Feminism for Transmen – Recommended Reading

Judith "Jack" Halbertam – Female Masculinity

Female Masculinity (1998) challenges traditional notions of masculinity by exploring how masculinity can be embodied by women. Halberstam argues that masculinity is not inherently tied to male bodies or male identities but is a broader, more fluid expression that can be performed and lived by girls and women. The book examines various cultural representations and real-life examples of female masculinity, from tomboys and butch lesbians to transmen and drag kings, highlighting how these figures disrupt gender norms.

Halberstam critiques mainstream gender theories for their focus on male masculinity and emphasizes the political and cultural significance of female masculinity as a form of resistance against rigid gender roles. By analyzing literature, film, and LGBT subcultures, the book shows how female masculinity creates space for alternative identities and challenges the assumption that masculinity equals maleness. Ultimately, Female Masculinity broadens the conversation about gender performance and identity, advocating for a more inclusive understanding of masculinity that embraces diversity in expression and disrupts heteronormative and patriarchal frameworks.

Simone de Beauvoir – The Second Sex

Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex is a foundational feminist text that continues to offer deep insight for those grappling with the meaning of gender, especially trans men who were socialized as girls. Her most famous line—“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”—is often cited in gender studies, but it is especially powerful when understood through a radical feminist lens. De Beauvoir argued that womanhood is not a simple consequence of biology; it is a role imposed by society, one marked by subordination and otherness. This analysis provides a critical framework for understanding why many transmen may have rejected “womanhood” without rejecting their sex.

For transmen raised as girls, De Beauvoir’s analysis of how femininity is constructed can feel like a mirror. She explores how girls are trained into passivity, softness, and emotional servitude—traits not biologically inherent but drilled into females from a young age. Many transmen may have felt alienated from these expectations early on, sensing that femininity did not fit not because they were male, but because the role itself was intolerable. De Beauvoir’s work suggests that discomfort with this role is not pathological, but perceptive: a refusal to be shaped by a system that diminishes and confines.

Another critical insight De Beauvoir offers is her examination of the body. She does not deny biological difference, but she critiques how female biology—menstruation, reproduction, physical vulnerability—is used as a justification for inequality. For transmen who experience dysphoria or a deep discomfort with their bodies, this perspective invites reflection: Is the distress rooted in biology itself, or in how society has taught us to view the female body as defective, messy, and weak? De Beauvoir helps peel apart the misogyny that underlies many feelings of bodily rejection.

Ultimately, De Beauvoir’s vision of liberation rests in becoming a fully autonomous subject—a human being who acts with intention, rather than one who is acted upon. For transmen, especially those reconsidering medical transition or reclaiming a connection to their female history, this idea can be profoundly liberating. You do not need to conform to a feminine ideal or escape your sexed body to be free; you need to reject the roles imposed on you and reclaim your own agency.

In this way, The Second Sex doesn’t just describe how women are made—it offers tools to unmake the constraints of gender. It affirms that the resistance many transmen feel to being boxed in by femininity is not a personal defect or identity crisis, but a valid response to a deeply unequal world. Rather than medicalize that resistance, De Beauvoir invites us to understand it politically—and to seek freedom not in escape from the body, but in the transformation of society.

Shulamith Firestone - The Dialectic of Sex (1970)

The Dialectic of Sex is a radical feminist manifesto that blends Marxist theory and psychoanalysis to argue that the foundational oppression in human history is not class or race, but sex. She contends that the biological differences between men and women—especially women’s role in reproduction—have been used to establish a system of male domination. What makes Firestone’s work especially compelling for transmen is her unflinching analysis of how female biology is weaponized, and her radical vision of freedom from it. Her critique doesn’t merely explain oppression; it also imagines a future in which biology no longer determines destiny.

Central to Firestone’s thesis is the idea that the biological family unit is the root of women's oppression. She sees pregnancy and childbearing as technologies of subjugation—natural processes that have been socially organized to benefit men. In her view, women’s reproductive role confines them physically and emotionally, keeping them dependent and vulnerable. For transmen who have experienced distress with their bodies or their roles as daughters, sisters, or mothers, this analysis offers a sharp and validating framework. The struggle isn’t simply personal—it’s systemic, rooted in how society builds identity around reproductive potential.

Firestone’s solution was radical: she envisioned a world where technology would liberate women from biology. Artificial reproduction, communal child-rearing, and the end of the nuclear family were not just sci-fi dreams for her; they were political necessities. This aspect of her work may feel dated or even dystopian to some, but for others—including trans men—it opens a useful question: what does liberation look like when the body becomes something to be escaped? In many ways, contemporary gender medicine can be seen as an extension of Firestone’s logic—using technology to transcend oppressive biological realities. But while Firestone aimed to abolish the gender system entirely, today’s gender discourse often reinforces it through medical reinforcement of gender.

For transmen reflecting on transition, The Dialectic of Sex can be both affirming and cautionary. It affirms the sense that being female in a patriarchal society can be suffocating—especially for those who are gender-nonconforming. But it also cautions against seeing technological escape as the only solution. Firestone was clear: the goal is not to become like men or to erase sexed embodiment, but to restructure society so that biological difference no longer results in social inequality.

Ultimately, Firestone’s radical feminist vision can help transmen contextualize their experiences within a broader critique of patriarchy, reproduction, and family. Her work invites us to consider not just what we are escaping from—but what kind of future we want to build, and whether true liberation lies in changing bodies or changing systems.

Catharine MacKinnon - Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (1989)

Toward a Feminist Theory of the State is a cornerstone of radical feminist legal and political theory. In it, MacKinnon argues that male power is the foundational structure of the state, and that both liberalism and Marxism have failed to account for women’s oppression because they overlook how sexuality and gender are socially constructed under patriarchy. Her central thesis is that gender itself is the institutionalized inequality between men and women—not just a difference, but a hierarchy. This framing is especially relevant for transmen, who were socialized female and experienced the world through that lens before, during, or after transition.

MacKinnon doesn’t focus on gender identity as such, but her analysis offers powerful tools for understanding how femininity is constructed to serve male dominance. She argues that women are made into women through processes that sexualize subordination: from childhood grooming, to media portrayals, to the normalization of sexual violence. For transmen who never identified with or accepted the role they were expected to perform as women, MacKinnon provides a framework that explains why that discomfort wasn’t just personal—it was political. The impulse to escape womanhood may be seen, through her lens, as a rejection of being made into a subordinate class.

Where this becomes complicated—and deeply insightful—is in how MacKinnon views power and identification. She critiques liberal feminism for focusing on equality in name while ignoring how gender is built from inequality itself. Applied to transmen, this raises difficult but important questions: What does it mean to seek recognition or inclusion in a gender system that is fundamentally unequal? How much of gender dysphoria is actually a response to the conditions of being female in a world where that means being sexually objectified, diminished, and controlled?

Transmen navigating these questions may find in MacKinnon’s work not a clear answer, but a critical method—one that urges us to examine who defines gender, who benefits from its enforcement, and how power operates beneath our identities. For those reflecting on their own transitions or exploring ways to reclaim female embodiment outside the framework of subordination, MacKinnon offers a compelling call to resist the very structures that make "woman" a position of inequality in the first place.

In this light, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State can help transmen see their experiences not just through the lens of gender identity, but as part of a broader political struggle over power, embodiment, and liberation.

Andrea Dworkin - Woman Hating (1974)

Andrea Dworkin’s early work Woman Hating (1974) and her later text Pornography: Men Possessing Women (1981) are powerful radical feminist indictments of the cultural systems that shape and enforce the subjugation of women. Together, these books lay bare how misogyny is not just an attitude but a structural force—embedded in law, literature, media, and sexuality. Dworkin argues that women are trained to hate themselves, to disappear, and to serve, while men are taught to dominate, consume, and violate. For trans men—especially those raised and socialized as girls—her work offers both a devastating mirror and, paradoxically, a form of liberation through clarity.

In Woman Hating, Dworkin confronts the deep roots of sexism in myths, fairy tales, and socialization. She describes how women are taught to view themselves as lesser from the moment they are born. She writes about butches, lesbians, and gender-nonconforming girls with a sense of solidarity, describing their resistance to femininity not as deviance but as courageous refusal. For many transmen, especially those who once lived as tomboys or butch lesbians, Dworkin’s early insights affirm that the discomfort with being seen as “woman” under patriarchy is a form of resistance—not pathology.

In Pornography: Men Possessing Women, Dworkin turns her focus to how sexuality itself has been structured by male power. She argues that pornography eroticizes domination and degradation, turning the female body into an object of conquest. This sexualization of submission becomes a cultural norm, making it nearly impossible for women to experience desire outside of oppression. For transmen who have experienced trauma, shame, or alienation in their bodies, Dworkin’s analysis offers a grim but clarifying explanation: perhaps what you fled wasn’t femaleness itself, but a culture that defined being female as being violable.

Her work challenges the notion that identifying out of womanhood is the only route to freedom. Instead, Dworkin demands that we name the system that makes femaleness intolerable. She doesn’t offer a path out through transition, but through resistance, solidarity, and radical change. For transmen reckoning with the past—especially those questioning what role misogyny and trauma played in shaping their dysphoria—Dworkin’s uncompromising clarity can be both painful and empowering. She doesn’t judge transmen; she just asks us to see what we were forced to leave behind—and why.

In this way, Woman Hating and Pornography are not just critiques of male power—they are maps of how the female experience is colonized from the inside out. For transmen willing to revisit that terrain, Dworkin offers not judgment but deep feminist insight into what we’ve had to survive.

Monique Wittig  - One Is Not Born a Woman (1980)

Monique Wittig’s essay One Is Not Born a Woman (1980) is a radical rethinking of what it means to be a “woman.” Drawing from both Marxist and feminist traditions, Wittig argues that "woman" is not a natural category rooted in biology but a political class constructed by systems of heterosexual domination. Her title plays on Simone de Beauvoir’s famous phrase—“One is not born, but becomes, a woman”—but takes it further: Wittig insists that "woman" only exists within a regime of male supremacy, and that true liberation requires abolishing the category altogether. For transmen, particularly those who never felt comfortable being categorized as women, this text opens a critical lens for understanding that discomfort as a form of resistance rather than pathology.

Wittig contends that the very idea of "woman" is produced by heterosexuality, which defines women as the opposites, complements, and subordinates of men. In her view, roles like “mother,” “wife,” and even “feminine” are not neutral expressions of identity but functions assigned by a social system that benefits men. From this perspective, individuals who do not conform to these roles—like lesbians, butch women, or transmen—are not merely gender nonconforming; they are political dissidents. When she writes that “lesbians are not women,” Wittig means that by stepping outside heterosexual structures, lesbians subvert the very system that defines what a woman is.

This idea can resonate deeply with transmen who experienced alienation not just from their bodies, but from the gendered expectations placed on them as females. Rather than seeing this alienation as a failure to be “woman enough,” Wittig invites us to view it as a rejection of the very system that created “woman” as a subordinate category in the first place. For transmen raised under female socialization who rejected femininity, submission, or heterosexual roles, Wittig’s essay reframes that refusal as a political act of defiance.

Wittig’s vision is ultimately not about switching categories—from woman to man, for instance—but about dismantling the system that makes such categories oppressive. In this light, One Is Not Born a Woman offers transmen an alternative to the narrative that their identity is purely internal or individual. Instead, it encourages a radical understanding of how gender is constructed and maintained, and how rejecting it—whether through transition, lesbian identity, or political resistance—can be an act of revolutionary liberation.

Sarah Lucia Hoagland - Lesbian Ethics: Toward New Value

In Lesbian Ethics: Toward New Value, Sarah Lucia Hoagland crafts a powerful and transformative ethical framework rooted deeply in lesbian feminist principles. At its core, Hoagland’s work challenges dominant, patriarchal ethical systems that prioritize hierarchy, competition, and abstract universalism. Instead, she proposes an ethics based on authentic relationships, mutual respect, and responsibility toward others—especially among women who resist male domination.

Hoagland argues that traditional ethics have often ignored or devalued the experiences and values of lesbians, who forge bonds of intimacy, trust, and political solidarity in opposition to oppressive social structures. Lesbian ethics is thus grounded in concrete experiences and relational accountability rather than abstract rules. It values honesty, care, and the commitment to “live in truth” about oneself and one’s desires. This ethics is transformative because it calls for rejecting internalized oppression and building new communities based on shared feminist and anti-patriarchal values.

Significantly, Hoagland explores how lesbian ethics is a form of resistance—not only to male domination but also to the social norms that erase or stigmatize lesbian identity and desire. It demands the recognition of difference and diversity within women’s communities and the creation of ethical spaces that nurture growth, healing, and solidarity.

Adrienne Rich - Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence

In Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence, Adrienne Rich argues that heterosexuality is not just a natural choice but a political institution enforced by patriarchy to maintain male dominance. She introduces “lesbian existence” as a continuum of women’s relationships and bonds that resist heteronormative expectations, highlighting lesbianism as both a personal and political act of defiance. Rich calls on feminists to recognize lesbian existence as central to challenging compulsory heterosexuality and patriarchal control.

Though Rich focuses on women and lesbian feminism, her critique of enforced norms around gender and sexuality resonates with transmen. Like women pressured into compulsory heterosexuality, transmen often face rigid expectations to conform to male gender roles and heteronormative relationships. Rich’s ideas encourage transmen to see their identities as part of a broader resistance to patriarchal and compulsory norms.

Moreover, Rich’s emphasis on solidarity and kinship beyond rigid gender roles and appearances invites more inclusive feminist spaces where transmen’s experiences are valued. Her analysis offers transmen a lens to understand and challenge how power restricts freedom, fostering communities committed to dismantling oppression and affirming diverse expressions of gender and desire.

Marilyn Frye - The Politics of Reality

In The Politics of Reality, Marilyn Frye explores how everyday experiences of women under patriarchy reveal the systemic nature of oppression. She uses vivid metaphors, like the “birdcage,” to illustrate how multiple, interconnected barriers restrict women’s freedom, showing that individual hardships are part of a larger social structure. Frye emphasizes the importance of understanding oppression as a collective, political reality rather than isolated incidents, and she advocates for feminist awareness that challenges these deeply ingrained power dynamics.

Frye also discusses the need to recognize diverse women’s experiences and identities, critiquing simplistic or exclusionary views of womanhood. She insists that feminist theory must be grounded in the real lives of women, including those marginalized by race, class, sexuality, and other factors, to build solidarity and effective resistance.

For transmen, Frye’s work offers valuable insights into the interconnected nature of oppression and the importance of collective political struggle. Although Frye focuses on women’s experiences under patriarchy, her framework encourages transmen to analyze how gender norms and systemic power affect our lives as well. Recognizing the complexity of oppression can help transmen navigate feminist spaces and allyship, fostering inclusive communities that challenge rigid gender categories and work toward broader social justice.