A young woman hangs out online, following every detail of transitioning timelines as if pouring over beauty magazines. Encountering a social media realm where her own body hatred resonates, she begins ID work. Her emotional discomfort with breasts, in particular, finds exact material embodiment – a potential alternate self is suggestively visibilized. Welcome to beauty in the age of transitioning.
https://gdworkinggroup.org/2019/11/06/gender-dysphoria-spreads-like-an-epidemic-online/
Mirror Distress Mirror on the Internet
Dysphoria can refer to any experience of body-related distress, and social media features trans narratives conveniently detailing how to refashion not a wardrobe, but the female body itself. Youth — most often girls according to the staggering statistics — explore transitioning as a way out of their female bodies. Stories document their sacrificial offerings – not to the dieting gods – but to the transitioning’s goth look: bold, adorable, glamorous, other-bodied.
Dysphoria is a nearly universal female experience. Because young women already typically deal with body shame and self–loathing, they are prone to adopt the trans gloss: “Phrases to reinforce everything, without question – and questioning not allowed” (Mumu _Bear on Twitter).
https://4thwavenow.com/2019/03/20/tumblr-a-call-out-post/
Social Media as Conditioning
Angst draws the onlooker to binge watch Transitioning videos. Social media comments become posts, and “liking” rewards pursuit of a trans-escape. It’s not all in one’s own skull, in other words, but involves feedback. Like the latest fashion, transitioning is performed for others, as well as oneself.
Euphoria from attention-flooding dims eventually, however, driving further transitioning. Social media positioning of a trans-identity is both fixed and evolving. Tumblr, for instance, stacks selfies in iconic Hollywood Squares photo blocks-like postcards showing off tats or piercings. As presented, the body-object is fixed in static totemic alignment, like worshipers all facing east.
Glam Tran, “The Fad That Mutilates”
Fads are captivating: from foot-binding to hair treatments, efforts to transform the female body are legion. As in the past, the public seem relatively untroubled by this beauty regimen’s exacting toll, and young women are particularly captured by the internet’s portrayal of transitioning. Achieving what might be called a “pretty boy” glamour, they strive for the cute, soft-cheeked look earning them accolades. Transitioning is a beauty competition, and entails learning to talk and walk and perform masculinity.
Trans makeover videos include “exhaustive” lists of “side effects,” usually limited to smelly pits, fat and hair distribution, and increased hunger and energy. That’s it. Negative effects and complications from taking off-label testosterone are presumed either negligible or fair exchange for the relief promised by trans storytellers.
For good reason, trans is known as “the fad that mutilates.” Nic comments: “I never had an interest in binding or packing until I saw it online and suddenly I HAD to. It was marketed as the safest option. I molded my spine into a new position and developed fluid buildup in my lungs. When I stopped binding, I was ridiculed as not being #dysphoric enough.” In a perfect catch-22, dysphoria is a real and ongoing result of online participation in mutual affirmation of body hatred, for which trans is not just a fad, but a coping mechanism.
Just as girls once celebrated coming of age with a public event, trans enlists – and becomes dependent on – social engagement. A trans-identified woman who desisted, Ben, reviews the steps of trans ID work. There is an internalized competitive impetus to more closely approximate the male body, and a positive reception resets the target for the next round of transformations. Counter intuitively, dysphoria is not resolved but amped, sending one back to seek validation again by taking the next irrevocable trans hit.
Hooked on Transitioning
Those posting glam shots may have little clue of the addictive dynamic involved. Later, a physical dependence on hormones and their shape shifting effects, known as spiraling, can take over.
Nor do youth appear to be sufficiently wary of the dangers from posing in partial nudity, but requests for further strip tease give away the game. “While for some it’s ‘look at me,’ for others it’s ‘take care of me, worry about me, and focus on my needs.’ For yet others, it’s about hiding one’s female body: ‘Look away from me’ – there are so many reasons behind this one fluid set of behaviors. It’s the opposite of ‘born this way’” (observer on twitter). In OCD manner, bodily bits are subject to objectification both from the one posing and the viewer. Even if antiseptic in style, such photos invite fetishes, pandering, and grooming. The veneer of virtual safety suggested by the flat computer screen can dissolve.
Already dissociated from a body they have come to abhor, youth may not recognize what is happening. Dissociation can be caused as a direct result of trauma that exacts emotional numbness to block awareness of the pleaser/fixer and the taker/controller dynamic. Intense close-ups expose chests in a bid to be heard. Breast scars are trophies for profound emotional sharing. Intention cannot dictate reception, however, and validation to trans is like inebriation. The dynamic involves complex motives, yet incentives to groom compliance must be owned, especially as those transitioning are reinforced not only by trans messaging but also by curiosity and titillation.
There are no safety rails to prevent such interactions. In fact, mostly these are echo chambers where transitioning is celebrated by in-group fans. “There’s also a bubble effect with Tumblr hashtags. If you follow some specific hashtags, you’re only going to see people of a particular opinion. Like #transitioning #transadvocacy, for example. Very few people who use this hashtag would question trans activism. So you get caught up in a bubble.”
Online bubbles police uniform messaging. And transitioning is spurred by language that accomplishes the social work of recognition. Distress gets named, amplified, and eased temporarily within Tumblr. Terms render palatable the unconscionable: “gender” (a catch- all word tailor capturing any travail and ideal), “top surgery” (a cute euphemism for a double mastectomy) and “gender-affirming” surgery (a misnomer for a horrific array of surgical mutilations). The territory is virtually marked trans safe space.
Any online safe space can become a prison, however, and busting out of the transitioning bubble and past the third wall of trans lingo involves taking back one’s agency and self-definition. Recognizing everyone experiences distress at times is a good start. It’s also important to decide to become a less self-critical female, a less externally-legitimized woman, a less self-abusive person. While it may not yield photo–ready glamour shots, such embodiment is the only way out of the spiral caused by the latest fashion craze, transitioning.
Featured image: chemrain/unsplash
Dr. Faith Kuzma, Guest Author
Excellent !.
Not exactly a feminist perspective.
What about the article is not a “feminist perspective,” in your view?
Note that the website does not, at any time, promise a “feminist perspective,” in any case. I refuse to align this space with any ideology, so that it can then be colonized and held captive by groups or individuals who will then tell us how we are allowed to write in order to best service their ideology or agenda. The space is as it is. Those who do not find this space to be their cup of tea should feel free to create their own spaces or find one that they prefer.
To add, I appreciate that the author provided a unique analysis, rather than merely mindlessly recycling, regurgitating, what hundreds or thousands have said or written before. I appreciate independent thinkers, and not crowd followers and mindless robots.
The latter types are the reason that we are in the throes of the gender identity movement, and no one is allowed to question or challenge it, as we are all required to hold the exact same views or be shamed and punished for stepping out of line by daring to have and express a thought of our own. Monitoring of which woman is close enough to existing “feminist analysis” for her views to be allowed to be published and viewed is no different.
The fact of the matter is, some are against the gender ideology movement ONLY because they want other women or other people to believe, obey and conform to their own philosophies or ideologies, instead. 💁🏾♀️
Excellent discussion. The role of “autogynophila”, in which you enraptured by the image of yourself as a glamourous member of the other sex, is the subtext. Of course, no transgender person can ever be a “glamourous” member. The fakery is always obvious.
A grim subject, painfully true and extraordinarily written. Thank you.