[–]sammi_8601
Yes I've had it, tbf most have shut up when I've monotonely responded with a list of shit Ive had to deal with though being trans accompanied by literal where do you think I got this scar, and this one?, and why am I missing teeth? (Got the shit properly kicked out of me a few times for being trans)
[–]ConnectionIssues
"I already get period-like symptoms with regularity, and I would gladly take decades of the worst, most debilitating periods ever, if it meant I could conceive and carry a child like any of you.
As for the misogyny,
bold of you to assume I don't experience any. It makes me seethe every time, and the fact that so many women I talk to view it as some essential part of being a cis female is all the more enraging. All of us deserve better."
[–]Born-Garlic3413
Mention gender dysphoria, your body feeling wrong constantly? Also,
ask them to think what it would be like if they felt like a girl inside but everyone called you Fred and misgendered you for a week?
I tried this with my mom, she said she'd laugh if people misgendered her. Cis people just don't get it
sigh< I know. It's hard to convince someone who doesn't want to be convinced, doesn't want to know the truth of what you're feeling.
As an educator I'm well aware It sometimes takes dozens or hundreds of exposures to an idea to change someone's mind. And often dropping all attempts to change their minds is what works best. Just being yourself for long periods.
Cis people often have no idea what minority stress feels like. It's a rare person who has the curiosity and strength to listen and go there in their own minds.
It's an enormous strength of many queer people. They've been through it. They know.
Sometimes people need someone else to tell them for you-- for example, a close friend, a sympathetic aunt, an experienced, gender-informed therapist. It's the old 3rd-party marketing rule. Marketing comes better and hits harder from someone who's not got skin in the game.
[–]verathene
“But are you able to enjoy sex and start a family?”
[–]jk013x
Yeah, because young effeminate boys are never the targets of misogyny...
I spent most of my childhood being called gay, as though it were an insult, because I wasn't into football.
I was physically attacked repeatedly because I was less masculine than my male classmates. I was sexually assaulted by 4 young men because I wore a skirt to school. They wanted to be sure I got the full "being a girl" experience...
Anyone who stays things like "you wouldn't want to be AFAB" is ignorant of the realities of being trans in a world conditioned to be assholes.
It's not the same as being AFAB, but it's not as different as most people think.
[–]Makra567
I think im gonna start saying "yeah, being transgender is way easier than that. Im actually so lucky i was born this way. Itd be such a shame if people treated me like a regular woman all the time or if my body caused me pain." In a venomously sarcastic tone and then staring daggers at them until they get the hint. Like its just such a stupid thing to say. I feel like the only thing worth doing is highlighting the absurdity of it.
Alternatively i guess if they just mention periods,
"a hysterectomy is cheaper than vaginoplasty. You can solve your problem as easily as me if youre serious."
[–]mchngrliris
yeah misogyny sucks but so does transphobia. do they think that we are magically exempt from bigotry?
if anything we are hated a lot more. it shows a deep lack of understanding about our experiences and how society views us
[–]Mentallyunstables
I hate that periods are seen as this sacred female event. Its simply a bodily phenomenon. And most of the time, the people who harass trans women about their lack of periods, are people who are well off enough to easily afford menstrual pads, medicine, etc. If people put the energy they do harassing trans-women about periods into advocating for more resources for women who can’t afford menstrual care, maybe it would be a less miserable experience for the people who have them.
Edit: and this is not me trying to downplay the severity of periods, but it is ultimately not helpful (imo) to play pain olympics with other women when you could be using that energy to make life easier for
BOTH of you
I’m sorry that they said these things to you.
[–]lithaborn
Periods, misogyny, SA, etc, they're part of the female experience. I knew about the bad bits when I signed up for this and I went ahead anyway.
Being trans isn't a choice, transitioning is a choice.
I choose the danger because I'm not just in it for fun, I'm not going to detrans the first time I don't get listened to by a doctor, the first time a guy grabs my tit without asking, the first time I get called a bitch, if I get overpowered and violated. I'm going to lean on my woman friends because they know how that feels.
I don't have to be raped to understand how traumatic rape is.
I didn't choose to be born without a uterus and ovaries, I didn't choose to grow up not being sexualized from the age of ten and indoctrinated into toxic beauty standards. If someone doesn't understand why I would have chosen those things if it were possible, they don't understand what being trans is.
Would I be miserable? Are you? I see joyous, outgoing, vicarious women all the time. They all have their traumas but they also have strength, resilience that I can only dream of. They're right, I couldn't cope with half the things cis women have to endure, but I can be there to empathize, to be the waterproof shoulder and the unshakable support. Tell me how bad it is and let me mourn with you.
Help me understand more. If I'm not woman enough, help me improve.
[–]VeganEgg11
They’re entitled to their opinions. Don’t be overly sensitive to it as long as they’re supportive of you in general. Just say this isn’t a rationale based decision lol like this is just who you are.
Just say, okay well why don’t you get a hysterectomy and start taking T? And then they’ll say eww no i don’t want to be a stinky hairy man (or maybe they do, who knows!) but more than likely they’ll say no i like being a girl and you say yeah exactly. Based on your logic, you can have all those things you think would benefit you rationally but it’s not who you are in your soul.
Don’t let it get to you too much.
[–]OdiiKii1313
yeah, i have a friend who has complicated feelings about pregnancy and child-rearing, and has on multiple occasions made comments to me saying i should be thankful i can't get pregnant as if that isn't one of the single most upsetting realities i personally face as a trans woman
Ask her if she says the same thing to infertile cis women and if she says no call her out on treating you differently over something you didn't have control over.
Her trauma does not give her a free pass to invalidate yours, if she doesn't understand how much that hurts you tell her and if she doesn't want to understand then you should walk away and feel better friends who respect you as a human being and as a woman.
Again your trauma isn't lesser , your struggles aren't lesser don't let people walk all over you , cis women aren't the gatekeepers of womanhood and we're just as much women as they are and deserve respect and empathy.
[–]Stottery
Periods and misogyny are both shitty experiences, no doubt. But something to remind your cis friends is that they don't only experience these things as an isolated event, they are part of their lived experience and subsequently part of their social world.
Maybe I wouldn't enjoy having a period but
you know what I would enjoy? Being able to relate to a girlfriend and how she feels if she tells me she's on her period, and vice-versa when I'm on mine. Being able to bond over trying out period pants, or moon cups, or whatever other products we might be trying. The camaraderie of a stranger asking me for a tampon in an emergency, and being able to help her. Understanding and sharing jokes about wearing white pants, not just on the conceptual level of knowing what the joke is about but on the visceral, experiential level that makes things more funny to people.
I hesitate to say much about the misogyny part because it's an injustice that anyone should experience it. But even there, what do you get when a certain group of people regularly experiences a specific type of injustice? You get trauma bonding, support networks – you get friendship out of it.
Trans women are women and we want to experience life as a woman. We're generally not excited to pick and choose between the joys of being a woman and the mild conveniences of being a man. Because what it means for gender to be a social construct is that gender touches almost every part of our lives. You can't experience only the good parts without some kind of sacrifice.
You can carry tampons in your purse to hand to cis women in emergencies if you want. In fact I think that would be a very sweet thing to do
Oh I plan to once I'm a bit closer to passing. But my comment above is not just to say I want all those things... I'm 36, I want to have had those things, and if 20-something years of periods would be the price to pay for that, then I would have been happy to.
Yeah, I hear you. Autistic brain was just like "but you can do that". I think I've reached the point where I've stopped wishing for things that can't be, I'm concentrating on the present and the future. The most positive comments I've ever had have been "what do you identify as?". That might be the best I'm gonna get. Luckily I have the best friend group in the world, all different genders and sexualities. My special person sees me as me, and that's all I can ask
Also what a weird assumption that we don't experience misogyny because we do , they probably just assume we're all drag queens who can't blend in.
I've been living as a woman more than anything else and I've experienced plenty of misogyny , they just see trans women as men in dresses and they believe their struggles superior to us because they can't understand that we are women just as much as they are.
It's not that we don't menstruate in a vacuum, the price we paid was a traumatic childhood, inability to give birth, wrong parts that cost tens of thousands to fix combined with a potentially wrong puberty ruining our bodies right before our eyes , these people don't understand how much trauma and struggle we face and decide to spit in our faces despite the fact that they wouldn't last a day in our shoes.
I agree with this, luckily I have a few cis women that are really good friends and one even said that I was in their best friend circle, we openly share lived experiences and perspectives. I am grateful for these women, because I am not excluded from any topic and am told that to be a woman, I have to know what women experience, even if I can’t actually experience everything exactly the same way so I can at least relate in a conceptualized sense. One of the biggest things I am learning, is with dealing with guys that I don’t find attractive and are too pushy, touchy feely, and/or won’t leave me alone. As my old self, I never was like that or experienced anything besides not liking how guys talked about women treating them like objects or trophies. I am no where close to being as strong as I was prior to transitioning and now dealing with feeling vulnerable or a little on edge when I notice or experience guys getting too close, I am told that is something cis women deal with almost everyday and why they usually don’t go anywhere alone…no one regardless of gender or sexuality should have to worry like this, guys & some girls (trans and cis) need to learn proper boundaries and respect.
I recently went out to club(usually a very safe place) and was made to feel extremely uncomfortable, and powerless for a while due to a drunk cis guy who couldn’t take no for an answer, once I was able to slip away, I informed my bartender friend and then that guy was quickly removed. This shouldn’t happen at all and being drunk shouldn’t be an excuse, nor a person dressed a certain way at a club be any sign that they are “looking” for something.
[–]schizo_affectionate
As a trans guy, they really shouldn’t have been saying that to you. It’s clear to me they don’t understand that we would love to the other sex as to what we were assigned at birth, even with the struggles.
Also trans women and MTF people still can (and often do) experience both misogyny and bloodless periods 
Ik you ladies understand, I just wish you all had better support systems
[–]PoggleRebecca
Yeah I've had people tell me that the abuse and exclusion trans people (women especially) face is completely justified because of misogyny and the abuse of cis men, and that if I want to be treated like a normal woman I should stop cis men from being so predatory and creepy.
if I want to be treated like a normal woman I should stop cis men from being so predatory and creepy.
As if trans women have the power to do that.
JFC
Misogynistic, victim-blaming idiots. As if it's a woman's responsibility to stop men from being predatory and creepy. Honestly!
Gods, like we magically control cis men. No, we don't. Frankly, we generally have LESS influence than cis women do there. WTF are they even on about. Even then...y'know, people are responsible for their own behavior. If someone is being sucky, that's a THEM problem. Not an 'anyone else' problem. Now changing societal structures that encourage that? Fuck yeah. But gods forbid we do that. Can't mess with the Cistem.
[–]Noctema
Yes, too many times.
It is pure transmisogyny, and it is a strong sign that they are not understanding anything about what we go through, nor see us as actual women.
I’d tell them I feel the same way about my male body and societal treatment that comes with it.
Periods sucks? Well I just so happen to loathe how sweaty, hairy and horny my body always is. How I’m always feeling so detached from my emotions. How angry I always feel.
Misogyny is awful? Yes, and so are the crippling male expectation that I have to always keep my appearance as a manly man - against my own will - and the societal repercussions if I don’t.
Hopefully they’ll come to the realization of how much it sucks to be trapped in the wrong body regardless of which sex. And if they say they’d still rather be a man, then congratulations now they know how it feels to be TRANS and wanting to be the other sex despite all of its shitty aspects
Damn. That is good. Imma use that if I ever run into it. That ok with you? I'll kinda credit you and everything....well, if I can even remember your tag anyway.
Promise.
I would ask them how they would feel to be forced to go on testosterone and be forcibly transitioned, or how they would feel about a cis girl going through that. They tend to get pretty horrified.
[–]AvidDndEnthusiast
Yeah, I've gotten that a few times as well, it's really shitty. Like,
I know that periods suck, I know that misogyny is a real problem, but this is what I want. If I was granted the opportunity to switch so that I'm afab, I'd take that opportunity in a heartbeat, even though I'm aware the downsides suck.
Yeah, it's like saying someone who wants to get a car shouldn't want that because cars sometimes break down, insurance and maintenance is expensive, and sometimes people cut you off in traffic. Like, yeah? I know? But they also let you go vroom and get to places?
Also, trans women deal with misogyny as well
Also periods. Sure it's just the cramping and not the bleeding, but still
Exactly how I feel, but if I try to say this they’ll say stuff like “You wouldn’t survive” or “You’ll be far less happy than you think”
I hate the "you'll be less happy than you think" stuff especially. Like I know how unhappy I already was, that's why I'm here.
If they think dysphoria is that easy and being a woman is that bad, why don't they just take T and start living as men then? According to them they've already survived a process far harder than being trans, so it's only logical right?
I imagine if you asked them that they would look at you like you have three heads, and maybe you could help them understand why what they're saying is just as fucking insane as that suggestion is.
...well, that or it'll backfire spectacularly and they think you're saying that being trans is a choice. That or you accidentally crack a few eggs...
Tf they mean "You wouldn't survive"?Like, I know it isn't the oppression olympics but trans women face way more discrimination and animosity than cis women. Just because most didn't have the privilege of a girlhood doesn't mean we don't experience misogyny and sexual harassment. Plus experiencing it later doesn't make it any less severe.
And it's stupid they say that. Have they any idea how painful electrolysis is? I've had far more surgeries in my life than most cis women.