Do trans women ever experience male privilege ?

 Do trans women ever experience male privilege ?

My personal opinion:

The simple answer here is no, because we’re not male. But it doesn’t really do much to address the point of the question except change the language. But to me it’s kind of like asking if gay people have straight privilege before coming out. A gay person may be less directly targeted with homophobia in the closet, but that does not mean they hold the same power and are as little affected by homophobia as straight people.

I think everyone reading this would agree that no trans woman is treated as a male in any way that’s beneficial after beginning transition. Statistics back this up pretty conclusively regarding employment and housing discrimination, risk of physical and sexual assault and intimate partner violence. While all trans people are at higher risk of these issues, what research there is seems to predominantly show a gap between trans men and trans women that is about the same as the gap between cis men and cis women (just a higher baseline). On some issues this gap is smaller, others it is greater.

Now, if you can’t even agree with that basic premise that trans women who present as and live openly as women do not hold male privilege, then just stop reading now. I doubt you’ll take on board anything further I have to say if you can’t even accept that basic reality.

However there seems to be contention and little research or public discussion about pre-transition and childhood experiences in specific. Trans kids do internalise gendered societal messaging, all the messages about boys being strong, girls being weak, about acceptable behaviours, etc, but there’s more to it than that.

As such I’m gonna get into some deeper shit under the read more with a bunch of trigger warnings for mentions of abuse, SA, CSA (no descriptions though):

I believe trans girls are treated as “failed boys” and thus denied access to privileges and recognition that is given to cis boys, are isolated, punished, and made vulnerable as a result. Neglect, abuse, CSA, violence are all common experiences for trans kids and trans girls more than others.

I believe lack of discussion and investigation into this is both due to cis dominant perspectives failing to consider how being trans has material affects on one’s life when not yet viewed as one’s actual gender, on regressive diagnostic criteria that required trans women make no mention of experience of abuse in order to receive a GID diagnosis (which was required to access HRT and GRS). Perhaps it’s also due to fears about feeding into ideas that abuse causing transness (or some “deviance” or fetishism that wasn’t “real transsexualism”) that are often used by transphobes to discredit trans identities, or maybe it’s just that this shit is traumatic and we don’t want to talk about it especially not to those that already view us with suspicion and prejudice.

Personally, even if someone was trans as a result of childhood abuse and the impact it has on one’s brain development, I don’t believe that would make their identity illegitimate. But I digress.

There’s some research to show that trans people are subject to high rates of abuse during childhood which I’ve previously shared (a study in Spain, another US psychological study of behaviours of parents of transexuals, various bits and pieces from various  studies). A lot of queer kids are subject to higher risk of abuse. There’s some limited research showing trans people (trans women more than trans men) suffer far higher rates of CSA, physical and emotional abuse and neglect, as well as sexual assault and violence, than cis people (including cis women). This correlates with experiences of trans people I’ve spoken with, especially trans women. Unfortunately the limited research that exists seems to rarely include nonbinary identities. 

While arguments can be made about the direction of causality, I believe that this abuse is a result of being trans, either directly, such as trans kids being punished for expressing their gender and being considered not truly belonging to the group of their coercively assigned gender. Or indirectly, the isolation and rejection trans kids face making them more vulnerable and more likely to be targeted by abusers. Abuse is about power and opportunity. Gendered power imbalances are a source of such individual power and opportunity to exploit and abuse others. This puts cis girls at risk, and trans kids more at risk, and trans girls, moreso again.

I have some personal experience with these issues, but I’m very lucky and fared much better than many others. But experiences of neglect, emotional, sexual and physical assault and abuse seem common amongst trans kids and trans girls in particular.

Are these universal experiences for trans women? Certainly no less than they are for cis women. Nonetheless, trans women are subject to high rates of patriarchal abuse and discrimination both before and after transition no less than cis woman are.

While trans women’s experiences may not be the same as our cis counterparts, as can be said of the gendered experiences of any marginalised group of women and the women outside such a group, that doesn’t invalidate them as gendered experiences in accordance with our actual gender. It doesn’t negate that this is oppression as a result of not just being trans but of being women and girls.

So I’d say it’s a very resounding no trans women do not ever hold male privilege.

Source: Glassfembot on Tumblr