Transwomen and Lesbians

 Transwomen and Lesbians

1. “Women rejecting men” as the underlying anxiety

Against lesbians (especially mid-20th century)

Lesbians were framed as:

  • Women who “hate men”

  • Women who are “afraid of proper heterosexuality”

  • Women who refuse their “natural role”

A lesbian wasn’t just someone attracted to women — she was a woman refusing male access.

This was often treated as the real crime.

Against trans men

Trans men are framed as:

  • Women “escaping womanhood”

  • Women “opting out” of oppression

  • Women “rejecting their sex”

Again, the anxiety is not about identity but about female autonomy—specifically, women removing themselves from a category men are entitled to define, desire, or control.

➡️ In both cases, the outrage is less “what they are” and more “what they refuse to be.”

2. Erasure through reframing

Lesbians

Common claims:

  • “They’re really straight women who haven’t met the right man”

  • “They’re traumatised”

  • “They’re just tomboys going through a phase”

  • “They’re trying to be men”

Lesbian identity was constantly reinterpreted away from what women said about themselves.

Trans men

Common claims:

  • “They’re just lesbians with internalised misogyny”

  • “They’re autistic girls misled by ideology”

  • “They’re traumatised”

  • “They think being male is easier”

Once again:

  • Self-description is dismissed

  • Identity is re-authored by outsiders

  • Masculinity is framed as the motivating factor rather than identity

➡️ In both cases, women’s testimony is treated as unreliable, while external explanations are privileged.

3. Pathologisation via psychology

Lesbians

Historically framed as:

  • Neurotic

  • Emotionally stunted

  • Father-deprived

  • Suffering from “arrested development”

Even when homosexuality left diagnostic manuals, this framing lingered culturally.

Trans men

Framed as:

  • Autistic

  • Socially anxious

  • Traumatised

  • Suffering from “rapid onset gender dysphoria”

Different labels, same function:

  • Medicalise

  • Infantilise

  • Undermine agency

➡️ The goal is not understanding, but delegitimisation.

4. “Masculinity as contamination”

Lesbians

Particularly butch lesbians were seen as:

  • Threatening

  • Unnatural

  • Imitating men

  • “Corrupting” femininity

They were accused of:

  • Recruiting girls

  • Undermining womanhood

  • Introducing aggression into female spaces

Trans men

Trans men are accused of:

  • Importing male aggression

  • Carrying “male socialisation”

  • Undermining women’s solidarity

This persists even when trans men face misogyny both before and after transition.

➡️ Masculinity is treated as inherently suspect, but only when attached to female-assigned bodies.

5. Sexual panic & protection narratives

Lesbians

Claims included:

  • Lesbian teachers were a danger to girls

  • Women’s spaces would become sexualised

  • Girls would be “turned”

These fears were widespread in schools, sports, and communal housing.

Trans men

Claims now include:

  • Trans men in women’s spaces are “confusing”

  • They create “unsafe dynamics”

  • Their presence destabilises safeguarding

Again:

  • No evidence

  • Heavy reliance on hypothetical harm

  • Focus on children and institutions

➡️ Same panic, updated language.

6. Political alignment shifts

One of the clearest mirrors:

1970s–80s radical feminism

Some strands:

  • Viewed lesbians as the political vanguard

  • But also accused butch lesbians of replicating patriarchy

  • Policed lesbian femininity and masculinity

Today

Some of the same ideological descendants:

  • Accept lesbians

  • Reject trans men

  • Claim trans men are betraying feminism

The logic:

  • Lesbianism is acceptable if it doesn’t destabilise sex categories

  • Trans masculinity is not

➡️ Acceptance is conditional on not challenging deeper structures.

7. The “false consciousness” argument

This is perhaps the most exact match.

Lesbians

Were told:

  • “You think you want women because society damaged you”

  • “You’re acting against your own interests”

  • “You’ll regret it”

Trans men

Are told:

  • “You think you’re male because patriarchy hurt you”

  • “You’ve internalised misogyny”

  • “You’ll regret it”

In both cases:

  • The individual is treated as incapable of knowing themselves

  • Outsiders claim moral authority over their identity

➡️ This is classic paternalism, dressed as concern.

8. Why this parallel matters

Historically:

  • Lesbians were eventually accepted once their identity was decoupled from threat

  • The “it’s a phase / trauma / rebellion” narrative collapsed under lived reality

Right now:

  • Trans men are at an earlier stage of the same arc

  • The same arguments are being recycled

  • The same anxieties are doing the work

History suggests:

When opposition relies on denying women’s self-knowledge, it rarely ages well.

One last framing (important)

For someone who opposes trans identities, the argument often feels like:

“This is different — sex is real.”

But to someone in 1980, that exact emotional certainty applied to:

“Men and women are naturally attracted to each other.”

The confidence felt identical.
The arguments sound identical.
The eventual outcome is likely to be, too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Manufactured Outrage and Scapegoating: The “Stillbirth Panic”

  Manufactured Outrage and Scapegoating: The “Stillbirth Panic” The recent controversy around trans inclusion in stillbirth discussions is a textbook case of manufactured outrage. It began with a single, cautious statement from Rebecca Graham of SA Health, who reassured a parliamentary committee that when she used the word “women,” this was intended to include transgender and intersex women. The purpose was simple: to avoid exclusion in policy language and ensure compassionate care for anyone affected. From that one line, anti-trans commentators rolled the story downhill until it gathered moss. What began as a footnote about inclusive terminology was exaggerated into claims that trans women were “invading” pregnancy and miscarriage support groups. The result is a culture-war narrative: supposedly, “men who think they’re women” are trying to rewrite one of the most painful experiences a woman can endure. There is no evidence for this. Trans women cannot conceive, and they are not...
Read more

Evidence for and Against

  1. What is the evidence that gender identity is innate / inbuilt (like sexual orientation)? A growing body of evidence—though not universally conclusive—suggests that gender identity has a biological and neurodevelopmental basis. Here are some of the key findings: 🔹 Neurobiological Evidence Brain Structure Studies : Some MRI and post-mortem studies have found differences in the brains of trans individuals that align more closely with their gender identity than their assigned sex at birth. For example: Zhou et al. (1995) found that a region in the hypothalamus called the BSTc (bed nucleus of the stria terminalis) in trans women resembled that of cis women. Kraemer et al. (2009) and others have similarly reported that trans individuals' brain connectivity patterns and structures more closely match those of their gender identity than natal sex. White Matter Microstructure : Some studies using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have shown white matter patterns in trans...
Read more