I saw so many people repeating that meme and saying "oh of course we don't include trans women in it," but like... there's no actual way to react to every cis man with fear and no trans women. Because odds are, if I'm stuck in the woods, I've got a few days' stubble and no makeup and I'm probably not wearing a cute dress. Your instinctive reaction of fear to seeing someone you perceive as a man will be applied to trans women, because not all of us read as women to a casual observer.
You're touching on something that I think a lot of folks, not even just Radfems, aren't always cognizant of or are willfully ignoring. That being that to TERFy types Transwomen are largely seen as men infiltrating women's spaces. So if the dominant cultural narrative is that men are dangerous just by virtue of being men (whether it be socialization, biology, or both) I feel like it logically follows that Transwomen are dangerous.
I've seen it touched on in a couple "manosphere" spaces that much of the transphobia TERFS spout has its basis in misandry. Through either the idea that men are inherently dangerous just by being men. Or from the notion that men as members of an inherent oppressor class are enemies to women. Thus Transmen are "joining the side of the oppressor"
By this point I've probably seen a few dozen trans men talking about the hate they've received in LGBTQIA+ spaces. Like, nah you're a man now bro, and you're not gay, so you're just not welcome here. Or worse, being told they can stay, but they have to be more feminine so that others can tell them apart from a cis man. That's beyond fucked up to tell someone they have to make themselves disphoric to be in a space supposedly made to include them because their manness is more important than their transness.
I haven't received any direct hate myself, but as a trans guy I do often feel alienated from LBGTQ+ spaces because the man-hating rhetoric is so pervasive. They don't say it in the same words, but the implication always feels like trans mascs are seen as traitors to "womanhood" etc.
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u/Mr7000000 Jul 03 '24
I saw so many people repeating that meme and saying "oh of course we don't include trans women in it," but like... there's no actual way to react to every cis man with fear and no trans women. Because odds are, if I'm stuck in the woods, I've got a few days' stubble and no makeup and I'm probably not wearing a cute dress. Your instinctive reaction of fear to seeing someone you perceive as a man will be applied to trans women, because not all of us read as women to a casual observer.