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Excuse this if it's a touchy topic but this is a topic about masculinization/feminization of the body from sex hormones.
It's anecdotal but most people I've talked to would agree that it's much easier to spot a post-op trans women from a biological woman than it is to spot a post-op trans men from a biological man.
People will say it's confirmation bias and you don't notice those who pass, which is true but still even among those trans-women that pass, little things like an adams apple give it away.
I've heard the reason for this is because testosterone causes more irreversible changes to bone structure during puberty than eostrogen does (with the exception of widening hips). In other words, biological women have an easier time passing for men than vice versa so when one decides to transition to a man, they look more convincing than when a biological woman.
Excuse this if it's a touchy topic but this is a topic about masculinization/feminization of the body from sex hormones.
It's anecdotal but most people I've talked to would agree that it's much easier to spot a post-op trans women from a biological woman than it is to spot a post-op trans men from a biological man.
People will say it's confirmation bias and you don't notice those who pass, which is true but still even among those trans-women that pass, little things like an adams apple give it away.
I've heard the reason for this is because testosterone causes more irreversible changes to bone structure during puberty than eostrogen does (with the exception of widening hips). In other words, biological women have an easier time passing for men than vice versa so when one decides to transition to a man, they look more convincing than when a biological woman.
I think either can be convincing.
If based on facial features, a woman can pass for a man, then ... that same woman can pass for a woman ... because she is a woman.
Did I lose you?
The giveaway for trans women is usually height and build.
Most will look a bit 'off' somehow. It may not seem like it in made up, well lit, photoshopped pics posted on the internet but in person is a different story. Sometimes T+steroids can provide an illusion cover for transmen but the voice can often give it away. People can live "as" or "how" they want and what others perceive shouldn't matter.
I know a trans woman who has been taking estrogen for a few years, and it has done nothing to change their appearance whatsoever, but makeup and wigs do, along with wearing a padded bra and padded hips. There are a lot of makeup and clothing "tricks" that can help them appear more feminine, but some things you just can't change, like height, hands, feet, knees, voice, big shoulders, adam's apple, etc., so this person is pretty easy to spot no matter how hard they try.
I don't know any trans men personally...at least not that I'm aware of, as I think it must be easier to pass as long as they have good height and aren't tiny and petite.
The FTM trans persons I know are visually indistinguishable from those born as males. If anyone remembers the sitcom "Family Affair" and the actor Sebastian Cabot, well, one FTM I know well looks remarkably like him.
I don't remember the full biological details, but the voice change men experience during puberty is a one-way street. A trans woman taking estrogen won't change her voice, but a trans man taking testosterone will change his (after a period of voice cracking).
It's like this for facial structure as well (though not for other things, like the distribution of fat on the body, trans women do experience changes there).
This is why puberty blockers are so important, particularly for kids assigned male at birth who think they would be happier living as girls/women. The kid can always stop if they decide they aren't really trans.
I'll just say it bluntly: mainly because most women don't look particularly feminine facially without makeup and if young often look like boys. Therefore, cut off the boobs and lose the female stylings, and it's easy to look like a boyish cis-male. Even 'better' if the testosterone causes de facto movement of hair from the top of the head to the face, like Cher's offspring. "I think it must be easier to pass as long as they have good height and aren't tiny and petite." By the way, there is one claimed giveaway in that post I quoted from that I want to say isn't: transitioning from male to female typically involves getting the Adam's apple shaved down.
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