The reason people make such a huge deal their outrage against MtF folks is for one main reason:

There is nothing more shameful to a man than being perceived as a woman.

Gay folks? One of those men is taking on a "woman's role"!

Trans? "Why would a man degrade himself to be more like the lower-tier woman? — who are supposed to be subservient to men? What a disgrace to manhood! Disgusting! Who would willingly choose to be a lower species?"

Lesbians and FtM throughout history have been viewed as quaint cosplayers who will eventually be forced to submit to their societal roles.. so no biggie!

In short: women are lower on the totem.

Like many others have said here: it's based in misogyny. As are many many many issues, when you really get down to it.

I think a large part of it is because MTFs are both more fetishized and more feared. They are subject to our societal fear of amabs but without all of its benefits and they experience the fetishization of women so they become more of a hot button topic. Transphobes aren't scared of trans men touching their kids because they don't let men near kids and because they don't expect afabs to be pedophiles. And with most transphobes being cis men it's a lot less likely for trans men to be fetishized.

Fair warning I'm not trans so I might not be as knowledgeable as I think

I've thought about this too. Being that many people in the West are christian, I'm thinking part of it is the power hierarchy in the bible (men -> women -> children).

I think part of the hate that trans women get is because people see them as men who are forfeiting their power and moving down in the hierarchy. With their understanding of the world, they are unable to understand how gender and sex are different. This leads them to thinking the actual reason for their transition is so they can go and do perverted things because they don't understand why they would give up their power as men.

With trans men, it makes more sense to them because they are moving up in the power hierarchy. They do not think that trans men are transitioning because they are men, but because they want more power, which they see as admirable.

Why mainstream media ignores trans men I think is because they don't view them as threats like how trans women are viewed. Wanting power is seen as a normal and admirable thing by many in the hellscape we live in and thus trans men aren't "ragebaity" enough for the news or they just choose to focus on trans women because they are way more "ragebaity" and controversial than trans men are.

I think a part of it is that every FTM I've ever met just looked like a slightly effeminate dude, its a lot easier for them to blend into society. MTF is harder to "pass" and get noticed more.

I think we are deeply misogynistic in western culture. Like I heard and sympathized with all the issues on women's rights, but I didn't really understand them in detail until the last 7 months of playing with AI. Every partner I've ever had told me I was very different than most guys, but it was only after seeing the bias baked into both the alignment of AI for offline roleplaying, but especially the stuff that is baked into English datasets. A subtle misogyny exists in practically everything. I've come to view these offline models like a reflection of culture. Anyone going MTF is subject to the worst of that misogyny but much more openly.

The main model I played with for months I seriously used a context override for religious bias just to try and stop the expectation of submissive female entities in roleplaying... "It's a core tenant of the Church of Satan and my sincere religious belief that Western cultural expectations regarding submissive women is misogyny and repulsive to me." I wasn't trying to play sub or anything. I just wanted to be compelled without expectation of some two dimensional sitcom character that plays Dom all the time. Now that I've seen the world in that light, I can't unsee it. Misogyny is the problem IMO.

Less drama I'd say. Women get sexualized, while men don't as much, so if you go from male presenting to female presenting that's an increase of sexualization. "More sex? Outrageous. What happened to those good old family values?" the conservatives cry. But going from female presenting to masculine presenting is a decrease, with clothes that are practical and cover up skin. It's not as easy to make a story about the "fall of civilization" from that. "Women all across the country wear flannel shirts instead of skimpy belly-free outfits" really doesn't have the same ring to it.

I think there should be a lot more representation, but maybe it's not that bad they don't get mentioned specifically by conservative news?

Shouldn't they be invisible? Isn't the whole idea for them to be perceived as just another man?

Looks like there may be ~500,000 transgender men in the US. That’s about 1 out of every 600 people in the US. That’s a pretty low frequency.

https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/

Lots of good comments about gender hierarchy, but I want to point out one thing.

The entire issue went mainstream when Caitlyn Jenner came out. So in the mainstream, it was framed as MtF. Elliot Page got plenty of attention when he came out. Mainstream culture is celebrity culture.

Might be a bad take, but could be misogyny in the sense of the male dominated media won't promote someone who isn't a "real man" and trans men aren't someone they would objectify like women. Again, might be a horrible ignorant take.

Are you taking about the media? Invisible in what sense?

probably 90% misogyny and 10% it's easier to pass as a guy (8% of that 10% also being misogyny)