What I've Noticed About Transmasc Specific Slurs Is That They Usually Go Into One Of Two Categories.

What I've noticed about transmasc specific slurs is that they usually go into one of two categories.

"Eww, your body is gross."

examples: zippertits, shrimpdick, pooner, mangina, tranny voice

They are all derived either from specifically trans bodily features (top and bottom surgery, HRT-induced voice changes) or presumed genitals (the assumption of a vulva, in an attempt to invoke dysphoria).

2. "You're just an attention-seeking crybaby."

examples: theyfab, hefab, birthday boy, Aiden*, fakeboi, transandrodork*, transandro*

They are all derived from something being just play-pretend. [Pronoun]fabs are pretending females that are not really trans and only play with pronouns, birthday boys want attention for their fake problems, Aidens are annoying teenagers with dramatic fake names, fakebois are... well, fake boys, transandrodorks and transandros are foolish confused/malicious boys/girls (both depend on the speaker's level of transphobia) who discourse about fake oppression.

(*I don't think these are slurs *per se.* They're too discourse-specific. I've only included them because they might be used in the same breath, both with the actual slurs as a tool of mockery. I personally cannot decide whether "Aiden" can be earnestly called a slur either, but I think that as a marginalized identity-specific mockery terms this post should be inclusive of all three of them.)

And both remind me very closely of the pattern that bullies use in school. Sexualizing you (and implying that you're both sexual and disgusting, you're characterized by your genitals or by your chest, and it's gross to the speaker), or taking something that you enjoy and identify with (in this case your pronouns, your name, your opinion in an online discourse) and turning it as a personalized insult to show you that it's ridiculous, and in some sense also appaling, that you would even choose to associate with that thing. You're no longer allowed to be seen as a complex person. You're the he/they. You're "silly name" guy. You're the guy who unironically used the word transandrophobia, you're a transandro now. (Which I have seen leveled against transfems who agree with the transandrophobia theory, which I find extremely gross, since even though I know deep inside that it's just a mocking shortening of the word "transandrophobia," you're still calling her an -andro. Which she isn't. That's a woman/transfem nonbinary.) It's quietly dehumanizing in a way that you cannot really protest, because at the same time it gives the perpetrators enough deniability to claim that you're overreacting, that they're just being playful, and that since they're not calling you any of the REAL slurs, you should be actually ashamed of feeling hurt when they mock you instead of engaging with you on an earnest level. That's all. That's the post.

Wait. I lied.

That's not all.

Important disclaimer! This post is not about transfems. Sure there are transfems that gleefully use the words I'm complaining about. A mean girl is a mean girl, trans-inclusive. However, that is a teeny tiny droplet in the actual user-base of the slurs (and baby slurlets, if you will), cis transphobes and self-loathing filled 4chan transmascs. Just like transmascs don't have a unique propensity for transmisogyny, even though they can perpetrate it and sometimes do, transfems do not have any special inclination towards transandrophobia. Quite the opposite, actually - historically and even now, some of the loudest and most staunch allies of either of the groups were and will be members of the other.