For most trans people, transitioning is not a choice. It is the only way to escape debilitating gender dysphoria that creeps into every part of life. For some trans people, it is a choice, which is fine. If one feels more comfortable living as a different gender from the one they were assigned at birth, who am I to judge? Either way, cis or trans, dysphoric or not, living as any gender is a morally neutral thing. At least, it should be. Enter gender essentialism. In recent years, we have seen a rise in what is called 'trans-exclusionary radical feminism’, in which modern radical feminism is combined with transphobia. This is most commonly welded against trans women, who are labeled predatory males attempting to invade some divine biological womanhood. That isn’t to say that trans men do not face discrimination or demonization by TERFs, they certainly do, especially older ones or those further along in their transition, but it is different from the discrimination by TERFs towards trans women. To many, the problem with TERFism is solely their trans-exclusion. This has led to the formation of another ideology; trans-affirming radical feminism. Seems fine, right? But this completely ignores a major, overarching problem with modern radical feminism, one that is the direct cause of transphobia from TERFs: bioessentialism. Bioessentialism is the belief that one’s biology is unchangeable and directly influences their personality or life. This is where many TERF arguments stem from; trans women were born male (inherently evil and powerful), and trans men were born female (inherently soft and delicate). To them, “biological females" are always victims and suffering, and “biological males" are always oppressors and thriving. It’s a binary worldview that hurts everyone. But TARFs affirm trans individuals, so how could they believe this? Well, this is where bioessentialism’s sneaky cousin that I previously mentioned makes an entrance: gender essentialism. Gender essentialism is harder to spot, and therefore harder to fight, because of its ability to appear progressive. Gender essentialism says that, yeah, trans men are men and trans women are women, and that’s something everyone can agree with. But then, gender essentialism also says that, yeah, trans men are men, and men are inherently evil and powerful, and yeah, trans women are women, and women are inherently soft and delicate. This leads us to where we are now. Cis women have realized that they can’t be openly transphobic, so they’ve turned to more covert transphobia. It’s no longer acceptable to call trans people “evil biological males" and “defenseless biological females", so they need a new, acceptable way to punch down at trans people. And trans men are perfect for that. We chose to be evil, powerful men after all. Nevermind the inherent privilege held by cis people over trans people in a society that values gender conformity first and foremost, we clearly don’t care about women if we chose to leave behind soft delicate femininity for strong powerful masculinity. The core belief of radical feminism is that misogyny is the most fundamental form of oppression, and that every other form of discrimination branches from it — a belief that has been criticized again and again by intersectional and third-wave feminists. TARFs are no exception to this belief. Bigotry towards trans men is fine because, although they are cis, they are women, and trans men are men, and therefore being transphobic to trans men is “punching up" (even aside from cis women having privilege over trans men due to being cis, it’s not an unknown fact that trans men routinely face misogyny due to their assumed assigned sex. “Confused little girls,” anyone?). It is the same logic used by many white women who are racist towards Black men; you are a man (oppressor), I am a woman (oppressed), and nevermind the other aspects of our identity that impact how we’re viewed by society. Don’t think that TARFism only negatively affects trans men, though. Just like how TERFism hurts the same women they claim to be protecting by holding them to certain standards of femininity, so too does TARFism — it just includes trans women now. Like how TERFs see womanhood as an exclusive club only available to some, so too do TARFs. If a trans woman doesn’t conform to Western standards of white womanhood, doesn’t care about passing, or is simply seen as “not trying hard enough to be a woman,” TARFs revert right back to TERFs and hurl the same transmisogynistic rhetoric we’re all familiar with. In conclusion, radical feminism was an important stepping stone to reach third-wave intersectional feminism, but it’s time to leave it behind. Any kind of feminism that promotes inherent differences between men and women and ignores intersectionality should be disavowed by all. The only way forward is to listen to others, uplift the voices of others, and be kind to others. The only way forward is intersectionality.
