I wonder if the transgender/GLB activists realize how they appear to the very vast majority they are attempting to persuade of their legitimacy…as well as to the merits of their cause?
I’ve had a busy week. Yesterday was a busy day. As I write this, I’m awaiting a call from a contractor we’ve secured to install some outdoor carpet on our patio. But, as busy as I’ve been this week, over the past few days I decided to catch up on some of what is going on all over the blogosphere, a decision partly made when I recognized Enough Non-Sense had been linked last week to a blog post entitled One hundred trans related blogs. There, in plain site, were the links to trans related blogs…a one stop shopping type of thing. So, I checked a bunch of them out…the biggies, the obscure, and those blogs linked to the biggies and the obscure. Now, when I want to get the gist of a blog site, I scan the blog looking for the blog post that got the most comments…and then I read that blog post and the comments associated with it. If a comment jumps out at me, either because it is way good or way stupid, if there is a link to the commenter’s site I follow that link and then take the same approach. Taking a good long look at many, many of the transgender related blogs (not just some of the more well known ones), was an interesting if not downright mesmerizing experience.
Though I certainly wasn’t interested enough to keep track, many, if not most, of the trans related sites I visited were owned by one of several categories of transgender: younger, preop/nonop, and had transitioned within the last couple of years, or older, preop/nonop and had transitioned within the last couple of years. A very few were owned by older, preop/nonop with claims to have fully transitioned over ten years ago! Very few of the sites were owned by post operative transsexuals.
Of the sites I visited, several things jumped out at me. One was that a very large number of the blogs I visited were owned by male-to-female lesbians involved with other male-to-female lesbians…either preop, nonop, or post op. Though I realized that there were a lot in this type of relationship, it seems there were way more than I thought would be in that vein. Many of the owners, particularly those who were younger seemed to have no life other than that of the blogosphere. Many were gamers. A lot were into anime’. Most didn’t have a job or, at most, were getting by hand-to-mouth. Almost all felt they were discriminated against.
Almost all seemed to have issues of some sort. Many of the blogs seemed to absolutely scream anger. Though there were exceptions (in what I know is a futile effort to prevent being slammed, I have intentionally not mentioned blog names), it was easy to get the impression that many of the blogs were written by angry young males convinced that the number of curse words used was directly proportional to the blog post’s credibility.
More than a few of the blogs seemed to not recognize the concept of objectivity nor recognize that there is more to the world (and world opinion) that just their self centered view of it. In almost every blog post I read, no one who disagreed with the stated premise was given any slack. In fact, many of the blog owners said upfront that they would delete and ban anyone who disagreed with them.
Not a small group of these same blogs were owned by individuals who admitted freely to having some form of psychological issue (often deep seated) aside from the psychosocial issues associated with being transgendered. Only a very few did not feel they were victimized in some way. In fact, the “woe is me” mindset permeated much of the writing. The take away from reading this general theme in many of the blogs was that the author had a “it’s not me, it’s you” approach, unable to factor in their own admitted short comings.
Bona fides were big. It was not uncommon at all to read blogs (or find the person’s comments on other blogs) in which the author’s credentials, history, and/or claim to fame were continuously rolled out, often verbatim time and time again, in order to boost their integrity and authority on any given subject. The rallies, or conventions, or political events the person attended were listed…as though just their sheer participation in these get-togethers somehow afforded them an insight into transgender issues that others did not have.
Ego inflators and self aggrandizement ran rampant on a few of the blogs. Often these life embellishments ran to the absurd. One blogger, who has become somewhat of a joke as of late, has alternately claimed at one time or the other to have a doctorate degree in the social sciences, to have taken the Bar exam, to be a psychological therapist, the author of several published books with two on the way, a venture capitalist contact, the independent owner of at least two companies (claiming to have sold the first one for $275,000 and the second for over a $1,000,000), a former Phoenix, Arizona judge, an artist, feminist, computer whiz, an advisor to the Republican party, a diversity trainer, and even an undercover narcotics officer…to name a few. Yet she readily admits she doesn’t have a pot to pee in nor the money to buy one. Having transitioned only a couple of years ago, clearly this person is living a life of imaginative fiction.
Many of the blogs seem to show neither appreciation nor recognition of the fact that others in their circle are either way ahead of them on their gender spectrum or way behind. The mindset is strictly “community”…the sun seems to rise and set based on that camaraderie.
A sizable number of the blogs are laced with what has been called “I Am” Syndrome reinforcing the self-centered approach mentioned above. It is not unusual at all to read over and over and over again both in these authors’s blog and comments about what they are. “I am a bitch.” “I am an anarchist.” “I am mean and nasty.” “I am (fill in your own word).” Issues…come to mind.
One of the things that absolutely amazed me is the network that some of the more obscure blogs have developed. Many of these blogs have a huge and varied readership with it not being unusual for 60-100 (or more) sympathetic comments showing up on their site routinely.
One thing that’s really impressive in a sad sort of way and that is the position from which the vast majority of the bloggers speak from and the apparent lack of self esteem when they do so. Many of the blog owners are clearly lacking any formal education; most have transitioned only within the last several years. By nature of being new to the transition process (say three years or less) and being preop/nonop, by virtue of their lack of experience alone they are limited in what they can attest to…instead they are chained to the internet in order to enhance their knowledge while simultaneously falling victim to not knowing what they don’t know. Yet they argue and debate their points amongst themselves with a vigor that has to be seen to fully appreciate…and they haven’t the least interest in entertaining the position of those of us with a significant history, many of whom, me included, have left the gender debate. To compensate for this lack of history, in itself not a bad thing, it seems important to this group to present their arguments and discussion with an air of intellectualism that is often grown from the seeds of other blogs. Often the blog posts are for all intents and purposes no more than plagiarized or slightly modified versions of other posts on other blogs. And they are always chocked full of the transgender catch words du jour…homophobia, transphobia, fail, meme, ifist, ableist, sexism, conflation, privilege, cissexism, intersextionalism, oppressive, erasure, discrimination, etc. Add to that the use of unnecessarily complex words (more often than not used incorrectly) to explain fairly simple concepts and the result can often lead a reader to simply question what in the heck the author is trying to say. The arguments often don’t make sense, while ending up circular, confusing, and meaningless. The other day, one comment made by the founder of a well known national transgender organization, a long term nonop, cracked me completely up. When questioning the mental state of a previous commentator and antagonist on one of the major GLBT blogs, this trans activist said: “…, she is clearly diluted.” I’d like to think this person knows the difference between diluted and deluded…I’d like to think that.
All in all, a bloody mess.
So, the question is still out there: I wonder if the transgender/GLB activists realize how they appear to the vast majority they are attempting to persuade of their legitimacy…as well as to the merits of their cause?
I don’t know. I do know how they appear to me though.
What about you folks?
