A Primer on Transandrophobic Rhetoric
Note: This is going to be written with more formal, academic language, and may be hard to understand if you have issues reading things like that. I will try to explain things the best I can, but if you don’t understand something I am 100% willing to try and put it in simpler, easier-to-read terms if you need it. Just send me an ask @genderkoolaid.Additionally, the information here is going to be US-based, but if you have further resources and information on places outside the US, please feel free to send me those as well. This also applies to anyone else who wants to share their experience with transandrophobia they feel is not represented here.If you have questions about what transandrophobia is, please see this F.A.Q.Please be aware that this carrd will contain references to suicide, sexual assault, forced pregnancy, misogyny, and general transandrophobia.Please read before continuing:While we’ve had a lot of discussion on transandrophobia, I feel like a lot of it is very splintered, and it’s hard for people who may not have seen a great amount of it to get a full picture. And I, being a person who likes organizing things and figuring out how social stuff like this works, wanted to make a comprehensive post going over my thoughts on how transandrophobia is structured. Especially since collecting people's experiences with transandrophobia via tumblr asks, I've seen a lot of reaccuring themes I wanted to put down as I see & interpret them.Transandrophobia is a part of transphobia, alongside transmisogyny and exorsexism/nbphobia. Like all forms of transphobia, it seeks to oppress trans people for breaking and stepping outside of proper gender roles.While I am going to be dividing these into sections, that doesn’t mean they can’t have further complexities or that any of these are mutually exclusive. This is just to easily show the main ways transandrophobia presents and to show the connections between them, in the way that works best for my mind.Additionally, many of these things may happen to other trans people, just in different ways. Something being on this list does not mean it is exclusive to transmascs, just that it plays a part in transandrophobia. Additionally, non-transmascs are able to be impacted by transandrophobia as well.It is important to note that while non-transmascs can be transandrophobic, this is lateral aggression. No trans person has societal power over another trans person on the basis of gender, and therefore no trans person can oppress another trans person on the basis of gender. Transandrophobia is a system that was created and sustained by cisgender people, and they are the main sources of transandrophobia, because they hold societal power over transmascs.I understand that many of these things also play a part in transmisogyny & exorsexism. Something being on this list does not mean that it is exclusive to transandrophobia, just that it is a part of it. This list is focused on transandrophobia, do not read it to gain information on the functions of transmisogyny or exorsexism. By continuing, you are acknowledging that this list is about transandrophobia and is not making any claims about the functions of transmisogyny or exorsexism, and you are acknowledging that I am not claiming that non-transmasc trans people oppress transmascs.
This section contains a list explaining the central beliefs of transandrophobic rhetoric, and more specific types of these beliefs.
A. Erasure: Transmascs do not exist or should not exist, and therefore do not need support, representation, or allyship.
A1. Erasure of manhood: Transmascs aren’t “real men”,
and are actually women.
i. Internalized Misogyny: Transmascs identify as men
to try and escape misogyny/the patriarchy,
and unlearning this internalized misogyny
would detransition them.
i1. Confused Lesbian/Tomboy: Transmascs are really lesbians
(specifically butches), or tomboys,
and are confused about their gender.i2. Autistic Girls: Autistic transmascs do not
understand their gender and
have been misled into being men.
ii. Not Like Other Men: Transmascs aren’t “really” men,
and are better than cis men because of
their percieved proximity to womanhood.
Either they are actually women,
or they are less male than cis men.
i1. Stay Feminine: Transmascs are better
the closer they are to womanhood,
and therefore should strive to be as feminine as possible.
Transitioning to look more masculine is therefore bad
and should be avoided.
A2. Erasure of transness: Transmascs aren’t “really trans”,
and are functionally the same as cis men.
i. Naturally sexist: Transmascs, by virtue of being men/masculine, are inherently sexist/drawn to sexism. They do not understand
misogyny and need (cis) women to explain it and keep them in line.
ii. Male privilege: Transmascs directly benefit from the patriarchy and always have male privilege, by virtue of being men/masculine.
ii1. Oppresses women: Transmascs have privilege over (cis) women
and benefit from their systematic oppression.
Cis women do not have power over them.ii2. Boys Don’t Cry: Transmascs shouldn’t show vulnerability, weakness,
or emotion, and doing so disproves their manhood.
Transmascs do not experience oppression or difficulty
and therefore talking about their issues is unnecessary.
iii. Identity Erasure: All transmascs are white, middle to upper class, American, abled, passing/stealth, heterosexual, binary, etc.
Transmascs do not have diverse experiences
and can all be reduced down to the same privileged man.
B. Sexism: Transmascs are women and must obey women's gender roles, or they are men and must obey men's gender roles. Failure to do either must be punished.
B1. Ableist Misogyny / Misogynoableism: Transmascs are women, and women (specifically autistic
and mentally ill women) cannot be trusted to know
their own minds and should not be listened to about their gender.
i. Brainwashing/Delusional: Transmascs have either been tricked (purposely or accidentally) into believing they are men, or have been given the delusion they are men.
i1. Confused Lesbian/Tomboy: Transmascs are really lesbians
(specifically butches), or tomboys,
and are confused about their gender.i2*. Confused Autistic/Mentallu Ill Girl: Autistic & mentally ill
(especially psychotic) transmascs do not
understand their gender and
have been misled into being men.i3. Infantilization: Transmascs are all either children, or
functionally children, being unable to think
for themselves and needing others to
make decisions for them about
their bodies and choices.
ii. Fertility Panic: Transmasculine transition which threatens or is perceived to threaten fertility (top surgery, testosterone, bottom surgery) must be avoided. Transmasc's ability to carry children (specifically white children) must be prized above all else, and transmascs should not have the ability to decide for themselves whether or not they want to have children, because it is their duty.
ii1. Mutilation: Transmasculine transition is mutilation and/or self harm.
Testosterone is a deathly poison that ruins your body
and top surgery and phalloplasty are disgusting
and have nonfunctional results.
iii. Hysterical Women: Transmasculine people overreact to
bigotry against them, and become over-emotional and irrational.
They have a "victim complex" which leads
to them blowing their oppression out of
proportion.
B2. Antimasculism: Transmascs are men, and men are unfeeling, inherently violent, and dirty. Any man who is not in line with toxic masculinity isn’t a real man.
i. Gender Traitor/Choosing the Enemy: Transmascs are choosing to leave womanhood for manhood and therefore betraying women and feminism by leaving for the “easier” side instead of staying and continuing to fight for feminism or exist as a feminist symbol
for women, especially butches/tomboys.ii. Mutilation: Transmasculine transition is mutilation and/or
self harm. Testosterone is a deathly poison that ruins your body
and top surgery and phalloplasty are disgusting and
have nonfunctional results.
ii1. Penis Danger: Transmascs who have a penis or want one
are morally bad and/or violent for wanting or having one.
Bottom surgery, specifically phalloplasty,
is a dangerous surgery with ugly, dysfunctional results.ii2. Testosterone is Poison: Testosterone is a harmful substance and
it makes people angry, mean, sexual predators, unfeeling,
and uncontrollably violent.
iii. Boys Don’t Cry: Transmascs shouldn’t show vulnerability, weakness,
or emotion, and doing so disproves their manhood.
Transmascs do not experience oppression or difficulty
and therefore talking about their issues is unnecessary.
iii1. Stay Masculine: Transmascs are better and more legitimate
the more masculine they are, and therefore to be
taken seriously or really be men they must reject
everything feminine and aim to be as
close in all ways to cis men as possible.
C. Transphobia: Transmascs break cis gender roles and must be punished for it.
C1. Girl-Boy: Transmascs are both wrong women and wrong men, not being entirely either; they, like all trans people, are a part of a collective third gender that threatens the gender binary & gender roles.
C2. Biological Destiny: AGAB is the defining trait of gender and transmascs are unable to “escape” being assigned female at birth, because of inherent biological weaknesses/differences or because of “female socialization” and the patriarchy.
C3. Deceiver: Transmascs deceive cis people by pretending to be “real” men.
i. Sexual Deceiver: Transmascs trick straight women
and/or gay men into having sex with or being in
a romantic relationship with a woman,
and are therefore sexual predators/rapists.
This section contains examples of how transandrophobic rhetoric is seen in real life actions.
Sexual Assault: In the 2015 US Trans survey, trans men and AFAB enben experience sexual assault at the highest rates of all trans people.1. Corrective rape is common, including from cis women (specifically TERFs) who want to make transmascs "realize they are lesbians" by raping them. Sexual assault can also lead to forced pregnancy, which is discussed below.
Gaslighting: Transmasculine people are often corrected by others on how they experience transphobia, and/or the level of privilege and power they have. Transmasculine people are told they are wrong about the nature and the level of the violence they experience, or that they are lying about this violence. This often arises from the erasure of transmasculine experiences and the erasure of their transness. Additionally, transmascs are told they cannot trust themselves and cannot be trusted to know their gender identity or their experiences, and need other people (specifically cis men and women) to control them and educate them on themselves.
Forced Pregnancy: Going along with sexual assault, transmasculine people may be forced to be or stay pregnant against their will, potentially as a method of forcing them to detransition. Especially if they live in a place where abortion is criminalized as murder, and/or in a place with laws about chemical endangerment of a child2, they could be forced off their hormone treatment against their will. Pregnancy can also cause someone to become dependent on others, easily leading to abuse and control by family or partner/s.
Restricted Transition: In the 2015 US Trans survey, transmasculine people were more likely to be denied coverage for hormone therapy3 and the most likely to be denied coverage for surgery4. Due to fertility panic and beliefs about transmasculine transition being "mutilation", born out of misogyny, there is lots of fearmongering about transmascs who transition. Laws about HRT often cite "young girls" as a main reason for restricting access, believing that there is a plague of "delusional girls" being coerced or tricked into identifying as men, and that laws are needed to save these "girls" from themselves.
Weaponized Cis Womanhood: Much like how white women weaponize their white womanhood and emphasize their percieved helplessness and inability to do harm, cis women weaponize their cis womanhood against transmascs. Cis women use the idea that transmascs are the functionally the same as cis men to cover up their own privilege and power over transmascs.
Suicide: In the 2015 US Trans survey, transmasculine people had attempted suicide at the highest rates of all trans people5. Suicide is an epidemic amongst transmascs, a fact that is often used to suicide-bait transmascs, as well as to insist on the supposed "harm" of being transmascs, ignoring that much of this suicidality comes from experiences with transphobia and transandrophobia specifically.
This section contains citations and resources for furthering reading on transandrophobia.
Citations & Resources
Citations:
1: "Experiences also varied across gender, with
transgender men (51%) and non-binary people with
female on their original birth certificate (58%) being
more likely to have been sexually assaulted, in
contrast to transgender women (37%) and non-
binary people with male on their original birth
certificate (41%) (Figure 15.16)"
2: TW: Cis-centric reproductive language: "More than one-third of states punish pregnant women for substance use through pre-existing laws, erecting barriers to treatment. For example, in New Jersey, a pregnant woman using methadone prescribed to treat her opioid addiction—the accepted standard of care—faced a child abuse/neglect charge and her newborn subsequently was taken into custody (N.J. Division of Youth and Family Services v. Y.N.). In other states, by contrast, pregnant women who use substances have been civilly committed for declining similar addiction treatment. Currently, seventeen states hold that substance abuse during pregnancy qualifies as child abuse under civil child welfare statutes."
3: "Denials for hormone coverage differed by gender,
with transgender men (32%) and non-binary people
who had female on their original birth certificate
(36%) more likely to report being denied hormone coverage than transgender women (18%) and non-
binary people who had male on their original birth
certificate (16%).
4: "Transgender men (57%) were more likely to be
denied surgery coverage than transgender women
(54%) and non-binary people, including non-binary
people with female on their original birth certificate
(49%) and non-binary people with male on their
original birth certificate (35%)."
5: "Lifetime suicide attempt rates were higher for
transgender men (45%) than for transgender
women (40%) and non-binary respondents (39%),
and crossdressers had a substantially lower
rate of attempted suicide in their lifetime (15%)."Resources:
"Transandrophobic Fundamentals and the Intersections of Trans Masc Marginalization" by none-gender-left-man
""Transandrophobia" Primer" by nothorses
"As a transfem, what's your insight on the way transmascs are treated when talking about their experiences?" by cipheramnesia
"Hello, I apologise if you've already received questions like this, but can you explain why you would say that transmisandry/androphobia is distinct from misogyny?" by transfaguette
"What is transandophobia actually?" by transmasc-pirate, with additions by doberbutts and psychoticallytrans
Examples of Transandrophobia tag by genderkoolaid
Experiences with Transandrophobia tag by genderkoolaid