Evan Urquhart

If we take the way they treat trans men and women as a whole, then it’s clear that GCs can be really, REALLY sexist. They often try to hide behind this notion that women are victims and that all misogyny is coming from men, but the way they treat trans men exposes the lie.

What it looks like to me is a pattern of splitting in which the sides hinge on an emotional fulcrum. Victims are always good, perpetrators are always bad. There’s not often much of a deeper understanding of emotional patterns and how trauma moves through the world.

Unable to see the nuance, they act as if they see themselves as innocent victims and project that idea onto anyone who looks like them. This is why they’ll often genuinely believe their opinions are shared by all cis women and feel as if their actions are heroic.

But in order to maintain this point of view in the face of consistent evidence otherwise, mental gymnastics are necessary. Since the core belief that holds their entire perspective together is that they’re powerless victims, every perspective must hinge on this.

That same core belief is the root of GC sexism. By clinging to this idea that the world is composed of weak women and strong predators, they end up subconsciously believing that women, as a whole, are mostly powerless. And that view is precisely the opposite of feminism.

Actually, if I’m wrong here, correct me? My feminist history is spotty. But it seems to me that the entire thrust of feminism, from the suffragettes onward was about women literally displaying that they can kick men’s butts at politics when they feel like it.

As someone who’s worked extensively in the area of how mindsets affect personal growth and who shows people how to reframe their thinking for a living, it’s absolutely true that what we believe about the world frequently determines what we’re capable of.

Focusing on the belief that we’re powerless leads to a sense that our options are being continually removed, one by one, like the walls are closing in. We can see the effect of this in GC politics on every level. Now, let’s bring this back around to trans men.