(On Anon because I’m too paranoid of potentially being harassed or something, sorry if this is too lengthy! I hesitated heavily on writing this :()
I used to identify as a trans man (very much closeted). I remember a while ago my sister went through my TikTok reblogs since I had reblogged a lot of Transmasc posts and she went and told our mother, who proceeded to sit down with me, start a conversation, and suddenly ask if I wanted to be a boy. I was hit with a bolt of "Wait what huh how why am I being asked this" all at once, I started shaking and told her no, started tearing up when the conversation continued.
She’s a supportive mother. But I think that was what made me realise I wasn’t any of that "Transmasc" stuff, I didn’t really want to be a boy. The only thing I wanted was the privilege that I saw men get and the masculinity. "Surely, If I want those I must be a transmasc! No other girl feels this way right…"
Soon after that, I started exploring my gender again, I thought I must be non-binary, or genderqueer, or Agender, or something like Librafem??? It took a bit but then I finally hit the "I’m not any of these, maybe I am just a tomboy…". I also thought I was Aroace.
I saw a terminology page on some random LGBTQIA+ Wiki, and saw "Trans-exclusive Radical Feminism" (or something along those lines). I looked through #Radfem on here for like a few minutes that day and stepped back since I thought if I looked at anymore posts I’d be "Transphobic"
I came to the realisation that I might actually be a lesbian, it makes sense, most of my crushes have been girls, whatever partner I saw in my potential future wasn’t a man, et-cetera.
But I still feared becoming "Transphobic", I agreed with some Radfem takes buti didn’t understand what "they had against Trans ‘women’". I figured out "Trans-inclusive Radical Feminism" exists and started believing I was that. A TIRF. Then I kept lurking on the Radfem side of Tumblr (your blog was one of those I read through while going through this), I felt something similar to light finally entering a bedroom that has been dark for a while.
I started agreeing with more Radfem takes, after a bit of lurking I finally understood what Radfems "had against Trans ‘women’". Then I started thinking I should stop, this isn’t a good thing to be thinking, Trans ‘women’ ARE Women. I was "Transphobic" and I thought this would make me a bad person. Like if one of those trans people knew me and knew what I was viewing they might see me as Satan.
I couldn’t stay away. I couldn’t just support Trans ‘women’ again, it felt wrong to call them women, girls, ladies, et-cetera, it felt wrong that anyone I could by could be one of them. I lurked more just to figure myself out, and i kept seeing how cruel trans ‘women’ would be to these ‘transphobes’, all those threats, trans ‘women’ are ‘women’, but they hate women who point out that aren’t.
I felt more guilt and at some point I even searched up something like "I think I’m becoming transphobic, how do I stop this?" Into Google in hopes of changing, in hopes of supporting them again. That maybe I was having a bad dream or a bad day. None of what showed up helped.
I did even MORE Lurking. And I think I might’ve ‘peaked’??? I’m not quite sure what to call it, but I think I’ve finally gotten away from the "I must be a transmasc if I want to be masculine!" Mentality. I think I’ve gotten away from the overall mentality I had before this all.
It’s been difficult and kinda frustrating??? But I think I’ve finally figured myself out.
Hi Anon! I'm so touched that you're here, that you wrote all of this out, and that I can be here to help in whatever absolutely not-a-therapist ways I can! <3
your mom is fucking fantastic. Like tell her that. The way she handled your alleged transness is the bare minimum for a parent. She was ready to nurture and love you but still asked enough questions that you in your child/teen brain had to give it some thought. I've shared my opinions about it plenty but I cannot stand how the Cult has strong-armed parents into not being able to question their kids on these very serious issues. It's all just "you better offer full support of you're actively killing them" which is a load of horseshit! So absolutely the hugest props to your mom for how she handled that!
And absolutely huge props to you. I feels kinda 'sappy?' to call it work but you put in the work of figuring yourself out. It doesn't help that there's an entire cult trying to brainwash you and every other child, teen, and adult into joining in some capacity but you overcame that. I'm fortunate enough to never have once questioned my gender identity (had plenty of questions about my sexuality and my actual identity considering I'm adopted with literally no info on my bio-parents and I don't look like the typical people from that country, rip) so I can only imagine the stress through friends going through similar.
I'm so glad you're here! I want to make a joke about 'welcome to the dark side' but considering we're the side that doesn't support child mutilation, indoctrination, rape rhetoric, abuse of power, the patriarchy in general, etc, welcome to the Good Gals Club!
I think most of us agree that for any period of time, we struggled to allow ourselves to be RadFem/TERF/GenCrit because specifically of the push for "trans women" (men) to be included wholly, without question, and at a higher station than actual women. Once you get over that (or just interact with like 2-3 trans women, lmao) your eyes open up and all of that bullshit pressure washes away. Trans women do not help themselves. They cannot. If they were as helpless and delicate and respectful as they claimed, we'd probably have no issues. They wouldn't be women by any stretch of the imagination regardless but we could probably co-exist a lot easier. But, alas, "trans women" (men) always have to prove their born manliness through entitlement, arrogance, violence, horniness (not that women aren't horny but it's a very different breed), and stupidity.
I would like to say, lastly, I think it's lowkey funny that we both had to look on Google 'how to not be transphobic" in a desperate and sad attempt to fit in with the Cult. I was already peaked by then but I gave it one last shot in case there was actually some article or video that could disprove all of the Gender Critical stuff I was gobbling at the time (so basically looking to 're-prove' transness). And what did I personally find? Nothing more than entitled, bullying 'stop asking questions' from allegedly morally superior places pretending they had any authority. It was my last straw, honestly.
Thank you again for the ask and opening up at all! I'm so glad you did and that you're here! <3