Due to recent concerns regarding this post by @ashinadash@hexbear.net, I felt compelled to issue a statement to this community.
There were a few people who responded to this post by acknowledging some degree of validity to Serano’s pretty damn explicitly enbyphobic analysis. I just want to start and say that I don’t entirely assume bad faith here, as some people often get sucked into holding bad beliefs in good faith with no malicious intent. However, let me just make something totally clear here: Serano’s ideas presented in this passage, especially if uncritically given a thumbs up, are very harmful.
As a person who has been harmed very harshly by enbyphobia in the trans community, I see through bullshit. I’ve seen disingenuous efforts at masking enbyphobic statements as “I’m just concerned about the oppression of binary trans people!” before. These kinds of takes are often thrown around myopically by people who think that there is, within the trans community, some degree of disproportionate hate against binary trans people compared to how enbies are viewed when, in actuality, it’s the inverse.
Truscummy rhetoric and non-binary erasure have damaged more enbies than any of this so-called “binary-phobia” has damaged binary trans people. This notion of “binary-phobia” being rife in the community is laughable, as this position is such a niche that you seldom hear about it seriously being exercised and you’d especially never see whole online forums dedicated to it. You, however, cannot say the same thing about transmedicalism. Transmedicalism has pushed many false narratives about non-binary people that aim to be prescriptivist and thereby wholly inaccurate in describing the non-binary experience.
To give a common example, truscum often believe that enbies are inherently non-dysphoric and never undergo any form of medical transition. This is demonstrably false, and the enbies who are dysphoric and/or undergo medical transition are not just some tiny, obscure percentage of the non-binary community. These enbies are far more common than one would think if they go beyond watching bigoted cringe compilations and actually take some time to interact with non-binary people.
However, with that being said, even if a trans person is non-dysphoric, that doesn’t make them not a valid trans person, and just to make my point totally clear here: not all non-dysphoric trans people are non-binary, and not all non-binary people are non-dysphoric. Either way, both groups, non-dysphoric trans people and non-binary trans people, whether someone is one, the other, or both, are not invalid in their gender identity. Gender identity is a deeply personal thing, and every single person who is not cis inherently subverts the system that keeps cisheternormative and patriarchal oppression in place. It is about as valid for a binary trans person to be enbyphobic as it is for a cis person to hate trans people in general, but in this case, it is far more hypocritical.
To go back to Serano’s concerns, I’m not saying that I’ve never seen non-binary people give bad takes on binary trans people and gender transition altogether. I have, but these are rare cases that don’t make this notion of a major problem with “binary-phobia” any more legitimate of a concern than something as silly as “anti-white racism.” I sensed that a lot of users were trying to sniff out good faith in what Serano is saying, but it is nowhere to be found, so you can stop looking. If there were, at the very least, some fair understanding for the current day, she would’ve done a fair revision of this horrid passage, but she has not.
The bottom line is that gender identity is incredibly personal, and as leftists who absolutely do not want to validate systems of oppression, anyone who is gatekeeping certain kinds of trans people or being bigoted in some other way towards them is going against some of the core, fundamental principles of leftism by validating reactionary, oppressive structures. Whether someone is medically transitioning or not, dysphoric or non-dysphoric, binary or non-binary, gender-conforming or gender-nonconforming, or existing in any way that a trans person can exist whatsoever, and there are a lot of those, they are welcome here, and this is a judgement-free zone for all transgender, non-binary, and genderqueer comrades.
If you have yet to do so, please read The Gender Accelerationist Manifesto by Eme Flores and Vikky Storm, and I have an old effortpost comment that takes down transmedicalism and actually references this work in the process right here.
You are all valid in your gender identities and experiences as trans, non-binary, and genderqueer people, so do NOT fucking tell anyone else here that they aren’t, even if you’re doing it with the mask on.
Also if any more anti-transmed comrades would like to join the mod team please reply here and we can induct you into the cabal
Thanks for making this post, I was dismayed at the reaction, frankly. I had expected to make my big, bold shitpost and have people go ‘haha yeah, what a silly passage to put in this otherwise cool text’, not… that.
I only ever read selected passages from Serano’s work- I can see why the people in my life would have skipped those parts, really disappointing to only be finding out about it now.
Its always frustrating to deal with enbyphobia. Cissies will they me if I tell them I’m nonbinary and put me in the designated trinary box instead of understanding what nonbinary is (and will continue to be bad when I call them out,) and binary trans people will say I’m fake for not using they/them while being nonbinary, again somehow not understanding what being nonbinary is.
Cissies will they me if I tell them I’m nonbinary and put me in the designated trinary box instead of understanding what nonbinary is (and will continue to be bad when I call them out,) and binary trans people will say I’m fake for not using they/them while being nonbinary
Getting tactically they/themed (dripping with disdain) just because you’re pissing someone off while visibly trans is obnoxious, especially when they try to be like ‘it’s just the English language, can you believe this guy’
especially when they try to be like ‘it’s just the English language, can you believe this guy’
Malicious pedantry is still being a proper dickhead and idk how cis crackers mentally resolve that kind of bullshit in their heads. Like, fuck am I gonna want to talk to you if you give the vibe that you are maliciously ignoring pronouns? It’d be different if it was me; I prefer they/them-- but your pronouns are right there, in easy sight. There’s no excuse for it that point.
Malicious pedantry
You better be careful of insulting lemmy users by accusing them of pedantry or you might get your post removed for a civility violation
Thanks for linking that post. It gave me a lot of food for thought. I just recently read Whipping Girl and have to admit that I read the parts being criticized by @ashinadash@hexbear.net more or less uncritically.
I don’t spend much time in queer spaces irl (always felt too gay for the straights and and too straight for the gays rip), I don’t have a reality check to compare Serano’s take to. Anyway I appreciate the critique.
See this is what I was worried about, wonder how many people have read that and then just carried it with them. Not a fan! And so I had to post.
what if we had transmedicalism but it’s a femmed version of medic from tf2