Unfortunately I had to get into a struggle session this morning about whether men and masculinity are inherently cruel and misogynistic by nature.
I love this website, and I’ve seen us improve through discussion many times over the years, so I’d like to open this thread to discuss (trans)masculinity and how it fits into leftism.
As leftists, one of our core beliefs is in the ability of people and societies to improve. I think this goes hand in hand with the ability to understand and create space for positive masculinities in our communities.
Framing all masculinity as inherently oppressive and misogynistic is counterproductive for several reasons, including (but not limited to):
- Giving men an excuse to refuse to examine toxic behaviors (e.g. “I can’t help it, it’s in my nature!”)
- Making trans men and transmasculine people feel ashamed to transition and/or come out of the closet.
I’d like to share one of my favorite articles about transmasculinity. I’ve posted it on this site before, but it bears posting again: https://thenewinquiry.com/on-hating-men-and-becoming-one-anyway/
An excerpt:
Secondly, unitary theory redefined the terms of gender oppression in a way that places the ultimate blame on the bourgeoisie (a group that I, in my entry-level research job, definitely do not belong to, with none of the grey area associated with my maleness). I now understand the ways in which working-class men benefit from oppressing women as analogous to the ways in which scabs benefit from strikebreaking. The gains are undoubtedly real on an individual level but are not representative of workers’ ultimate class interest in either scenario. This allows for meaningful solidarity across gender lines.
Also, as usual, fuck off with this "you have seen this on the internet" shit. I am not some baby trans girl whose only contact with the community is online, my main experience with this is irl or if it was online then in spaces that serve as comms channels for irl communities i've been part of over the years. I am not talking about some tumblr argument. I am talking about how tiny groups of transmasc people orchestrate successful harassment campaigns against trans women in largely transfem communities and cut them off from vital real life support networks because these women have vented about r_pe culture too loudly or didn't want to be constantly misgendered and invalidated by trans men. I'm talking about comrades who are still working through trauma from having their femininity denied at the earliest stage of their coming out process by transmasc people ten years their senior simply because they wanted to shut them up with killer phrases about male socialization. I am talking about girls with abuse trauma being attacked for not wanting cis men in spaces that had always been trans only and a ton of other stuff along these lines. And that's not even getting into my own direct experiences. Do not talk down to me like that when you're defending a guy who still openly refuses to believe that trans women are women because he wants to retain that feeling of justified indignation he had when he still consciously thought he was a girl and because he wants to deny how he benefits from patriarchy when it allows him to type out garbage like this article and have it praised and upvoted on a site with a structural misogyny problem like hexbear.
When you lead in with a title as loaded and bad faith as "Is it misogyny to be a (trans) man", you need to reckon with women pushing back against that shit.
You’re reading a lot into my post that isn’t there. I have no ill will towards you, but I don’t think there’s anything I could possibly say that would convince you of that. I’m gonna go log off for a few weeks or months.
Yeah while you're taking your little break, you may want to reflect why sharing brainwormed, transmisogynist BS is your epic clapback to just having been in a discussion that led to you pulling a literal "not all men". Or why leftist misogynists are so fond of weaponizing accusations of gender essentialism. Just saying.