(OP blocked me & deleted the original post to avoid notifications, but I spent like 2 hours researching this stuff in my reply. And now I can’t reblog my own work, and that sucks, so I’m reposting this for posterity.)
“Transmasc transitions are the most talked about”
This is a weird claim to make, just on the face of it. I personally see this trend on Tumblr, and have as long as I’ve been here- Tumblr has probably the biggest community of transmascs I have ever encountered, anywhere, and as such has a lot of information for transmascs. Because we create it, spread it, and promote it ourselves.
Compared to other websites, though, this doesn’t hold up at all. Reddit and Facebook definitely lean more transfem, and I’d argue the same about Twitter as well. Every trans community I’ve encountered on Discord, save for explicitly transmasc servers and most nonbinary-exclusive servers, has leaned transfem. As such, they have a lot more information and resources for transfems and their transitions. (Hell, even in a Discord server I run myself for the local queer community, transfem transitions are generally more talked about).
So… where are they the most talked about? Who is talking about them? Because if those answers are “spaces where there are more transmascs” and “transmascs themselves” then… well, yeah? I’d expect the same for transfems!
“People constantly talk about the effects of transmasc transitioning”
You may want to consider why transmasc transitions are so widely discussed as of late. Outside of the trans community itself, the people talking about this are by and large TERFs and transphobes.
Have you heard of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier? Here’s the blurb:
“Why, in the last decade, has the diagnosis “gender dysphoria,” transformed from a vanishingly rare affliction, applying almost exclusively to boys and men, to an epidemic among teenage girls?
[…] Author Abigail Shrier presents shocking statistics and stories from real families to show that America and the West have become fertile ground for a “transgender craze” that has nothing to do with real gender dysphoria and everything to do with our cultural frailty. Teenage girls are taking courses of testosterone and disfiguring their bodies. […] an intersectional era has arisen in which the desire to escape a dominant identity encourages individuals to take cover in victim groups.” (Goodreads)
The reason people are discussing transmasc transitions so much outside the community is because TERFs are raising a panic about it. If you were paying attention after Elliot Page came out, you may have noticed that people were in hysterics over “lost lesbians”, over “rapid-onset gender dysphoria”, over “women becoming men to escape misogyny”, over “women mutilating their bodies”.
TERFs spread this kind of panic to try to prevent transmascs from transitioning. If you’ve seen those posts about how binding will permanently disfigure your ribcage, or how testosterone HRT will make you angry, aggressive, and sexually dangerous, or even just permanently anxious and ugly and ill- those are usually created by TERFs, and spread to transmascs as “helpful information” to prevent us from transitioning. I’ve talked about it more over here, but the TERF fantasy is that someday, they will “save” all of us “lost women”. That a “cleansing wave” of detransitioning will wipe us all out.
“Transitioning items like binders and packers are far easier to get a hold of than transfeminine transition items”
Testosterone HRT is more difficult to get coverage for than Estrogen HRT:
“… transgender men (32%) and non-binary people who had female on their original birth certificate (36%) [were] more likely to report being denied hormone coverage than transgender women (18%) and non-binary people who had male on their original birth certificate (16%)” (2015 U.S. Transgender Survey)
Estrogen HRT can also be purchased online through the grey market. It’s expensive without coverage, but this is an option not generally available for those seeking Testosterone HRT, as testosterone is a controlled substance. (Some obtain it through drug dealers/the black market, but this is far riskier.)
Likewise, surgeries for transmascs are less likely to be covered:
“Transgender men (57%) were more likely to be denied surgery coverage than transgender women (54%) and non-binary people, including non-binary people with female on their original birth certificate (49%) and non-binary people with male on their original birth certificate (35%)” (2015 U.S. Transgender Survey)
I don’t have a cost-comparison for non-medical items, but this seems like a strange claim to make as “proof” that transmascs “aren’t oppressed” in any unique sort of way. Even taking for granted that this is true, clearly we have our own struggles in other areas, and it doesn’t make sense to try to compare them and determine a winner of the oppression contest here.
“They don’t have to put up with constantly seeing themselves in media called traps, crossdressers, and the like”
Transfems are definitely targeted with more outright hate and violence; this is part of being hypervisible. It’s dangerous, it’s demoralizing, and it’s an issue deserving of far more attention than it currently gets.
That said, the reason transmascs “don’t have to put up with” this kind of media representation is because we’re underrepresented in media to begin with.
In 2019, there were 21 trans women characters on TV, versus 12 trans men. In 2018, it was 17 trans women versus five trans men. In 2017, it was nine trans women versus four trans men.
This is a pretty consistent trend; you can cross-check it with the overall list of trans characters in Film & TV, which reflects this research.
Our unique struggles stem largely from invisibility; they’re insidious, because most people don’t know these struggles exist at all. Some transmascs didn’t even learn that being transmasc was an option, a kind of trans person that existed, until years after they learned about trans women.
“[Transmascs] are generally more well received”
I don’t know what metric you’re using for this, nor have I seen anything that backs this claim up. Again, our issues stem largely from invisibility; where transfems are generally met with more overt violence and aggression, transmascs are usually told we don’t or can’t understand ourselves well enough to say in the first place.
Trans women absolutely face more physical violence and struggle with more than their fair share of aggressive, dangerous bigotry- and trans men face higher rates of sexual assault and suicide:
“Transgender men (51%) and non-binary people with female on their original birth certificate (58%) [were] more likely to have been sexually assaulted, in contrast to transgender women (37%) and non-binary people with male on their original birth certificate (41%)”
“Lifetime suicide attempt rates were higher for transgender men (45%) than for transgender women (40%) and non-binary respondents (39%)” (2015 U.S. Transgender Survey)
Also, I feel it’s relevant to mention the anti-transmasc bigotry that runs rampant on Tumblr in particular.
“[Transmascs] aren’t called pedophiles for using the bathroom correlating to their gender”
This is very true! The bathroom issue is a huge example of the difference in how TERFs target transmascs vs. transfems. Their fixation on transfems using the appropriate restrooms is based in transmisogyny, and specifically the idea that transfems are “just men trying to get into women’s spaces so they can hurt them”.
Transmascs are seen not as “dangerous predators” by transphobes and TERFs in particular, but as “lost lesbians” and “mislead women” who need “saving”- or, conversely, as “gender traitors” who are “abandoning our duties as women”. Part of the reason rates of sexual assault are higher among transmascs is because these these things are used as justification for corrective rape against us.
We suffer differently, for different reasons- this is part of why having these specific terms is useful. The specific kind of oppression I describe above is the sort of thing we want to use “transandrophobia” or “transmisandry” for.
“Items listed for transfems are usually listed for “trannies” or “crossdressers” and very VERY RARELY are there ever items INTENTIONALLY marketed towards transfems”
Items listed for transmascs are generally marketed toward “lesbians”, “tomboys”, or “cosplayers”. This is another great example of how we’re viewed differently; transfems are seen as making a dangerous, predatory choice. Transmascs are seen as confused, mislead, and incapable of understanding ourselves well enough to make that decision in the first place.
The point here is that these are really bad-faith arguments, and a lot of them don’t have much of a basis in reality to begin with. I understand where you’re coming from: transfems are targeted in awful, stomach-churning ways, and that deserves way more attention and action than it’s getting now.
But this isn’t a contest. Transandrophobia existing, transmascs having unique struggles and facing certain kinds of transphobic targeting that are specific to how transphobic society sees transmascs, doesn’t mean anything about transfems.
In every one of these categories, every single contest you’re setting up here, all of us are struggling far more than cis people. All of us need help with all of these things, and all of us benefit when we address them. Acknowledging that some of these problems come from more specific frameworks of bigoted thinking, ideas that target specific groups in unique ways, does not take anything away from anyone else.
In fact, it’s necessary to address the root causes of these problems. It’s vital to our survival, health, safety, and happiness as a community. Ignoring transmascs doesn’t help transfems; it hurts every single one of us.
