Nick Kiddle (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ksej) wrote,@ 2008-07-19 23:56:00 |
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Male feminists, cis and trans
I was hanging around on the fringes of a discussion about male feminists the other week, and I noticed that several people were making it clear they were talking about cis male feminists. The implication to saying it's disturbing when (cis) men describe themselves as feminists being, presumably, that it's perfectly fine when trans men do it.
Now to start with, I don't even know where I stand on the question of whether men should identify as feminists. I never like claiming any label for myself, even the ones that clearly apply to me, so I'm the last person to go around telling people what labels they ought to apply to themselves. And there have been so many acrimonious discussions lately about what it means to identify as a feminist that I'm basically not in any hurry to go there.
But if I accept the premise that it's disturbing when (cis) men call themselves feminists, I still don't know what to make of that implication. On the one hand, trans men do often have a more personal stake in feminism than cis men, especially early in transition. If we still have all our female parts, we're still at risk of getting pregnant. If we don't yet pass consistently, we're still exposed to sexism. And if we get outed, misogyny definitely plays a role in the way we're treated - I keep remembering that Brandon Teena was raped when he was first outed.
On the other hand, I just don't like being set apart. Misogyny gets directed against gay men too - against any gender-nonconforming men. And there's nothing about being trans that makes you automatically pro-feminist. I've seen guys take on all kinds of sexist attitudes as a way of distancing themselves from women. I also knew a guy who called himself a "feminist on testosterone" (in answer to the implied criticism that he was somehow betraying the sisterhood by becoming a man) who saw no problem with calling women "love" even when they made their discomfort with it clear.
This idea that trans men are special men, kinder, gentler men who understand women and women's stuff, is all over the place. It's flattering, but in the end it's not something I can be comfortable with. Some of us like to think we are kind and gentle, but so do some cis men. We deserve to be judged by the same standards as other men, and giving us a free pass unmans us.
I was hanging around on the fringes of a discussion about male feminists the other week, and I noticed that several people were making it clear they were talking about cis male feminists. The implication to saying it's disturbing when (cis) men describe themselves as feminists being, presumably, that it's perfectly fine when trans men do it.
Now to start with, I don't even know where I stand on the question of whether men should identify as feminists. I never like claiming any label for myself, even the ones that clearly apply to me, so I'm the last person to go around telling people what labels they ought to apply to themselves. And there have been so many acrimonious discussions lately about what it means to identify as a feminist that I'm basically not in any hurry to go there.
But if I accept the premise that it's disturbing when (cis) men call themselves feminists, I still don't know what to make of that implication. On the one hand, trans men do often have a more personal stake in feminism than cis men, especially early in transition. If we still have all our female parts, we're still at risk of getting pregnant. If we don't yet pass consistently, we're still exposed to sexism. And if we get outed, misogyny definitely plays a role in the way we're treated - I keep remembering that Brandon Teena was raped when he was first outed.
On the other hand, I just don't like being set apart. Misogyny gets directed against gay men too - against any gender-nonconforming men. And there's nothing about being trans that makes you automatically pro-feminist. I've seen guys take on all kinds of sexist attitudes as a way of distancing themselves from women. I also knew a guy who called himself a "feminist on testosterone" (in answer to the implied criticism that he was somehow betraying the sisterhood by becoming a man) who saw no problem with calling women "love" even when they made their discomfort with it clear.
This idea that trans men are special men, kinder, gentler men who understand women and women's stuff, is all over the place. It's flattering, but in the end it's not something I can be comfortable with. Some of us like to think we are kind and gentle, but so do some cis men. We deserve to be judged by the same standards as other men, and giving us a free pass unmans us.
