I’ve got a new post over at Genspect (you’ll be reading me there more often…):
Doubt is simultaneously all-pervasive and strictly taboo in online trans communities. You’re never supposed to question or doubt anyone else’s gender-identity claims (with predictably perverse consequences). Questioning the validity of gender identity itself is unthinkable. Even questioning your own gender identity or whether transition is right for you is touchy, since any exploration of your own doubts will raise uncomfortable questions and stir up negative feelings in other community members who relate to your experience.
So what we find instead are proxies for doubt. Online, people will say: I feel like an imposter sometimes. Or, I’m struggling with internalized transphobia. ‘Imposter syndrome’ and ‘internalized transphobia’ package doubts in the form of self-accusations, apologies, and requests for assistance and reassurance.
A penitent public confession is the first act. You disown unacceptable attitudes, beliefs, and emotions. (There’s something meta about all this, since trans identity itself so often serves as a way to disown unacceptable parts of the self—but I digress.) Then you ask the community to help you do better.
‘Imposter syndrome’ and ‘internalized transphobia’ let community members voice doubts publicly—but this way of framing doubts shuts down further examination. ‘Imposter syndrome’ and ‘internalized transphobia’ define doubts as something to be overcome.
The religious analogy is clear but I also see these fears and behaviors as similar to the ones we experience when we're trying to appease our families or loved ones. We do these type of mental gymnastics when one part of us is struggling with reality and another part of us knows the group/family/friend will reject us if we get too close to the truth. The group/family is so fragile that the slightest bump against their version of reality is interpreted as a threat and must be extinguished immediately. The members of the group/family internalize this unspoken rule and behave/think accordingly. It's an insidious mindset but I'm glad there are people sharing information on how to recognize this and how to shift your mindset.
So many different institutional players on the left have bought so fully into the "transwomen are women" mantra that they simply can't turn the ship around in anything approaching a timely manner. Unfortunately, that means a lot of the negative consequences of that dogma will continue to fall on women and families until the madness is ended.