I think it should be OBVIOUS why transfeminine people are "more visible" than transmasculine people. Cis people focus on us and ignore transmascs because we're EASIER to sensationalize and sexualize. In their eyes, transfems present a "mystery" that transmascs just don't. 1/*

https://twitter.com/EmRoseDeLeon/status/1614556460163436544

#socialmedia #twitter #transmisogyny #transphobia #visibility #scrutiny #trans #transgender #transsexual #transfemininity #transmasculinity #patriarchy #cisheteronormativity

In the patriarchal cisheteronormative worldview, masculinity and maleness are assumed to be inherently superior to femininity and femaleness, so there's no mystery as to why someone assigned female would want to transition to male. 2/*

In the patriarchal cisheteronormative worldview, masculinity and maleness are assumed to be inherently superior to femininity and femaleness, so the idea of someone assigned male wanting to transition to female creates a tantalizing mystery in the minds of the cishet majority. 3/*

Cishet people see transmasculinity as an attack on the cisheteronormative patriarchy and they will kill transmascs in defense of that system, but it's an attack they feel like they understand. They see it as a challenge to the system, but not to their assumptions. 4/*

Cishet people see transfemininity as not only an attack on the cisheteronormative patriarchy but also as an attack on the assumptions forming the foundation of their entire worldview. That intrigues and scares and entices them. They don't get it. 5/*

Under cisheteronormative patriarchy, femininity is considered inherently decorative and sexual in a way that masculinity isn't and exists specifically for the titillation and consumption of men in a way that masculinity doesn't for women. Women are not the presumed audience. 6/*

Transmasculinity isn't commonly sexualized or fetishized under cisheteronormative patriarchy for the same reason that cisgender masculinity isn't: The presumed default heterosexual male gaze. Men are observers. They are not observed. They are not decorative like women are. 7/*

The cisheteronormative patriarchy's panic over transmasculinity centers on "women and girls" being made unavailable to men for decoration, sexual pleasure, and reproduction. There's no "mystery" there and no titillation to be wrung from it (that's the whole "problem"). 8/*

The only motive the cisheteronormative patriarchal worldview can imagine for "unnecessarily" embracing femininity is a desire to fulfill what they see as the function and purpose of femininity: To appeal to and satisfy the sexual desires of men. 9/*

The cisheteronormative patriarchy focuses on and scrutinizes transfemininity while ignoring transmasculinity because in that worldview it's impossible to exoticize or sexualize transmasculine people but it's almost impossible NOT to do both to transfeminine people. 10/*

People operating under the cisheteronormative patriarchal worldview assume that transfemininity must be sexually-motivated because they can't think of another reason why someone who "gets to be a man" would "want to be a woman". 11/*

People operating under the cisheteronormative patriarchal worldivew make just as many erroneous assumptions about transmasculinity as they do about transfemininity, but the assumptions they make about transmasculinity aren't titillating. They're "boring". They don't "sell". 12/*

Transmasculinity is a sufficient transgression against the cisheteronormative patriarchy to get you killed. I've assumed that this goes without saying in a world where just the list of awards that a biopic about Brandon Teena racked up has its own full Wikipedia page. 13/*

The same erroneous assumptions that make transmasculinity "boring" in the cisheteronormative patriarchal worldview make transfemininity not just "titillating" but also "dangerous". Transfems are seen in that worldview as inherently predatory in a way transmascs just aren't. 14/*

The cisheteronormative patriarchy focuses its attention on transfeminine people because it sees us as intriguing, titillating, and dangerous, in ways that it does not see transmasculine people. It will kill transmascs, but it's not fascinated with them. 15/*

When the subject of transfeminine hypervisibility vs transmasculine invisibility comes up the people bringing it up usually ignore the component of agency, and how cis people have all of it, and trans people have none of it. 16/*

"Visibility" isn't something transfeminine people want, or choose for ourselves, or ask for. It's something that's inflicted upon us. It's not something that we benefit from. It's a target on our backs. Everyone stares at us, but no one hands us the mic and listens to us. 17/*

The nature of transfeminine "visibility" is that, as with all femininity under cisheteronormative patriarchy, we're objects, not subjects. The observed, not the observer. We're not behind the camera. We don't get to tell our own stories. 18/*

It's no coincidence that most famous transfeminine people are models and actresses, people in front of the camera looking pretty and saying words written by others, while most famous transmasculine people are creative voices behind the camera or with the pen in their hand. 19/*

A lot of trans people want to pretend that either all or none of the same gender dynamics between cis men and cis women carry over and play out the same way once trans people get involved but that's an oversimplification in either direction. 20/*

I haven't written anything here that hasn't already been written a thousand times by other better and more knowledgeable writers but TME people are generally too busy telling transfeminine people about our own experiences to listen to us describe or analyze them. 21/*

When TME people do actually for once bother to stop and listen to transfeminine people describe and analyze our own experiences, they generally focus not on what we say but how we say it, because their goal is not to understand us but to police and punish us. 22/*