hey. hey guys.

[potato_head]

This is just a reminder to my fellow trans* guys that the t-word is not ours to reclaim. A slur, at its most basic roots, is a reminder along the lines of 'I could kill you right now, and nobody would care'. Almost all (think 9 in 10 or more) trans* people killed in hate crimes are trans* women, and murderers of trans* men are much more likely to be brought to justice or at the very least acknowledged in the wider LGBT community. Murders of trans* women, especially WoC, often barely make local news.

Yes, there are people who use the t word towards trans* men. But it doesn't mean the same thing. It doesn't mean 'society would validate me for an act of violence towards you'. It is a comparison to trans* women. It generally (generally, not always) doesn't indicate that they're about to punish you for your existence through violence.

Yes, trans* men do suffer. Yes, we are sometimes the victims of hate crimes and more often the victims of discrimination due to our trans* status. And no, we do not have the same privileges as a cis man. But please remember that we do have male privilege, especially compared to trans* women, because they need all the support they can get. We cannot turn our backs on them. It is not acceptable to leave behind trans* women simply because society has deemed us more acceptable.


IDK if this really fits in here, but it's come up before when I've tried to have this conversation with certain guys I really respect but strongly disagree with on this issue. No, trans* men are not targeted less because of our invisibility. Perhaps a few decades ago that argument could have been made...but it is obvious, now, that we are being accorded some amount of male privilege. We are no longer invisible, and only a decade or so off the mark, we're being portrayed more sensitively in the media than trans* women are. If you're looking for some blatant evidence of this...trans* men in comedy movies are portrayed as sensitive and rounded characters, as well as Hollywood can do those things. Chaz Bono has been elected the 'trans* spokesperson' by cis people, despite the many trans* women who have been more than qualified to achieve fame in their own right - some of whom have, but nobody is asking them about their experiences, struggles, or views. We are not invisible, and we are gaining power while trans* women are being killed and nobody talks about it, and that isn't okay.


...I actually hadn't been planning to write that all up like, right now, but apparently it all wanted to come out. I had been planning on like. Links and stuff. Maybe I'll come back and add some. Er.

Comments

[pwalkeri.livejournal.com]

Trans* (I don't know why you write it that way, but I figure there's a reason, so I'm copying) men are a very interesting conundrum to me on a social level. Clearly they get some male privilege because they present as men, yet I'd bet a huge reason you don't see/hear about a lot of violence towards trans* men is because society is still more sympathetic to women and society, as a whole, still considers trans* men "technically" female. Therefore, violence against trans* men is less outright and more emotional (going along the lines of the differences in violence towards men and women; men tend to experience physical violence, while women tend to experience more emotional/verbal violence). If a group of men beat a trans* woman within inches of her life, there are going to be less people outraged than if they had beaten up a trans* man, because the men are still, "actually", beating up a woman (per social perception). Yet, in typical, day-to-day society, trans* men are still afforded male privilege, while trans* women aren't (because society has deemed than men "pretending" to be women lose their manhood and, therefore, their privilege).


(Note: This is not how I feel, but how I perceive society to feel about the difference between trans* men/women and how it relates to your post.)

[poto-heart.livejournal.com]

(The asterisk is a radical/wild card, so trans* stands for transgender, transsexual, and just trans, since some people identify as one or the other or all. There are...somewhat outdated 'technical' definitions for these terms, like that transgender is an umbrella term including people who only socially transition, transsexual if you are or are intending to medical transition, etc. but basically trans* is just an inclusive term, like veg*an for vegan+vegetarian)

I see where you're coming from, but I think you may be neglecting the fact that cis women suffer from more violence overall than cis men. Assuming that the kinds of violence each group suffers from can be tied to the kind of censureship they are more likely to exert (men more physically violent, women more socially violent) is unfortunately inaccurate, since, well, there are a lot of men who physically attack women in various ways, regardless of what society or chivalry thinks of it. Although there is also the fact that men are seen as supposed to be accepting some physical violence as just part of their life, and this may mean that the reported stats for cis men are lower than reality...there's still a pretty big disparity; but I can see where that might also be contributing to violence against trans* women, as a matter of justification.

But yeah - trans* men also suffer from less violence than cis women; especially women in the GLB community, which is another good thing for us to keep in mind, because a lot of trans* men completely abandon feminism (or alternative, trans*-friendly, racially-inclusive movements like womanism) and women in the queer community when we owe everything we have today to them.


ETA - I would like to say that I agree (I think you said this) that out trans* men are more likely to suffer mysogyny in day-to-day social interactions vs. out trans* women who are more likely to experience transphobia. But that's just based on my personal observations so it might be completely inaccurate. I do think it's probable that trans* men and trans* women are accorded male privilege in different...areas? Spheres? By society.

[pwalkeri.livejournal.com]

I have thoughts! Thinky, thinky thoughts. But I'm on my phone and typing then out would take forevers.

If I remember, after I get home from PIB, I SHALL CONTINUE THIS CONVO. Because I heart our thinky thought convos.

[poto-heart.livejournal.com]

YES ME TOO

And I also hate phone-typing oh god