Xander | 14 | He/Him | Drummer and Guitarist |Pansexual

what is transphobia?

communistbakery:

there’s been a lot of confusion lately around what is or isn’t transphobic, and a lot of the answers people give are messy so i thought i’d make a post directly explaining it. i hope it helps!

  • preferences
    • everybody has preferences based on appearance, of course, and you wouldn’t call a straight man homophobic for not being attracted to men. however, if a straight man is not attracted to women that look like men (i.e. pre-transition), then they cannot say that they are attracted to women because they’re ignoring a huge part of that demographic. they are attracted to women with vaginas, not women. to say you’re attracted to women with vaginas is not transphobic; to say you’re attracted to women and then not count women that don’t present in a feminine way is.
    • if you’re a straight man and you find a fully transitioned trans woman (male to female) and wouldn’t date her because she used to have “male” genitalia, that is transphobic. as i said before, preference based on appearance is understandable. preference based on whether or not somebody used to be a different sex is not
    • to sum up: preferences are okay, but if your preference is only because of the fact that they’ve transitioned, you are being transphobic. you cannot say you are attracted to women and leave trans women out. consider saying you’re attracted to biological women instead.
  • language
    • unfortuantely, society has a lot of transphobic terms that we use so commonly we don’t realize that they’re even harmful. the first part of this is terms that we use to refer to actual trans people. a common phrase is “tranny.” this is an extremely offensive term and we’ve only ever heard it associated with negative things. please do not refer to people who are transgender as “trannies.” some alternatives: call them by their names. we’re people too.
    • if you have to reference the fact that somebody is transgender, don’t refer to them as “a transgender.” doing this is incredibly objectifying, reducing us to nothing more than the fact that we don’t allign with the gender that we were assigned. please refer as us as “people who are transgender,” or “transgender people.” the people part of it is very important to include - we are people too.
    • trans girl/trans guy - these are terms people use a lot to refer to transgender people. the gender after the word trans refers to the gender the person identifies as. i’m transgender and i identify as a girl, so i’m a trans girl.
    • for a list of things you might ask a trans person that are transphobic, please click here
  • transmisogyny and transphobia in feminism
    • transphobes are often perpetrators of another type of internalized  hate - misogyny. misogyny is the belief that men are superior to women, and in the context of transgender people, transmisogyny is where transphobia is supported by misogynistic behavior
    • radical feminism. a lot of radical feminists believe that trans women are not truly women because gender is a binary and therefore trans women deserve to be held to the same standards as men, and treated accordingly. while it is true that gender is socially constructed, the societal pressure put on men and women to be a certain gender is very real, and whether radical feminists like it or not, trans women like myself experience dysphoria when we’re treated like men, especially those of us that are pre-transition. feminism strives to overthrow the patriarchy and do away with all of the effects it has, and one of those effects is dysphoria occuring to trans men and women as a result of societal pressure. to call yourself a feminist and to be against trans people means that you see women as tits and a vagina, which is not only objectifying, but it is also doing exactly what sexists do, and reducing women to nothing more than their bodies. if you do this, you are being transphobic.
  • violence against transgender people and your role in it
    • when trans women transition, they are seen as women by otherwise transphobic people, and are therefore subject to sexism. a common term for a trans woman is a “trap,” as a lot of straight men believe that they’re being tricked into having a gay relationship, as they still see women as men. as a result, trans women, especially trans women of color, are subject to some of the highest rates of violence in the world. the average age that a trans woman lives to is 30 to 32 years old. that was the average lifespan during the dark ages. the fact that a man believed he was going to be having sex with a woman but found out the woman was transgender has literally been used to win court cases. this is engrained very deeply in our society. trans men face a lower rate of violence against them but they are subject to sexism when it’s found out that they’ve transitioned. because of this, transgender men also have a lower lifespan than cisgender people, on average. 
    • this is where you come in. as a cis person, you have the privilege of not having to worry about your gender, or at least not to the extreme that a trans person does. you may feel pressure, as we all do, to conform to your role, but you will not face the same kind of oppression that a trans person will for it, especially not trans women of color. that’s why it is your responsibility to ensure that trans people have a safe environment. there are many small things that you can do. as a cis person it’s your responibility to educate yourself. start here, and continue to read and be objective when you take in media. it’s not something that can be easily unlearned, and nobody is expecting you to be perfect overnight. however, we are expecting you to make the effort.

I hope this post helped!! if there’s anything that you find confusing feel free to message me and i’ll reply or add it to this post. thank you for reading!

10:25:03 @ 4/19/2015
11,184 notes
Reblogged from communistbakery-deactivated2017
Posted by communistbakery-deactivated2017

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