Transmaxxing

Transmaxxing refers to men who transition gender (MtF) in order to obtain personal, social and legal benefits associated with being female. The phenomenon appeared many years before the term was coined, and while it has recently gained some interest in the incel community, its application is far broader than that. It involves a decision to identify as a female regardless of this being contrary to one’s usual sense-of-self.

Urban Dictionary defines transmaxxing simply as, “Transitioning from male to female for personal gain.” Based on this broad definition we will conclude the following: 1. that transmaxxing cannot be reduced to an incel activity, nor to a proclivity of gay men as some have proposed, nor to any other single demographic. 2. It rarely applies to cases of female-to-male transitions which are considered to involve comparatively minimal gain. 3. Transmaxxing isn’t based on the clichéd explanation that the individual is “a female trapped inside a man’s body,” nor that he “has always felt like a woman.” 4. The only premise of transmaxxing is the undergoing of a MtF transition for the sake of securing a range of benefits associated with female identification.

Some benefits of transmaxxing

Transmaxxing symbol. The red arrow represents the uplifting of men to experience the same social, legal and interpersonal privileges as women

• Cheaper car and life insurance
• No registering with selective service or mandatory military service, depending on country
• People will treat you better
• Whine all you want and people will listen
• Receive special considerations and child-custody in family court
• Earlier retirement and associated pension grant
• Free legal aid
• Services for victims of domestic violence
• Free or subsidized accommodation for low income women
• Female only scholarships
• Female employment quotas
• Affirmative action hires
• Being able to sue for sexism
• Lighter prison sentences
• More leisure time, less work
• Receiving greater empathy and sympathy
• Greater social support
• More narcissistic gratification for achievements
• To be believed regardless of lack of evidence
• Use public transport & parking spaces reserved for women
• Receive higher pass marks for the same school work

Recent examples

Equador

René Salinas Ramos is an Equadorian "transmaxxer-woman." Ramos, who works as a journalist, was born male. Ramos experienced discrimination against men in the Ecuadorian family court system and legally changed her gender to female in late 2022. Ramos hopes now that the courts will treat her more fairly and that she can gain custody of her children.

Switzerland

In Switzerland a man has exploited an administrative loophole and formally transmaxxed his gender to female in order to retire a year earlier. Swiss rules enable any Swiss resident with the “intimate conviction” that they do not belong to the sex they are registered as in the civil status register can apply to change their gender, in addition to their first name, for just 75 Swiss francs (€72). The unnamed man from Lucerne successfully applied to transmax his gender so that he could receive his state pension at the Swiss retirement age for women of 64, a year earlier than men.

Germany

In Germany a self-identified transmaxxer named Tina has undergone medical transition to reap various sexual and social advantages over her former existence as an 'incel,' and claims to be treated better as a female under the social systems in which she lives. Such advantages included being successfully admitted to attend a female-only university class, with Tina adding that "there's a government quota that needs to be met in Germany regarding women's employment, and obviously I count as a woman legally, so I will have a easier time finding a job."

Practice of Transmaxxing

Transmaxxers don’t need to wear lipstick, put on a dress or engage in other performative gestures we might typically associate with transwomen (although some may choose to take these extra steps, including medical ones). Further, transmaxxer identification doesnt even require a renunciation of traits referred to as masculine. At minimum, all it requires is a technical change of gender either on a legal paper, or in some countries by verbal statement, and numerous aspects of female privilege become available for the transmaxxer’s enjoyment.

While the change of gender may appear cynical or inauthentic, we can say that transmaxxers may genuinely identify with an internal sense of privilege, esteem, status, deservingness, dignity, worth, purity, beauty and social value that we euphemistically call “feminine.” The degree to which a transmaxxer genuinely identifies with these “feminine” things, such femininity is integral to his sense of self.

The traditional distinction between transsexual and transgender is also relevant to transmaxxing, in the sense that a person can be classified transgendered without being transexual. This same distinction applies to transmaxxing: ie. A gender-transmaxxer need not automatically be assumed to be a sexual (medical) transmaxxer.

Differentiation of transwoman from transmaxxer

Transwomen organically feel & desire female identification, with negligeable desire to identify as male. Whereas MtF transmaxxers tend to identify as male or gender dysphoric, without an organic desire to identify as a woman (though perhaps desiring some limited self-identification with qualities of femaleness). This can be summarized as follows:

• Transwoman is an autonomous desire and identification of the self as female
• Transmaxxing is a decision, rather than an autonomous desire, to identify as female gender contrary to one’s usual sense-of-self.

Transmaxxing flag

Transmaxxing flag.

Transmaxxer typology

Four different types of transmaxxer have been proposed by the YouTube channel Tina's Guide To Transmaxxing, which are:

• 1. The uncomplicated male transmaxxer
• 2. Gender dysporic transmaxxers
• 3. Incel male transmaxxers
• 4. Autogenephilic male transmaxxers

Each type has a different set of priorities for transitioning. The author describes type #1 as the ‘male transmaxxer,’ and adds that this type is satisfied with undergoing a simple MtF paper transition in order to gain benefits. However, there is also the hypothetical possibility that such a man (type #1) may transition medically as part of his strategy to gain those benefits and yet still consider himself male.

The 'male transmaxxer' may also identify with some aspects of woman, hypothetically speaking: for example he may not transition medically, but may still identify with other psychosocial features that are typically associated with women: eg. a sense of deservingness, social entitlement, need for special protection & pampering, belief in own nurturing abilities toward children, possessing sensitive feelings and so on. These nuances complicate the categories slightly and indicate that the various types may overlap in some ways.