On Femmephobia

http://goodmenproject.com/uncategorized/on-femmephobia/

I didn't care for the way the article ended, with the presumption that trans women "want" to be girls--as opposed to being girls, or, dare I say, women.... But otherwise, SPOT F'N ON.

Also, I'm sure the author would agree that even "bad Trekkie novels" are awesome in their own way.

I've just awakened and the tea hasn't hit my brain yet. Isn't the neologism "femmephobia" just a new wrapper for the term "misogyny?" That's how it seems to me at a glance, at least.

The parallels are there. In both cases it simply boils down to the prevailing view that it is good to be a man or man-like, and bad to be a woman or woman-like. (And of course, man-like and woman-like are social constructs. What is a "masculine" or "feminine" trait or action are different in different cultures.)

When Obama was elected the conservatives crowed that racism is dead, they were wrong. Unfortunately the same is true of sexism, anything feminine is still considered by a large portion of the world to be weaker/lesser than anything masculine. Its going to be a long time before people as a whole truly accept wider possibilities and wider disconnects between sex/gender/gender bias. I firmly hope/believe that 100 years from now more str8 men will act more feminine and more gay men will act more masculine, and vice versa for the ladies. People will act as their inner soul dictates rather than what is expected/enforced for them to act.

Femmephobia is an aspect of misogyny, yes. But it's also an aspect of things that aren't traditionally considered misogyny. As mentioned in the article above, femmephobia impacts all femininity, no matter how the femininity is embodied.

In Whipping Girl Julia Serano distinguishes between oppositional sexism--the notion that men are better than women--and traditional sexism--the notion that masculinity is better than femininity. Second-wave feminism, and to a degree some aspects of third-wafe feminism, tend to conflate misogyny with oppositional sexism more strongly than traditional sexism, which is why butches and trans men are often positioned as being radical, while femmes and trans women are often positioned as being reactionary. I'd rather see misogyny encompass both forms of sexism. Gradually that's becoming the case, but we still have holdovers.

As a queer trans woman, I'm painfully aware of how more masculine persons behave towards the feminine. It's all the more reason for me to possess a vocabulary to properly describe the experience, and the tools needed to respond in a more empowered way--and to share them with others who might have need of both.

And yes, I agree that by and large what's considered masculine or feminine is socially constructed. There are, alas, commonalities that encourage the same dynamic--masculinity being favored over femininity.

I've certainly come across gay men who belittle other gay men with a feminine nature.

I think misogyny vs femmephobia is a useful distinction. I have known plenty of femme men who were awfully misogynist, and some people who are respectful of cis women remain uncomfortable with femme men or gender-queering in general. There's an awful lot of overlap in the Venn diagram, to be sure, but they aren't identical sentiments.