There was a Reddit comment (I think?) once where someone said their grandma believed trans women were women, because nobody would voluntarily put the societal hardships of being a woman upon themselves.
I mean, that’s straight-up truth. That’s not misogynistic at all. You give up a ton of privilege and safety going from being read as male by strangers to being read as female. And all the career disadvantages that women experience you will now experience. Plus the additional ones that come with being trans.
That’s not the kind of thing anyone would do without a damn good reason.
I know, the OOP and everyone in the comments said exactly that, and thought it was cute.
Although regarding the career disadvantages, that absolutely depends on when in life you transition. Remember, not everyone is out at 20 years old. Some might take a few decades more.
In the sense that it takes time off your job, yes. But if you have already built your career, have a high-ranking job, and can afford some time off (does gender-affirming surgery count as treatment of an illness?), the impact will be less than if you went into the market as a woman from the beginning.
It goes way beyond the time off required. Oh, I agree the impact is less the further you are in your career. My point is that it’s going to have a strong impact regardless of what age you do it, unless you’re already retired. People often see their decades-long careers ended abruptly upon coming out. I’ve known people that’s happened to, even within just the last 15 years. A few decades ago, a common piece of advice among some (particularly white middle class trans women) was to handle transition this way, even if you knew you were trans at 18:
Live as male.
Choose a career that pays as high as possible. Don’t focus on what you want to do. Just focus on what pays the most.
Pursue a strategy of what would today be called FIRE. Think “work as a lawyer or doctor but live like a college student.”
Make as much money as humanly possible while spending as little as possible. Reach early retirement money as soon as possible. Save up enough for transition as well.
Retire some time before 40 and only come out and start transitioning then.
In a time when job discrimination was so much worse than today, this was a strategy pursued by a lot of people. It was common advice to just assume coming out meant setting your career on fire. Of course there were people that came out even at 18, even 50 years ago, but most of them ended up in sex work.
See, this is why I think JK Rowling is a trans man. He has no idea why women want to be women. Cis women want to be women too. But Robert Galbraith thinks that womanhood is about wearing your oppression as a badge of honour.
Trans women are woman and that’s why they belong in the kitchen
/tirm
“Of course trans women are women. Only a woman would be dumb enough to want to be a woman!” 🤣
It’s so ridiculous I can’t help but love it.
There was a Reddit comment (I think?) once where someone said their grandma believed trans women were women, because nobody would voluntarily put the societal hardships of being a woman upon themselves.
I mean, that’s straight-up truth. That’s not misogynistic at all. You give up a ton of privilege and safety going from being read as male by strangers to being read as female. And all the career disadvantages that women experience you will now experience. Plus the additional ones that come with being trans.
That’s not the kind of thing anyone would do without a damn good reason.
I know, the OOP and everyone in the comments said exactly that, and thought it was cute. Although regarding the career disadvantages, that absolutely depends on when in life you transition. Remember, not everyone is out at 20 years old. Some might take a few decades more.
Unless you’re already retired, it will affect your career.
In the sense that it takes time off your job, yes. But if you have already built your career, have a high-ranking job, and can afford some time off (does gender-affirming surgery count as treatment of an illness?), the impact will be less than if you went into the market as a woman from the beginning.
It goes way beyond the time off required. Oh, I agree the impact is less the further you are in your career. My point is that it’s going to have a strong impact regardless of what age you do it, unless you’re already retired. People often see their decades-long careers ended abruptly upon coming out. I’ve known people that’s happened to, even within just the last 15 years. A few decades ago, a common piece of advice among some (particularly white middle class trans women) was to handle transition this way, even if you knew you were trans at 18:
In a time when job discrimination was so much worse than today, this was a strategy pursued by a lot of people. It was common advice to just assume coming out meant setting your career on fire. Of course there were people that came out even at 18, even 50 years ago, but most of them ended up in sex work.
See, this is why I think JK Rowling is a trans man. He has no idea why women want to be women. Cis women want to be women too. But Robert Galbraith thinks that womanhood is about wearing your oppression as a badge of honour.