Trans women experience misogyny.
Every type of misogynistic harassment and violence that cis women experience, trans women also experience – and worse.
There is a mistaken belief that trans women experience some form of "male privilege", whether on account of their bodies, history, or inability to get pregnant. In reality, this is completely untrue. Every form of misogyny that cis women experience; trans women experience too. The belief that trans women are "privileged" is a misogynistic denial of their experience.
Sexual violence
Transgender people in general are far more likely to face physical and sexual violence than cisgender people; current data suggests that trans women and trans men experience sexual violence at similar rates.[1] When trans women experience sexual violence, it commonly escalates to physical violence when their trans status is exposed.[2]
Physical violence
Trans women are four times more likely than cis women to be victims of physical violence.[3] In over 80% of murders of trans people, the victim is a trans woman, usually a Black trans woman.[4]
Sexual harassment
In addition to routine sexual harassment and street harassment, trans women face distinct forms of sexual harassment. These include invasive comments about their bodies and medical history ("have you had the surgery?" "how long have you been on hormones?") and pseudoscientific medical diagnoses, such as autogynephilia.[5] False accusations of sexual "perversion" are a form of sexual harassment; false accusations of rape (such as those levied by Janice Raymond) are a form of sexual harassment that is especially challenging to respond to.[6]
Reproductive injustice, lack of bodily autonomy
Trans women are required to sterilize themselves before transitioning in nine US states, and were required to do so until very recently in countries like Japan, Finland, and Denmark.[7] Trans women are regularly denied bodily autonomy in other ways – they are denied access to hormones and surgery, or put through draconian processes of harassment in order to receive them. The fact that trans women are unable to get pregnant does not exempt them from reproductive justice, nor does it guarantee them bodily autonomy.
Domestic violence, homelessness
When trans women are victims of domestic violence, or when they are made homeless, they are often unable to access shelter – it is common for shelters to turn away trans women.[8]
Medical misogyny
Trans women are routinely sexually harassed by doctors.[9] Transgender healthcare and bodies are understudied. Transsexual women do not have male bodies – the process of medical transition physically alters the body, in ways that are under-researched.
Gender wage gap
Trans women, on average, earn less than cis or trans men – and less than cis women.[10] Transgender people are three times more likely to be unemployed than cisgender people.[11]
Sexual violence in prisons
Trans women, when arrested, are typically incarcerated in male prisons, where they are subject to sexual violence – up to and including a practice of institutionalized sexual slavery known as "V-coding".[12] Trans women of color are arrested at sickeningly high rates – one report suggests that half of all Black transgender people have been incarcerated.[13] Trans women are especially likely to be put in solitary confinement, which has demonstrable negative effects on mental health.[14]
Exploitation in sex work
Trans women, especially those who are racialized, are especially likely to have engaged in sex work – 42% of all Black trans women reported engaging in sex work.[15] The association between trans women and sex work is so strong that the "tranny hooker" is a recognizable stock character on TV;[16] trans women are frequently accused of being sex workers (and hassled by cops) whether or not they actually are. Trans sex workers report frequent sexual harassment from police.[17]
Sexualization in pornography
Transgender porn (almost exclusively featuring trans women) is one of PornHub's most popular categories.[18] This pornography sexualizes and stigmatizes trans women, portraying them as "exotic", as objects for men's lust and shame. This is especially true of racialized trans women, who are stigmatized in additional ways.
Pressure to be conventionally feminine
Trans women risk being denied healthcare if they are not feminine enough.[19] Trans women are further pressured to feminize themselves because being "read" as transgender puts a trans woman at serious risk of physical and sexual violence – femininity is safety.[20]
Pressure to be sexually available to men
In the 20th century, trans women were legally defined as heterosexual.[21] Doctors would regularly determine which trans women were allowed to receive care based on how physically attractive they were.[22] Lesbian trans women face particularly severe sexual harassment, whether from feminists like Janice Raymond, or doctors like Ray Blanchard.
Rather than asking, "What privileges do trans women have?" we should ask, "What privileges do cis women have?"
Sources
1. Cortney McLellan et al., “Global Burden of Violence Against Transgender and Gender-Diverse Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” JAMA Network Open 9, no. 1 (2026): e2552953, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.52953.
2. Jules Gill-Peterson, A Short History of Trans Misogyny (2024; Verso, 2025), 40, 49.
3. Andrew R. Flores et al., “Gender Identity Disparities in Criminal Victimization: National Crime Victimization Survey, 2017–2018,” American Journal of Public Health 111, no. 4 (2021): 727, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.306099.
4. Kelley Robinson and Tori Cooper, The Epidemic of Violence Against the Transgender & Gender-Expansive Community in the U.S. (Human Rights Campgain, 2024), https://reports.hrc.org/an-epidemic-of-violence-2024.
5. Julia Serano, Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism & Trans Feminism (Switch Hitter Press, 2016), 167.
6. Porpentine, “Hot Allostatic Load,” The New Inquiry, May 11, 2015, https://thenewinquiry.com/hot-allostatic-load/.
7. Julissa Coriano and Noah J. Duckett, “It Never Stopped,” Delaware Journal of Public Health 11, no. 2 (2025): 4–5, https://doi.org/10.32481/djph.2025.07.16.
8. Viviane K. Namaste, Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People (University of Chicago Press, 2000), 177–78.
9. Ibid., 204, 223.
10. Orion Rummler, “‘Those Dollars and Cents Add up’: Full-Time Trans Workers Face a Wage Gap, Poll Finds,” The 19th, January 28, 2022, https://19thnews.org/2022/01/transgender-workers-wage-gap-lowest-paid-lgbtq/; Rashmi Chimmalgi and Meghan Kissell, The Not so Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap: 2026 Update (AAUW, 01/26), https://www.aauw.org/app/uploads/2026/03/The_Simple_Truth_Gender_Pay_Gap_2026.pdf.
11. Sandy E. James et al., “The Report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey,” National Center for Transgender Equality, 2016, 5.
12. Zain Murdock, How ‘V-Coding’ Demonstrates The Violence Of Rape And Prison Culture, February 29, 2024, www.pushblack.us/news/how-v-coding-demonstrates-violence-rape-and-prison-culture.
13. Zane McNeill, “Incarcerated Trans Woman Sues Trump Over Anti-Trans Order Redefining ‘Sex,’” Truthout, January 28, 2025, https://truthout.org/articles/incarcerated-trans-woman-sues-trump-over-anti-trans-order-redefining-sex/.
14. “New Survey: Transgender People’s Experiences in Prison and Their Calls for Policy Change,” Vera, February 20, 2024, https://www.vera.org/newsroom/new-survey-transgender-peoples-experiences-in-prison-and-their-calls-for-policy-change; Tiana Herring, “The Research Is Clear: Solitary Confinement Causes Long-Lasting Harm,” Prison Policy Initiative, December 8, 2020, https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/12/08/solitary_symposium/.
15. James et al., 159.
16. Gill-Peterson, 3.
17. Namaste, 170.
18. “2025 Year in Review,” Pornhub Insights, December 3, 2025, https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2025-year-in-review.
19. Kyla Schuller, The Trouble with White Women: A Counterhistory of Feminism, First edition (Bold Type Books, 2021), 203–4; Julia Serano, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity (2007; 2nd ed., Seal Press, 2016), 120–23.
20. Talia Bhatt, Brown/Trans/Les (Self-published, 2026), 157.
21. Andrew Sharpe, “From Functionality to Aesthetics: The Architecture of Transgender Jurisprudence,” in The Transgender Studies Reader (Routledge, 2006), 624.
22. Serano, Whipping Girl, 135.