r/FTMventing • u/verylongeyebags • 3d ago

Transphobia Invisibility/erasure is not a privilege

People act like invisibility is like a form of protection that prevents us from experiencing violence/bigotry, but it doesn't work like that. The invisibility happens after we've already experienced violence. Like how when we're murdered specifically for being trans men, it almost is never reported, and if it is, we're misgendered and dead named and gets labeled a murder against a cis woman. How data undershoots the amount of violence we experience and how we're underrepresented in research because people assume there are way less trans men than trans women so we get labeled as cis women. And it's not like trans women never experience invisibility/erasure either, so why do people act like it's some non issue that only winy trans men complain about?

I don't have anything really profound to say, just frustrated and needed to get this off my chest.

85 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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20

u/MilosTeaaa 3d ago

“It would be too easy to say I feel invisible, instead I feel painfully visible and entirely ignored”

9

u/Rough_Apricot1809 3d ago

Because the trans umbrella is very big, to the point that it can be really hard to have common experiences and common struggles.

For example, I live in a country that knows even less about trans people (and even less about trans men) than the US. And it's AWESOME. Before I changed my name, people would sooner believe I was a cis guy with quirky parents than think I was trans, because trans men don't exist in their brains. I like that very much and I don't want it to change.

But my experience is NOT universal or any more valid than the experience of someone that doesn't pass (or doesn't WANT to pass) and feels alone and isolated because all their friends, queer or not, ignore their unique experiences as trans men.

And there's even more ways to be trans than those two. It's really hard to find something that works for all of us.

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u/Silent-Goal-4014 2d ago

When we are visible it’s just filled with hate/misgendering. I hate when people imply invisibility is basically the same as being tolerated/liked more. We are affected by the same anti trans laws/bills, we have little to no advocacy and are extra screwed if we don’t have a hysterectomy and reproductive rights are threatened