
i'm honestly not a fan of the phrase at all because it seems every time someone uses it it's saying "all ftm/x people were socialized female" "all mtf/x people were socialized male." and while i was technically raised as a girl, it was around tons of men and boys in the south with a mother who didn't enforce gender roles on us and i've passed since i was 13 due to genetics. i did not have a girlhood. i've never experienced life as a woman. and it sucks being told that we ALL went through that
Idk it is a good phrase for talking about YOUR OWN experiences but you shouldn’t generalize. Being socialized as a girl has heavily affected my personality, view on life, and how I’m treated by others, but I can’t say the same for all trans men, and I would especially never dare to speak for trans women
The difference is you were treated as a girl by society — im definitely aware of the way the term can be used negatively against us but its still relevant socially to understand why we as a community even exist in the first place. If we werent socialized as a certain gender, it probably wouldnt be such a big deal were trans lol
Never generalized— but its relevant to understand that society will treat you as the gender it assigns you. I never felt like a woman yet was still treated like one, but i was treated as a woman who did not conform to my assigned gender, which is a different experience from a cis woman for sure. Im saying that our unique experiences as trans people complicate that gender treatment and the way society treats us and socializes us is unique to us. Im definitely not trying to generalize def.
i'm not treated as a girl by society though. i was treated as a queer hippie as a young child and by 13 onwards i passed to everyone as a man. i know it's important for some that they had a girlhood, but some of us also didn't. it doesn't take away from transness, it's just a different experience
Im not really necessarily talking about “girlhood” per say. I don’t feel like i had one either. My point is how we are raised is unique to how we are assigned at birth. As a young child, i was told to put up with abuse from boys because “boys are mean to girls they like”. Or for example, when a middle school boy slapped my ass when i was 10, i was told “boys will be boys “ and i needed to wear “a longer skirt as to not tempt them”. Im not saying these are girlhood experiences,
These are the experiences of someone who was told they were a girl, which made it mighty difficult for me to grapple with my gender identity. Im not trying to tell you how you are or were or what you experienced, i promise. Its just how we all grow up is dictated by society which is why so many of us come to terms with our queerness so late: these things have been drilled into us.
that’s fair, although I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone be defensive when someone’s talking about their own socialization. I’ve only seen people get upset when someone says “WE were socialized in X way.” socialization is a complex topic and speaking with authority on another’s experience does deserve some hostility imo