What is an afab trans woman/transfem ?
It refers to someone who is afab and identifies as trans woman/transfem. There are multiples reasons for a such identification.
It include (but it's not limited to):•An afab who identifies with a /wolffian altersex identity and identifies with a fingender/feingender.• A sexfluid/genitalfluid afab primarily on wolffian spectrum but with a feingender/fingender identity.•An AFAB detrans woman.•An AFAB who feels connected to transfemininity/transwomanhood.•An AFAB who feels they should be someone born wolffian who feels they are a woman/girl.• An AFAB person who has been raised as a boy and then transitionned to femininity.•An AFAB who is transfeingender.•An AFAB who feels like a woman/girl but in trans way.• A transex cisgender woman.• An afab who is juxera.• A girlflux/Girlfluid afab.• A multigender afab where the female/feminine part is predominant.•A genderfae afab.• A demigirl afab.•An afab who is a gaerl.• An afab who is paragirl.Etc.
Afab transfem
"There are already terms for AFABs with a feminine gender !!"
We reject such terms because they divides individuals on the basis of their ASAB, which is bioessentialist and a terf practice.
We believe that no gender identity should be segregated based on a person's genitalia. Everyone should be able to identify with whatever they want regardless of their sex assigned at birth.
Unfortunately, transfem afabs (and transmasc amabs) suffer great exclusion from trans community circles because of their identity.
"But TERFs use this in order to discredit transfeminine people"
Just because terfs have sometimes used it to try to invalidate or mock transfems does not mean that afab individuals cannot identify as transfem. Terfs regularly use the terms "man" or ''crossdresser'' in an attempt to invalidate or mock amab transfems, but should we force people to stop using the term "man" or ''crossdresser'' to describe themselves ? Of course not, that would be absurd.
Even when terfs use "afab trans woman/transfem" they are not actually invalidating anyone even if they don't realize it.
Amab/afab transfems are simply realities that can coexist perfectly well. One does not invalidate the other one.
"But AFABs are transmisogyny-exempt (TME). They don’t experience the same kind of discrimination that we do !"
First, not experiencing transmisogyny doesn't mean you aren't transfem, second that's false. To base your claim on the ASAB and then assert that the person cannot experience transmisogyny is a false and simplistic conclusion that totally omits the element of social perception (how you are perceived socially) and therefore the determinant of how you will be treated socially.
An AFAB person can experience transmisogyny if socially they are perceived as a transfeminine person (or as a feminine man). For example:
1) if they claim to be a male while they look female, people may think they are a trans women and therfore they will treats them as such.
2) If they has taken testosterone long enough to have a masculine physical appearance and wears women's clothes, they will be socially perceived in the same way as a trans amab woman without cis passing who wears women's clothes would be, i.e. as "a man who dresses like a woman", and therefore will suffer in many spheres of life the same problems that transfem AMABs face (especially in public spaces).
Not only this, but since transmisogyny is the intersection between transphobia and misogyny aynone can experience it if they are considered as a woman and as trans. Transmisogyny isn't specifically an amab transfem issue.In practice, you are not socially discriminated because of what you are or how you identify (people can't access what's in your head, to say otherwise would imply they have superpowers) but you are discriminated on the basis of how others perceive you, which social group they think you belong to. If they think you belong to the "amab transfem" group (whatever the reason) , it doesn't matter if you are amab, afab, transfem or not, your oppressors will perceive you as such and consequently treat you as such. Anyone can experience transmisogyny no matter if they are trans, cis, amab, afab etc.It's the same with other oppressions. For example if two cis straight men (percived as males) hold hands in public, people will believe that they are a gay couple and therefore they will expose themselves to the risk of homophobia even if they are straight and not in a relationship.Most people in everyday situations cannot know your real genitals, your agab, except in specific situations and then only in a few cases. An afab person who has changed their legal sex/gender to "male" but who has mantained a female-presentaion may be exposed to the same kind of violence resulting from knowing administrative sex because people may think they are an amab trans woman.When they are discriminated frequently or systematically within the majority of institutions because they are read as transfem how you can still believe they don't experience systemic transmisogyny ?
"afab people just have to declare their AGAB and they will be exempted from transmisogyny !"
Besides the gender essentialism of this statement there are multiple problems with this belief, it does not take into account different things.Let's start with the fact that people in everyday life (people on the street, people in charge of activities, colleagues, some friends/acquaintances etc.) can't really check your AGAB, it's not information that is accessible to them from their point of view, they can't go back in your past to check what you were assigned at birth by doctors or get into your head to get this information. They can't know if you are actually afab and just changed their gender on their documents or if you are an amab person who didn't changed their gender on their documents...etc.
To claim otherwise would be to say that they have magical powers. A person who meets you in the street and wants to beat you up because he perceives you as transfem even if you are not, cannot know if you are actually afab or amab, he can only believe and not know. Colleagues that you meet for the first time and that perceive you as transfem cannot really know your assigned gender at birth . Whether the person is a cis man, an agender person, an amab transfem or an afab transfem they will be treated the same way because they are perceived the same way.The "reveal of your agab" is nothing more than an unverifiable self-declaration from that person's point of view, and even if you declare to be afab there is no guarantee that the person will believe your declaration. They might believe as he might not, they might believe that it is just a lie to avoid violence. Furthermore, to believe that this statement can only be made by individuals who are assigned female at birth is false. Anybody can declare to be afab. You say that an afab person can declare to be afab to extemper from transmisogyny but that also means that an amab transfem person could declare to be afab to extemper from transmisogyny because anyway people can't really verify her birth assignment.
For example, two people live in the same country but in different cities, they look the same and are perceived as transfems except that one is amab while the other is afab.
Both of them are walking around their respective cities and each of them is stopped by an individual who has perceived them as transfems and wants to beat them up for this reason. Both of them claim to be afab in an attempt to avoid a physical assault, but as I said before they are perceived in exactly the same way. As I have already written the potential attacker cannot verify if they are afab or not and there is no guarantee that they will believe their self-declaration. So here the amab transfem person and the afab transfem person will be subjected to the same treatment by their potential abuser, there is not going to be any difference no matter what they claim to be. This work for every aspect of your social life: access to health care, a job, housing, treatement in the work place, in public spaces, etc... An afab transfem will be treated in the same way as a amab transfem if they are perceived as a transfem. Both occupy the same position in patriarchy.In conclusion what shape your social life is essentially how others perceive you.
"They just experience misdirected transmisogyny"
First, what makes something "misdirected" is subjective. People have different definitions and perceptions. According to some points of view it could be considered as correctly directed, for others not.No matter how you perceive it, whether it is according to your framework misdirected transmisogyny or not the consequences remain exactly the same. The effects do not change simply because (for you) the person is not transfem. The afab transfem person is still abused because they are perceived as transfem (transmisogyny) and when they are discriminated frequently or systematically within the majority of institutions because they are read as transfem they experience systemic transmisogyny.
