There's a clever little trick behind the outrage over "chestfeeding" as a suggested alternative (not replacement) to breastfeeding, and the reason it works is, once again, say it with me: TRANSMASCULINE INVISIBILITY.
Show this thread
-
They do NOT picture a muscular hairy trans man with a deep voice carrying, giving birth to, and feeding a child, and the incongruity of him having breasts. Of course they don't, bc trans men don't exist in their minds.
Show this thread
Instead, they picture an evil trans woman- likely a broad caricature of "man in a dress" coming in to a pregnant woman's bedside and demanding her breasts no longer be called breasts out of pure villainy.
-
-
This trick only works because trans men are so invisible as to be outside the picture frame of ordinary somewhat transphobic but not that informed people's minds. If you picture a trans man giving birth, him saying "chestfeeding" might be a little awkward, but it's not scary.
Show this thread -
But if you're unable to conjure the imagine of a trans man to your mind, because of transmasc invisibility, you make trans women the culprits (as always) and ascribe some sort of evil motives of jealousy and hatred of cis women to them.
Show this thread -
And, presto! By making trans men disappear, you've turned a relatively simple issue of some trans AFABs feeling more comfortable with alternate language into this ominous sign of the erasure of women.
Show this thread -
Of course, more advanced transphobes know that trans men are the people for whom "chestfeeding" applies, and they have their own baroque reasoning about why trans men are really poor lil deluded women in need of saviors to stop them being trans.
Show this thread -
But for your average person "chestfeeding" only activates their prejudices bc they're NOT thinking of trans men, rather than bc they think trans men are women who need to be reminded of what sex they are.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
It's the exact same f'ing thing as the early-to-mid 2000's where people would use hypersexual male couples as the scaremongering go-to any time anything "GAY" was brought up, conveniently forgetting stereotypically monogamous, non-threatening, and/or "hot" lesbian couples
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.