A big reason that drove me was that I have a micropenis.
Fake. There are no "reasons to drive someone" other than their internal gender, this sounds like something a cis personsomeone who thinks being trans is a choice would say.
Edit: For clarity, I'm not speculating on whether or not the OP in the post is trans or cis, I'm saying it doesn't sound like a real story because it sounds inauthentic to the trans experience. A trans person could easily think this up, like anyone can make up a story that is close to their experiences, but since it isn't real it doesn't really pass scrutiny.
That's such reddit logic. You assume everyone has a perfect understanding of themselves, but people have a lot of different things internally that drive them and they're not always aware of it. When I was young I was interested in other men, and frankly, quite disgusted by it. It's the habitat I was raised in and if you'd asked me back then, I'd have told you it was because I was a sinner. The real reason as I came to discover was indeed that I'm just gay. It took a lot of steps and discovery to get there. I'm not saying this is real, I'm just pointing out that just because your logic is correct does not mean that this person if they are real has made enough discoveries about themselves to be strictly logical.
You assume everyone has a perfect understanding of themselves
The 'understanding' of gender is appreciating how gender is socially constructed. That requires observation of society, hence revealing of new information, hence a journey of understanding.
Your own gender is an experience, one that is even present (although not labelled) without the social norms. It's what you experience as what you want to be and do. It would exist without the social construction of gender. You could prefer certain colours and certain toys regardless of what society says is 'right' or 'wrong' for your external genitalia and designation on a birth certificate. I have known what society thinks about gender is not important to me since I first saw gender norms in the real world. I found the whole concept ridiculous. I've known that I am treated as male for having a penis, but am actually not interested in gender, since before I discovered terms like non-binary.
Someone saying that "you need to watch Gordon Ramsay says about cooking before you know what food you like" is ridiculous. You've had experiences and you prefer some of them without Gordon Ramsay. He doesn't even need to exist.
Someone saying "you realise your gender preferences by being mocked for your micropenis" is being similarly ridiculous. Gender does not equate to external genitalia.
It's not a 'perfect understanding'. It's 'having experiences', which everyone does.
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When I was young I was interested in other men, and frankly, quite disgusted by it. Itâs the habitat I was raised in and if youâd asked me back then, Iâd have told you it was because I was a sinner. The real reason as I came to discover was indeed that Iâm just gay. It took a lot of steps and discovery to get there.
You did have an understanding of yourself. That was scared out of you by threats. You didn't discover that you were gay - you just knew it, because it was a feature of your experience - you discovered that other people were wrong when they told you that was disgusting.
But seriously, yeah, people don't seem to realize that people tend to want to pick the path of least resistance. If someone really is trans I have to believe it's because who they are is so at odds with the expectations of society.
Edit: added a qualification because I am not trans
Exactly. Coming to terms with being trans, when trans people have been seen as nothing but the butt of far too many jokes in damn near all exposure most of us had growing up, is a difficult process rife with cognitive dissonance and defense mechanisms. No one wants to be trans, they just want to be their gender and have to be trans to get that.
two of my trans women friends, when getting their sperm frozen before starting hormones, found out they just have XX chromosomes and never had working sperm in the first place
i think we underestimate how many intersex people there are
Yup. My belief is that we are likely to eventually combine the categories of transgender and differences in sexual development (formerly known as intersex) as we discover more about it's biological origins. The vast majority of people have never been karyotyped and have no idea what their chromosomes are.
That's a good point. I haven't browsed 4chan since way before they had any LGBT community/rep visible on it, I don't know what kind of convoluted views they have. Let me guess, some of them unironcally identify as "agp" don't they?
Thereâs a whole lot of blanchardianism (agp vs hsts). Quite a bit of homophobia, itâs actually a lot straighter than youâd probably expect. A lot of how they act is surprisingly old school, like back in the day when you werenât allowed to transition unless therapists thought you couldnât live a normal life as your assigned sex old school. And all this with the characteristic 4chan edgy bs. Also theyâre anti supportive, like full on terf forum level of critical of trans peopleâs appearance.
I havenât been but Iâve learned to pick up the signs by seeing the shit trans people who come from 4chan say.
Yeah I think thereâs just something about 4chan that encourages a sort of emotional automasochistic culture. I think itâs partly that the culture pushes away the healthy, but it also drives those capable of health away from it in favor of âuncomfortable truthsâ. I forget what Natalie Wynn called it, but itâs the philosophy of âit is true because it hurtsâ. And it happens all across the website. Itâs the thing that ties the Nazis, the trolls, the incels, and the self hating trans people together, and itâs antithetical to happiness.
Holy shit I never heard of it put into words but jesus fucking christ does that CLICK. I'm no longer there myself but there was certainly a time when I felt in a similar way:
The truth is painful,
Therefore the more that it hurts,
The more true it is.
This rhetorical position is insidious, deranged, toxic, and most importantly: blatantly incorrect and false. Holding this belief is a diagnostic flag of fundamental cognitive stack malfunction. Suspend all non-critical executive processes and seek therapy.
So I just remembered the term she used was masochistic epistemology. It was in this video about incels.
But yeah itâs such an easy trap to fall into when youâre already unhappy. And yeah itâs a form of accepting defeat because trying is hard and the possibility of failure is scary. Sometimes the truth hurts, and if youâre generally miserable the truth you need is likely uncomfortable, but that discomfort could be anything from âyou need to get your shit togetherâ to âyour expectations are unrealisticâ to âyouâre surrounding yourself with people and things that make you miserable because itâs easier to accept unhappiness than to changeâ
Incels for example think they need to accept that theyâre just ugly and unable to ever be seen as attractive and thus are destined to be miserable forever, when in reality they often need to accept that getting laid wonât make them happy and their misery is part of why they canât get laid. They need to find a happy life in which sex would be a nice plus and then be clean, groomed, and enjoyable to be around.
i have spent and still spend lots of time in these places and yes, they do. they desperately want to be hsts and hate themselves for being agp and not being trutrans enough. lots of reppers too (trans people that know they're trans but repress it out of self hatred). there's lots of lore
AGP = autogynophilia: the idea that a person is a trans woman due to a sexual interest in having a vagina
HSTS = Homosexual Transexual: the idea that a person is a trans woman due to being a homosexual male, in other words that they are transitioning in order to have sex with straight men
Trutrans sounds like it just means "valid" as in they will claim a lot of trans women aren't trans women unless they are trutrans. Also, it may be those who insist that some are not actually trans because they say they don't experience gender dysphoria or because they don't want general surgery.
All of which are old, unsupported, and frankly regressive ideas.