At the outset of my graduate research, I wanted to understand how knowledge and beliefs about gender dysphoria, transgender identification, and transition/detransition are negotiated within online trans spaces and how members engage with questions, doubts, and alternative explanations.
“Internalized transphobia” = pathologizing doubt. Yes, this is what seems so culty to me.
But your point that it also allows for the expression of doubt (which is then labeled as a symptom of internalized transphobia rather than as a reasonable concern) is a more subtle point about how such culty pressures work. Go ahead, they are saying, vent your fears, but attribute the fears to external pressures rather than the true self—and so conclude that the fears must not be reasonable.
And the person who invented the term in 1989, Davina Gabriel, detransitioned, wrote up a missive of why it is all a reaction to outside of the self cultural influences, instructed friends to read the note at his memorial services, then killed himself.
Your ability to untangle the knots in the jewellery remains second to none.
There’s clearly an element of “original sin” about “internalised transphobia”; once you adopt the ideology it’s a tenet to learn, to recognise & to repeat. But, more disturbingly, there seems like there’s a quiet but strong element of validation in there. Put simply, for a trans person, you can’t have internalised transphobia if you’re *not* trans. Therefore, if you have it…
What is so absolutely effed up is that the existing, woke ideology flavored research completely fails to recognize that people taking on a “trans” identity, in the first damn place, is ITSELF them adopting a culturally created and extremely harmful invented, contagious belief / meme, that directly effs with their self-perception, and makes them dissociate! Yes, their underlying distress about their sex is real, albeit not innate and unchangeable, and it may have taken root in them for a multitude of different, often complex reasons. But them deciding that they are “trans” because of it..? Is purely them adopting a culturally CREATED category, or explanation, that is not objectively real! That actively makes their distress WORSE, while simultaneously convincing them that it is a cure / solution, and something that is normal and healthy, and often even ADMIRABLE, thus a cause for celebration! There is all this talk about these people having “absorbed transphobic attitudes” from the prevailing culture. When in all actuality, the problem started with them ABSORBING the insane cultural idea that there is such a thing as “trans”, and “being trans”, and deciding that they themselves “are” this mentally deranging, toxic concept known as “trans”!! Yet of course they fail to recognize that.
Also, funny how all the “transphobic” stuff they supposedly “absorbed” is just simply objective REALITY, and the words and attitudes of people who refuse to deny reality, for the sake of furthering this created immersive fiction! Will admit, though, that there are indeed people who just like to bully others, who may try to deliberately upset people who think they are “trans”, not because they’ve got moral objections to the ideology itself, due to seeing all the harm it does, (like people here, for instance), but simply because they delight in bullying and upsetting people. Which.. people with delusion based identities, and EXTREMELY oversensitive feelings related to it, are bound to be an easy and satisfying target for bullies, too, because of it! Which sucks, and I believe it harms our cause, and further undermines their potential future willingness to open their eyes to reality. Because it makes them able to conclude that: “the bullies are after me, and I need to further HARDEN my resolve to stand against them!!” Without necessarily being wrong about that first part. Just that, they can’t fathom that these two things can both be true at once: 1. bullies are real, and sometimes, they really do bully people like you, which SUCKS! It is neither moral nor fair! 2. gender ideology is still also FALSE, while reality is real, your dissociated and delusion based “gender identity” is actively harmful to you, and you should ditch it, and work towards truly accepting yourself, instead.
Anyway… Stuff like: “maybe this is only a weird idea in my head, after all?”, “my female body means I will never be a man”, “no one is ever going to think that I am the opposite sex”, “I’m just faking it”, etc..? Are NOT actually “internalized transphobia”! They are simply the part of your brain that is still sane, and still knows reality, that has not yet been COMPLETLY silenced and shut down by the gender ideology indoctrination, desperately trying to reach you, and wake you up from this ideologically induced haze, before you irreversibly harm yourself!! But of course the cult needs to REFRAME it in this way, to keep you from actually LISTENING to it, and heeding its advice.
Oh… And I also find it very interesting, how they deliberately use the concepts of “trans” vs. “cis” to maintain this fiction!! They are both as fake as each other, but framing your experience as being different from «that of those ‘CIS’ people», helps further reinforce the belief system, and your own supposed specialness within it. When in all actuality, there is no such thing as «trans» vs. «cis». Simply the reality of sex being real, innate and unchangeable, regardless of any difficult feelings certain people may have about their sex, vs. people who choose to dissociate, deny that reality, and get increasingly, pathologically invested in a DELUSION. The people who head down that road..? Are the people who conclude that they are «trans». While the people who stay grounded in reality..? Are the ones that are ascribed the label of “cis”, (even if we reject it), by the aforementioned dissociated people, that are now highly invested in this delusion. And what is also interesting, that I keep wishing “trans” identifying people could see..? Is that many so-called “cis people”, who do not buy this shit, are actually still varying degrees of uncomfortable with their sex! Some even have what the “trans” community refers to “dysphoria”! (Personally, I prefer not to use their lingo, as I think it promotes their dysfunctional worldview, and I don’t want to partake in that. “Distress about one’s sex”, “negative feelings about one’s sex”, “people hating their sex”, etc, works just fine.) Some are butch lesbians. Some are detransitioners. Some are weird autistic people who don’t fit in. Etc, etc. All we have in common is, we still know, and stick with, reality, regardless!! And: will admit that I have never PERSONALLY hated my body for being female. But..? I still absolutely loathe all the sexist social expectations that are imposed on me, and ALL of womankind, because of it!! They enrage me, and I despise them, and had I still been an obedient “trans ally” to this day..? (Former true blue believer in gender ideology, here.) I think I very likely would have been identifying as “non-binary” now, because of it!! Only reason why I escaped it, I think? Was because, back when I was still an indoctrinated gendie, that just wasn’t a thing, where I live! And I never really wanted to be a guy, either! So the whole “binary trans” thing had no appeal to me. Then I peaked, and found radical feminism, and now I am simply a person, and a woman, on my own damn terms, who feels free not to abide by ANY of those sexist, shitty social norms, and regressive BS that is expected of me, simply because I’m female by sex! So.. that is MY story. But I also know of many other TERFs / rad fems who DID at one point wish they were men, and have also experienced distress over their sexed biology, DIRECTLY!! Yet they still stuck with reality, and found a way to eventually accept themselves, as well. Which.. yet more evidence that the idea of “trans” is culturally invented BS. The distress is real, while “trans” is a created concept overlaid on top of it, as a proposed explanation, that only serves to further cement it, enshrine it, elevate it to super sacred, quasi spiritual “identity” status, and turn it into something that it isn’t. Sending those people down a path of increasing dissociation and delusion, and eventually self-harm. How I wish all of them could see it. 😢
I suggest finding a more apt phrase for "internalized transphobia" which recognizes the normal process of examining the factors leading to decisions to engage in known risks to health for superficial changes in appearance. How about "indecision mode" or "rational/irrational dichotomy" and leave out the "cis" and all the other captured language.
“Internalized transphobia” = pathologizing doubt. Yes, this is what seems so culty to me.
But your point that it also allows for the expression of doubt (which is then labeled as a symptom of internalized transphobia rather than as a reasonable concern) is a more subtle point about how such culty pressures work. Go ahead, they are saying, vent your fears, but attribute the fears to external pressures rather than the true self—and so conclude that the fears must not be reasonable.
"Transphobia" is a term intended as a thought-terminating cliché for those outside the cult, and "internalised transphobia" one for those inside it.
And the person who invented the term in 1989, Davina Gabriel, detransitioned, wrote up a missive of why it is all a reaction to outside of the self cultural influences, instructed friends to read the note at his memorial services, then killed himself.
Wait... what?
What's crazy is he destransitioned but everyone insisted on continuing to use female pronouns, even in his obituary.
🎼 🎵 🎶 Welcome to the Hotel Transifornia.... you can check out but you can never leave. 🎶 🎵
I don't know what to say!
Your ability to untangle the knots in the jewellery remains second to none.
There’s clearly an element of “original sin” about “internalised transphobia”; once you adopt the ideology it’s a tenet to learn, to recognise & to repeat. But, more disturbingly, there seems like there’s a quiet but strong element of validation in there. Put simply, for a trans person, you can’t have internalised transphobia if you’re *not* trans. Therefore, if you have it…
What is so absolutely effed up is that the existing, woke ideology flavored research completely fails to recognize that people taking on a “trans” identity, in the first damn place, is ITSELF them adopting a culturally created and extremely harmful invented, contagious belief / meme, that directly effs with their self-perception, and makes them dissociate! Yes, their underlying distress about their sex is real, albeit not innate and unchangeable, and it may have taken root in them for a multitude of different, often complex reasons. But them deciding that they are “trans” because of it..? Is purely them adopting a culturally CREATED category, or explanation, that is not objectively real! That actively makes their distress WORSE, while simultaneously convincing them that it is a cure / solution, and something that is normal and healthy, and often even ADMIRABLE, thus a cause for celebration! There is all this talk about these people having “absorbed transphobic attitudes” from the prevailing culture. When in all actuality, the problem started with them ABSORBING the insane cultural idea that there is such a thing as “trans”, and “being trans”, and deciding that they themselves “are” this mentally deranging, toxic concept known as “trans”!! Yet of course they fail to recognize that.
Also, funny how all the “transphobic” stuff they supposedly “absorbed” is just simply objective REALITY, and the words and attitudes of people who refuse to deny reality, for the sake of furthering this created immersive fiction! Will admit, though, that there are indeed people who just like to bully others, who may try to deliberately upset people who think they are “trans”, not because they’ve got moral objections to the ideology itself, due to seeing all the harm it does, (like people here, for instance), but simply because they delight in bullying and upsetting people. Which.. people with delusion based identities, and EXTREMELY oversensitive feelings related to it, are bound to be an easy and satisfying target for bullies, too, because of it! Which sucks, and I believe it harms our cause, and further undermines their potential future willingness to open their eyes to reality. Because it makes them able to conclude that: “the bullies are after me, and I need to further HARDEN my resolve to stand against them!!” Without necessarily being wrong about that first part. Just that, they can’t fathom that these two things can both be true at once: 1. bullies are real, and sometimes, they really do bully people like you, which SUCKS! It is neither moral nor fair! 2. gender ideology is still also FALSE, while reality is real, your dissociated and delusion based “gender identity” is actively harmful to you, and you should ditch it, and work towards truly accepting yourself, instead.
Anyway… Stuff like: “maybe this is only a weird idea in my head, after all?”, “my female body means I will never be a man”, “no one is ever going to think that I am the opposite sex”, “I’m just faking it”, etc..? Are NOT actually “internalized transphobia”! They are simply the part of your brain that is still sane, and still knows reality, that has not yet been COMPLETLY silenced and shut down by the gender ideology indoctrination, desperately trying to reach you, and wake you up from this ideologically induced haze, before you irreversibly harm yourself!! But of course the cult needs to REFRAME it in this way, to keep you from actually LISTENING to it, and heeding its advice.
Oh… And I also find it very interesting, how they deliberately use the concepts of “trans” vs. “cis” to maintain this fiction!! They are both as fake as each other, but framing your experience as being different from «that of those ‘CIS’ people», helps further reinforce the belief system, and your own supposed specialness within it. When in all actuality, there is no such thing as «trans» vs. «cis». Simply the reality of sex being real, innate and unchangeable, regardless of any difficult feelings certain people may have about their sex, vs. people who choose to dissociate, deny that reality, and get increasingly, pathologically invested in a DELUSION. The people who head down that road..? Are the people who conclude that they are «trans». While the people who stay grounded in reality..? Are the ones that are ascribed the label of “cis”, (even if we reject it), by the aforementioned dissociated people, that are now highly invested in this delusion. And what is also interesting, that I keep wishing “trans” identifying people could see..? Is that many so-called “cis people”, who do not buy this shit, are actually still varying degrees of uncomfortable with their sex! Some even have what the “trans” community refers to “dysphoria”! (Personally, I prefer not to use their lingo, as I think it promotes their dysfunctional worldview, and I don’t want to partake in that. “Distress about one’s sex”, “negative feelings about one’s sex”, “people hating their sex”, etc, works just fine.) Some are butch lesbians. Some are detransitioners. Some are weird autistic people who don’t fit in. Etc, etc. All we have in common is, we still know, and stick with, reality, regardless!! And: will admit that I have never PERSONALLY hated my body for being female. But..? I still absolutely loathe all the sexist social expectations that are imposed on me, and ALL of womankind, because of it!! They enrage me, and I despise them, and had I still been an obedient “trans ally” to this day..? (Former true blue believer in gender ideology, here.) I think I very likely would have been identifying as “non-binary” now, because of it!! Only reason why I escaped it, I think? Was because, back when I was still an indoctrinated gendie, that just wasn’t a thing, where I live! And I never really wanted to be a guy, either! So the whole “binary trans” thing had no appeal to me. Then I peaked, and found radical feminism, and now I am simply a person, and a woman, on my own damn terms, who feels free not to abide by ANY of those sexist, shitty social norms, and regressive BS that is expected of me, simply because I’m female by sex! So.. that is MY story. But I also know of many other TERFs / rad fems who DID at one point wish they were men, and have also experienced distress over their sexed biology, DIRECTLY!! Yet they still stuck with reality, and found a way to eventually accept themselves, as well. Which.. yet more evidence that the idea of “trans” is culturally invented BS. The distress is real, while “trans” is a created concept overlaid on top of it, as a proposed explanation, that only serves to further cement it, enshrine it, elevate it to super sacred, quasi spiritual “identity” status, and turn it into something that it isn’t. Sending those people down a path of increasing dissociation and delusion, and eventually self-harm. How I wish all of them could see it. 😢
Yes, "taking on an identity". It's a cultural concept--a new one. Transgender is a word. Language can create identities.
I suggest finding a more apt phrase for "internalized transphobia" which recognizes the normal process of examining the factors leading to decisions to engage in known risks to health for superficial changes in appearance. How about "indecision mode" or "rational/irrational dichotomy" and leave out the "cis" and all the other captured language.