Why Trans Women Pose a Particular Threat to Right Wingers

Since right wingers decided to make trans people their new enemy target, I've noticed that they tend to focus most of their enmity on trans women. We've seen that with their phobia about things like bathrooms and sports. We hear almost nothing similarly fear-mongering about trans men. Why is that?

The latest abuse has been directed at Dylan Mulvaney - a trans woman who recently celebrated her "day 365 of womanhood" by partnering with Bud Light. Wingers went nuts destroying their supply of the beer. That is the context for a column by Brian Broome about the fact that toxic masculinity is rooted in a hatred of anything deemed feminine. 

Mulvaney’s celebration for some reason threatened the very existence of a whole bunch of guys who aren’t ready for that reality. This will surprise no one who has ever been a small boy. Every boy knows the sting of being called a sissy. Boys are raised to believe that so-called feminine traits represent a danger they must avoid. Boys learn early that they can expect to be punished if they stray in any way into risky, weakening feminine behaviors. These lessons take root deep in our psyches as youngsters, and they stay there forever...

Men need to move beyond the idea that dominating other human beings and engaging in endless emotional barricading is how to show the world that they’re “masculine.” The concept needs a de-gendering. Perhaps to some, masculinity only means that you are self-assured, confident, not easily threatened and won’t be told what to do, what you can’t wear, whom you can love. But there are literally millions of people who possess these traits regardless of sex or gender identity.

If your idea of “masculine” is just a hatred of anything that someone told you is “feminine,” then I don’t know what to tell you except that, as a human being, you are entitled to the whole human experience. Not just part of it.

Since everything feminine is to be rejected by men, a person who has been labelled a man transitioning to become a woman is seriously triggering for folks steeped in toxic masculinity. 

Jill Filipovic notes that these right wingers are all wound up about liberal "gender ideology." But the fact is that they have their own gender ideology. It's called "patriarchy" (emphasis mine).

Conservative gender ideology is religiously-based and it goes like this: Men and women are fundamentally different, created by God to compliment each other. There is a clear hierarchy: God, man, woman, boy child, girl child. Women are to serve men, produce children, and maintain the home; and in turn, men are to protect and provide for women and children. For Christians, this is the origin story of humankind; it is foundational, the very first building block of humanity and by extension society. It is, essentially, a “separate but equal” view of gender: Men and women have equal dignity, but not equal rights, roles, or responsibilities.

A trans woman is - by definition - a violation of that established hierarchy. As Filipovic goes on to point out, "the forever lie of patriarchy is that it’s 'natural'" and "the very existence of gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people makes a joke of patriarchal claims to naturally-occurring gender roles."

That brings to mind the way that Doug Muder described the Confederate insurgency.

The Confederate sees a divinely ordained way things are supposed to be, and defends it at all costs. No process, no matter how orderly or democratic, can justify fundamental change.

All of this ties together when we understand that the fundamental threat right wingers are reacting to is the impending demise of white patriarchy - which they assume is the "divinely ordained way things are supposed to be." 

Interestingly enough, the future of our democracy just might depend on embracing the traditional feminine qualities of humanity. 

At its heart, democracy must have humility & grace to embrace compromise & the willingness to lose. The GOP rejects these qualities as weaknesses. Kindness & compassion have no place. Meanness & cruelty are rewarded. No democracy can succeed with these values

— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) April 18, 2023