Gender Journey
If It’s Not Your Community, Kindly Hush
Toxic normative mansplaining — is there any other kind?
If I tell you something about my community and you are not a part of it, please kindly hold your burning desire to correct me. I’ve become more aware of cisgender-heterosexual (cishet) normative white male oppression since I started questioning my gender than I ever was in the presumed identity of a cishet white woman. I was part of the problem. I know that now. But I didn’t see it, then. Can anyone say, internalized misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia?
This came to my attention when I attempted to help someone. Big mistake. They never asked for help (that’s my bad) and as I quickly discovered, this presumably cishet white man didn’t need correcting. Yes, my mistake. I am wrong. Not you. Not possibly you.
The person in question confused aspects of gender and sexuality. I debated if I should stay the hell out of it, but as we were both students, I thought perhaps he may be open to learning. At the end of my email, I noted that I was transgender, hopefully indicating that I, you know, kind of knew what I was talking about. The response I received was passive-aggressive, at best, and the kicker came at the end when he shared his sexuality (which is kind of creepy). I sighed in the…
