Marisa

Assume I've performed and posted some porn on the internet.

This porn is optically really, really bad.

Like actually politically damaging.

Conscientious trans people will attempt to punish my defection but this is difficult.

I can cry respectability politics and point to the history of trans sex work in the face of employment discrimination.

No one can agree on a theory of change for politics so it's hard to prove harm.

When the political backlash hits, it affects everyone equally.

By contrast, assume instead that I'm in a trans community space and I've told someone their reasons for transition are not valid and they should reconsider.

I've just seriously hurt someone's feelings, totally killed the vibe, and I'll probably be asked to leave maybe shunned long term.

I have just lost access to perhaps my only source of in-group social support.

This is a huge disincentive.

This structure, combined with the influx of novel identities in the 2010s, created an environment where it was taboo even to talk about causal theories for one's own transition, because it could be invalidating to someone else.

Subheading.

Introspective clarity.

Quote.

Famously, trans people tend not to have great introspective clarity into their own motivations for transition.

Intuitively, they tend to be quite aware of what they do and don't like about inhabiting their chosen bodies and gender roles.

But when it comes to explaining the origins and intensity of those preferences, they almost universally come up short.

I've even seen several smart, thoughtful trans people, such as Natalie Wynne, making statements to the effect that it's impossible to develop a satisfying theory of aberrant gender identities.

She may have been exaggerating for effect, but it was clear she'd given up on solving the puzzle herself.