I feel you, I live in the South in the U.S. in one of the most transphobic states. I was terrified to come out, but it ended up going much better than I expected. For the most part people just didn’t care, and the worst I got were stares usually from older or hyper-masculine men.
EDIT: this made me think that a lot of that fear was oversized, more in my head than reality. Transphobic violence is real, but is mostly targeted against poor trans women of color.
America is kinda weird like that where being a “freak” is almost seen as cool by everyone, but there’s still mad bigotry. i really don’t know how else to explain it, but there’s a live and let live attitude where people just want everyone to leave each other the fuck alone
It’s true, I think it’s that being a freak stimulates people’s hyper-individualism, while the “man in a dress” (the feminine gender expression on a “male”) stimulates certain men’s homophobia (fear they might accidentally find me attractive) and insecurities in their masculinity (a generalized tendency to engage other men in a way that puts down femininity and promotes hyper-masculinity).
For the most part I was only ever bothered by overly aggressive men who would probably have been assholes in the world generally - it seemed to me the problem was with them and their fragile masculinity more than anything else.
it really do be bad - though obviously violence exists against all LGBT+ identities, by the numbers it hits trans women of color the hardest, and these women are more likely to be sex workers, more likely to contract HIV, and more likely to be victims of crime. Women in general are at greater risk of being a victim of violent crime.
I feel you, I live in the South in the U.S. in one of the most transphobic states. I was terrified to come out, but it ended up going much better than I expected. For the most part people just didn’t care, and the worst I got were stares usually from older or hyper-masculine men.
EDIT: this made me think that a lot of that fear was oversized, more in my head than reality. Transphobic violence is real, but is mostly targeted against poor trans women of color.
America is kinda weird like that where being a “freak” is almost seen as cool by everyone, but there’s still mad bigotry. i really don’t know how else to explain it, but there’s a live and let live attitude where people just want everyone to leave each other the fuck alone
It’s true, I think it’s that being a freak stimulates people’s hyper-individualism, while the “man in a dress” (the feminine gender expression on a “male”) stimulates certain men’s homophobia (fear they might accidentally find me attractive) and insecurities in their masculinity (a generalized tendency to engage other men in a way that puts down femininity and promotes hyper-masculinity).
For the most part I was only ever bothered by overly aggressive men who would probably have been assholes in the world generally - it seemed to me the problem was with them and their fragile masculinity more than anything else.
The more of these words apply to you, the worse it is:
it really do be bad - though obviously violence exists against all LGBT+ identities, by the numbers it hits trans women of color the hardest, and these women are more likely to be sex workers, more likely to contract HIV, and more likely to be victims of crime. Women in general are at greater risk of being a victim of violent crime.