They claim women have privilege over them, amongst other things, because they have had to work hard for their womanhood, whereas women are handed it to them on a plate. That anything about being a woman is privileged. So painful periods, pregnancy, even abortion. Because they can’t access it and it makes them unhappy. (I have actually seen a transactivist say that a woman cannot be raped by transwomen because you cannot be raped by someone you are oppressing.)
They will then say that they get cat called, harassed and attacked. So they are more oppressed than women, in that sense, too.
Except that doesn’t actually stand up. Statistically a man who transitions stands less chance of being killed than he did before. And it contradicts all the assertions that being catcalled is empowering, as it validates their womanhood.
They also don’t understand the meaning of the word oppression. A specific class is oppressed if there is material gain to be had from them. So black people have been oppressed to extract labour, women are oppressed for their emotional/sexual/reproductive labour.
They confuse it with discrimination.
Plus it’s quite obvious to anybody, that the men who talk like this, are in a massively privileged position. Getting laws changed and imposing themselves everywhere. Because, you know, that’s what oppressed people do.
It’s a manipulative and sneaky mechanism to, yet again, deny the inherent power dynamic between men and women. They strip women of their biological markers, then strip them of their rights to protection, based on the fact that they don’t need it.
But if you point out that, if they are ‘oppressed’, why don’t they campaign for what women have campaigned. DV shelters, rape refuges, protected spaces, etc, you get no answer.
They don’t want their own rights, they want those of women. Because, as everyone knows, oppressed people can always march in and take over the rights of the oppressor.