[–]ehhhchimatsu
Agreed 1000%. A decade ago, I was excited to get top surgery and to be able to go to the beach shirtless.
Now, I know we are too visible, and want to undergo scar removal/camo tattooing before I do that.
[–]HybridPlayingFan
I like trans representation in media but seriously there's no reason to show bottom surgery scars,
let them be unknown to the public
[–]saintstellan
I’m scared to go topless 2 years after top surgery because I know my scars will out me. Phallo scars are luckily still mostly unknown but I know it won’t be that way forever.
[–]OverlordSheepie
With trans men you have to literally undress us to see all the scars, so it feels extremely violating. I understand. They could show trans men
but they don't have to undress us and show everyone the clocky scars that we've been branded with.
[–]tfw_sappy
I hate that people know what top surgery and bottom surgery scars look like because I just want to blend in and feel normal once I've had all my surgeries. I don't want people knowing I'm trans by seeing my top surgery scars...
[–]Warming_up_luke
I get this and think there is some truth to it about top surgery scars.
But no one who isn't trans or VERY plugged into trans circles or the hyper niche of transvestigators would know about RFF.
Unfortunately this just isn’t true anymore. My cousin who is a super religious mum of 2 brought up RFF to me, she’d seen it talked about on YouTube. On numerous occasions I have been witness to cis people knowing an uncomfortable amount about trans people. Im a teacher of 4-12 and the younger generations especially know far more than you would like to think.
[–]New-Temperature4248
I hate that a lot of people can now identity scars. I’d rather that if they want to make a trans character they should just have a one off line that suggests they’re a trans man, not some bullshit like “when I had periods” or anything, but something more vague I don’t know. Or just not have it mentioned at all.
[–]Upper_Ice_2040
100000% of rep is for trans woman.
We DESERVE representation to stop people from believing the only trans people that exist are trans women
Stop the fucking infighting. Trans women are visible, and that makes them a giant target. Being invisible is shitty as well, but it's better than being hypervisible. Hypervisibility without protection just means being hated and assaulted more.
Fuck I wish we really were invisible again. Now that normies know about top surgery scars they try to smell us out like hounds.
[–]double-pendulum
Imo there's a stark difference between legitimate representation, and what's effectively become guides on how to clock us. I wouldn't mind at all if someone wrote a story about something that we deal with (I've read/watched a few of this type that feature transsex women), since I do think it's valuable to be able to see or express your experience with something in fiction.
But so far all the "representation" I see of
us is simply a random background character at the pool that someone has horribly exaggerated scars. At best, that does absolutely nothing for me, and at worst it causes someone to clock me because everyone knows what those scars are from now.
If they make phallo scars as recognizable as they've done to top surgery, I'm just gonna have to burn alive wearing long sleeves year round to avoid getting clocked everytime I go outside. I genuinely hate the people that have done that to us in the name of "representation."
[–]Neverlandse
Honestly, I agree with you. It’s the same with the gay community and even the black community with integration (more like assimilation to whiteness) and
things were better when we had our own secrets and language that only we understood.
[–]thePhalloPharaoh [score hidden] 14 hours ago
Visibility comes with a cost. Sometimes the individual pays it, the community being exposed, or both. There’s always going to be backlash, thats part of the pendulum of progress. In the long run it is beneficial though. We’re standing on the shoulders of those who were visible, who took up space, fought for rights and access, and used their stories to reassure thousands they’re not alone.
Rest assured the general American population is not clicking phalloplasty scars. Shit most medical professionals don’t have enough training or exposure to.
[–]1racooninatrenchcoat
This is how I feel about it. I wish it wasn't a thing. I haven't even had any surgeries that have scars yet (had a hysto but it was all internal so I have no external scars) but I'm super paranoid about having them, because as a bigger guy I 100% will have scars.
I am stealth so the more awareness people have about them, the higher the chance of me being outed against my will.
[–]academicito
I agree
. I felt sick when a cis lesbian friend was talking about someone's thigh scar and said it looked like the scar from ALT phallo. Granted, she heavily uses Tumblr, where people draw attention to trans men's scars in art that would get surgeons' medical licenses taken if they did that to someone, but that's where the visibility for top surgery scars, and eventually RFF, started, too. Phallo is a long way off for me, but I'd always considered ALT "safe."
Visibility decreases our ability to be stealth. In a perfect world, representation could just be a passing mention that X character transitioned instead of coming up with contrived and frankly fetishistic scenarios to put the ways our bodies are different from cis men on display.
Horrifying that people are now recognizing ALT scars. It feels like nothing is sacred anymore so long as someone can milk a couple likes out of parading it to strangers.
Before I deleted Instagram I saw what were effectively guides to clocking trans men. Going through different types of top and bottom surgery and providing a cute drawing of the accompanying scar. It was pretty grim and self-serving under the guise of "education."
Bigots are gonna be bigots where there is sympathetic representation in the media or not. It's not on the marginalized group to make itself invisible just to be barely "tolerated".
Did you not read his post? The issue stems from "representation" telling people how to clock us. It's actively endangering us and taking the choice of going stealth away from us.
I did, and I still disagree. The bad actors are all already "transvestigating" even if all we do is sit in a corner trying not to be perceived. Having a positive portrayal in the media makes no difference to that, but it might sway some of the genuinely ignorant to see a trans person as human.
They weren't 10 years ago. You can stay in denial and be selfish, or acknowledge it ruined stealth for us. Representation doesn't have to mean telling all cis people how to identify us. You don't need to tell them how to clock us to "sway" some or whatever the fuck else.
[–]littlebigcheeser
Agree, I'll probably just cover up my phallo scar with a tattoo but top surgery scar cover ups always look weird imo.
On god I'll find a way to get rid of them completely bc they're the only thing stopping me from being completely stealth
[–]holden-caulifield
It depresses me that the cost of representation is never being normal.
[–]Outrageous-Cookie780
100 % agree. But the arm scar could be other things too since it's just a convenient and common place to get a graft from. And you can tattoo over it so it's not as obvious.
But yes,
I'd hate to be indistinguishable in every way but get clocked by scars.
I've seen several cis men who got gyno surgery get aggressively accused of being trans online. It doesn't matter if it isn't a trans-only thing, the moment you plant that seed in their head there's no coming back.
That’s going away in this day and age with the rise of GLP-1’s and the amount of people getting skin removal surgery, you’re seeing cis guys with similar scars much more these days and it’s only going to get more common, even cis guys with no nips.
If you have any other clocky trait though its over. If you are 5'10" and have a masculine face nobody will question it but the second hes like <5'5" people auto assume trans if he has scars.
[–]PirateLouisPatch
Yep, same here.
I often wished I could just hit a reset button and "unexpose" transness. I mean yes thank God I had access to some information when I started transitioning, but I loathe how front and center the topic has become. I can't begin to imagine how it is for trans women, who, to my knowledge, have been (mis)represented in media for far longer already
[–]Archer_Python
Yes! I brought this up in my post about crappy representation. Yes its a catch 22,
its nice we get more accurate representation but it sucks because then we can't live stealth. I absolutely 100% see your take and agree somewhat. I live stealth as well (outside of close friends and family). However its also annoying when we get shitty representation and people start coming out with the "transmasc" and woman-like sub-man behavior. I guess what Im trying to say is if we only can get shitty representation than I agree than don't give it to us at all. If you are gonna give us representation, then make it accurate and also respect the guys that don't want to be seen like that. Sometimes I feel we need to make a advocacy group in media for us, by us, and only by us.