Most Trans-guys Weren't Butch

Butch women tend to assume that people who choose transition were just butch lesbians that surrendered to "the Patriarchy". After reading a few posts on the blog, it seems like this woman probably blames "the Patriarchy" every time she can't find a good parking space.

I for one never identified as a butch. I was a tomboy, but even as a girl I was attractive. I never looked, dressed, or acted like the butch lesbians I see buying power saws together in the hardware store. Judging by most intro videos on YouTube, most people who transition aren't butch either.

Butch women feel "betrayed" because they are wrongly assuming that their tribe is losing members. They don't realize that the majority of trans-guys were never associated with them in the first place. Actually, among my generation (under 30) and younger, I don't even see many butch identified lesbians around at all.

"Butches" may be relics of history. Queer and lesbian women of my generation (age 20s and younger) are likely to be influenced by the beautiful women portrayed in "the L Word", and don't seem to be interested in adopting tough, burly, butch presentation. Most trans-guys, at least the most visible from the YouTube community, look more like trendy teenage boys than butch lesbians. Even presenting as male, they are too stylish to ever pass as butch. There's not one buzz cut or NASCAR t-shirt among them.

When butch lesbians cry that trans-guys are "selling them out", they are missing the obvious fact that most   of us were never even butch to begin with.

Bitter Butch

From this screen shot, you can see the bitterness and feelings of betrayal that butch women have toward people who transition.

"You [trans-guys] sold us out."

...Sold out who?

Bitter butch lesbians somehow misconstrue the personal decisions of others into an attack on them. I get it. Butch women are used to being on the defensive. It does seem like butch lesbians have the world against them. In popular culture, butch presenting women are universally derided as the butt of jokes and never cast in a favorable light, if they are ever seen at all. When they are, they are dismissed as unattractive and unappealing. (To be fair, this might be a well deserved stereotype.)

On the other hand, every other segment of queer culture is mostly painted in a positive light. In general, gay male culture is glamorized and gay men are lauded as fashion icons. One example of this is "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy". Well-coiffed, fit, handsome gays swoop down to teach manners and style to frumpy straight dudes. Lipstick lesbians are glorified as a male fantasy. Androgynous lesbians even had sexy, unattainable Shane to admire. The butch lesbians are still portrayed as hairy, angry, and fat.

I am opposed to anyone treating a butch lesbian badly, just because of the way she chooses to present. However, this is a possible explanation to why they are always so freaking angry. They recognize that society shuns them for presenting masculinity in a female body. Meanwhile, trans-guys who present and pass as male are automatically not just accepted, but granted male privilege, even though, in a way, trans-guys are also presenting masculinity in a biologically female body.

Creepy Lesbian "Big Brother"

"A Grown Up Lesson..." -this is creepy.

This person has appointed herself the vigilante sheriff of the internet, disciplining FTMs until they
learn their lesson. Whatever that means.

Why Do They Care So Much? -Jealousy?

These are a group of ladies who apparently have hours of free time to sit around working each other into a frenzy over the fact that some people choose to transition. The most zealous of these anti-trans internet activists actually take the time to craft their comments into 300 word essays. Who has that kind of time? Some threads have the same few "Super Commenters" with half a dozen lengthy posts railing against:

1. the Patriarchy
2. the "Male Medical Machine" 
3. Gender, and denying that it even exists 
4. Queer Theory
5. Bisexuals 

In roughly that order.

These are angry, disenfranchised women with no other soapbox to vent from but a small website. As such, they take it really seriously. Most people reserve that level of dedication to supporting their hometown sports team or their religious organization. There's no reason to invest so much energy in the private lives of people you don't even know, who are not hurting or affecting you in any way. What would motivate a person to spend hours of their life arguing with transmen on the internet?

My guess is plain old jealousy. The medical technology that makes a physical transition possible is pretty new. This group of women is mostly middle aged (40-50+), butch/ masculine presenting women who were too old to transition by the time they heard about it. The one thing that masculine women and trans people have in common is the experience of dysphoria. Transition is one (but not the only) way to deal with dysphoria, but basically these women are lashing out against others for their decision to transition, even though they can understand what it is like to suffer from disappointment and anger about their bodies.

Another reason is they tend to be wrapped up in some old school feminist ideology that feels threatened, even betrayed by the fact that a "young woman" would choose to live as male. With all the time they spend obsessing about transition, it's obvious that many of them are also struggling with dysphoria and would love to transition. Why else would they spend so much time worrying about it? It doesn't make sense that you would hate something so much that you have to commit your life to ranting against it. It brings to mind TV preachers who condemn gays from the pulpit every Sunday--- until somebody busts them doing meth with gay rent boys. That level of fixation is suspicious.

It's also questionable that a self proclaimed "proud butch woman" has made a hobby of searching YouTube for FTM intro videos. There are better ways to support other butch women than bullying an unrelated group of people. That doesn't make any sense.

Lesbians Vs. Transguys

There is a popular anti-trans website, which is basically a cabal of disgruntled lesbians ranting hysterically against trans people. They make some ridiculous arguments, and I wanted to discredit some of that misinformation and hate mongering.

This blog is about that.