… Although, of course, my theory also calls into question whether people with my motives should even transition in the first place.
Wanting a specific type of attention and changing yourself to get it isn’t strictly speaking bad. Terminal goals don’t need justification though they can be incoherent, or in conflict with higher level meta goals (What you’d prefer to want if you could self-modify).
Wanting to be a cute anime girl is:
somewhat incoherent since you live in reality and not the world of anime. Certain tropes just don’t work.
Somewhat incompatible with wanting to dominate social hierarchies (by being competent?).
But wanting a desirable body isn’t bad. If society forced men to wear really ugly clothes or otherwise made them repulsive in some way, that would be bad and fixing that would create a lot of value. Some things are positional goods (eg:height) but in general, more beauty and desirability seems good.
Is transition technology not good enough?
If much better future transition technology was available that made changing bodies as trouble free as changing clothes would you regret it less? Are the medical consequences awful or something?
Is the social role not fitting right?
I’d expect that male dominated spaces would be very comfortable for psychologically male but physically female people. Worst case those people have to put up with flirting etc. which could be unwanted attention but … well … *points at above post talking about wanting that* … maybe you don’t want precisely that, the lived experience sucks for some reason (feeling of unearned social gains) or you want something incoherent (the full cute anime girl experience which doesn’t hold together in reality).
My opinion on the abstract issue
Females are the gender that elicits more attention/attraction. This is similar to saying that certain kinds of clothing make people more attractive/fashionable, or that being fat and smelly is unattractive. It’s not universal (straight women exist and are not attracted to other women) but given cultural norms today (men are the pursuers, men generally say yes to sex when propositioned etc.) it’s true enough in practice.
From a relationship perspective, gender is usually a rule-out criteria. If two female attracted males who aren’t too attached to their own gender transition to being female and pair up, that’s value being created. More females in male dominated spaces/niches or the opposite in female dominated to balance gender ratios seems again like value being created. Eliminating obesity would improve average relationship prospects similarly.
If “cis-by default” is common enough, then once tech exists to allow flipping genders on a whim IMO the world gets better. Mind you there are second order effects and to some degree the good being captured(attention) is a limited resource and so positional. There’s scenarios where “cis by default’ people start flipping genders, grab an unfair share of a positional good and then people attached to their gender feel pressure to flip as well. Still, IMO probably for the for the better.
“Male sexuality is shit. It’s worthless. My junk is priced at zero dollars. Nobody wants what’s in my pants. The only person who’d ever be eager for faster access through my underwear is a gay man. And even then, I’d have to present as feminine!” There was as much bitterness in Ziquan’s voice as Maggie had ever heard there, like something was bursting out after years of festering. “Fuck this shit, I’m out. I’m going to be a hot girl and have people flirt with me.”
Disentangling cuteness and sexual market value
These are separate things. Kittens are cute but not hot as an example. But when comparing females vs. males they’re hopelessly entangled. IMO transitioning to female doesn’t really allow for getting all the cuteness without the sexual parts too. Needs proper transhuman tech to allow swapping into the body of a small cute animal or similar.
So perhaps it’s unfortunate but cute/beautiful/hot are not things you can get separately via transitioning.
Wanting a specific type of attention and changing yourself to get it isn’t strictly speaking bad. Terminal goals don’t need justification though they can be incoherent, or in conflict with higher level meta goals (What you’d prefer to want if you could self-modify).
Wanting to be a cute anime girl is:
somewhat incoherent since you live in reality and not the world of anime. Certain tropes just don’t work.
Somewhat incompatible with wanting to dominate social hierarchies (by being competent?).
But wanting a desirable body isn’t bad. If society forced men to wear really ugly clothes or otherwise made them repulsive in some way, that would be bad and fixing that would create a lot of value. Some things are positional goods (eg:height) but in general, more beauty and desirability seems good.
Is transition technology not good enough?
If much better future transition technology was available that made changing bodies as trouble free as changing clothes would you regret it less? Are the medical consequences awful or something?
Is the social role not fitting right?
I’d expect that male dominated spaces would be very comfortable for psychologically male but physically female people. Worst case those people have to put up with flirting etc. which could be unwanted attention but … well … *points at above post talking about wanting that* … maybe you don’t want precisely that, the lived experience sucks for some reason (feeling of unearned social gains) or you want something incoherent (the full cute anime girl experience which doesn’t hold together in reality).
My opinion on the abstract issue
Females are the gender that elicits more attention/attraction. This is similar to saying that certain kinds of clothing make people more attractive/fashionable, or that being fat and smelly is unattractive. It’s not universal (straight women exist and are not attracted to other women) but given cultural norms today (men are the pursuers, men generally say yes to sex when propositioned etc.) it’s true enough in practice.
From a relationship perspective, gender is usually a rule-out criteria. If two female attracted males who aren’t too attached to their own gender transition to being female and pair up, that’s value being created. More females in male dominated spaces/niches or the opposite in female dominated to balance gender ratios seems again like value being created. Eliminating obesity would improve average relationship prospects similarly.
If “cis-by default” is common enough, then once tech exists to allow flipping genders on a whim IMO the world gets better. Mind you there are second order effects and to some degree the good being captured(attention) is a limited resource and so positional. There’s scenarios where “cis by default’ people start flipping genders, grab an unfair share of a positional good and then people attached to their gender feel pressure to flip as well. Still, IMO probably for the for the better.
To quote “The Erogamer”:
Disentangling cuteness and sexual market value
These are separate things. Kittens are cute but not hot as an example. But when comparing females vs. males they’re hopelessly entangled. IMO transitioning to female doesn’t really allow for getting all the cuteness without the sexual parts too. Needs proper transhuman tech to allow swapping into the body of a small cute animal or similar.
So perhaps it’s unfortunate but cute/beautiful/hot are not things you can get separately via transitioning.