Quote from: Atypical on June 20, 2015, 06:47:44 PM
Feminism is actually focused on female issues, which is why I don't personally support it.
I've lived both sides of the fence. When I was living female I was pretty much spoiled by society, and when I started to live as male, that changed completely. People were much more harsh and unforgiving, and expected me to 'man up' and meet all these expectations.
I have been sexually harassed, assaulted, and bullied by both men and women while living as a man, though by far the majority of those individuals were women. It really changed my view on gender politics and these days I kinda despise gender-favoring movements, to include both feminism and the MRA. Gender wars are just stupid.
Anyway. I once asked my counselor why MtFs seem to get more grief and she said that's hardly the case. It's just a hell of a lot harder for an MtF to pass on average than an FtM and, on top of that, FtMs are given a bit more leeway because they're biologically XX and XX just happens to get treated more delicately by society.
Again, this shows that you are using a specific definition of a specific kind of feminism; there are many feminisms, some of which deviate radically from the core of what feminism is *supposed* to be, which is an attempt to create equal and fair opportunities for men and women. The word 'feminism' has been distorted in recent years to mean something a bit different from that; true feminism is not solely about women's issues but about issues of gender, period.
At any rate, we do not live in a world in which even female-centred feminism can go away because there are far too many parts of the world in which women, cis* or trans*, have rights so disproportionately below that of their male compatriots that I can only assume those who argue against 'feminism' are not aware of how well, in terms of options as a certain gender, one has it in whatever part of the world they live in. To tell a Saudi woman who cannot drive but who desires to that gender-favouring movements aren't that cool is a bit much. I say this not to cause an argument or attack anyone, by the way, but simply because too often I see arguments about 'feminism' made by people who appear to have a geographic societal privilege they may not be aware of, despite their sweeping condemnation of a term. The world has many different places with people of different privileges, and what argument applies in one place may not apply elsewhere. I also wrote this without any intention of denying or erasing your gender-based suffering as a male, and I'm really sorry you had to endure all that.
Beyond that, I don't think it's useful to compare stigmatisation if it becomes a competion: FTMs have more, no, MTFs have more, etc. With that said, I do think MTFs are likely to be more discriminated against and be more in the media's eye because of what androgynouspainter so rightly said early on in the thread: the sensationalism of the seemingly unthinkable idea of giving up 'male privilege' to live as a woman. Transmisogyny cuts to the core of patriarchal assumptions much more than the obverse discrimination against FTMs, which is also likely why transwomen are disproportionately featured in the media.
And this is not recent, but has a long history. So often in Western history, for instance, it has been implicit that women dressing as men did so to gain privilege or stature (one view of George Sand, for instance), whereas men who dressed as women were portrayed as attempting deception, objects of comedy, or, worst of all, sexual abominations of some kind. Whether or not transwomen (or men dressed as women) are viewed as women by a certain group, the way women's bodies are sexualised so disproportionately to men's affects both transwomen and men who dress as women in historical and contemporary portrayals thereof. This is transmisogyny and patriarchy again, but it is worth noting that those assumptions have very long historical backgrounds--hence why they're hard to get rid of.
But FTMs do have specific issues we need to talk about with the general public so they accept our trans brothers better. Consider the Aydian Dowling narrative. Dowling is in a contest to become the male on the cover of an issue of Men's Health. Last time I checked, he was on top in rankings. But the response to him was a wild mix of positive and negative. Commenters against him frequently mis-gendered him--which we all face--but also said something I had never seen before: that transmen using T is equivalent to using steroids and thus that his very being as a transman made him ineligible for the competition. This is completely unfair, of course, since Dowling worked hard for his body. But this is also an issue we transgirls get to avoid for the most part (it only comes up if we go into sports, at which point our bodies become sites of discourse as to whether or not we are 'cheating' by being who we are, but FTMs will get this, as well, possibly even more so because of T). Because transmen are generally less sensational in a society that broadly privileges maleness over femininity, the commenters had likely never even seen an FTM person before, as some comments I read confirmed.
This is why I am glad Google Business recently made a video about gender transition featuring an FTM. I love positive coverage for transwomen, obviously, but I am well-aware that too often FTMs are erased in the conversation (somewhat like how bisexuality is often not mentioned in media discussions of queer sexuality), and coverage like this will hopefully help.
Nonetheless, even if FTMs were in the media 24/7, I'm still convinced, unfortunately, that it is we MTFs people will tend to focus on, due to what I and others said above--unless something changes in how the general public views the ideas of masculinity and femininity (which is why we need feminism, for there is still an obvious, if often unspoken, hierarchy of the two).
