On Gay Transmen July 8, 2012

Posted by FCM in feminisms Tags: gay transmen

anti-feminists frequently demand that radical feminists address the problem of transmen when we are addressing transgender — as if transmanism and transwomanism have very much to do with each other, even though they really dont. unsurprisingly, the transman “problem” — that is to say the concept of transmanism as well as the different problems that transgender is supposed to solve for individual FAABs — falls directly in line with addressing the problems of females as a sexual class, around the world. ie. we do address them, all the time. transmen’s problems line up with womens problems and would be solved if feminism succeeded — there would be no remaining problem that transitioning would solve. that means that for women, transitioning is a proposed solution for patriarchal problems only.

whereas transwomen’s “problems” would not be solved if feminism succeeded — that means transwomens problems are male problems, and do not implicate male power or womens oppression by men, which are the kinds of problems feminists are interested in solving. post-patriarchy, transwomen would definitely not be let into female-only space, for example. and insofar as transwomen depend on global female oppression to define and maintain their identities, and depend on subjugated females on which to model their feminine behaviors, and insofar as born-women not coddling transwomen is a “problem” for transwomen, transwomens problems will actually be made worse when and if patriarchy falls, because they would not be able to express their gender properly, the entire concept — or the parts of which are dependent on female oppression — having been abolished. and because NO ONE would put up with their shit.

honestly, how many women post-patriarchy would agree to nurse mewling, howling manbabies under any circumstance, particularly trying to do so while juggling six cans of mace and genuflecting before the mighty phallus? its exhausting, and not even the fun-fems, i daresay, would put one second or one ounce of their time or energy into that endeavor, suddenly finding themselves free to spend their time as they wished, and without the fear of male violence. i myself have already decided that if patriarchy falls, i plan to turn cartwheels down the street until my hands bleed, then sleep on the beach for a week while i decompress, and contemplate how im going to spend my days from that point forward. but i digress.

anyway, my initial point is that if your problems would be made worse — rather than solved — if patriarchy fell, you are a man.

moving on, to address the very pressing problem of “gay transmen” may i offer the following: PIV criticism. yes thats right, gay transmen — heterosexual fucking is, indeed, problematic for women — you are right about that. you absolutely arent imagining it.

just for fun — and everyone likes fun! — try this on, gay transmen, and see if any of it fits.

you hate how straight men fuck, but you still want to fuck men. right? welcome to female heterosexuality.

you hate how straight men use sex to terrorize their female-bodied partners by giving us pregnancy scares and having a deliberately contrarian libido which never, ever matches ours. perhaps, you resent how your mother and everyone always told you that “all men want is sex” but then once you started having it yourself, you realized that men really dont want to fuck that often — just enough to make you afraid you are pregnant every month, but never enough to give you any real pleasure. yes? welcome to female heterosexuality. thats pretty much the definition of it.

or, perhaps you, gay transmen, dont really want to fuck that often, but your male partner wants it all the time? welcome to female heterosexuality. (if not having intercourse that often is something that “gay transmen” even want, which i doubt — is it homophobic (or misandric) of me to observe thats not how gay male culture generally works, especially the part about trolling gay bars? oh well). seriously, im thinking these women want frequent intercourse, and they find heterosexual fucking seriously lacking in that regard, but what do i know, having been there and done that myself? its just a hunch.

at any rate, you want to fuck men, but you dont want all the baggage that comes with straight fucking, for females. i get it. but looking at the big picture (aka. context) reveals that thing you want is what all women want — to have our sexuality include sexual pleasure and to exclude reproductive pain. if you noticed that heterosexual fucking doesnt work like that, well, you arent alone. it doesnt make you a gay male though, sorry.

also, having intercourse for pleasures sake — considering the harm it does to female-bodied persons — is anti-feminist, and that cannot be remedied.

anyway, criticism of heterosexual fucking and the problems it presents for female-bodied persons is not new. radical feminists have been addressing this for decades, but the trans horde does not want transmen or anyone to know about that. in fact, transgender activism specifically demands that PIV-critical radical feminists be silenced, and their work erased from the face of the earth. it would behoove transmen — and all women — to consider why that is.