishes of a cis or trans sexual partner, prioritizing the sexual partner’s pleasure with a sexual “tool” instead of a preference."
Transmascs are also not allowed to be lesbians(??), because why would they? It's not like some trans men and transmascs have a hold on their body and gender that makes them feel comfortable enough to use the label lesbian or butch, no not at all. Why would they do that? Nooo, no man can be a lesbian for sure, that's.. that's "absurd".... And most of the reasonings as to why transmascs cannot be lesbians boil down to gold star lesbianism and sexism surrounding the transsexed bodies of trans men - never their actual gendered experience that may leave leeway to be a lesbian. A transmasc who is also a woman and a man on testosterone and is post-phallo can be a lesbian. But our sexuality is dumbed down to the bare bones - where we can only be straight or gay in our gender category. T4T is really our only shot, but many of us are actually left with the same option as before, straight or gay. We can't be gay for women because that would be "misgendering ourselves", and we cannot be straight for trans women because thag would be "misgendering them" - and both allies and other queers have said these things about trans people. They have actively shunned our bodies for being on testosterone, then have told us we have to be straight because otherwise we're fetishizing cis gay tiny twinks by "believing we'll get on T and become one", and that if we're ever a lesbian - we are intruding on "women and afab only spaces"
Our sex doesn't exist. Our bodies are seen as evil because we remind others of the patriarchal figures in their lives, even if they know we're trans. It won't stop them from actually wanting to separate us from manhood in order to see us as different than "those evil men". We aren't real men to them. Separation of our malenes is not how you remove the blades of patriarchy, learning from us and how we escaped the rewards system is how. Accepting that all trans men are either evil like cis men or useful idiots in the community is absolutely part of the reason why so many of us detransition or die at the hands of sexism. No one cares for our healthcare nor do they think our bodies are historically documented in history. We just do not exist!
And when transmascs do exist, it's because they're good at "staying quiet and listening to others". Our existence is used to reinforce sexism against men, this time, men they can actually beat down because we'll never have any power anyway.
Malgendering
Malgendering is the act of confirming someone's gender and sex identity by degrading the gendered experiences. This is why "I know I am a woman because people lie about how I got to the highest position" is one of those literal jokes that make you feel like "that's true bc misogyny!" In this case, the joke is that someone's misogyny against the trans woman allows them to reinforce the binary's sexism against women by declaring the trans woman only capable of said position because she had relations with those already on top - leaving her role as just a "toy" or "pawn". This goes for trans men too, where others will say "all men are evil and should be killed, but not my trans men" and that they believe trans men are exempt from all manhood by virtue of transness, which isn't a "real form" of manhood. Our manhood is then lesser, is weaker, subservient to others. They wish our manhood was what they deem the struggles of womanhood.
Many transmascs are left out of conversations involving vaginal health, abortion, and transsexed resources because apparently "trans men don't need to speak on female issues because they are not female" while also "trans men rarely medically transition and gain privileges by being female." There are clusters and people offline and online who will claim that we must move out of the way for other trans people to speak for us about a topic involving us in order to give them the spotlight because transmascs are "at the forefront and are taken more seriously" while screaming about how hypervisible they are in media, these two ideas clashing with each other. In the end, it becomes infighting instead of a constructive learning experience because then everyone wants a slice of the huge cake.
"Trans men are really the men of the community" is an example of malgendering. It points at trans men, says they are exactly like the men who kill and assault others, and then blames them for what the community struggles with by affirming their gender. While yes, trans men demand manhood and will be seen as men, they do not need separation from manhood nor do they need affirmation of toxic masculinity. There should be the understanding that trans men are not cis men and therefore do not have the same troubles nor their cismasc benefits.
If you can do it for non-mascs, you can give mascs a break.
Feminization
We are being starved of our masculinity. Queer and gay are chopped down to what you see from cis gay men and trans women. Feminine, flamboyant, elegance, or shaved soft skin. So when you are masculine, and you don't fit into that, or are feminine and have a bush and heavy pits - what are you actually doing? Is it queer? When they see a nonbinary masc, they'll assume they are a man instead of nonbinary because they are not preforming traditional queer femininity or giving that youthful look. So why is it that people in this community still believe masculinity is at the forefront when most transmasc organizations do not have a name or account on your favorite social medias?
We are feminized against our will. We are seen as confused little girls with "Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria" who only listen to cavetown and read gay yaoi. We are deemed as those who do not transition, who are not strong enough to be men, or are weak enough to be gender traitors. When is the last time you have seen a butch lesbian or a trans man depicted without being hidden in feminine clothes, forced to act like a woman, or shown extremely pre-op, pre-hrt? Masculinity is being stripped for a familiar femininity because so many people are fleeing the patriarchy and toxic masculinity without analyzing how to destroy it. They just don't want to see it, and if they suspect a trans man of doing it.. he's forever labeled as a grifter.
"Queermascs have also reported feeling extremely left out and lost in inclusive spaces that actively call out queer masculinity alongside patriarchal masculinity while uplifting patriarchal femininity that wishes to benefit from the patriarchy by pulling women and queer men down into terms like TIF, female brained, “woman bits”, and fake feminism that relies on bioessentialism (TME, TMA..) and gender wars (they ultimately do not earn benefits due to misogyny)."
Forced feminization is different from repowering, of course. I define repowering as "when queer people veil or mask their maginalized status to identify as cishet perisex people, regaining the power they lost over their identity when they transitioned or came out of the closet." They are powering themselves by acting and behaving as cishet perisex as possible in order to feel as though they are really accepted as trans. It is not the closet, it is a trans person feeding into transmisogyny or transandrosexism in order to be seen as one of the good cishet ones. Reusing intersexist, racist, transphobic, or sublte hatred towards other genders while holding up the mask of cishood in order to repower yourself is what it boils down to. I've seen way too msny examples.
A trans man doing this is equally horrible, and when he is found out to be trans, he is not suddenly accepted on the basis of his gender but is rejected on the basis of the gender he "pretended to have".
Conclusion
Transandrosexism is sexism that "uplifts white, cis male figures and other men that succumb to toxic patriarchal masculinity as a way to feel protected by other men and women," which subsequently puts down anyone who doesn't fit into that box through various forms of harassment, degradation, and violence. Transmascs are beaten, silenced, and sexualized the way womem are in society, and because they are, the agents of the patriarchy make it so we are seen as small, frail, and in need of saving because "real men fight back."
There is no fear of trans men's masculinity, there is the hatred and the violence and the sexism against it's foundation. We are not allowed this but we have too much of this already. If we transition, we'll be barred from afab spaces, we cannot speak about our own vaginal health, we can't talk about men's health either because we are not real men, and then we are too ugly for queer so we are drawn to look like children. The rewards system is a way to pull in impressionable men, and trans men just want to be accepted.
It says a lot more about your community if trans men feel safer in spaces without you than with you, especially if some (Buck Angel) become grifters just to be seen by cis audiences as a man. Your community is failing trans men if they are building in secret and without your help. It says a lot if transmascs are rewarded by the patriarchy when they couldn't even get in the front door before.
Transandrosexism is systemic, is interpersonal sexism, is abuse, and is always violent misogyny.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_transgender_men
https://transandrophobia-explained.carrd.co/
https://www.tumblr.com/nothorses/684908105774104576/transandrophobia-primer
https://aninjusticemag.com/why-dont-trans-men-have-a-word-for-what-we-go-through-582d75dd20ed
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jDThBytU_C0
https://medium.com/@jaxyacks/transandrophobia-in-the-2019-2020-homestuck-twitter-fandom-7bb3fbc08ca8
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