Usually, I wouldn’t dignify this sort of message with a response because it’s a such an ignorant take, but unfortunately, it’s a common enough sentiment that I will go ahead and address it. I would normally greet you and thank you for your message at this point, but I really feel like you don’t deserve the courtesy.
I’m going to respond to your question in two parts. Let’s address your last statement first, because it speaks volumes about how you view transgender people that you don’t understand.
- “it makes real nb and trans people look like they made their identities up as well,,, “
Yikes, where do I begin?
Anon, there is no such thing as “real” and “fake” transgender people; transtrenders do not exist; it’s a transphobic caricature. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, “I feel like pretending to be transgender today!”.
As someone who follows the developments of the IMOGA community, I have yet see someone express in all seriousness that they identify as transgender for attention, clout, oppression points, or whatever have you. As with any group, there are individuals that are confused about who they are and the place they occupy in society. Rather than gate keeping who is allowed to explore their gender under the guise of paternalism and respectability, it would be in the best interest of everyone to create a supportive space for people to discover themselves, which is the exact opposite of what your assertion perpetuates.
Despite what gatekeepers may suggest, there is not a culture of people “choosing” to be transgender because it’s fashionable. What there is, however, is a culture of people being allowed to explore their gender identity, which is a good thing. Presently, the transgender community is experiencing growth because it is more socially acceptable to be transgender that it has been in the past. When this happens, of course there will be an influx of new individuals in the community. It’s not that these people didn’t exist prior, but that they feel like it is now safe enough to explore that part of themselves. Which is, again, a very good thing that should be encouraged. Gender identity isn’t the only thing that it being expanded and explored, but so is biological sex, gender (non)conformation and (the breakdown of) gender roles. Which is also a good thing.
Ask yourself for a moment what you mean when you say a person identity is “made up”. Do you mean that it’s non-traditional/non-normative? Do you mean that you don’t understand it? Do you mean that it is eccentric or cringey? Do you mean that the terminology to describe it is newly defined? What do you mean, exactly? I would love to know what constitutes a ‘fake’ identity to you. After you figure out what you consider to be ‘fake’, please take a moment to reflect on why you feel that way.
Whenever individuals attempt to draw a distinction between “real” and “fake’ transgender people, it always seems to go back to a couple of different topics:
- Cisgender palatability.
- Requiring assimilation into cisgender society.
- That gender dysphoria is the defining characteristic of being transgender.
- the expectation that transgender people must hyperconform to gender roles to be deserving of respect.
- The expectation that transgender people must transition and pass in order to be deserving of respect.
Or, you know, being one of “the good ones”.
People love to argue semantics and complicate the definition of “transgender” to fit their own narrative, so to discuss my point in good faith, I’ll reference multiple sources.
So, what does the word “Transgender” mean? The term has a lot of baggage due to people such as yourself, who desire to separate the ‘snowflakes’ from the Real Trans™. Let’s put all that aside from a moment, though, and just look at definition.
- “Denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.” (X)
- “Transgender people have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from their sex assigned at birth. Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual. Transgender, often shortened as trans, is also an umbrella term. In addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex (trans men and trans women), it may include people who are not exclusively masculine or feminine (people who are non-binary or genderqueer, including bigender, pangender, genderfluid, or agender).” (X)
- ”Transgender is a term used to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender identity is a person’s internal, personal sense of being a man or a woman (or boy or girl.) For some people, their gender identity does not fit neatly into those two choices. For transgender people, the sex they were assigned at birth and their own internal gender identity do not match.” (X)
- “Of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity differs from the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth” (X).
If you have the adequate reading comprehension, you will notice that the definition of “transgender” can be confidently stated as ‘one’s whose gender identity differs from their assignment at birth’. I don’t know about you, but I don’t see any other criteria for being transgender other than not identifying as one’s assigned gender. Not even a mere implication there is a correct, or in your words, “real”, way to be transgender.
I will entertain you briefly, however. Let’s say that there is, somehow, a proper way to be transgender. What makes a transgender person “real”? After you answer that question, I would like to implore you to reflect on where you acquired these expectations. Have considered that you may be simply regurgitating transphobic rhetoric used by our oppressors in an effort to justify the existence of “the good ones”, the Real Trans™? Just a thought.
Sorry anon, but nothing is solved by scapegoating the IMOGA community. Rather than blaming other transgender people for transphobia, why don’t you take it up with your oppressors? You know, once you’re finished devouring their boot.
Addressing your other statement:
- “how do you just,,,,come up with new genders and terms and pronouns” & “but. you can’t just make new genders out of nowhere?”.
It is very apparent to me that you haven’t taken time to actually look at my blog or the posts I have authored, because I don’t coin pronoun sets. However, I’m assuming that you are one of those individuals that have something against neopronouns. Since you didn’t explicitly state this, I’m not going to waste my time giving you a rundown of the history and significance of neopronouns; I’ll leave that task to someone else. But do consider this: if we are allowed to craft our own names with unique spellings, pronunciation, etc., why not pronouns, which serve to refer to someone without using their name? What makes pronouns so ‘sacred’ that they may not evolve over time?
In another ask by someone who is as equally rude as you, another person asked, “Why pray tell, are you making up new labels?“. Since you asked the same question, I’m going to quote the answer I provided them:
These resources exist to create language for a topic that has been linguistically neglected. While there is plenty of existing language to describe “normative” gender, there is a lexical gap in regards to “non-normative” gender. Basically, this means that there is not adequate language to discuss these topics as there is with normative gender. Rather than neglecting this topic further, people have created their own terminology to describe such experiences.
There are a lot of words to describe being Male, Female, masculine, feminine, and to an extent, their immediately derivative subjects. However, there are other characteristics of gender that are discussed on this blog and with in the IMOGA community, such a gender ambiguity, gender imperceptibility, gender specificity, gender autonomy and identity apathy, to name a few. These concepts are logically sound, reasonably developed and used by enough people where they require terminology to describe it. Words don’t just magically appear in mainstream vocabulary. Someone, somewhere has to coin a term. Sometimes, that person is me or someone with a blog like mine. If I have identified a concept that could benefit from having a descriptive term, then I will go ahead and produce a term. Terms are also produced when one has a gender experience that can’t be adequately describe in other terms. Why do you want to deny these individuals the opportunity to have a word to describe themselves? Sure, descriptive vocabulary is something taken for granted when it is abundantly available to you, but it is more important than you may realize for those who are not as fortunate.
TL;DR: People don’t pull gender identity and pronouns out of their ass, they are created to fill a lexical gap you don’t believe is real. Gender, which is a social construct, does not need to be somehow empirically determined to be “valid” or “invalid”, ‘fake’ or “real”, as there is no correct way to be transgender. The only criteria for being transgender is not identify with one’s assigned gender. It’s really that simple.
– Gent
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