Transmedicalism: a thread

CW: Mentions of transphobia, misgendering, dysphoria etc.

"Transmedicalism is broadly defined as the belief that being transgender is contingent upon experiencing gender dysphoria or undergoing medical treatment in transitioning. Transmedicalists, sometimes referred to as "truscum" by others or by themselves, believe that (1/60)

individuals who identify as transgender but who do not experience gender dysphoria or undergo a medical transition—through methods such as sex reassignment surgery or hormone replacement therapy—are not genuinely transgender."

-wikipedia (2/60)

What transmeds claim their ideology is can be distilled down to trans people needing gender dysphoria in order to be qualified as transgender. Gender dysphoria is when a person feels a disconnect or discomfort with the gender they were assigned at birth. (3/60)

Gender dysphoria can range from mild discomfort to depression and/or suicide. People with gender dysphoria usually wish to alleviate it by transition. (4/60)

According to transmedicalists a person must have medical dysphoria and wish to alleviate it via transition in order to be counted as transgender. (5/60)

The first problem with that is that there is nothing in the definition of the word transgender, nor in the history of the trans community that specifies that trans people need dysphoria or to medically transition. (6/60)

The meaning of the word transgender comes from the Latin root word "trans", which means across, through, or beyond. The word "gender" is typically used to refer to what one feels they are as pertaining to masculinity and femininity. (7/60)

Due to the word gender being so hotly contested I unfortunately cannot give a better definition than this. Personally, I believe that gender is whatever one declares their gender to be, but that definition only makes sense if one already has an impression of what gender is (8/60)

The idea that having gender dysphoria makes someone transgender means that they are a gender different than the one assigned at birth is laughable. There is nothing intrinsic about having dysphoria that makes someone a different gender. (10/60)

Looking at a trans person with dysphoria from a transmed perspective, all this would mean is that they are a person who is their AGAB but with dysphoria. There is nothing in the transmedicalist perspective that confirms that a person with dysphoria is not their AGAB. (11/60)

In fact, in order to confirm that it is possible to be a gender other than their AGAB, you need an understanding of the word "gender" that is completely contradictory to the transmedicalist ideology. (12/60)

At best, this would mean that what would happen is being "yer dad" for trans people with dysphoria. They would be stuck as their original AGAB but have dysphoria that makes them uncomfortable as their AGAB. (13/60)

This perspective is the logical extension of transmedicalism, which is why most adult transmedicalists, such as Buck Angel, will refer to themselves as biologically their AGAB. (14/60)

At worst, it enables cis people to tell us by saying we will never be a gender different from our AGAB, as well as taunting us by mocking our physical dysphoria. Appealing to transphobes by saying dysphoria causes debilitating pain won't work. (15/60)

The only way to confirm that trans people are in fact a gender different than their AGAB is from looking at the history of gender and what it meant. From there we can see that gender cannot simply be reduced down to what chromosomes one has, or even what's in our pants. (16/60)

And there is literally nothing in the history of gender that says "being a gender is about feeling suffering until you want to be that gender" (17/60)

Transmedicalism is a closed perspective that only focuses on gender dysphoria to the exclusion of every other perspective on gender. It does not care about what gender means. It is only focused on strictly defining transgender into a solid category. (18/60)

Even if one is going for what seems like a common sense approach of "why would someone willingly identify as a different gender if they don't feel pain with their AGAB?" transmedicalism still doesn't make sense for a couple of reasons. (19/60)

AGAB is an artificial construction that is put upon us regardless of if we want it or not. People can feel comfortable with their body and secondary sexual characteristics and still feel uncomfortable with the gender they were assigned. The opposite can also be true. (20/60)

Historically speaking, there have been many people who identified as their AGAB but also felt physical dysphoria. In Stone Butch Blues, many of the butch women wore binders and even went on T, but still identified as their AGAB. (21/60)

If you're looking for a more recent example, there are many femboys, such as cafebeef, who identify as their AGAB but still medically transition. (22/60)

This is why transmedicalism, as an abstract concept, is absolutely fucking garbage. However, the transmedicalist community is somehow worse than that. (23/60)

The transmedicalist community is devoted to bullying and misgendering trans people who don't conform to transmeds conception of what the perfect trans person is. (24/60)

There is an "exclusionary" community on twitter which is basically repackaged transmed ideology. As noted by the name, they care more about preventing trans people from accessing the community than forming a support group for trans people. (25/60)

Transmed forums elsewhere focus on "cringe culture" and attack many non binary people for having a gender identity that they consider to be "cringe" (26/60)

(Transmedicalism in general is opposed to non binary people as there is no right way to have non binary dysphoria, whereas transmeds have a good conception of the dysphoria binary trans people should have in order to count as trans.) (27/60)

There have been many incidents of transmed trans people telling other trans people they were ugly and couldn't pass. They said this because they believed that they weren't trying to pass, and thus weren't really trans. They believed they were cis people jumping on a trend (28/60)

They do it out of a desire to punish so called "outsiders" who they personally believed weren't trans. (29/60)

Transmedicalism is also inherently harmful to trans people who are unable to transition. We are leagues away from a society that gives us medical transition for free. Creating an ideology centered around needing to transition to be counted as Trutrans™ alienates those... (30/60)

...aren't able to transition. It creates a trans community that will look at all non-medically transitioned trans people with suspicion. It does nothing to improve the quality of healthcare for trans people. (31/60)

This isn't even to mention the massive damage that transmedicalism does to trans people who do not wish to medically transition for multiple reasons. (32/60)

Once again, being a gender different from one's AGAB is not contingent on medically transitioning. There is nothing in the meaning of the word gender that requires one to be medically transition in order to count as that gender. (33/60)

Many trans people don't medically transition because it is unsafe to in their current situation. Others don't because they are worried about the medical risks. Still others don't because they don't feel dysphoria. All of these are valid reasons to not medically transition (34/60)

There are many other reasons why trans people don't medically transition. And all of these are valid. Because being being a gender different from the one assigned at birth is not reliant on medically transitioning. (35/60)

Transmedicalism inherently hurts every single trans person who is unable or doesn't want to medically transition. It is focused more on hurting other trans people than uplifting the community. (36/60)

The reason why I have been referring to certain transmedicalists as "trans transmeds" is because there are many cis transmedicalists. (37/60)

There are many transphobic cis people who do not think of themselves as transphobic. Because of this, they latch onto transmedicalism, as it is a transphobic ideology that has many trans people believing in it. (38/60)

There isn't a large difference between a cis person saying "lol transgender identifies as not a man or woman haha attack helicopter lmao" and a trans person saying the exact same thing. (39/60)

There is also a component of "this trans person isn't really trans, they're cis in disguise, therefore if I attack them and their community for their gender identity, I'm not really being transphobic." (40/60)

If you don't believe me, look at this: (41/60)

This infamous image was popularized by a cis person (42/60)

I would also like to add on that this image has nothing to do with dysphoria or medical transition. In fact, it's probable that Skye does have dysphoria because he wears a binder. Transmeds are willing to misgender even those they see as trans if they disagree with them. (43/60)

Both of these people are cis btw (44/60)

It was inevitable that the transmedicalist community would end up as a cesspool of mean-spirited targeting at trans people who are GNC, don't have dysphoria, don't medically transition, are non binary, use neopronouns or even disagree with the majority of cis people. (45/60)

This is because it was created around a juvenile understanding of what gender means, as well as flat out ignoring that trans people who did not conform to their definition of "trans" are a humongous part of the community. (46/60)

It was inevitable that it would be seized upon by cis people because it is an ideology that intrinsically hurts most, if not all, trans people in the community. (47/60)

All of this and more is why most online trans communities, even edgy ones like transgendercirclejerk, have been meticulous at weeding out truscum. However, the mindset is still largely prevalent in modern day trans circles. (48/60)

The most common example of this I can think of is trans people sharing studies about how binary trans people have similar amounts of gray matter in their brains to the opposite of their AGAB. This leans pretty far into transmed rhetoric as having a slightly different... (49/60)

...amount of brain cells has nothing to do with how valid one is in their gender.

This is also the case in how the trans community is overly focused on trans people that are considered "attractive" (read: have medically transitioned) (50/60)

The material consequences of transmedicalism aren't to be underestimated. Trans people are often denied HRT or surgery if they aren't considered "trans enough" by cisgender doctors They determine this by how well a trans person presents, if their interests are masculine...(51/60)

...or feminine coded, if they are GNC, and even what sexuality they are. Gay trans people have historically been denied medical care because many transmedicalists believe in order to be trans, you must be fully straight. If you aren't, you're just a tReNdEr (52/60)

It's similar to Blanchard's typology in that way, of being HSTS versus AGP, of being a true transsexual or cisgender faker. (53/60)

This idea leads to some trans people getting stuck for literal years in the process of medically transitioning. (54/60)

If they are believed to be cis and "lying" in any capacity, doctors will prevent them from transitioning. They will be denied HRT.

This is why so many trans people do DIY transition. (55/60)

Transmedicalism hurts any trans person that isn't seen as trans enough by society. If they are GNC, gay, unable to pass, uninterested in medical transition, etc, they will be referred to as a "transtrender" and misgendered as their AGAB. (56/60)

It even hurts trans people regarded as Trutrans™ if they do not discriminate against other trans people and call them trenders. (57/60)

Ultimately, the only way for a trans person to succeed under transmedicalism is to lick cis boot. Because if they don't, their pronouns get revoked since they're a filthy "trender" (58/60)

This is why you can see the occasional non binary, gay, GNC, etc transmed, despite most transmeds believing that they aren't truly trans and are just "cis people trying to feel special" Cis people will be ok with them as long as they attack their fellow trans people. (59/60)

Tl;dr truscum stfu (60/60)