Okay literally can someone explain how genderbending/cisswap is transphobic? I genuinely don’t get it, I’m not trying to be an ass, I just don’t get it. It’s not like I’m gonna automatically know lmao.
As an opening disclaimer, it’s important to realize that artforms can both be fun/enjoyable and cause harm at the same time. And, to some groups, be empowering while causing harm to themselves and/or others at the same time.
After all, genderbends initially gained popularity in fandoms as a way to increase the representation of women in the content we invest ourselves in. In that sense, to some extent, genderbends could empower women.
At the same time, genderbends are rooted in cissexism (and transphobia, as a result), and they are absolutely linked to all the negative tropes, traits, tv shows, films, plays, drawings, fiction, etc. that have helped erase trans people, and reproduce stigmas and violence against trans people. Genderbends are one cog in the big machine, but it’s important to recognize that it does cause harm, objectively, to trans people as a social class.
More under the cut because this is long and comprehensive
Historically, and culturally, it’s transphobic, because 99.9+% of genderbend artwork out there utilizes and/or is reliant on cissexism and transphobia. There are a few exceptions out there that are not based around cissexism and transphobia, but their existence does not erase how transphobia is intensely tied to the artform through its core practices, norms, tropes, and language.
Like, genderbends…at their core, they represent and are built on top of the root of oppression that trans and intersex people face in life. So long as oppression against trans and intersex folk exists, genderbends will remain harmful. That’s just a fact, that’s unavoidable. Cisswaps are just a more accurate name for the trope’s standards, but no less reliant on transphobia amd cissexism.
If I had to simplify the arguments, it would be
- There’s a working assumption that characters are cis by default. That unless a character is declared to be trans, they’re automatically cis and cannot be trans. This is transphobic.
- Gender isn’t getting “bent”, but instead, specific arrays of traits get coded as part of either binary category (male/man, female/woman), and that cissexist template is used in the vast majority of all such genderbends, moving from an idea of what a cis man is to an idea of what a cis woman is, or vice versa. This erases trans and intersex people. This essentializes genitals as tied to gender or sex. This essentializes secondary sex traits as mutually exclusive to certain genders or sexes. This upholds the binaries that oppress trans people, and casts trans people as inherently and automatically illegitimate.
- Trans people are further erased by genderbend subculture pushing more trans-friendly genderbend art out of the community and relabeling them as trans headcanons (which resulted in trans headcanons taking off as a legit thing, growing in scope, and the genderbend community being tagged by many as a non-safe space for trans people, especially trans women). So with exponentially less trans versions of genderbends, the culture grew more transphobic and cissexist at its core due to discriminating against anything that wasn’t cisnormative (cis guy to cis girl, cis girl to cis guy).
- It pushes the notion that there are opposite genders or sexes, which is not true, and is a cissexist and transphobic assumption.
- The community uses transphobic and cissexist language constantly. Some examples of this include “always-a-*gender*!*character*” for genderbend fanfics, or “bio-*gender*!*character*”. Appropriate language already exists for that, and it’s “cis”. Because trans people can have (and generally have) been their gender for their entire life (for instance, a trans woman can have always been a girl, since birth, despite being assigned male). And “bio” anything arguments tend to rely on the notion that trans people can be their genders, but their sex/biology will always remain what they were assigned, which is patently false, and absolutely transphobic and cissexist. And sometimes it assumes the genitals of a character through this, which is erroneous because, for instance, intersex cis women can be born with penises. It’s just not that simple, and acting as if it is so simple is wrong.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
I go into more detail here if you’re interested more about why and how genderbends are transphobic (kagemxne does well in breaking it downhere as well, same with grellagainstgrossness here). But yeah, they’re transphobic. Intersex folk, as well, are marginalized through intersexism as well due to the assumptions made (at least, the vast vast majority of the time) during the process of this artform.
Again, this isn’t to say that people who make or enjoy this form of art are terrible, heinous people. It’s just that they are being transphobic, and are reproducing transphobia, with a lot of these ideas being directly linked to the stigma and oppression that gets trans people harmed, disowned, denied healthcare, fired, assaulted, harassed, etc. It’s important that when we enjoy and create problematic artforms, that we’re aware of why and how it’s problematic, so we can at least try to minimize that impact, and at least be conscious of it when we indulge in it.
I mean, no one in this world is free from enjoying problematic things. We all like things and people that are shitty. If you or others want to have fun with genderbend stuff, no one is stopping you. The vast majority of folks calling people out are merely adding a disclaimer, a reminder, about it, that it’s literally, objectively transphobic as a whole. That’s not negotiable or arguable or some subjective opinion. The only reason a lot of us who call folks out get so vocal is because by and large, the genderbend community refuses to acknowledge that simple truth. Like, there are people with kinks rooted in some seriously terrible things like rape and institutional violence, and those folks tend to understand very well how and why what they like is problematic. If they can do it, so can the community of folks creating and consuming genderbend works.
Getting folks to accept that genderbends are also problematic, that they cause harm, is an important thing. It’s not “a trans person getting punched in the face” kind of harm, necessarily. It’s more the sort of systemic abuse and erasure we see in education when people are taught harmful things as facts. Or how 95+% of trans representation is found through porn and that has measurably influenced how trans people are perceived, and has increased the sexual violence inflicted on us. Genderbends encourage transphobic beliefs and thought processes, they help solidify transphobic “common sense” knowledge that desperately needs to be vanquished, they present and discuss bodies in ways that harm trans people.
And in case it needs reminding, virtually everyone is transphobic to some degree (my parents, who I love deeply, are also transphobic; my friends who I love deeply and have educated extensively still do a fair bit of transphobic things). When we say someone is transphobic for doing/consuming genderbends, we’re not saying they’re going to bash trans people’s brains in, or that they have a seething hatred for trans folk. We’re saying they’re contributing to one of the many things in life that harms and oppresses trans folk, and that in order for that harm and oppression to be combated, people must know it exists, and why it hurts us.
So it’s important people recognize that harm, so that maybe one day they can work at stopping it.