On Transgender Men and “Living Life As a Woman”

Last updated on: September 29, 2014 at 9:41 pm by Libby Anne

On Transgender Men and “Living Life As a Woman” 2014-09-29T21:41:38-04:00 Libby Anne

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In my post earlier today, I wrote the following:

If you are a non-transgender man, please understand that you have no experience living life as a woman.

An exchange took place in the comments that is worth highlighting.

First, reader Isaac had this to say:

Re: Trans men having lived experience “as women”—I think this can be somewhat true, but it’s an idea to apply carefully and lightly. Each trans man has a different experience in which he may experience more or less misogyny directed at him. His experience is also colored by his race, class, and other circumstances, and the end result can be a man who’s basically as clueless about the realities of living-while-female as any cis man. (This’s also true of some cis women—plenty of sexist and anti-feminist stuff comes out of their mouths, after all.) Basically I feel that just as there is no such thing as one “male socialization”, there isn’t one “female socialization” experienced by trans men either.

I clarified that I was referring to the period before transition, as most transgender men present as female for at least some time before transition. I mentioned that this is why I phrased it as “living life as a woman” rather than “being a woman.” I asked whether this distinction made sense.

Reader Ccalliope responded with this:

I wouldn’t say it’s “living as a woman” either, it’s being perceived and treated like a woman. I get a bit wordy here, but since you are always very attentive to these things, hopefully you’ll appreciate it:

A big difference is that you internalize things differently yourself—you don’t necessarily feel the injustice of misogyny when it’s directed at you because it feels like another case of degendering. I can say from experience that my response to for instance catcalls has been “well this is awful, he thinks I’m a girl!” (it’s a bad emotional reaction and I got better). Same thing with many harmful societal messages directed at women—FAAB non-women (this definitely also applies to nonbinary people who aren’t women—everyone to different degrees of course) will not necessarily be effected by misogyny the way women, cis and trans of course, are.

It’s the old socialization argument that gets used to shut trans women out of feminist discourse—oh you were raised as a boy, you haven’t experienced misogyny, you have “residual male privilege”. When—no. Misogyny is all over, in the very patriarchal air we breathe, and it affects women even when it’s not focussed and pointed and addressed to them by name, just because of them being women. And conversely men/non-women will internalize it differently when it is addressed to them. It’s a little like saying a straight boy who has homophobic slurs thrown at him has insight into the struggles of being gay. Sure, if it happens to him constantly and he’s an empathetic child, yes, he may learn from it and know not to be a homophobe. Or he might do the opposite, desperate to show everyone that he’s not a [slur], because he’s good and [slurs]s are bad.

Obviously being trans is on a whole different scale, and vastly more complex. Trans man/cis woman is a more complicated dynamic of privilege and disadvantage than straight/gay, self-awareness as trans at the time is a part of this, as is the degree to which any given trans man identifies with womanhood personally, but I believe my point stands.

Being treated like a woman isn’t the same as experiencing misogyny as a woman, and I would never automatically assume a trans man has more insight into the awfulness of misogyny than a cis man.

I found this extremely helpful, and hopefully some of the rest of you do too!

Previous Post

September 29, 2014

Introduce Yourself!

Next Post

September 30, 2014 More Thoughts on Teaching Consent to Young Children

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Atheism Evangelicalism/Fundamentalism Family Feminism Homeschool Meta Parenting Patriarchy Politics Purity Quiverfull Social Justice Uncategorized Worthwhile reads

Select a Month February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who did Moses marry in Midian?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Dinah Zipporah Rebekah Leah