Trans Women, Male Privilege, Socialisation, and Feminism

[ismnotwasm]

8. I only have anecdotal experiences of a friend

So, while it's psychologically freeing and healthy to live as a gender one identifies with, I can only compare the experience of being Trans as "coming out" Gay to hostile relatives with severe religious bias.
Any M-F or F-M who goes through this experience is not going to be supported by far, far too many in society. They will be seen as " freaks"

When you are a woman, something that's been a part of your psychological make-up but not your physical one, to throw off shackles of incorrect gender quite possibly blinds you to the drawbacks of male privilege because your inner turmoil is so great.

All That being said, F-M Trans are "trained" to be female, clothing, shoes, hair make up, the way you walk.

One of the issues my friends has in the Trans community is how easily she "passes"-- she's 5'9" not 6'2" and had a petite frame, no one would look at her and say "she looks like a man"--she feels this causes jealousy in the Trans community she is a part of, because so many do NOT "pass". This has caused her to withdraw from the Trans community and support groups she was part of.

This is also the part of being Trans that exposes how great gender physical expectations actually are, and how ingrained they are. That in itself is an argument for male privilege. Expectations are different for women seen as attractive and "feminine"

As far as privilege, she doesn't deny it, but she hasn't had the full experiences of not having it. However, this is a decorated combat Vietnam war veteran who was one in of the worst battles in that wars history. She has PTSD. She does color guard sometimrs and simply redirects awkward questions. She doesn't say "I was a woman then, I just had no other option except to live in a mans body".

She is more than happy to discuss feminisms with me, but interestingly enough, she's more likely to talk about her war experiences.

So I think the Trans community may use denial of male privilege as a kind of protective coloring-- this is difficult path to take, surgery or no surgery.

And there ARE Trans feminists who are very aware of male privilege, and I appreciate their input very much.