What do you think about trans trenders ?

[Tatiana 79]

Hey Everyone
I have heard the term trans trendy
and certainly don't want to insult anyone if they're here because of this.
because of my couple months of being here would leave me with very little knowledge of what really goes on in the trans scene,  I thought I would reach out for opinions and if anyone knew someone as such.
To me I can't even imagine someone would put themselves through this just be trendy with the times.
Do to my limited knowledge and experience I thought I would ask all of you what you thought.

[Johnni Gyrl]

I haven't heard this phrase before, but it seems logical that it would appear sometime, sooner or later. I suppose there are hipsters everywhere who will do anything to be hip, though as you say, it seems crazy they would go to these lengths to do so. It also sounds like something transphobes would come up with as a put down. Those who think there's a conspiracy going on to break up "traditional family values" and come out with other choice statements such as "the nanny state led to the >-bleeped-< state"... might start assuming it's a fashion trend, or try to trivialize it as such.

Hope all is well in Utopia btw Tatiana?

Best Regards,
Johnni Gyrl ( formely Jenna Badgyrl )

[sarah1972]

I don't think there are many transgender going this route to be trendy, if at all. It is still a very rocky road plastered with misconceptions and animosity. Many here are still taking a large personal toll for their gender expression.

What has changed are two general things:  Society has become more accepting of the fact that the assigned sex at birth sometimes does not match a persons identity. And Society has become more knowledgeable.

If I take a look at my personal history: If there would have been knowledge about transgender in the 80's I might have transitioned in my teen years. Growing up in a smaller, very conservative town, I may have still not done it back then. Even being perceived gay resulted in being branded and discriminated against. Of course, this has now changed too.

So there are these two factors, knowledge and acceptance, which have changed in recent years. Now you have the normal percentage of transgender as well as the big group of transgender - like me - who have suppressed their feelings for so many years. This does result in a larger number of people to come out as trans which could then be interpreted as a trend. It will even out over time.

So, no trend but a lot of catching up to do...

Hugs,

Sarah

[Charlie Nicki]

This is the first time I hear about it and it's an awful concept and word. Anyone who puts themselves through this to be "cool" is clearly insane.

[V M]

Darn, I thought it had something to with popular transgender fashion or something 

[MeTony]

I have not head of anyone going through transition to be cool. The suffering is real. Me and my brothers and sisters suffer for years and years and sometimes...pretty often with thoughts and actions to end our lives because of the unbearable pain inside.

Transition is not the magic pill that makes you happy automatically. Many of us continue to have hard times when we are "done". Friends and partners might leave, bullying at work.

Why would anyone in their right mind do this to be trendy? It's beyond my imagination.


Tony

[Charlie Nicki]

I have not head of anyone going through transition to be cool. The suffering is real. Me and my brothers and sisters suffer for years and years and sometimes...pretty often with thoughts and actions to end our lives because of the unbearable pain inside.

Transition is not the magic pill that makes you happy automatically. Many of us continue to have hard times when we are "done". Friends and partners might leave, bullying at work.

Why would anyone in their right mind do this to be trendy? It's beyond my imagination.


Tony

I absolutely agree.

[V M]

Yeah, that's a hard one for me to wrap my head around too  - I see and hear of all kinds of people saying and do all kinds of crazy stuff pretty much daily though so I can't say I'm really all that surprised by it - Things that make you go Hmmm, right?

[AnamethatstartswithE]

The concept is usually applied to afab  people who are on the non-binary/ trans masculine spectrum. It's meant to imply that they aren't really trans, and are just following a crowd/ don't want to be objectified as women hence they "try to be boys." It's like "sudden onset dysphoria" sort of a made up concept to deny trans identities.

Can people who aren't trans think they are? Sure. But that term is part of the whole "transgender people aren't a thing, it's just social contagion" field.

[Jacqueline]

I have heard these suggestions for nearly three years now. I think the term and idea might exist but mostly in the cis mind. I don't really think anyone who truly transitions does it to be hip, gnarly, cool, fly, phat, lit, on fleek...(choose your favorite term from appropriate social groups and decades).

I am not saying cis folks are dumb or coming down on them. Some of my best spouses are cis (I really only have one).  I just think it is not something you do to fit in and it doesn't really make sense unless your are really impressionable.

"Here, let me shove a needle in your face, send voltage through it, pick the hair out while you play a power point presentation of what surgery in your most private parts and thoughts will feel and look like..." That's just part of it.

If I am wrong, It is so groovy that I am as hip as I am

All you hippie chicks and cats, stay as chill as you are. Everyone wants to be you. That's why they keep passing laws

Seriously though, have a great day.

With warmth,

Jacqui

[DawnOday]

I decided to delete my previous stupid remark.  I read it again and the stupid light went off in my head.

[Tatiana 79]

 Gosh everyone thanks so much with your ideas on this.

I heard the term while watching the National Geographic documentary gender revolution with Katie Couric.
It sure seemed like it was going on somewhere because it was brought up on that documentary but I just didn't know anything about it. I'm going to watch it again and pay closer attention to that part of it and see if I can draw any conclusions I'll be sure to come back if I come to any.
Thank you everyone so very much.
love you all Tatiana

[Sephirah]

I have known one person like this in my life. And it's kind of complicated to understand why someone would say they are transgender if they aren't. It's not necessarily to be "fashionable" or "cool". Sometimes it's to fit in with a group of people who you get on with.

This person was... very lonely. Very unhappy. Felt very marginalised and like no one would listen to them. I had several conversations with this person, through which it was revealed that they identified as such because they felt part of a group who didn't judge them. Didn't try and tell them who to be. And were generally warm and encouraging towards them. Which, in their case, was something they'd never really had before. They did it to fit in, and to be a part of something they were looking for... if not in quite the right way.

It took a while for this person to admit they weren't actually transgender. They were probably scared of my reaction, or whatever else. But having come to understand this person and why they behaved how they did, I kinda knew why, and the mental process behind it. Sometimes people just want to fit in, and a place to call home. And sometimes they do things that they may not think all the way through in order to get it.

I understand that need for finding people who don't want to hurt us, who don't want to laugh at us. So I couldn't be angry or upset with this person. Truth be told, trans people are some of the most accepting and understanding people I've ever met. So I can understand why someone like the person I spoke to would pretend in order to fit in and to be a part of that. Even if I don't think it's necessarily a good thing for either them or the people they associate themselves with. Humans are social creatures.

Perhaps there are some people who say they are trans just to be different, or cool, or whatever. But not everyone is like that. And sometimes you just have to understand the individual to understand why they do the things they do.

[ErinAscending]

Sounds like something my father would say to try and deny that I'm trans should I ever tell the old coot... 

His starting position is that "gender" doesn't even exist and the only thing that matters is chromosomes.  He very conveniently never bothered knowing that there is such a thing as intersex which would destroy his little bubble about that.  Found that out a few years back when my wife got into an argument with him about it.  I told her not to try but...  Yeah.

And all this while everyone was obliviously unaware "I" was even there!  There my dear wife was defending me and she didn't even know it.  Ha Ha  (Sorry, I have to laugh about some things sometimes)

Hope that term never gains popular traction.  /sigh

[Tatiana 79]

Thank you so much Sephirah
For validating that this concept does exist do to your first-hand experience with them.
And for explaining this concept with your words of wisdom and first-hand insight with them.
Wow so it does really exist thank you for providing me and everyone with your explanation.
As I mentioned right before you replied I'm going back to watch where I first heard that term used but really didn't understand it which was National Geographic gender revolution with Katie Couric and see if I can gain anymore insight.
thank you so much for your reply.
Love Tatiana

[Lilly G]

ive heard this term on more than one occasion, it pisses me off because its used for all the ftm transgenders in my town(all 5 of them) and its like im the only one with any respect and its only due to fear. like really people? who the hell is gonna go through all the hate, discrimination, and violence just to be "trendy"? you literally become a social outcast to be yourself, and that makes the term trans trendy insane, and I hate that someone would make a term like this just to put others down.

[Kylo]

Ah, the transtrenders.

Trans "trenders" are currently understood by those outside of our circle to be people who do not experience dysphoria but who expect the same recognition or attention that sufferers of dysphoria and medical transitioners do. They can range from anything from teens LARPing at gender on tumblr (see: "space gender" and "tree gender" etc. and other such ridiculous inventions) to people who want to abolish the concept of gender altogether because they personally feel like it should be. 

Frankly every time I discuss this "outside" I have to make a distinction between these people and those undergoing medical transition because I do not consider them to have our needs and concerns, and they frequently end up ridiculing transgender individuals as a whole in the eyes of the average person. I'm constantly having to defend the definition of what a medically-transitioning transsexual is for people who've come into contact with transtrenders, which I continue to do wherever I find it but I will be honest - they irritate me a great deal and they ARE harming our cause because people are slowly but surely becoming convinced trans people are not to be taken seriously as a result of them. The conventional understanding of what a transsexual is has now been replaced - with bemusement from a lot of people. You don't have to go far on the internet to find someone complaining about the concept of "infinite genders", a ridiculous amount of flags for all the dozens of "new" sexualities that have emerged from tumblr, or people chanting "TWO GENDERS" followed by a vitriolic screed in response. The general idea of "transgender" has now been eclipsed for many with what the trenders have wrought.

Yes, there are people out there who have done this because they have no idea the harm it does to our community, or they don't care about the harm it does, and they simply want attention or to feel special. Personally, I find the idea of co-opting someone's serious medical condition and struggles for your own amusement to be repulsive. 

I'll mention as well that I see lots of attention daily being shone on the topic of trans people in political groups and circles online, and not of the good sort, as a result of the damage to our rep this brought. It seems like a day doesn't go by when I don't have to explain to (an irate) someone the difference between medical transition and a tumblr account - between gender dysphoria and someone's idle vagary on gender. I'm afraid we've become the very cutting edge of a 'culture war' that I do not think will be going in favour of the trenders, and that we'll be dragged through the mud for. 

[Danielle Kristina]

I have only met two trans people in person throughout my life, at least that were open about it.  As for what I've read in the forum as well as other sources on the internet from other trans people, nearly all of them expressed wishes to be cis.  This is not to say that they hate being trans.  Instead, they would rather have been born cisgender either as their assigned sex or their gender.  Either way they wished they were cisgender.  That said, how trendy can something be if not even those who are want to be?  That's just my two cents.

[Tatiana 79]

Thanks Kylo and Lilly
For more proof that this really does exist.  when I first heard the term I was probably 50/50 that there were people out there that were willing to do things to their body and mind for very different reasons than why we are all here.
Kylo I really love the way you started your reply and are very knowledgeable on this subject provided with your very eloquent  words.

And I'm sorry for not responding to each and everyone of you because all of you are really super smart compared to the couple months  of attained knowledge I acquired since I've been here.
And I did get distracted when I noticed a bull moose grazing in my backyard and justed  watched him outside for about an hour.
Thank you all for educating me and sharing your knowledge freely.
love Tatiana

[Lady Sarah]

On another site, I learned about one trans trender that did it for a peculiar reason. This person thought of themself as a "social justice warrior", and would bash anybody (including transsexuals and intersex) if they did not believe everything the exact same way as that trans trender did. More often than not, it was all about bashing cis people for having questions. Yes, I feel his person was a bit demented, not only for being hateful, but for opting to alter their body in order to have an excuse to be hateful.
Maybe I just don't understand why anyone would do it. Perhaps I really don't want to know why or how someone would do that. It seems to me that person had a very special circumstance that we don't encounter much.