Editor’s note: Transwomen shine a light on feminist debates about gender privilege; ie. if males have all the privilege then why are so many males transitioning and feeling more empowered with the results? MtF’s accessing traditional female privileges is becoming deeply unsettling for feminists and their phony narratives about males holding all the power, and with the rise of a phenomenon called ‘transmaxxing’ that fear is likely to escalate further. – PW
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Transmaxxing is a relatively new term referring to men who transition gender (MtF) in order to obtain personal, social and legal benefits associated with being female. Said differently, the transmaxxer transitions to female status, and not to recognizing a sense of female selfhood as is the case with transwomen.
The phenomenon appeared many years before the term was coined, and while it has recently gained some interest in the incel community, its application is far broader than that. It involves a decision to identify as a female regardless of this being contrary to one’s usual sense-of-self.
The Urban Dictionary defines transmaxxing simply as, “Transitioning from male to female for personal gain.”
Based on this broad definition we will conclude the following: 1. that transmaxxing cannot be reduced to an incel activity, nor to a proclivity of gay men as some have proposed, nor to any other single demographic. 2. It never or rarely applies to cases of female-to-male transition which are considered to involve minimal gain. 3. Transmaxxing isn’t based on the clichéd explanation that the individual is “a female trapped inside a man’s body,” nor that he “has always felt like a woman.” 4. The only premise of transmaxxing is the undergoing of a MtF transition for the sake of securing a range of benefits associated with female identification. So lets look at some of those benefits. Some recent online discussions have cited the following benefits belonging exclusively to the female sex, and also by legal extension to transmaxxers:
SAMPLE OF BENEFITS
- Get cheaper car and life insurance
- No registering with selective service
- Enter men’s & women’s locker rooms/restrooms whenever you want
- People will treat you better
- Whine all you want and people will listen
- Receive special considerations and child-custody in family court
- Earlier retirement and associated pension grant
- Free legal aid
- Services for victims of domestic violence
- Free or subsidized accommodation for the low income women
- Female only scholarships
- Female employment quotas
- Affirmative action hires
- Being able to sue for sexism
- Lighter prison sentences
- More leisure time, less work
- Receive greater empathy and sympathy
- Greater social support
- More narcissistic gratification for achievements
- To be believed regardless of lack of evidence
- Use public transport & parking spaces reserved for women
- Receive higher pass marks for the same school work
PRAXIS Transmaxxers don’t need to wear lipstick, put on a dress or engage in other performative gestures we might typically associate with transwomen (although some may choose to take these extra steps). Further, transmaxxer identification doesnt even require a renunciation of traits referred to as masculine. At minimum, all it requires is a technical change of gender either on a legal paper, or in some countries by verbal statement, and all the boons of female privilege become available for the transmaxxer’s enjoyment. While the change of gender may appear cynical or inauthentic, we can say that transmaxxers may genuinely identify with an internal sense of privilege, esteem, status, deservingness, dignity, worth, purity, beauty and social value that we euphemistically call “feminine.” The degree to which a transmaxxer genuinely identifies with these “feminine” things, such femininity is integral to his sense of self. I personally won’t be transmaxxing anytime soon, but I take some solace in the fact that feminist smugness is being rapidly undermined by this growing trend.
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Addendum: The primary difference between a transwoman and transmaxxer needs to be differentiated, as there seems to be some confusion on this point. Transwomen organically feel & desire female identification, with negligeable desire to identify as male. Whereas MtF transmaxxers tend to identify as male or gender dysphoric, without an organic desire to identify as a woman. This can be summarized as follows:
- Transwoman is an autonomous desire and identification of the self as female
- Transmaxxing is a decision, rather than an autonomous desire, to identify as female gender contrary to one’s usual sense-of-self. The transmaxxer can be said to legitimately “transition” to female status, rather than female selfhood.
