Every culture has its own constructs around what constitutes feminine expression. Black women have always had our own expressions of femininity that are specific to our experience and racial appearance and non-Black women are constantly co-opting & imitating them. 1/

So I don’t agree w/ the idea that femininity is something white women monopolize & we’re all trying to achieve it by imitating them. White patriarchy is hyper fixated on the sexual exploitation of BW’s bodies & white womanhood has been largely defined in opposition to that. 2/

Gender has been racialized under white supremacy. So it’s not that there’s 1 concept of “man” or “woman” but concepts around what it means to be a white man v a black man v a white woman v a black woman, etc & each race/gender category is stereotyped in specific & unique ways. 3/

That said, transphobia among cis BW is a deadly problem & ignores how Blk trans women have always shaped cultural constructs of Blk feminine expression, too. It’s erasure. We all face oppression for being Blk & feminine but we face different dynamics w/ gender oppression too. 4/

I think all of this can be true at once.

I also want to be clear that I’m still learning & understanding a lot about the trans experience so I want to be careful not to claim to speak to an experience that’s not my own. 5/

I understand the pushback against the notion that white femininity is the only “traditional” femininity & how such notions are couched in colorism, but I also see that being used as an opening to engage in transphobia. 6/

The oppression we face is more similar than not. Blk trans women have never been a threat to me. They’re not killing us. They’re being killed at higher rates. We’re all being killed by racism & gender oppression. It doesn’t make sense to do anything except support each other. 7/7