//sighs

I drew akitoya again

and it's the best thing I drew in months ✌️😔 the gays hold me captive

The plane graphic above is frequently used ro demonstrate survivorship bias. The red dots represent the points where returning aircrafts had been hit by bullets. One might look at it and think, so that's where our planes are more likely to be hit. That would be wrong, because the dataset inherently excludes planes that did not return. There's no red dots in the cockpit or the propellers, because planes hit there would just crash. What the diagram actually shows is the places where a plane can be hit and keep flying.

Similarly, if the dataset of trans men you know is 100% passing, that's because non-passing trans men have been selected out.

The most obvious factor is celebrity. Trans people who are famous as trans people are overwhelmingly passing. That is because fame selects for conventional attractiveness. If a trans person who doesn't pass becomes well known, it's not as a trans person, but as a laughingstock and a freak. This applies to both trans men and women*, but the erasure that trans men deal with makes it even easier to strip all trans identity from them.

*nonbinary people are kind of just inherently excluded from any conversation about passing, that's a whole other thing

Trans people who don't pass are less likely to be out, and more likely to be out to just a few people. They're also more likely to not be taken seriously once they do come out. If you're the kind of person who says shit like "trans men have an easy time passing", trans men are less likely to be out with you. You're not safe for them. And if they did come out, they may still be erased, because people look at a trans man who doesn't pass and don't see a man at all.