With some migrations underway it’s natural to use well established community names for discoverability, but it got me thinking how I’ve always disliked MtF as a community name since it feels dated and “medicalizing”.
Not trying to start anything here, just wondering out loud if a “Transfem” community would cater to the same needs but with less emphasis on where you supposedly came from and more focused on what we want.
Yeah, I think “Transfem” would be a more accurate and just overall better name. I agree it’s better to focus on where we are rather than where we were. I never liked MtF because in my view I was never “male”. Transfem just describes what I am and always have been.
Ahh that perspective makes so much more sense to me. MtF just describes a medical process when i think of it. Hopefully transfem catches on!
I named it mtf after the mtf subreddit. We even stole their icon lol 😅 I can change the name to transfem, or MtF - Transfem or something like that. The !mtf I cant change but the actual title is easily changeable.
If you check the sidebar too I do specify that the community is for all transfeminine people and experiences. But yeah the name could be changed.
“MTF” feels sometimes like a backhanded way of still calling me a guy. I’m not a guy. It also reinforces the gender binary, which I feel we have a pretty significant population that doesn’t fall neatly into that or feel comfortable self-describing as that.
I think it also might benefit to mention that while yes, this is a community about transfems, all queer or even cis people are welcome to engage so long as they’re respectful. Possibly in the sidebar.
Having googled some definitions, transfem is one of those terms that doesn’t have one clear definition whereas MtF has enough history to be fairly unambiguous. No matter what it would draw a slightly different venn diagram as a name. That isn’t a bad thing, just not sure what it looks like from an NB angle.
I consider myself NB transfem. I prefer transfem because, to me at least, it invokes a feeling of movement towards feminity as opposed to into feminity.
For a community name I’m honestly not sure which one would be better. I think discoverability and inclusivity should be the deciding factors. MtF has the lineage from past communities and transfem is more inclusive.
