Really, I am surprised by the responses in this thread. You do not think it is an FTM thing? Well, I guess that does tell that it's probably not an explicitly FTM thing like the one-earring of gay men or thumb ring of lesbians. But these trans guys are usually wearing two plugs/earrings, so I doubted it could just be a gay male thing. I could see how it is an alternative thing. However, I *do* think there are an unusual amount of FTMs wearing plugs and earrings. When I attended the Philly Trans Health Conference, I noticed this. I mentioned it to a trans guy there who doesn't wear either, and he said he noticed the same thing and didn't know why. The particular guy I spoke to is a law student at Harvard, so it's not surprising he skipped out on the alternative wear.
Tell me this isn't striking... I just looked up this topic after looking at the following photo project. All but two of these ten trans guys is wearing a plug or earring, and most are wearing plugs. (Except also one whose ears are invisible.) Also, half of them have other facial piercings.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/07/09/lorenzo_triburgo_transportraits_captures_the_heroism_of_transgender_men.htmlI do live in a most "conservatively dressed" city - Washington, D.C. - and 10% of our population identifies as TLGB, and I don't see many in the QT community, let alone straight cis men, wearing distinctive earrings/plugs like this (and I'm 24 and hang with people my age). I also attended the National Animal Rights Conference in 2009 in D.C. and noticed that a lot of alternative people attended that conference... where I'm originally from - Texas - there were a fair number of teenagers who looked goth and punk and such, but I never see that in D.C. So when I saw that at the AR Conference I was like, "whoa!" But I don't recall noticing people wearing earrings of any particular sort. I haven't paid that much attention to it, but it never stood out to me before PTHC. I'll have to keep an eye out now, but I think it really is an FTM thing, even if it's partly due to trans people being more alternative... I suspect trans guys seeing other trans guys and thinking it looks cool and following suit. I could be wrong, but this makes sense to me! It's probably a combination of things.
Also, I notice a lot of trans guys with tattoos... I always thought that this is because, given that trans guys already may feel like they don't fit in, they don't have as much of a desire to try to be normal by avoiding tattoos? Or maybe it's a masculine thing to have big arm tattoos? I don't know. Anyway, I was a little surprised by all the plugs and earrings because they seem like things society would consider more feminine? I guess a lot of trans men already have their ears pierced anyway since the time they were presenting as girls, so it's easy to go forward from there. Sorry, this is all a bunch of speculation. I will shut up now.
