Hmm, the IRL trans spaces I am a part of like the support group tend to be more gen y than gen z, so if you’re right about the age thing it’s at least consistent with what I’m seeing. However, it doesn’t explain why there seems to be such a dearth of transmasc folks online where you would think gen z would be more common. Maybe gen z are more likely to be on tiktok than reddit, and reddit happens to be where the trans community orbits right now?

One of my speculations was that being a trans man doesn’t have the same challenges as for trans women, and those differences might explain the differences in approach to community. I don’t in any way want to imply trans men have it easy, but it does seem like trans men might be able to integrate into cis society more easily for various reasons, and to that end they might be more likely to go stealth and not need to stick around in trans groups (which could expose their trans status, and is a risk probably not worth taking for many trans men). I think the same thing is true of trans women, btw - I don’t see a lot of stealth trans women in the support groups IRL, though I do see many passing trans women online (at least photos of them, which I think are upvoted higher on reddit than less-passing photos).

Somewhat random, but I have personally met several trans men attorneys and seen on TV trans men attorneys, usually attorneys who are fighting for trans rights. Not sure what to make of that and it could be irrelevant or sampling bias (it’s a small subset, maybe 3 - 4 people), but I certainly noticed.

If trans men transition and integrate more easily I would guess it relates to gender disparities among cis people, and the way gender markers are weighted in our society, e.g. a beard and a deep voice both come easily with T and they weigh more heavily when “gendering” someone (compared to feminine markers do on a trans woman). For trans women with a deep voice and a beard shadow it might be really hard to overcome the “weight” of those gender markers to appear as a woman to most people (even if they have large breasts, for example), and there is a greater fragility in their womanhood than there might be for trans men (not to imply trans men don’t also experience similar struggles, uncertainty, etc.).

There is greater fragility in women’s gender even for cis women compared to for men (though again, many cis men experience insecurity in their gender). The gender is more violently and strictly enforced for women than for men, and men who cross over into womanhood are more stigmatized.

Of course what is not getting talked about here are transmasc folks who don’t take T, or of the many instances where trans men have struggled immensely and been killed for who they are. I don’t think I can repeat enough that trans men are subject to similar struggles and violence as trans women even if the ways those manifest might look a little different.

That said, I don’t feel confident in my speculation - I don’t actually know enough and I’m going off of what I’ve seen and what I’ve read about gender from Julia Serano and others. I would prefer something more empirical and tested.

Either way, I wonder what pragmatic steps we can take to create a space that is more inviting to trans men and transmasc folks. We need them, online and IRL.