The omnipresence of male violence in society absolutely has an impact on the amount of transmasculine people that do not identify as a man.

But it would be false and cruel to claim that some transmasculine people identify as non-binary simply to ‘avoid facing their own male privilege’.

As if transmasculine people were trying to cheat the game of ‘checking your privilege’ by adopting a gender identity that isn’t recognized by the state or even by some of our own communities. As if existing in an endless legal limbo were somehow preferable to checking your privilege. This idea is ridiculous.

It is infinitely more likely that it is their own lack of privilege during most of their life, their own traumas, their own experiences of being the target of male violence, that make some transmasculine people less likely to identify with the word ‘man’.