Eclectic Electric Eccentric zwɪndʒ

So some fanartist drew a “sexy” (read: booby) version of a (cartoon) character who is traditionally very non-sexualised. Fans of the character got mad about it because it’s kind of groundbreaking how that character is written and portrayed and this art totally ignores the entire point of the character. They demanded the art be deleted. In response to that other people said, well what the fanartist did may be distateful but they have every right to draw what they’re into. The two sides fight for days and each starts a harassment campaign and even report their “opponents’” accounts.

So far so typical. But things eventually come to a head and they decide that this will be settled by votes - not through a poll. Through donations to a children’s education charity via each side’s portal. Whoever can get the highest amount of donation wins.

It's really starting to feel like the whole 'rape isn't that bad' shit because people want to prove trans woman are more oppressed. Rape and murder statistics shouldn't be compared on which is worse, they should both be worked on equally :/ idk

Yeah, I get the sense it’s less that folks don’t view rape as being “as bad” as other forms of violence, and more that they don’t know it happens at all.

Invisibility is genuinely one of the biggest problems we face as a group, and it ties into everything; including acknowledgement of the violence we face, and even the studies that do exist around us specifically.

Folks who don’t talk about those statistics, or don’t factor them into their arguments, are definitely guilty of not listening to us or educating themselves on our experiences- but they aren’t guilty of actual rape apologism unless that’s what they’re doing.

That said, I went through the 2015 U.S. Transgender Study and pulled some of the statistics for sexual assault:

[The graph is measuring lifetime sexual assault by gender identity. 51% of trans men have experiences sexual assault in their lifetime, compared to 37% of trans women, with AFAB nonbinary folks experiencing the most at 58%.]

[The graph is measuring lifetime sexual assault among trans men by race/ethnicity. 71% American Indians have experienced sexual assault, which is the highest number; compared to 47% overall, and 52% of white people.]

There’s some other categories trans men & AFAB nonbinary people have higher rates of discrimination or violence in:

AFAB trans people in general are most likely to be denied HRT (32% of trans men, 36% of AFAB nonbinary folks).

Trans men (57%) are most likely to be denied surgery coverage, with the next highest being trans women (54%).

Trans men (42%) are also most likely to have negative experiences with healthcare providers, with trans women as the next highest (36%).

Trans men (31%) are most likely to avoid care out of fear, versus the next highest- trans women (22%).

Trans men (54%) have the highest rate of suicide attempts with the next highest being trans women (40%).

Nb folks (71%) and trans men (62%) were more likely to report having never or only sometimes been treated with respect by law enforcement than trans women (51%).

Trans men (52%) are more likely to experience problems with airport security than trans women (31%).

Trans men (75%) are more likely to avoid public restrooms than trans women (53%) and nonbinary folks (53%).

Obviously this doesn’t mean trans women don’t face “as much” oppression, or that we shouldn’t care about their oppression as much as- and in fact more than- we currently do.

1. “I feel like these numbers might be skewed” or “I find some of these hard to believe”

The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey is linked in the post as the source for all of these statistics. It was published by the National Center for Transgender Equality, conducted as an anonymous online survey (available in English and Spanish), and included 27,715 respondents from “all fifty states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. military bases overseas”. All of this information (and much more) is available in the first few pages of the PDF.

If you don’t think these numbers match up with your expectations, ask yourself why that is. Think critically about what you did expect, and why- and then ask why you felt you should make that claim in the tags of this post rather than seeking out the “correct” information yourself. How much does it have to do with the exact expectation I was challenging in this post?

2. “I don’t like that this is framed as a competition”

Neither do I! In fact, I chose my words carefully in this post to challenge the idea that this needs to be any kind of competition at all. My point was, explicitly, to bring attention to issues that are often ignored- and ignored because people assume that transmascs cannot struggle “more” than any other trans group.

I went out of my way to clarify that none of this means anything about “who suffers the most” or “who needs the most support”. I went out of my way to make it clear that I was just drawing attention to some problems that deserve more attention, without pitting any group against any others.

So ask yourself- why did you think it was a competition? Why do you view a neutral, unrelated explanation of struggles unique to trans men & AFAB nonbinary people as a “challenge” to trans women?