5 days agoMember-onlyOn “Male Socialization” and the “Trans Masc Versus Trans Fem” Discourse™It is not uncommon for people who wish to delegitimize trans women and transfeminine people (either as individuals or en masse) to invoke our supposed “male socialization.” I discuss the many problems inherent in such claims at great length in my 2007 book Whipping Girl and in my 2022 essay…Feminism11 min readFeminism11 min read
Nov 2Kat Cataclysm and NaNoWriMo 2023Some of you who are newly following me may not know this, but in early 2020, I released my debut novel, 99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel. The narrator/protagonist, Kat Cataclysm, is a polyamorous bisexual woman and absurdist short fiction writer. And 99 Erics is a humorous account of…NaNoWriMo3 min readNaNoWriMo3 min read
Sep 27What Is a Woman? (a response)Last month, I received an invitation to participate in a public debate about “gender and the definition of what it means to be a woman.” There was a time in the past when I would occasionally engage on this topic — for instance, see my 2017 essays Debunking “Trans Women…Feminism5 min readFeminism5 min read
Sep 12KOSA: A Nationwide Anti-Trans/LGBTQ+ Bill in All but NameAnd What You Can Do to Stop It — Over the last couple years, conservatives have become obsessed with “eradicating transgenderism.” This year alone, Republicans in red states have proposed 496 bills (84 of which have passed) targeting LGBTQ+ people. For instance, Florida has passed a so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law (which censors classroom discussions about gender identity and…Politics4 min readPolitics4 min read
Jul 24Spotting Anti-Trans Media Bias on DetransitionWhile most people who transition are happy with the outcome, a small percentage (likely in the 1 to 3 percent range; detailed below) may later choose to stop their transitions or take steps to retransition back to their birth-assigned gender. These individuals are often referred to as “detransitioners” or “detrans”…Psychology19 min readPsychology19 min read
Jul 11Masculinity, Femininity, and MeaningsI experienced a weird confluence of events over the last 48 hours. Over the weekend, I listened to the Know Your Enemy podcast episode What’s Wrong With Men? It dissects two conservative books about the so-called “crisis of masculinity” and asks why the left has problems addressing the issue. Then…Psychology5 min readPsychology5 min read
May 31Understanding the Anti-Trans Parent MovementAnd Recognizing the “Concerned Parent” Trope — We are currently in the midst of an all-out moral panic against transgender people. If I were to ask “who is driving this panic?” most people in the United States would likely say the far right and social conservatives who have traditionally been opposed to LGBTQ+ people. In the United…Psychology14 min readPsychology14 min read
May 16Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth Is Neither New nor Experimental: A Timeline and Compilation of StudiesNOTE: this essay is a 15 minute read. If it’s listed as longer than that, it’s because it contains a list of over 100 references at the end. Trans and gender-diverse people are a pancultural and transhistorical phenomenon. It is widely understood that we, like LGBTQ+ people more generally, arise…Science32 min readScience32 min read
Mar 24Did Lisa Marchiano Invent “Transgender Social Contagion” and “No Transition Before Age 25”?Since 2017, I have been one of the most vocal critics of the hypothesis that transgender identities are now spreading among children via “social contagion.” I have penned multiple essays critiquing “transgender social contagion” and its more scientific-sounding doppelgänger “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” (ROGD). …Psychology11 min readPsychology11 min read
Mar 6History of the Word “Transgenderism”and why “eradicating transgenderism” = eradicating transgender people — Yesterday, right-wing talking head Michael Knowles gave a speech at CPAC where he claimed that “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.” He is by no means the first conservative to say such a thing — such eliminationist rhetoric has become increasingly commonplace in GOP circles these days. When…Politics5 min readPolitics5 min read