I think there might've been a thread here before and I've seen it mentioned on a few youtube videos, but what do you guys think about the idea of a "trend" or people "jumping on the trans* bandwagon"? Do you think there even is a trend and how do you think this effects FTM's?

If it is a trend, which is possible, I don't really know for sure, but why exactly would you want to be trans? I don't mean to offend anyone but seriously. How is that trendy?

More FTMs open on youtube, with their channel = trend.
Being FTM = not a trend.

Quote from: Ratchet on July 29, 2011, 04:32:49 PM
If it is a trend, which is possible, I don't really know for sure, but why exactly would you want to be trans? I don't mean to offend anyone but seriously. How is that trendy?

I don't mean to offend you with the topic, I'm just saying some people are talking about a "trend". Maybe it's a youtube thing like Nezhi said.

Quote from: Nezhi on July 29, 2011, 04:35:27 PM
More FTMs open on youtube, with their channel = trend.
Being FTM = not a trend.

My thoughts as well.  I just think that the internet is seeming to explode with trans stuff right now because the internet is exploding in general.  Especially with the younger generation who have grown up using computers and the internet.

Quote from: Adio on July 29, 2011, 04:40:50 PM
My thoughts as well.  I just think that the internet is seeming to explode with trans stuff right now because the internet is exploding in general.  Especially with the younger generation who have grown up using computers and the internet.

people are talking about every little *beep* they do on the internet, so i think it's quite natural that they are talking about being trans too... it's not more of a trend as people distributing their sleep cycle or what brand of soda they had today.

I can see how it could be a trend or a phase.

A kid is different at school, they get picked on because they are a tomboy, they don't fit in and and get depressed or just think guys have a better life and are cooler.  They see the way out of this as being a boy because they have so much in common with the boys.

Another item... a young girl gets sexually abused and is mentally scared.  She thinks, this would have never happened if I was a boy.

A phase or trend can be the result of positive or negative influences.  Unfortunately, it happens and I have heard people talk about it a bit more recently then in past years.

At the same time, maybe it just seems like it is because there are more freedoms to express yourself without fear.  Society is more accepting and there is more avenues for information and getting your own message out.

i think the trend of ftms on youtube is pretty easy to explain:
1. who do you talk to about trans matters? teenagers who can't share their problems with their peers may be looking for support on the internet
2. videos in general give you an interesting outside perspective of yourself, which a lot of people appreciate but of course it's especially interesting for someone who is probing their "new" male personality, so to speak.
3. youtube is also a "safe" space where you can look and act as male as you like without being bullied by your peers (because everything is basically happening in your room, although they are eventually sharing it with the world)

is there an ftm trend? i don't know. but times change. there was no surgery or hormone therapy around less than a century ago, and hence no one physically going through the transition process. so there have always been people who may have been ftm but didn't transition. the number of those who actually transition has increased, with greater media coverage of the issue, with the improved surgery options, with a change in parents' attitudes, with society changing, etc. ....trying to say it got easier for ftms to put their finger on what was going on with them; and transitioning in itsself got "easier" with parents, schools, society in general becoming more supportive and informed

and then of course there's always the claim that young girls want to find male privilege and thus decide they want to be boys. i don't really believe in that concept though. may be a cultural thing, but i see "female privilege" everywhere and it's more out there and "rewarding" than male privilege. My own dad even talked to me about how he wished to be a girl as a kid because of all the things girls were allowed to do and guys weren't (he mentioned how girls at the time could wear pants or dresses and could have long or short hair; nowadays many guys avoid things that might be considered "gay", "unmanly" etc.)

I have heard (mostly secondhand) about some young people who are sort of politically trans...anti-binary, I guess. A few apparently identified as genderqueer/gender->-bleeped-<- and seemed to see that as more of a political position than a gender identity.

I saw a couple of YouTube videos from such people back before I transitioned (at least one person was taking T as some kind of sociopolitical statement), and I was kind of appalled because I sure as heck didn't choose to be a transsexual, and I'm not transitioning as a political statement. But I figure that other people can do what they want, as long as they are adults.

Could this be the sort of trend you mean? I don't know how widespread it is. Probably just a small handful of individuals.

I suppose it's possible for anything to be a "trend" to a person if someone they want to emulate does it, but it seems really stupid to assume there are a lot of people going through something that's as much of a pain in the ass as transitioning just for a trend. 

Quote from: Darrin on July 29, 2011, 04:23:55 PM
I think there might've been a thread here before and I've seen it mentioned on a few youtube videos, but what do you guys think about the idea of a "trend" or people "jumping on the trans* bandwagon"? Do you think there even is a trend and how do you think this effects FTM's?

well I dont think Trend is the right word for it, but people got a place to be out of sharing experience and getting there own words out to people around. its kinda a comunety like here and other place. (im also on youtube however not in any videos LOL)

I personally feel its great I love to look videoblogs if im bored, and I also feel its good for people who dosent know so much about transgender people to see so many diffrent people talking about these topics..
--
now we talk about trans and trend,
I am a big comics freak and as you might figure out (from my avatar) I like manga^^ yeah
there also seam to me a couple transgender people in the manga-culture, probebly because it pretty openminded in general,
and my mtf friend who are pretty big yugioh fan said its nice in the manga culture because theres teams like cosplaying (dressing up as a character) who make it easy to wear anything.. from men to women clotheing without getting strange comments.
the theam "crossplay" (someone crossdressing a character) is often there as well so people dont really mind the gender clothing that much (of corse there always someone.. but compared to the real world its to deal with..).
however we been talking about if the fact being trans where specially popular or trendy in the mangaculture once..
gay couples ex are pretty trendy because there the thing called "yaoi" wich is 2 guys together and many fangirls think thats hot (and fanboys too)
at the same time there where a period where everyone tend to dress up as the opposite sex, and many got out as being transgendeed,
my friend asked if it where a trend, I think part of it where, the dressing up where diffently a trend but since the comunety also was pretty openminded about people wearing whatever they liked and so it where probebly also more easy for transgender people to get out of the closet, and i felt thats been the caise.

It depends on your environment.  On the Internet people with common interests easily find each other.  With so many people with GD finding each other to them it might seem that everyone has gender issues.  Instead everyone that has the same issue is just gathering in one place.

If you take a step back you realize that is only one part of the Internet.  One part of the world at large because the vast majority have no concept of what we are going through.  When I don't come on her it sometimes feels like I am the only trans person on the entire earth.  Almost none of my friends have a clue.  There are intelligent educated people and this whole issue is completely unknown to them.

The reason people gather is because they have a commonality.  There is no trend.  The homosexual population makes up 3 to 4 percent of the overall population.  The transgender / gender variant population is even a smaller percentage of that. 

Actually internet has exposed multi generations to information that was not available prior to internet.  Due to internet I personally know several TS friends.  In fact first TS friend I met was due to internet.  With internet we get to explore and discuss our feelings.

Maybe it is trendy if you are young but it destroys much if you are old.

I was 25 before I even knew word Transsexual. 

Increase in numbers is due to people coming out of closet.  Trans people have existed for thousands of years.  Now we have technology to help us.  That is amazing to me.  We actually have a possibility to get our body and mind in harmony!   Is that not freaking amazing to you?

As trans people become more accepted we will become more open.  As we become more open we will appear to grow in numbers.  We were just silent and closeted.  We were always there. 

MTF numbers are also growing and represent about four times as many trans people as FTM.  Surgery is not trendy but rather an amazing medical achievement. 

Quote from: CB on July 29, 2011, 10:11:16 PM
...I think most people who really jump through all the hoops and get to this point aren't going through some trend or phase.

I agree. It's not like anyone can just go to the drugstore and pick up some testosterone. Many doctors seem loathe to even want to prescribe to those of us who have letters, RLE, and the lot. Getting antidepressants and other psychoactive drugs seem more "trend" to me.

getting T is the easy part. It is easily available.

Quote from: LordKAT on July 30, 2011, 01:26:20 AM
getting T is the easy part. It is easily available.

well I'd like to know where.  I'm currently trying to figure out how to get some, and who to see first.

If you follow the usual route, therapist and then and endo, it can take a couple months but is still easy. You can find informed consent clinics to skip the therapist, some cities you can go to planned parenthood, some docs will do it as damage control if you say or have gotten it without a script before and of course there is always the unsafe method of internet purchase.


I don't know where you live so I can't begin to say where to try and begin.

Anyone who dares bring it up gets flamed for it, but yes, I think it's become trendy. It's still a lot more socially acceptable for a girl to dress and present as male, particularly teenagers. And when I browse Youtube or Tumblr blogs, the younger users are often the same type of kid - badly dyed hair, ugly piercings, ear plugs, baggy clothes and everything in their life is so random LOL. The same sort of kids as when I was fifteen, were saying they were gay, and blogging about being bisexual. Now that they're in their twenties, they quietly shut up about how gay they so were. Maybe it's just the types of channels and blogs I've visited, but most young teenage trans people are FTM. MTF is still taboo in a lot of places ie, not as trendy. It's too different. I can't work out why there are so many more alleged FTMs than MTFs online, when statistics indicate the balance is with a big MTF majority in the real world.
Of course it's not true for everything. Just like there are young people who are genuinely trans, genuinely homosexual, genuinely socialist, genuinely into metal, genuinely have addiction problems, there are many more who jump on the bandwagon, because it's always been cool to have something 'wrong' with you, and be outside the norm.
Maybe I'm being ->-bleeped-<-r-than-thou, but I just can't take a sixteen year old whose biggest problem is 'omg, my mom won't let me cut my hair short', and only posts about how awesome and/or 'beautiful' their friends are on Formspring, while not seeking any kind of community support or professional help, entirely seriously.
But, whatever. Maybe I'm wrong. I grew up in a small English town largely devoid of anything or anyone LGBT-related. Maybe that's how kids cope these days. But if it was (and is? I don't know) acceptable to say being outside the sexual norm was trendy, why is it so insensitive and ignorant to say that being outside the gender norm could be too?

That's just my opinion. It's not like I'm going around telling people that they're not trans enough, or thinking that they're lying. Teenage years are confusing. Is it offensive? I dunno. It's not directed at anyone here on Susan's, and I don't spend enough time in the blogosphere to think of any examples in particular. But it's something that grates on me from time to time, and I'm glad I'm not the only one to consider it.

Quote from: Solobear on July 30, 2011, 03:50:35 AM
but most young teenage trans people are FTM. MTF is still taboo in a lot of places ie, not as trendy. It's too different. I can't work out why there are so many more alleged FTMs than MTFs online, when statistics indicate the balance is with a big MTF majority in the real world.

Transgender is an umbrella term that encompasses transsexuals, cross dressers, and androgynes.  Males dressing as females is ridiculed in U.S.; however, females dressing as males is ignored in U.S.  This past week I saw a young girl model dressed in a male necktie.  Do you realize most males hate neckties?   They tend to wear them because they are expected to wear them to church and work and weddings, etc.  Now women can wear a male necktie and be "trendy".

Yes I can agree women can be trendy and try to identify as a trans person.  However it is not clothes that make you trans but how you feel inside.  I have no problem if males want to wear female clothes but if male does it because it feels nice then it is a fetish not trans.  Now if a female dresses in male clothes because she identifies as male then she is trans.

It is not trendy for a female to take T.   It is not trendy for a female to remove her breasts.  It is not trendy for GRS!

I do agree that females dressing like males is trendy.  I do not think it cool.  I wonder if females that call themselves trans go shopping for a bunch of girly stuff.

Now bisexuality is far more common than being "gay".  My goodness at least 10% of population only wants sex with same gender.  Bisexuality is much higher and is not accepted in society but it is also easier to hide bisexuality than being gay.

Crossdressing is trendy for girls but not boys.

Transsexualism is neither trendy for boys nor girls.

Interesting thread.

Well, I think it's how you look at it. I've been dressing as a male for as long as I can remember and way before I knew of trends. I also lived my life as female. I'd caution anyone on making assumptions about anyone (even women) who dress "male" merely for the trend. Some of them really do feel uncomfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth, but may not feel SO uncomfortable that they need to completely transition.