Every time there's a discussion (or an angry lecture) about gender issues, you hear "trans women are women." It's often repeated several times in a few minutes. People hold up signs that say that at demonstrations.
The only times that I've heard anybody say "trans men are men" is when I've pointed out to people that they're focusing on one side of the issue and ignoring a rapidly growing demographic. That's when they back pedal.
Maybe it's because historically there have been more trans women. Still, even though there still are more trans women, the number of trans men has been growing at a much faster rate among iGen.
Maybe it's an unconscious bias. Maybe it's easier for some people to see womanhood as a costume than it is to see manhood that way. Maybe it's because the controversy in athletics is entirely focused on trans women (as it should be).
Isn't it possible though that there's an understanding among these activists who claim to want to destroy the distinction between trans women and biological women, conscious or not, that if they win that fight both ways, they'll lose one of their more powerful tools?
Namely, when it comes to these ideas of intersectionality and privilege and the passion to "fight the patriarchy," women are oppressed in their philosophy whether they're trans or biological. They don't lose the oppression Olympics component to their arguments. If trans men are men and the activists apply that same language to men, then any person born a woman can choose to join the patriarchy at any point. They'd lose the ability to treat all trans people as oppressed minorities. In fact, the logical conclusion would have to be that they would need to treat trans men, especially trans white men as their oppressors. They might need to alienate the fastest growing group in their movement.
If any of the activists do realize this problem they probably also realize that they have to come up with some coherent reason why trans men should be treated differently or they'll have to back track on some of their loudest platitudes.
