Transplaining

[mauvish]

You know, like "mansplaining", but specifically when a TW or male TRA tells us, or indeed the wider world, that they know more about womanhood than we do, and is keen that everyone should benefit from their wisdom.

I don't think I've seen "transplain" as a verb anywhere but surely it's in use? If not, it should be.

Ah yes, I've just found it in the urban dictionary, albeit with a slightly different meaning.

(Of a trans person) explaining (something) typically to a non trans person, usually about trans issues or identity/categorization in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing.

We should use it more.

If 'transplaining is taken, I do like 'patranising', although perhaps a little subtle.

What term will you use when cis-women have a different view than you do?

Cis women is such an offensive term. Women are women. Men are not women.

Hopefully, polite disagreement. That's not a problem and not what this thread is about anyway. I'm assuming you mean 'women'

Cis woman. 😂

Totally. Strange how some people don't get basic biology. You cannot change your sex but you can assume whatever of the hundreds of genders you want.

How can a man who identifies as a woman for gender actually know what it is really like to be a woman. He's a man in every cell of his body, he can guess, he can come up with things he might like to wear or do but he will never actually know. To believe something doesn't make it real.

Thank you for recognising there is a difference between female people who identify as "cis women" and people who just happen to be female.

While I would never assume someone identifies as a "cis woman" just because she is female and describes herself as a woman, I do respect that some female people self identify as "cis women", presumably because they recognise some commonality of mind with trans women that they don't recognise in any other female people or any other male people.

So when a self-identifying cis woman has a different understanding of womanhood to me and wants to explain it to me (1), I listen with open-mindedness to what has lead to their conclusion, because as a female person who doesn't identify as a cis woman I'm very interested in how her understanding of womanhood that is distinct to the simple experience of being female in this society.

I might not, indeed cannot (1), share her conclusions but that doesn't mean she doesn't have genuine reasons for what she thinks, and I'd hope we could find common ground in our experiences of being female even if we have different frameworks to understand that experience.

I hope she would do the same for me.

In fact, I think it is very sad that those who promote the concept of gender have insisted on usurping the sex-based meaning of woman exactly because it makes it impossible to have this nuanced conversation about these two different but intersecting concepts of sex and gender, because as long as sex and gender try to claim the same language and legal status, one is forced to pick one definition and thereby negate the other. I think the insistence on taking over the language of sex is blocking the genuine progress that greater social acceptance of trans and other non conforming gender identities could support.

(1) obviously a cis woman's understanding of womanhood is different to mine 100% of the time, since her understanding of womanhood as a specific type of personality in any type of body, and mine as any type of personality in a specific type of body are mutually exclusive.

No such thing as cis women, I assume you meant women.

Well ( assuming you mean the subset of women who identify as cis)

There is the genrersl question - we have manaplaining because of the tendency of men to assume we are stupid and keen to learn form then

We have transplaining because of the tendency of transpeople to assume we are stupid and keen to learn from them

As a rule I havent found any particular group of women to have the tendency to assume women of other opinions need education

Although IRL I have met fewer cis women than transgender people

You've not tried putting the word into MN advanced search, have you? Of course this term has been in use here for years.

"(1) obviously a cis woman's understanding of womanhood is different to mine 100% of the time, since her understanding of womanhood as a specific type of personality in any type of body, and mine as any type of personality in a specific type of body are mutually exclusive."

very good! - @FlirtsWithRhinos