Transphobia and Misogyny in Age of Sigmar

Hi friends of all genders (and special shout out to all my enbys as it's non binary day today!). Today I want to talk about something that's a bit of a downer. I recently discovered that a somewhat well known high end competitive Age of Sigmar player is a right wing transphobe.

I want to talk about why this sucks, my experience of transphobia in the hobby and dealing with the anxiety of being a woman at events.

My first transphobic experience in Warhammer

I had been heavily involved in my local AoS community for a number of years prior to coming out publicly and transitioning.

It took people who'd known me a little while to get used to it, and as expected there were some slip ups with names and pronouns. This is totally natural, and while uncomfortable, is unavoidable when you've known someone and they change how they present. With time most people got to grips and it's no longer an issue.

Unfortunately, one player, who has always been known to be quite right leaning, decided to link me to "super straights" and make it clear he identified as "super straight". For those in the dark the "super straight" movement was an online trolling and hate campaign targeted at trans people. It supposed a new identity of super straight, which was straight but excluding trans women.

Why is this transphobic? For starters because you don't need to create an orientation just to exclude a minority group. No one is holding a gun to your head and asking you to sleep with a trans person. Imagine if someone made a point of telling everyone they were "white sexual" and exclusively attracted to white people. You'd probably believe that person to be racist and racism as their reason for overtly making a point of it.

Secondly, if you're attracted to women you will be attracted to at least one trans woman. Because you genuinely won't know they are trans. If you don't believe me go and look at some of the absolutely stunning trans girls on social media, or Kim Petras or some of the adult actresses. You might be uncomfortable sleeping with someone who has different genitals than you would expect, that's ok, but you would still be initially attracted. Not to mention many trans women who have had surgery are physically indistinguishable from cis women.

So effectively this individual, who hasn't otherwise said a word to me, wanted to make it clear they were transphobic. This was pretty upsetting and scary given this individual is a frequent AoS player locally and I still have to see them in the game store.

A well known player and transphobia

A previous version of this article discussed an individual in the AoS scene who I had come to believe was transphobic. To be clear this is a different person from the one mentioned above who had linked me to "super straight".

I refrained from mentioning the person by name as I wasn't 100% certain that my feelings were accurate. I'm glad I did so because the individual reached out to me and clarified this wasn't the case. It seems there were some misunderstandings and bad luck involved.

There is a lot of transphobia going on in the world, Warhammer (mostly 40k) and my life right now. Unfortunately sometimes when you're in a minority group it's hard to know where those borderline cases fall.

I'm pleased to be wrong on this occasion, grateful they reached out and apologetic for my own role in misunderstanding.

Attending events

I've attended three big two dayer events so far, one of which I was able to travel to from home and the other two where I stayed over.

Both times I travelled and stayed alone I've experienced issues due to being female.

Firstly, while out in Nottingham on a Friday evening I was harassed twice. Firstly by a group of young men who walked up close to me, bumping into me and calling me a dyke. They followed me like this for some time until I got to a large populated area.

I'm not unused to homophobic abuse when I'm presenting as a more masculine woman, or when I'm with my partner. We often get shouts etc even in Brighton. But this was the first time they had been physically aggressive. Plus I was on my own in an unfamiliar place.

The second time I had an Airbnb host try to send me to a different address to the one on the booking. Could this have been innocent or just a way to scam for money? Sure, but there is also the chance of it involving physical or sexual violence. I had to contact Airbnbs safety team and was traveling to the event unsure where I'd stay for the night.

Thankfully, they were able to find my alternative accommodation and confirmed the host to have breached the policy. Yet, if I'd been a male traveller this experience may have been less frightening.

Then there was the more minor issue of a taxi driving "joking" that my boyfriend shouldn't let me travel alone and that he could take advantage of me. Haha.

None of this will be surprising to any women reading. We're used to not going out alone, or making sure our friends know where we are. How many boys say to their friend "text me when you get home"? Amongst women it's a near universal comment. We all know something bad could happen and do what we can to create safety.

All of this is a lot worse when away from home and on your own.

So whilst Warhammer events themselves might be a safe place, you can hopefully see how it's harder for a single woman to participate.

Ending on a high note

Last night we had the draw for Clash and my first round game is against none other than THE Nathan Prescott. I'm excited to play against a Gitz player who really knows their stuff and to meet a Warhammer celebrity who seems like a really fun-gi.

Check back later today for a preview into both our lists and a discussion of my tactics ahead of the game!