Who’s Woman Enough?

The community I’m observing is the Assigned Male to Female Transgender community on Reddit (r/MtF.) I’ve chosen this community because it is an identity I am not a part of personally myself with, I’m a cisgender woman, but I try to be an ally to this community as best as I possibly can.

This is a community because it’s a large group of marginalized peoples who are severely outcasted not only from mainstream media (cis-hetero, White, Christian/Catholic) but even from the primary collective of the cisgender LGBTQ+ community. In the LGBTQ+ community, MtF trans people are often associated with “lying and/or tricking people”, being reduced to their genitalia and the complete ignorance about gender in total. I’ve observed this is a commonality that they all share; many issues MtF trans people face is coming into their femininity that originates from their ability to pass and adapting to feminine habits such as hygiene and appearance. (Sansfaçon, A et al. (2020) “I knew that I wasn’t cis. . .”: Gender identity development, expression and affirmation in youth who access gender affirming medical care. International Journal of Transgender Health. pg. 307-320.) There are even instances described where another MtF trans person mocks another transitioning person for still “looking like a man.” They also face severe problems with their well-being in total such as employment, homelessness and sexual/mental health. MtF Trans people are severely disenfranchised compard

to those who are cisgender (Chris Hanssmann, Ph.D. Dilara Yarbrough, Ph.D.“The Crises of Transgender Homelessnes.” pg. 4-10.)

There doesn’t seem to be “leaders” in this group in the sense that was described to me. There are moderators who are there to help and regulate rules but I didn’t notice repeat posters who attract a lot of responses for their posts. The community does have an inside lingo such as “stealth” which refers to how a Trans person is so passing as the gender they are transitioning to, most would never guess their presenting gender. Another word is “Chasers.” Chasers is predominantly used to describe men sexually interested in transwomen. This isn’t a compliment as one post wrote for “Chasers (to) fuck off! We are not objects for your amusement. We are P E O P L E. WOMEN. And just like any other woman, we do not deserve to be fetishized just for trying to live our lives.”

For the most part, every post I saw within the community’s reception has been supportive, positive and validating of the poster if the latter had written about a Transphobic incident they had gone through that was caused by someone close, like a family member or a stranger.
The rules for this group are as follows:
1.Respect Everyone
2.No abuse or discrimination
3.Tag NSFW posts and NO PORN
4.No soliciting medical advice
5.No “X celebrity/politician is a transphobe” threads
6.Ask mods before promoting anything
7.Do not disrupt the safe space
8.No selfies outside selfie thread

Not much about this community surprised me much that I didn’t know before, I guess the only thing I was “surprised” about is how much the ability to pass equates with their quality of life. What intrigued me was how something so vital, like being transgendered, people still had different experiences from the other. One poster had a wife and children who left her, another poster’s grandfather was an ally after they were unsure to come out to him. What disturbed me was how close to violence the women in this group would face at any moment.