Trans 'Fad'?

[notyouraverageguy]

thank you.

Here is the guy that I was talking about.. I just cant comprehend it.

I thought you had to had a certain amount of time of documented real life experience before you get T?
Like presenting as the gender?

[supremecatoverlord]

thank you.

Here is the guy that I was talking about.. I just cant comprehend it.

Pre-T video1

Yeah...I just got really confused there.

[Henri]

Look at the second video. Skip to 2:38. He got his hair cut and switched out his clothes. People go about transition in different ways.

[Elijah3291]

ok, that makes more sense now

[caseyyy]

This topic hits home for me, because through no choice of my own I am almost entirely unpassable. I have baby features, a high voice, and I know I'd probably be someone who is potentially labelled as a "trender" for that. I don't "flaunt" my female parts or whatever, but everyone looks different and behaves differently. Maybe it doesn't make sense to some people, but that doesn't invalidate what they're doing.

[pretty]

Yeah I definitely think it's partially a fad, especially with like, tumblr.

Everyone has their reasons for transition, and really they're all just as valid because people can do what they want. I just wish people didn't assume that every trans person is going to be gay, behave more like their birth sex than the one they're transitioning to, into a lot of trendy subcultures, etc.

[wheat thins are delicious]

I thought you had to had a certain amount of time of documented real life experience before you get T?
Like presenting as the gender?

That is not a requirement anymore.  That was a ->-bleeped-<-ty requirement anyway.

People go about transition in different ways.

This.  Some people wait until they've been on hormones a long while before coming out and presenting as their true gender.

[Hermione01]

Look at the second video. Skip to 2:38. He got his hair cut and switched out his clothes. People go about transition in different ways.

He looks pretty cool, he already looks masculine without starting T so no probs with passing for sure.

[Darrin Scott]

I get confused by some peoples choices as well, but personally, I don't feel it's my job or duty to make the trans* community look good or valid. People are individuals and should be treated as such. My transition is my own and frankly, I could give a flying cupcake what someone else is doing. If they want to be in dresses and on T, whatever. I really don't care. I'm my own person and HATE feeling like I have to prove something to the trans* community or to anyone else.

[smittyFTM]

First of all, your post indicates that you're living a life that's deeply entangled within the influence of other people's opinions. If you want to be a guy, what do you care what other people think about your transition? Just be yourself.

THIS!
do what works for you and you alone.

[Nathan.]

I'm disappointed by the amount of people here who seem to be deciding what being a true trans man is. I also don't think trans men like this are what confuses other people, I doubt when the average cis person thinks about trans guys they imagine a very feminine person in their head, I think it's more likely to be someone like Thomas Beatie or some really masculine guy. I may not understand why some trans guys are really feminine, wear make up etc but it's not my place to say they are trans or not, it's theirs.

Also i'm not convinced it's become a fad at all. I think the reason there are so many trans* people on tumblr is because they attract each other, the reason I joined tumblr was because of the amount of LGBT people there. They aren't all over tumblr though, depending on what your interests are and what you reblog etc you may not even be aware of the trans* people on tumblr.

I think a lot of this comes down to dysphoria and how you see yourself, some guys have little or no dsyphoria about certain parts of their body and don't see it the way we do.

[Padma]

It's not necessary to be either masculine or feminine to be either a man or a woman. It's a little dangerous to read other people's 'validity' as trans people in terms of how their gender presentation jibes with our own, because there's the whole range out there - and I mean, the whole range. I think the only way to know how serious someone is about being transgender is to get to know them personally - and before that, why not give them the benefit of the doubt, because I'm sure you'd want it from others.

[Hayzer12]

Keep in mind that the internet is a viable tool to reach out to others, and many people use this to their advantage. Tumblr is a popular website. There's not a lot of people that haven't at least heard of it, and many are making blogs every day. When concentrated in one specific place, especially a popular website, the numbers can seem overwhelming. However, it really works out to still being a very low percentage of the population. Take Youtube for example, when concentrated in one place, the numbers seem to be HIGH.. but in reality they aren't nearly as high as it seems. Do I believe that some people are gender confused? Yes. I do, but time will tell for each and every person out there whom is questioning it. People grow and learn more about themselves every day. They may feel differently than other people, and may think that being trans is why... They will soon discover what is right for them, and who/what they are.

Do what you think is the best decision for you. Don't worry about what others say or do; just know that the decision you make is what is best for you.

I wish I were happy in the body I was born in, or I was born in a male body.. either way would have been easier. Transitioning isn't an easy decision, so for someone to go through it - in most cases- means that they have thought it through. If they made a mistake, then I can almost bet that it is a mistake that will soon be discovered after beginning transition. I do believe that those numbers are smaller than the numbers of people that actually are what they think and say they are. As long as YOU are sure, it shouldn't matter if anyone else is.

My apologies if this is rather choppy or incomprehensible.. it is now nearly 10 am and I have not went to sleep yet lol 

[Gretchen]

I'm terrified of people accusing me of just doing this because I want to seem 'cool'

I must be living in a closet. If being Trans is a new way to become cool then sign me up. Be yourself.

[dalebert]

I think this might be a good topic for the show tonight. This is something I've already given some thought to. I think there is this perception that there is a very small portion of the population that is trans, and it might seem like there are more now than there used to be and that might make people question if all of them are "sincerely" trans or if it's a trendy thing.

But this is another way to look at it. If you acknowledge that there can be a wide spectrum of gender identity and different degrees of disphoria and so forth, and I think most people here acknowledge that, then it makes sense for the number of people who choose to act on their feelings to increase as options through medical science increase and as awareness increases. We all have to work within the limits of science and I can imagine that some people might be somewhat disphoric about their bodies but not enough to want to act to change it given the limits of their options at a certain point in time whereas someone who was more disphoric might be willing to go to greater lengths, greater expense, suffer through more surgery, side-effects, etc.

So it wouldn't surprise me as time goes on that more people would identify as trans as the medicine expands options and makes transitioning more viable to more people, less expensive, fewer unpleasant side-effects, etc.

[Apollo]

Thanks for all of your input!

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one a bit bothered by some of the things, and I understand that there is a wide spectrum of gender and I do respect their pronoun choices regardless. It's just something that always made me second guess myself, and the fact that I've never seen such a large community of trans people before, and the random switch over I've seen a lot of my friends take. It kind of baffles me sometimes, and seeing quite a few of these friends later decide that they are fine with their assigned gender, or in the case of one-- she started on T and got a legal name change before realizing she was actually very uncomfortable with the entire thing.

I know I'm dwelling a bit too much on others opinions, and it's something I'm working on trying to ignore, but I'm still very uncertain of myself and sometimes wonder if I am just one of those confused people like my friend mentioned above. It's just all very scary for me, and then me seeing how some people throw around the word trans-- it makes it an even more scary thing for me.

[anibioman]

i dont think there is a "trans fad" i think there is a "trans visibility fad" which i hate. i like trans guys helping trans guys with videos and blogs but i hate guys who put themselves out there and they are horrible representations of trans people.

[insideontheoutside]

I think this might be a good topic for the show tonight. This is something I've already given some thought to. I think there is this perception that there is a very small portion of the population that is trans, and it might seem like there are more now than there used to be and that might make people question if all of them are "sincerely" trans or if it's a trendy thing.

Personally I think transsexual/transgender folks are still a very, very small portion of the population. What makes it seem like there are more now is because of the internet. We can all flock to websites like this or have our own tumblr blogs or youtube accounts to tell the world about our experiences. And everyone who is or is questioning is finding these sources on the internet.

I will say that there could very well be a small "trend" in the teenage population only because teenagers are very impressionable. There's also scientific evidence now that teens brains are different in such a way that they're more geared toward experiences than logical thought process. So a teen who is having any kind of gender or sexuality issues might stumble on all the trans info now available or have a friend who identifies as such and immediately think ... hmm maybe that's me ... I'll try that out for awhile. Even the scientists agree that by making quick decisions, teens develop experience and knowledge so I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing for a young person to explore their gender and feelings but I'm on the fence on how far it should go. That is one thing I've always been torn about. In hindsight I might have even said yes to an early transition and HRT intervention, but that's tempered with the knowledge I have now so still a toss up on that and it's one of those things that if you start when you're 14 and by 20 figure out that's not who you really are, you're kinda screwed.

I remember when I was that age I only knew I was "different". I didn't know transsexualism existed or any of that because I didn't have the internet to turn to. It wasn't until I was almost out of high school that a therapist gave me a GID diagnosis and even then I was like WTF and it convinced me I just had a mental disorder (which screwed me up for years). Now I keep seeing stories of children as young as 6 being diagnosed as trans and personally I think that could be really detrimental. There could be a lot of non-trans kids out there who simply like dressing or playing with toys from the opposite gender. Small children are even more impressionable than teens - they look to the adults to tell them what's up with the world. Imagining back to when I was 6, if someone would have told me I was a wizard with magical powers I would have happily gone along with it. So if a psychologist comes along and tells a 6 year old boy who fancies dresses and dolls he's now a girl, I'm sure it wouldn't be too far of a stretch for him. That said, I think some of the "trend" might be happening on the psychologist's end as well.