Y’all, we have a problem.
These are some of the results of a survey done on our community concerning gender identity:
1.08% Binary Trans men (4).
1.08% Transmasculine people (4).
1.35% Cis women (5).
That’s right, there are more CIS WOMEN on a TRANS community than binary trans men or transmasculine people alone.
We have a problem.
This isn’t just a Blahaj problem. Another queer instance did a similar survey and found only 3% of their users were trans and use he/him pronouns.
Not having enough transmasc voices is going to be detrimental to our community. There are plenty of transmasc people on the internet. The problem is with Lemmy.
So what are we gonna do about it?
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So what are we gonna do about it?
Percentages based off a single, voluntary survey are not actionable without knowing the root cause. Is it because there’s less trans men in general? Is it because cis people are over-represented by virtue of them being far more prevalent in society? What is the optimal ratio we’re going for?
I’m a binary transdude, and I think the problem is that transmen tend to leave trans spaces once they have achieved their transition goals. They’re more likely to be stealth irl, too. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having an imbalance of gender identities in this space, and I don’t think that steps need to be taken to correct it. It’s pretty chill as is.
As the other checks notes one of three other binary trans men on here, I will say I feel the lack of transmasculine people on here. This community isn’t quite as bad because it’s not specific to that, but even the answers to questions are usually from transfemmes and there’s nothing wrong with that but they aren’t as relatable to me and it makes it harder to understand what some widely held transmasculine experiences are.
c/FTM on the other hand? There’s hardly any active users on it, and a lot of the active ones are transfems trying to be supportive. It’s a big deal to me because it’s one of the few places on the Internet where I feel safe and able to be open about my transness. The problem is there’s no major place where I can ask questions and get advice and support for my trans man specific problems.
You’re right, trans men are definitely more likely to live stealth and have it a lot easier in that regard. I’m in the beginning stages of medically transitioning which is why I seek out support on here. Even if most trans men move on (which I’m sure there there are a lot that do want to stay in trans spaces), it’s still important to have a place where we can go to get advice and support from other trans men while going through the process.
One thing I will suggest is to use the fact that you are the mod of one of the largest trans communities on lemmy to be absolutely biased towards content that encourages and appeals to trans masc folk. Stick a link to the trans masc communities in the side bar. Make posts about those communities and pin them.
Make posts with “CW: Assumes reader is trans masc”. Put on trans masc mods. Make a weekly sticky post “Trans masc weekly chat - top level posts from trans masc folk only” etc.
The bias towards trans fem folk is common in a lot of social media spaces, and in my experience, one of the most effective ways of dealing with it is by explicitly making space for trans masc folk, and asking trans fem folk to take a back seat when needed.
You can’t easily draw more trans masc folk to lemmy, but what you can do is make the guys that are here feel like they have explicit support and spaces where they won’t get drowned out so they hang around longer. And over time, that changes the community to be more balanced. Feel free to use your position to create those opportunities. You have my explicit support to do so!
That is some very good advice. Thank you ada
How about posting transmasc content? For example links to quality blog posts.
I’d be curious to learn more about it too.
Fwiw I’m a trans man and I also work in tech lol. I didn’t see the survey. I’m stealth irl and don’t spend much time on trans communities/subs online either. I think this might be fairly common
IMO this is because Lemmy is still mostly targeted at techy/open source people. Trans women have already created their own communities/subculture in this world (‘programmer socks’ etc). But there’s not that critical mass of trans men programmers to make a bustling community here.
Lemmy is probably also very white.
So we need more diverse topics to attract a more diverse audience. Right now, the only people signing up for Lemmy are people who have opinions about Internet protocols.
Two ideas I have:
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Find some other place that is primarily trans men and advertise this community there. I’m not sure where that would be though.
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Ask people to recommend the trans men they know this community.
Are you trans? Love to shit post, but hate corporations? Do we have the site for you!
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Willingness to answer surveys is a trait inherited via the Y chromosome, apparently /s
Sexism is somewhat of a regular occurrence on 196 and personally that really throws me off. I report sexist memes but mods there do not seem to care as the posts are never removed.
I think trans men are better at recognising sexism for obvious reasons than cis men and I think that as long as it’s a regular occurrence on the biggest community of this instance it will be a reason why some trans men (and cis women for that matter) decide not to stay here.
can u give some examples? I cant think of a single time 196 hasnt been anti-sexist, and that community is specially anti-transphobia
That’s right, there are more CIS WOMEN on a TRANS community than binary trans men or transmasculine people alone.
We have a problem.
This kinda reads as ‘OMG there are (cis) women on the internet’. Why the need to point out the number of cis women as a problem? There are also more cis men than trans men but i guess that’s ok?
The Sydney Sweeney meme was pretty sexist. There are semi frequently memes where the centre of the joke is a woman’s body, where I will find gross comments as well.
Most of the memes are fun and trans positive, but there is definitely a pattern of objectifying and sexist jokes that are not being moderated (as I said, I do report but no action is being taken). I have also found the community very hostile against observations of sexism, which absolutely does not help. Personally, as a trans masc person who has experienced a lot of sexism on the internet when I still presented as femme, I do not feel welcome there.
