Here’s What It Really Means To Be ‘Transmasculine’

“For now, please only call me Nick if you’re cool (you know who you are). And if not, please refer to me by my professional name, Emma Dumont,” the 30-year-old, who played Robert Oppenheimer’s sister-in-law in the Oscar-winning film, said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. “That’s where I am now. All love.”

Dumont, who also starred in the Fox TV series “The Gifted,” has changed their name in their Instagram bio to Nick, listing their pronouns as they/them. (Their handle remains @emmadumont).

Transmasculine — sometimes abbreviated as “transmasc” — is a term that describes someone assigned female at birth who “identifies more with masculinity, or is transitioning in a direction towards masculinity,” printmaker Jameson Alea, who identifies as transmasculine and nonbinary but has been “leaning deeper into masculinity over time,” told HuffPost.

“Trans men are an obvious example of that, of course, but masculinity is a pretty nebulous concept, actually, and it means different things to different people,” he continued.

Generally speaking, the term refers to people whose “gender identity or expression leans masculine,” sex therapist Jesse Kahn, director of the Gender and Sexuality Therapy Center in New York City, told HuffPost. But transmasculine people don’t necessarily think of themselves as “men,” Kahn explained.

“It can encompass a range of genders and experiences, such as being nonbinary or genderqueer, as long as masculinity is a primary aspect of their identity,” Kahn continued.

You can also think of it this way, they said: “Usually, trans men are transmasculine, but not all transmasculine people are trans men.”

Still, even those definitions may not cover everyone. “It’s important to remember that these are general ways to understand the terms,” Kahn noted.

Alea said he’s not all that fond of the term nonbinary because it’s “telling you what it’s not, rather than what it is.”

“That can sometimes box people in from describing their gender the way they want,” he said. “It’s great that we’re seeing more nonbinary inclusion, but sometimes it feels like we’re moving from ‘these are the two genders’ to ‘these are the three genders,’ and that’s not the point of existing outside the binary.”

“The point of existing outside the binary is that who you are isn’t limited by the words we already have for things.”

So what does it mean when you describe your identity as both transmasculine and nonbinary, as Dumont does?

Often, it indicates the person’s identity or expression “leans toward masculine,” but they do not consider their gender to be within the binary man/woman framework, Kahn said.

Instead, it “exists outside of, in between or without these categories, while connecting to and often expressing the masculine aspects of their identity,” he continued.

Used together, these two terms — transmasculine and nonbinary — might seem contradictory, but they aren’t. Transmasculine is a descriptor, not a gender, Alea explained.

“‘Nonbinary’ covers a huge spectrum of people, and using transmasculine as an adjective with it gives more context about where on that spectrum someone falls, what ‘flavor’ of nonbinary they are, so to speak,” he said.

Some people assume that being a transmasculine nonbinary person is just a phase or a “stepping stone” to identifying as a man. But both experts said that’s a common misconception.

There’s often “this assumption that transmasculine nonbinary people are really just trans men who haven’t come all the way out yet,” Alea said, noting that the same assumption is often made about transfeminine folks.

It is “fairly common” to come out as nonbinary and then later come out a trans man or woman, he explained, “but that doesn’t mean that being nonbinary isn’t a valid gender, and lots of transmascs feel totally comfortable identifying as nonbinary forever.”

Gender can be complicated, whether that’s exploring your own identity or trying to understand someone else’s.

It’s also a very personal thing, and “it can be hard to figure out what feels right without ‘trying on’ different traits and labels and names and words,” Alea said.

“Exploring your gender is really just the process of figuring out what feels comfortable and what doesn’t, so noticing when a word feels uncomfortable and letting yourself react to that is really important.”