Transmisogyny

Framework

The concept of transmisogyny hinges on two other concepts first described by Serano: traditional sexism and oppositional sexism. The former is the idea that "maleness and masculinity are superior to femaleness and femininity", while the latter holds male and female as "rigid, mutually exclusive categories". Transmisogyny stems from both these concepts.

In Whipping Girl, Julia Serano writes that the existence of trans women is seen as a threat to a "male-centered gender hierarchy". Gender theorist Judith Butler echoes this assumption, stating that the murder of transgender women by men is "the most toxic form that masculinity can take", a way for the killer to assert power over the victim in the instant, in response to the idea of the intrinsic nature of his power (i.e., his masculinity) being threatened. Butler states that trans women have relinquished masculinity, showing that it is possible to do so.

Trans panic is a common legal and social defense strategy that is used to justify violence towards transgender individuals, particularly trans women. Similar to Gay Panic, it suggests that the aggressor was provoked into violence due to the victim's gender presentation being misleading or deceptive. In A Short History of Trans Misogyny, Jules Gill-Peterson outlines several moments of trans panic related violence leading back to the 1800s. She adds that, "The misgendering of trans-femme individuals as male sexual aggression… allows people to respond to trans femininity with as much preemptive violence as they desire."

Instances

United States

Transgender women face harsher levels of discrimination than some other transgender people. An analysis of around 7.000 LGBTQ+ workers conducted by the HRC Foundation found that trans women report the largest wage gap out of the gender-variant demographics, earning sixty cents for every one dollar earned by a typical worker, less than what is earned by trans men. However, the opposite effect was also observed in a study published in Labour Economics based on data from the US Transgender Survey, which has a different methodology and sample, notably including closeted trans people and any employment status.

According to Laura Kacere (2014), trans people experience a disproportionately large number of hate crimes, with trans women experiencing the majority of these crimes. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (2012) found that police violence is three times higher against transgender people than it is against cisgender people. In fact, over half of all anti-LGBTQIA+ homicides were perpetrated against transgender women. (See List of people killed for being transgender.) In the United States, the majority of transmisogyny is directed at trans women of color. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation (2018) reports significant overlaps between the gender identity and race of anti-trans violence victims: of the known homicides of transgender people from 2013 to 2018, approximately 92% were trans women, and approximately 70% were black. Kacere (2014) also states that 21% of transgender women and 47% of black transgender women have experienced incarceration, rates that are much higher than those for the overall U.S. population.

Ecuador

A study of discrimination directed against lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender and intersex women in Ecuador found that transgender women "lack protection against discrimination in both law and practice." As a result, trans women have faced violence, sexual abuse, and discrimination in educational, health and workforce institutions.

Sexualization and harassment

Julia Serano has stated that many trans women experience an additional layer of misogyny in the form of fetishization. She notes that, despite public fixation on describing even post-transition trans women as male, they are rarely sexualized as men. In the porn industry, whose target audience is primarily heterosexual men, trans women are largely presented as sexual objects.

According to Serano, the sexualisation of trans women is not solely because transgender women, by nature of their relative rarity, are viewed as "exotic": she notes that trans women are sexualized particularly much even compared to other types of "rare" women. In Whipping Girl, Serano writes on what she calls a "predator–prey dichotomy" where "men are invariably viewed as predators and women as prey." Because of this view, trans women are perceived to be luring men by transitioning and "turning [themselves] into sexual objects that no red-blooded man can resist."

Transmisogynistic violence and harassment directed towards trans feminine individuals is often perpetrated by strangers rather than those known by the victim and oftentimes includes catcalling and other forms of verbal abuse. Although some states have non-discrimination laws protecting transgender individuals, there is no federal law specifically designed to protect those who identify as transgender.

Forming coalitions with trans activism is crucial to collectively challenge both ableism and transmisogyny. Transmisogyny and ableism often intersect, resulting in unique challenges for trans disabled individuals who face compounded discrimination and marginalization.

Relation to transphobia

Transmisogyny is a distinct category of transphobia in that transmisogyny mainly focuses on trans women and other transgender individuals who demonstrate femininity, whereas transphobia is a more general term, covering a broader spectrum of prejudice and discrimination towards transsexual and transgender individuals. Julia Serano states in Whipping Girl that "[w]hen the majority of jokes made at the expense of trans people center on 'men wearing dresses' or 'men who want their penises cut off' that is not transphobia – it is transmisogyny. When the majority of violence and sexual assaults committed against trans people is directed at trans women, that is not transphobia – it is transmisogyny."

In an interview in The New York Times, Serano states the discrimination experienced by transgender women differs from that experienced by transgender men as follows:

Online stereotypes

The phenomenon described by Serano is particularly evident in online depictions of trans women, mainly in Internet memes wherein trans women are often derogatorily portrayed as masculine men wearing feminine clothing. The same transphobic depictions also often attempt to express that trans women suffer from victim mentality, are overreactive and demanding, or are "pretending" to be women with the intention of sexually harassing "real" women and/or children. Such motifs are particularly prominent in discourse surrounding trans bathroom bills.

Pseudoscience

Noteworthy in the discussion surrounding transmisogyny is also the idea of autogynephilia, a hypothetical paraphilia proposed by Ray Blanchard, and defined by him as "a male's propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female." Although modern scientific knowledge does not completely rule out the existence of autogynephilia as something that may occur in some individuals, it contradicts Blanchard's formulation that it is the basis for the transsexuality of heterosexual trans women. The dominant scientific explanation remains the incongruence between gender identity and assigned sex, which is responsible for gender dysphoria. Nevertheless, autogynephilia is often promoted by anti-LGBT hate groups and transphobic writers as an attempt to pathologize trans identity.

On the topic of autogynephilia, Julia Serano (a former academic biologist by profession) has said: "If proponents of autogynephilia insist that every exception to the model is due to misreporting, then autogynephilia theory must be rejected on the grounds that it is unfalsifiable and therefore unscientific. If, on the other hand, we accept that these exceptions are legitimate, then it is clear that autogynephilia theory's two-subtype taxonomy does not hold true."

References

References

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