I don’t really, I don’t feel like I know the data well enough, I was just talking about this on the assumption that what the post describes (looking for a community) is what’s going on for at least a non-insignificant amount of people. My point was just, if what’s happening is simply people who are looking for a community, then obviously it’s worse if they find a community which requires them to undergo medical procedures than if they find one that doesn’t (since unnecessary medical procedures are always a net negative, and the benefits would be the same anyway).
I don’t think social contagion is like, an impossible concept. People seem very fixated on some things being ontological truths about you, but even if dysphoria is innate (it seems to be), it hardly seems impossible that if you have some kind of psychological hangup you may misidentify it as being trans, just as you describe the opposite, of being trans and misidentifying it as something else. The latter used to be far more common in the past because of course being trans was a thing no one would really talk much about and generally framed negatively. It still suffers quite a lot of discrimination but also has more positive discourse and more public communities so I think it’s entirely possible for either direction to happen, though probably the “am dysphoric/trans but stay in denial about it” is still more common. That doesn’t mean it needs to straight up become an epidemic, which for me would entail something like, not only a few non-trans people mistakenly think they’re trans, but so many of them doing so that they then convince more non-trans people that they must be trans, and the community is straight up dominated by non dysphoric people who just memed themselves into believing they’re trans. I don’t think that’s happening and I don’t think that sounds likely. But a few sparse episodes of lonely people who are just desperate to fit in somewhere and end up persuading themselves that the one community where they’re being accepted might be where they belong in other ways too? That probably happens, it feels like it’s just a common human thing.
ok based. yes, this is why we need to accept people who just want to change their pronouns. I don’t personally understand with why someone would want to join the trans community if they’re not dysphoric, but these people clearly exist.
Trying to exclude them from the trans community for not medically transitioning probably increases the likelihood that they do, simply as a means to gain entry. Nor should we push anyone to go on HRT after they’ve joined the community. HRT is the single best thing I’ve ever done for myself but I try not to project that onto others.
I don’t really, I don’t feel like I know the data well enough, I was just talking about this on the assumption that what the post describes (looking for a community) is what’s going on for at least a non-insignificant amount of people. My point was just, if what’s happening is simply people who are looking for a community, then obviously it’s worse if they find a community which requires them to undergo medical procedures than if they find one that doesn’t (since unnecessary medical procedures are always a net negative, and the benefits would be the same anyway).
I don’t think social contagion is like, an impossible concept. People seem very fixated on some things being ontological truths about you, but even if dysphoria is innate (it seems to be), it hardly seems impossible that if you have some kind of psychological hangup you may misidentify it as being trans, just as you describe the opposite, of being trans and misidentifying it as something else. The latter used to be far more common in the past because of course being trans was a thing no one would really talk much about and generally framed negatively. It still suffers quite a lot of discrimination but also has more positive discourse and more public communities so I think it’s entirely possible for either direction to happen, though probably the “am dysphoric/trans but stay in denial about it” is still more common. That doesn’t mean it needs to straight up become an epidemic, which for me would entail something like, not only a few non-trans people mistakenly think they’re trans, but so many of them doing so that they then convince more non-trans people that they must be trans, and the community is straight up dominated by non dysphoric people who just memed themselves into believing they’re trans. I don’t think that’s happening and I don’t think that sounds likely. But a few sparse episodes of lonely people who are just desperate to fit in somewhere and end up persuading themselves that the one community where they’re being accepted might be where they belong in other ways too? That probably happens, it feels like it’s just a common human thing.
ok based. yes, this is why we need to accept people who just want to change their pronouns. I don’t personally understand with why someone would want to join the trans community if they’re not dysphoric, but these people clearly exist.
Trying to exclude them from the trans community for not medically transitioning probably increases the likelihood that they do, simply as a means to gain entry. Nor should we push anyone to go on HRT after they’ve joined the community. HRT is the single best thing I’ve ever done for myself but I try not to project that onto others.