Evan Urquhart

"Life experience" is a brutal and punishing demand to put on trans women (by design), but I haven't seen people talk about how meaningless and weird it can seem as a requirement for trans men.

An AMAB person wearing women's clothing (and doing other presentation things to signify 'woman') is not culturally equivalent to an AFAB person wearing men's clothing. They're so different, in fact, that requiring "life experience" for trans men becomes near meaningless.

An adult AFAB person could easily wear boys' clothing from the age of 3 and never once be perceived as anything but 'sporty', With a short haircut maybe he'll have been seen as a butch lesbian, but even that depends on how feminine his features are and local style.

Instead of brutal and degrading (BY DESIGN!), for trans men a life experience requirement becomes pointless. It can even feel like lying is being demanded by the system to make it seem like a useless concept has relevance to our lives.

Depending on the femininity of one's features and the local style, the idea that you would be perceived male OR EVEN GENDER NONCONFORMING can be laughable.