#working class trans men

[gender0bender]

Steel closets : voices of gay, lesbian, and transgender steelworker by Anne Belay, available on the Internet Archive

Transcript:

Miles began working in a steel mill in 1999 as an out lesbian, but he quit about eight years later because of repeated shoulder injuries and general exhaustion. He says it's not really accurate to say that he transitioned while working at the mill, since "we never really have a transition. We'll always be transgendered because our past experiences and history go along with us. So I'll always consider myself transitioning." I met Miles at the Cornwall Iron Furnace just outside of Philadelphia. It's a National Historic Landmark, pre- serving a nineteenth-century ironmaking complex and documenting the ironmaking process, as well as its effect on the area around the furnace and the workers' lives. Miles had suggested this meeting place, noting that he had always wanted to see the exhibits. He was curious about the history of the steelmaking process, and tickled by seeing his huge, powerful, mascu- line job echoed within this seemingly fragile incarnation made of bricks, and described for us by local elderly ladies.

For example, once the iron in Cornwall was molten, it was poured into one central branch, from which it flowed into a row of troughs pressed into the sand, which we were told resembled baby pigs nursing a sow-hence the name "pig iron." Miles noted that his job used many of the same tech- niques, since "I was a spruer. Parts will come out of a didion [a brand of metal separating equipment], which shook off the sand, and my job was to break the pieces apart. You see them come out on that long bar, they were lying them into them troughs, that's called a sprue tree, OK, as it goes down along, now in modern times, we have machines that press sand blocks together if you're work- ing on small parts. 'Cause we don't work on really big stuff, we work on cou- plings so it was smaller stuff. It would come down and this didion would spin it around, and little stars inside would clean off the material, but it still wasn't fully clean. It put them down on this table, which would shake up and down, and they were split in half, and the stuff would go and be remelted and what we wanted to keep for good pieces would go down and be cleaned and checked. I would stand there with a lead hammer and whack those pieces off the sprue tree. Separate the sprue tree from the good stuff." Seeing the shape of the sprue tree pressed into sand on the floor in front of a gigantic, prehistoric ladle made this whole process more comprehensible to me. And though the scale was much smaller than that of the big production mills still in op- eration, it was nonetheless vast-the blast furnace was about three stories high, with tap holes at the bottom from which the finished product ran.

The human component of steelmaking similarly remains fairly constant. After we examined a replica of a nineteenth-century steelworker dressed for work, Miles showed me his respirator, noting "The kerchief on the man's face? This would be more of a modern version of the kerchief." He also showed me his leather apron, adding that "they still use the [wooden] shoes, by the way. Nothing has really gotten up to date I guess you'd say. It's really an old art form. I would call it an art form." His burn clothes are made of Kevlar but oth- erwise duplicate the old patterns. This continuity is part of the cultural and historical context crucial to understanding how masculinity gets defined and shifted within the mills. The work remains the same, even though the larger culture's definitions of gender and masculinity are shifting. Count- less published accounts document the struggles of steelworker families when the man of the house is laid off and the woman has to find work. Though this shift occurred well after second-wave feminism, when most American women were in the paid workforce, the consistency of steelwork, and the corollary consistency of steelworkers' gender roles, made it hard for these families to adjust. Miles attributes his fascination with the consistency of mill work and mill workers over time to his experience with occupying both genders while working in the mills. Though he became a man, he did not change his tasks, his garments, or his self-presentation at work-he had always been masculine. Which parallels the "enormous struggle within the gay male community to come to terms with the stigma of effeminacy. The most strik- ing result has been a shift from effeminate to masculine styles" (Newton, Mother Camp, xiii). An exaggerated masculinity linked, if only rhetorically, to working-class culture, reinforces traditional gender roles, even as it sug- gests that only one gender is really worth doing.

#transgender #transmasculine #trans men #working class trans men #my uploads #steel closets

[uncanny-tranny]

I remember once I made a comment about having a crush on a woman, then laughing it off by saying, "she's straight, anyhow..." and my friends were almost... offended, saying I am a man, isn't she straight? Isn't the point of being straight, for a woman, being attracted to men?

But I think it is deeper than that. I've internalized the sense that if somebody is into men, they won't be into men in such a way that includes me. I've internalized that message so deeply that I think it warped my own perspective and has caused me to miss out on a few opportunities had I accepted that... if you exist, there's somebody who is going to be into what you have.

I've been watching this video, I've probably rewatched it three times already, and man, I wish it came out when I was deeper in that mindset. To anybody who was in that position the way I was: I promise that viewpoint isn't correct for everybody, and believing it is universal is only hurting you. I know exactly how hard it is to feel the way you do, and hell, I still have lapses where I'm back to feeling that way. But that doesn't mean it is universal. That doesn't mean that your only worth is being hidden away - in fact, it's entirely incorrect.

#trans #transgender #lgbt #lgbtq #ftm #mtf #nonbinary #internalized transphobia #this is like my second or third time sending people to that channel lmao but i have found it really helpful #if the hyperlink doesn't work i am going to commit multiple class-A felonies and a couple class-c misdemeanors /j #the video does address men but i think it can apply to a lot more people than just men

[ot3]

As important as i think it is to understand that not everyone at risk of an unwanted pregnancy is a woman, and use appropriate language to reflect that, i also think it is really critical that we do not let trans-inclusivity stop us from understanding or articulating that overturning roe v. wade is an act that is intended to harm women categorically. 

It’s not all-encompassing. obviously there are plenty of women who can’t get pregnant, regardless of assigned sex. obviously some people who get pregnant are not women. But we do need to discuss the fact that it’s legislation designed to harm and control women, because the desire of the christian right always has been and always will be to make women (and by extension, people they view as women) second class citizens.

and if we can’t find a way to recognize and talk about the ways in which women as a social category are still at risk and being specifically targeted then we de facto cede the entire feminist movement to violent transphobes. which i really really do not want. regardless of any personal identity politics and pontificating about what it does or doesn’t mean to be a woman, there is still a cultural concept of who and what women are that we do not have the luxury of fully opting out of even if we’d really like to. we have to be able to simultaneously discuss macro-scale gender politics And individual identity if we want to have a trans-inclusive feminist movement, rather than just a trans inclusive movement Or a feminist movement.

#if this post starts to pick up at all i am just going to delete it #need to get this one off my chest but i do not want to deal with the discourse it will inevitably bring if it breaches containment #but like. if you see some well-meaning cis woman say 'its a scary time to be a woman' she's not wrong and not necessarily being transphobic #just because it is also scary for people who Aren't women doesn't mean we can categorically abandon women as a marginalized class of people #who are worth discussing as a whole. #because yes it is a scary time to be a woman. #and that includes trans women! because obviously as much as the christian right likes to claim they view them as men they categorically dont #discussing the positioning of trans people in the eyes of a cultural force that refuses to recognize them is insanely difficult but #it is work that Can be done without us filling in 'afab' whenever they say 'women' because its just not that simple #the cultural politics of gender will not line up with the intra-community politics of gender for a very very long time

[queeraliensposts]

Cis people who respond to transphobia with other forms of bigotry are the epitome of performative allyship. Like caring about trans people means caring about

Trans POC

Trans women

Neurodivergent trans people

Working class trans people

Fat trans people

Diabled trans people

Trans immigrants

Trans gay people

Jewish trans people

Muslim trans people

Latine trans people

You either care about all of us or none of us

#trans #lgbtqia #trans men #trans women #Trans men of color #trans woc #disabled #neurodivergent #working class #Writing this because of two people #A guy who called a transphobe trailer trash and another asshole who made fun of a transphobe for having a mlp pfp #Cringe culture is ableist #The autistic community has been saying that forever #But y'all just want to gaslight us #This is why I feel unsafe in my own community as an autistic latino trans man #Cis people will get defensive as hell if you call them out on this shit lol #This is also goes to all the people that make fun of conservatives by putting on a southern accent #If you actually looked up southern history you'll see the irony of that #classism #ableism #performative allyship

[sunlitsoil]

me when i see pictures of morrissey that look too similar to the guy who groomed me and my hs french teacher: 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🫤🫤🫤 (closing my eyes)

#morrissey #vent #ish??? #like i kinda have to just look away like uh no no no #like he’s so hot but sometimes white men lookin too similar #anyway moz is hotter than both of them hope they both die #my hs french teacher was so strange i used to look up to him a lot but he would excessively praise me for my french work and #he called me a grammar queen 🧍‍♂️😀 i just stood there in trans and the class were laughing like what was he thinking #the groomer goes without saying like erm

[vote2]

i do acknowledge i need to watch what i say wrt gender women men cis ppl etc just augh.

#its like. im a trans man 100% i want nothing to do w being seen as a women i acknowledge that. i also acknowledge that I am putting #literally zero effort in my irl life to present as a guy at all. partially lack of resources and embarrassment etc stuff like that partiall #the autism i literally look in a mirror and see a guy #and i go to class go to work and until soemone explicitally refers to me as a woman i think of myself as a guy. so like its this weird #disconnect of what i actually do vs what i percieve as expieriencing in my daily life where i am objectively living #as a cis woman who just dresses and acts a bit masc. lol. #and like that doesnt bother me atm until i get to a setting where i am gendered frequently. then i feel nauseas etc but whatever ill deal #so i always hesitate whenever i talk abt women feminism men makeup beauty expectations etc (also i am mixed thai and white which #def plays into everyhting ofc ofc) as i dont know rly what is like. not fine idc if i say smthn uncouth just i dont want to at all #seem like im doing what these other trans guys do and latch onto my femininity and 'girlhood growing up' etc or like #its all dumb to me ofc im a feminist i consider anything i speak abt feminism free the nipple being against gender essiantialism etc etc #as in feminism (not that women arent/cant be femnists just in terms of im not trying to sound like a woman) and #ofc growing up as and my current life experiences have obvi had a large impact on myself how i veiw the world my political beliefs and all. #but like. im always scared it sounds like im idr the phrase someone else used but a i dont want to seem like im latching onto girlhood as #a failsafe or whatever. its just mm ykwim its a weird feeling. cause like im a 21 year old man and read my posts as such el oh el. #idk its all weird and idk if its a specific to me thing or whattttt it just like. i feel silly sometimes and i dont want my points to be #misconstrued :) anyways me posting this after rewatching and posting abt pearl has nothign to do genuinly lmfao just timing its been #on my mind after that dumbass trans guy posting abt the lonelyness he feels abt abandoning womanhood #after watching barbie. lol and then i saw someone in the comments of some ig quote it w like 30 replies all positive like get a lifeee #i understand it can feel isolating being trans and everyones relationship back to womanhood is diff and complecated but by god. shut up #anywayyyyyssss mmm okay im done whateverr #maybe all a fear in my head and literally none of this has every crossed anyones mind however it bothers me :(

[ban-joey]

sending laser beams to my professor with my mind. kenneth you said midterm grades would b up by this afternoon. it is officially TONIGHT and guess what? kenneth i would love to not be clenching my teeth in my sleep tonight. kenneth i will be sending you a bill in the mail. yes i know its probably a TAs responsibility but i blame you personally. i hate school

#i dont im having a lot of fun (genuinely) but it is often pretty stressful #did find out there are a few folks adjacent to my program doing zoonoses & climate change research so im very excited to chat w them next w #possibly directing my thesis towards one health. social epi gradually becoming less interesting #plus i think my strengths do lie in applying epi to biological concepts so. one health works there #my brain continually trying to get back to lyme disease :( sometimes i really do miss the east coast tbh! #not lying actually i think the number one thing i miss is the amt of vector borne disease research LMFAO #i do unfortunately kind of have a crush on a classmate so that's fine but whatever. grad school. men are nice to me and i lose my mind ig #need to go make out w a hot trans person i think that would solve my problems rn #but also it's nice to be so excited about someone deciding to sit next to me in every class :) #like wow how isolated have i been the last 3 years to be so delighted by like. active signs i have Officially Made Friends. #even if he does live like a block away from my dad and jokes every goddamn day like 'so i saw your dad yesterday' no you DIDNT shut UP #idk yesterday he sat right next to me in a class he usually sits w other people in and it sort of sent my brain off the edge and now im jus #yeah. sitting with this one. it's fine like it's normal. but wowie i do think it's my first time having a Big Ol Crush since (redacted) #a little scary for my animal brain i think but it's okay! #im 25 in like 3 ish weeks and i still get embarrassed about this stuff somehow? stupid. #he's just really nice and always really fun to talk to! i think i had to officially Sit With Myself today bc epi is doing a holiday party #and there's a baking contest and we were talking abt it in class and i was indecisive abt whether i want to participate #and he like fully cut me off and was like oh you should bake something so i can have some :) #and. well fuck now i have to lmao. IM SO EASY IT'S SO EMBARRASSING #good evening everyone. guess this is my journal now. anyway ken rice you owe me twenty dollars and i aim to COLLECT

[magioffire]

idk how to explain to my friend not to go anywhere near the world of and/rew ta/te and his ilk past every single man ive ever interacted with who supported the dude immediately jumped to telling me to 'join the 45 percent' once they found out i was trans and that kinda speaks for itself on what kind of culture surrounds the dude. do u REALLYY wanna be around that just cuz you need a buff dude to tell you to get your shit together?

#and for people who dont get it being a trans person and being told to 'join the 45 percent' is basically urging me to k/ill myself lmfaoo #and every single AT fanboy has used this exact insult like its been coded into their brain to say it whenever they encounter a trans person #soooo kinda #speaks for itself #lmfaoooo #ooc. #tbd. #working class men u meet in the bar are 100x better inspiration to get your life on track than these weird ass internet grifters

[neon-danger]

And just so you know we live for porny chapters 🥰 you write them so well

This is all well and good but writing the same thing over and over is how gifted kids get burnout

#I mean just look at all the argumentative essays we had to write in American public school #why do I #a (no longer) public high school student #need to care about school uniforms #we didn’t even have a Dresscode #or the ones where they’re like #‘write about racism and how it affects us today’ #homie I’m a white man why should I be explaining the experiences of black people #and then the articles they gave us to work with were fucking #written by white men???? #ugh don’t even get me started on The Abortion Debate of 2019 #ft my shitty ass history teacher #every girl in class #and me #a closeted trans man #with mommy issues #where was i going with this #I had a point #uh #don’t do drugs #neon answers

[freerangecatmilk-blog]

I've noticed TERFS and radfems like using old dsm diagnosis'/outdated science, focusing on genitals, gatekeeping sexism/trauma, have a view that matriarchy should replace patriarchy but not dive into the injustice of patriarchy (so it sounds like they just want to be the ones in charge without fixing any underlying problems - like how boleskeviks were the vanguard for communism for awhile until they gained power and just were state capitalist shills), and a lot of them view sexwork and porn as being some form of societal degenerousy while only saying it should be illegal.

I haven't seen much provide solutions to problems that are outside of right-wing talking points. Legality is only for the poor, and they seem to think doing internal classwar and punishing the poor will help them.

If anyone thinks this is wrong or wants to correct me just hmu. Cuz I could be wrong and I'm fine with admitting it too.

Unrelated pic. Just wanted to put something tht wasn't just text. Kinda funny u can find meth pipes on Amazon tho.

#radfems #terfs #i dont understand #where tf theyre coming from #classwar #sex work is work #trans women are women #trans men are men #nbs are a cooler 3rd option #i cant tell if terfs and radfems are rightwing or dont have class conciousness #both are awful #pls lmk if im wrong tho

[ghelgheli]

In contrast with professional drag queens, who were only playing at being women onstage, [Esther] Newton learned that the very bottom of the gay social hierarchy was the province of street queens. In almost total contrast to professional queens, street queens were "the underclass of the gay world." Although they embraced effeminacy, too, they did so in the wrong place and for the wrong reason: in public and outside of professional work. As a result, Newton explained, the street queens "are never off stage. Their way of life is collective, illegal, and immediate." Because they didn't get paid to be feminine and were locked out of even the most menial of nightlife jobs, Newton observed that their lives were perceived to revolve around "confrontation, prostitution, and drug 'highs'." Even in a gay underworld where everyone was marked as deviant, it was the sincere street queens who tried to live as women who were punished most for what was celebrated-and paid-as an act onstage. When stage queens lost their jobs, they were often socially excluded like trans women. Newton explained that when she returned to Kansas City one night during her fieldwork, she learned that two poor queens she had met had recently lost their jobs as impersonators. Since then, they had become "indistinguishable from street fairies," growing out their hair long and wearing makeup in public-even "passing" as girls in certain situations," in addition to earning a reputation for taking pills. They were now treated harshly by everyone in the local scene. Most people wouldn't even speak to them in public. Professional drag queens who didn't live as women still had to avoid being seen as too "transy" in their style and demeanor. One professional queen that Newton interviewed explained why: it was dangerous to be transy because it reinforced the stigma of effeminacy without the safety of being onstage. "I think what you do in your bed is your business," he told Newton, echoing a middle-class understanding of gay privacy, "[but] what you do on the street is everybody's business."

The first street queen who appears in Mother Camp is named Lola, a young Black trans girl who is "becoming a woman,' as they say'." Newton met Lola at her dingy Kansas City apartment, where she lived with Tiger, a young gay man, and Godiva, a somewhat more respectable queen. What made Godiva more respectable than Lola wasn't just a lack of hormonal transition. It was that Godiva could work as a female impersonator because she wasn't trying to sincerely live as a woman. Lola, on the other hand, was permanently out of work because being Black and trans made her unhireable, including in female impersonation. When Newton entered their apartment, which had virtually no furniture, she found Lola lying on "a rumpled-up mattress on the floor" and entertaining three "very rough-looking young men." These kinds of apartments, wrote Newton, "are not 'homes.' They are places to come in off the street." The extremely poor trans women who lived as street queens, like Lola, "literally live outside the law," Newton explained. Violence and assault were their everyday experiences, drugs were omnipresent, and sex work was about the only work they could do. Even if they didn't have "homes," street queens "do live in the police system."

As a result of being policed and ostracized by their own gay peers, Newton felt that street queens were "dedicated to "staying out of it" as a way of life. "From their perspective, all of respectable society seems square, distant, and hypocritical. From their 'place' at the very bottom of the moral and status structure, they are in a strategic position to experience the numerous discrepancies between the ideals of American culture and the realities." Yet, however withdrawn or strung out they were perceived to be, the street queens were hardly afraid to act. On the contrary, they were regarded by many as the bravest and most combative in the gay world. In the summer of 1966, street queens in San Francisco fought back at Compton's Cafeteria, an all-night venue popular with sex workers and other poor gay people. After management had called the police on a table that was hanging out for hours ordering nothing but coffee, an officer grabbed the arm of one street queen. As the historian Susan Stryker recounts, that queen threw her coffee in the police officer's face, "and a melee erupted." As the queens led the patrons in throwing everything on their tables at the cops-who called for backup-a full-blown riot erupted onto the street. The queens beat the police with their purses "and kicked them with their high-heeled shoes." A similar incident was documented in 1959, when drag queens fought back against the police at Cooper's Donuts in Los Angeles by throwing donuts-and punches. How many more, unrecorded, times street queens fought back is anyone's guess. The most famous event came in 1969, when street queens led the Stonewall rebellion in New York City. Newton shares in Mother Camp that she wasn't surprised to learn it was the street queens who carried Stonewall. "Street fairies," she wrote, "have nothing to lose."

Jules Gill-Peterson, A Short History of Trans Misogyny

#reading #a short history of trans misogyny #transmisogyny #jules gill-peterson

[it-is-the-hannah]

I feel like I should get extra time on final exams if I have to take them while on my period. Or like I get to randomly scream while taking them. Something.

#adventures with hannah #i have a FOUR HOUR crim law test tomorrow #and my uterus is Not Working With Me #the men in my class don't have to deal with this bullshit #(my class is small there are no trans dudes that i know of) #if i bleed through a pad bc i didn't have time to go change and still answer all the questions i am going to be very cross #+ I gotta remember to actually take an iron supplement in the am so my red blood cells have a fighting chance of getting oxygen to my brain #having a uterus is so inconvenient sometimes #ignore me complaining i am just cranky

[genderkoolaid]

it really is crazy how women abusing men is still regularly (if "jokingly") viewed as a positive thing. like literally today i was talking to someone about having watched both misery & sunset boulevard in a film class & both of those being about men being abused by women & the person's response was smth like. haha yeah that's so empowering. like obviously these are fictional characters but y'all realize that treating individual human men like poppets to punish Mankind for it's Sins is fucked up and evil yeah. also this directly translates into how trans men are treated as free punching bags for people to take out their anger at more powerful cis men. idk call me crazy but i feel like if you can't hear about men being abused by women without making a "joke" about it maybe you just have a deep problem you need to work on

#m. #abuse tw

[fatphobiabusters]

So you definitely don't want to read the comments on this one, but there's a new study out showing just how bad weight discrimination in the work force can be.

I like how they examine how the impact intersects with class and gender (just men and women, with 23000 ppl in their sample, I'm 100% sure there were trans ppl, unless they were deliberately excluded)

tw: o word, lots of fatphobia in the comments.

These results suggest that the aggregate costs of wage discrimination borne by overweight workers in America are hefty. Suppose you assume that obese women, but not men, face a wage penalty of 7% (the average across all such women in our sample) and that this is the same regardless of their level of education. Then a back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that they bear a total cost of some $30bn a year. But if you account for both the discrimination faced by men, and for the higher wage penalty experienced by the more educated (who also tend to earn more), the total cost to this enlarged group more than doubles, to $70bn per year.

-Mod Siarl

#fatphobia in the workplace #weight discrimination #o word #mod siarl

[synechd0che]

...

#rolling my eyes #what makes people post things like: #“oughh I'm upset that I got kicked out of a literature anthology project because people brought forward screenshots of me being aphobic” #as if they are not squarely at fault for being a bigot. #who is going to sympathize with you there? really. who is your target audience????? other bigots????? #sometimes you face consequences for saying bad things. #and no that is not a straw man I'm sharing near-verbatim what someone else posted. #there is not a leg to stand on here #like even if you ignore their aphobia (which ftr has been overtly going on for years since the heyday of ace exclusion) #they're like “and they had an issue with me being a misandrist” #as if posting your radfeminism-with-the-pricetag-ripped-off crap isn't also an issue #like no it's actually also bad to post things that are unscientific/ reinforce bio&gender essentialism/demean all trans ppl at once #way to make trans men feel like shit for transitioning/make trans women feel like they'll never be able to transition enough/ #inevitably misgender non-binary ppl/prevent any productive or scientific discussion on the role of cis men in systemic patriarchy/ #spread the false narrative that (mostly cis) women are an inherently good class of people who are inapable of causing (gendered) harm #and to complete the trifecta “they couldn't take my belligerence” - yeah you are a genuinely unpleasant person and you like harassing ppl #and you wonder why ppl don't want your work in their anthology #you are unpleasant to work with and unsafe to be around and you're upset you got called on it

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

Reactionary "communists" who give a shit about culture war BS and think the reason we don't have socialism is because of too many trans freaks with blue hair and pronouns being communists and not enough respectable white men in suits are actually some of the most pathetic creatures alive. Imagine reading Marx and Lenin and coming out the other side thinking the thing *really* holding the working class back is people not dressing correctly. Please for the love of God give up your fucking pretense of being any sort of materialist and go join the fascists who have nothing to offer but the aestheticization of politics since that's desperately what you want to be deep down.