I'm rather disturbed with the difference between FtMs and MtFs when it comes to community support. I don't mean to indicate the transmen have it easy. They most certainly don't. But I do think that, comparing the two groups, transwomen have a lot more hurdles to deal with. (Yes, I know I'm biased because my roommate is a transwoman. But still, hear me out.) Both groups obviously have to deal with discrimination, harassment, dysphoria, and all that. But transmen at the very least seem to stick together. They help each other raise money for their top surgeries. They don't have problems being seen together. They look to each other as mentors. Transwomen, from what I've observed, don't tend to band together in the same way because, frankly, being around each other makes them self-conscious. Living in a sexist world that generally believes that it is better to be a man than a woman, being a transman makes a bit more sense to the ignorant. "Of COURSE you want to be a man! Why wouldn't you? And if you can manage it, why shouldn't you?" But because women in general are so looked down upon, transwomen tend to be misunderstood more often. Fewer people understand why a "man" would "want to be a woman," and they therefore try to find some other explanation (e.g. they're gay men, they're sissies, they want attention, they have weird fetishes. etc.) and/or they get angry and react with hostility. These people don't understand the origins of transgenderedness, and their misunderstanding paves the way for increased danger for trans women. So transwomen, then, are more likely to get discriminated against, harassed, or violently attacked than transmen. Transwomen are murdered every day. For transwomen, then, passing seems much more important if just for personal safety. Those who don't pass very well, or are worried that they don't, don't like associating with other transwomen in public because they can't stop comparing themselves to each other. They trigger each other's dysphoria. And those that DO pass don't want to give themselves away. So you don't get as coherent of a support network. Meanwhile, the two groups, I've found, don't tend to reach across the aisle to support one another as often as I might have expected. I think a lot of this has to do with just having opposite priorities and not really seeing eye-to-eye, but still. Even gay men and lesbians band together when it comes to community support, even if they don't tend to socialize together in the same bars, etc. Transwomen, it seems, are very alone in their struggles. The problem is compounded because this lack of support hurts their legitimacy as a group. To the ignorant public, transwomen seem to be viewed as isolated cases of weirdness or mental defect. The unfortunate association with drag inevitably arises. More people look at them and wonder if they're "for real" or just "a guy in girl's clothes," and other transwomen aren't likely to jump to their defense. I'm frustrated with the fact that transmen tend to get their surgeries funded through mutual aid because of their support networks whereas transwomen are much more at the mercy of public sympathy or lack thereof. Does that make any sense? By the way, if you'd like to donate to my roommate's Adam's apple surgery, I'll love you forever.