Masculinity and the Closeted Trans Woman Experience

From birth, gender expectations follow us throughout our entire lives. This may be more distinctly seen in the stories of transgender people. In her heart wrenching piece on her experience as a closeted trans woman, Jennifer Coates navigates her life from childhood, exploring themes of masculine socialization, and inevitably confronts the inherent incompatibility of her life with identity based politics which overwhelm feminist circles. 

Read about it here

When we discuss whether or not men should be allowed in feminism, I always think back to this article. Not only are those who are assigned male at birth forced into participating in masculinity, often times they are neglected or simply denied support in response to it. 

This isn't to say that there are not men in the world who participate in masculinity in order to control or diminish the people around them, only to acknowledge that gender realities are not always so starkly separated. There are even times where general simplifications can breed more harm than good.