How do individual FTM transpeople negotiate the shift in privilidge and burdens between genders. To what extent do FTM transfolk inherit privilidge during their transition?
Forgive me for sticking my oar in. This is clearly addressed to FTMs, but I wanted to say a bit about the opposite direction.
I was rather surprised, personally, to find that the shift was, at first, almost unnoticeable. During transition there was so much going on that it probably whizzed over my head. Also, it’s quite probable that (having transitioned publicly), my change of status was not acknowledged by those around me who might have imposed burdens on me: that somehow, perversely, a lack of acknowledgement of my female status meant that, for a while, I retained male privilege. This might also mean that I, having become accustomed to it, continue(d) to (ab)use it.
There then followed something of a purple patch when ‘all was well with the world’. My new status felt like a cozy blanket, and I felt I was gaining a different type of privilege which, retrospectively, meant that I was empowered by my progress to react, feel and behave appropriately. For many MTFs (include me) the first experiences of patriarchal society (term used advisedly: I may be overstating this) are actually validating. A guiding hand in the small of the back; a door held open (much confusion at first); an unwillingness to play me at pool: these things were initially welcome. Latterly, they’ve become a pain in the arse.
It was only slowly that I began to be aware of the difference between knowing about the differences and actually experiencing them. The discovery of a lack of male privilege has been a dripdrip, the overall effects of which are, as Mister Disco said, very hard to pin down. As a transperson, I feel a need to make a balance between gaining public acknowledgement of my gender, by obeisance to expected behaviour, and existing as I might feel comfortable. Hardly a transexclusive quandary, though. It’s hard to acquire even a veneer of understanding, as a middle class brought-up male, of how male privilege affects born females. |
