We rarely hear about the shared experiences of cisgender women and transgender men – why is that? Trans men are men, but they often suffer under patriarchy just as cisgender women do.
In fact, a survey led by Galop, an LGBTQ+ anti-abuse charity, found that cisgender lesbians and trans men are both targets of sexual violence for “doing womanhood wrong.”
Patriarchy defines womanhood in traditional, regressive terms, punishing those who fall short of its standards. Trans people and cis women exist in defiance of that standard, and many have fought against it.
It may be true that your autonomy is under threat of erasure — but not at the hands of transgender people.
Last week, a UK mother of three was sentenced to 28 months in prison for illegally terminating her pregnancy. She pleaded guilty to laws drawn up before women had the right to refuse sex from their husbands in 1861.
The sentence strips away any pretence that the UK holds women’s health as a priority and underlines a devastating truth about medicine: it's largely out of our control.
We see such inequalities time and again in transgender healthcare. Trans people have long criticised the services offered to us on the NHS, with waiting lists breaching four years for treatments associated with a reduction in suicidal ideation.
Only last week, NHS England revealed it would stop prescribing puberty blockers for trans-under-18s unless they consent to participate in medical research.
Black women are four times more likely to die after childbirth than white women in the UK. Transgender people have an elevated risk of death compared to cis people, particularly from disorders affecting the production of hormones and suicide.
We see health inequalities among both cis women and trans people – and that’s not a coincidence: the pattern occurs the world over.
“You will be loved so much… by both your dads.”
At least 417 anti-LGBTQ+ bills — many targeting healthcare — have been introduced in state legislatures across the United States in 2023. Last year also saw Roe v. Wade overturned in the US, with most abortions now banned in 14 states.
Healthcare has historically been structured around an ideal “healthy” concept of a person, which had left little room for variation: cis women and trans people have always fallen outside these parameters.
Allyship against that is a natural response, especially as the world seems darker each day for all of us.
In a 2021 report presented to the United Nations, an independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity suggests that “gender ideology” — a negative catch-all for trans issues — was originally created “by religious leaders to halt advances regarding women’s empowerment” deemed a threat to traditional family models.
The term grew over time to become associated with challenging “the protection of the rights of trans and gender-diverse persons”, but we’re seeing that reverse in real-time.
As the report puts it: “The proposal in the face of this moral panic is to offer the past as the best future: to return to societies where traditional gender roles placed women in a situation of inferiority.”
The freedom for women to choose is, as the report states, “akin to the freedom of trans and gender-diverse persons.”
Women’s bodies were mystical entities in the late Middle Ages, with women expected to manage the burden of their well-being on their own. In the Victorian era, having a body we typically recognise as female was evidently seen as deserving of punishment. We’re still suffering the consequences. That’s the same for all marginalised genders, trans men included.
Trans people are doubted and maligned, just as cis women have always been. We must all recognise that.
Trans people will be there protesting that UK mother’s prison sentence. Cis women should stand with trans people at Trans Pride.
Any fight against a world built to keep you unwell is one we should all rally behind.
I'm done seeking external validation for my womanhood.
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