tme/tma labels

for those that don't know, tme and tma are acronyms for "transmisogyny exempt" and "transmisogyny affected." so, tme = trans people who don't experience transmisogyny and tma = trans people who experience transmisogyny. so far, i've only seen these labels on tumblr and i'm not sure if this discourse is popular anywhere else but here's my take on it. 

people need to stop acting like transmisogyny is a thing that ONLY impacts transwomen/transfems and has literally nothing to do with anyone else. yes, transmisogyny is a specific kind of hate directed at transwomen and that needs to be centered. but we can't ignore that it affects other groups too and flatten it into "all transmen have privilege, all transwomen don't" which is exactly what those labels do. 

conditional privilege isn't the same as real privilege. privilege is something you don't have to think about or earn. it's systemic. it's not something you can lose once someone finds out a fact about you. 

for transmen, what gets called "male privilege" is conditional safety under misrecognition. it only applies if you are read as cisgender. it's not privilege in the same way cis men have it, because it disappears the moment you disclose, are outed, or are just clocked. that's not stable or reliable enough to be true privilege. that's why it's misleading to argue that "transmen have male privilege." at best, it's a fragile illusion of privilege. 

these labels are also ... very intersexist? it only "works" if you pretend everyone was clearly born female or male. which isn't true. intersex people get erased from this framework and shoved into boxes that were never made for them. patriarchy already tries to erase intersex existence and these labels just repeat that mistake. 

i have a lot of thoughts on this but this is all for now :P