I have a question. Without PLing much, when I was younger and involved in the LGBTQ community as a teenager, nearly everyone seemed to be in agreement that there were three categories: sexual orientation, gender, and sex. Gender was what someone perceived themself to be, i.e., male or female, while sex was one's biological sex which could not be changed. So for example, a transwoman would be a male with a female gender identity. This was the prevailing idea of trans people AFAIK and was a good reflection of reality.
For a good number of years now, the distinct categories of sex and gender have been melded together. First, it was troons claiming they can change their sex. Now you see troons claiming that they have always been their perceived sex. It is completely untethered from reality.
So, when and why did this happen?
Somewhere between 2018 to current day, lockdown was probably the breaking point of insanity. I've been very active on tumblr around 2016-2017 and while there were hints of things to come, it wasn't nearly as bad. Back then for example xenogenders/mogai weren't really a thing people took seriously, it was relegated to otherkin stuff and those people kept to their own little corner and didn't bother anyone so no one cared.
But with time, people find ways to one up the special snowflake identity because the previous one has been claimed by too many people, and when everyone is special, no one is special. So now it's no longer enough to be into otherkin, you also have to be an OSDD DID endo system with 60 mcyt alters. It's not enough to be gay or trans, you have to be a pansexual genderfluid transmasc demigirl autigender xe/xir. It's not enough to be Hispanic, you have to be a BIPOC Jewish Irish black transwoman. I don't think this phenomenon is exclusive to SocJus or TRA, it's probably just more evident here.
Another factor is the lack of gatekeeping and general calling out of deviant behavior. Something really interesting that I've only thought of yesterday was how much you can see this when looking at old 'fake tumblr stories' because of this video (it's really good, give it a watch.)
One thing Teya says that's really true is that most if not all of these posts are obvious fantasies of kids who feel like outcasts and just want to fit in, so they fabricate this story where others, especially adults, validate their identity. And it comes from a genuine place of hurt that isn't that hard to sympathize with, I'm sure many of you were also antisocial nerds in high school don't lie
Eventually these kids grow up, and realize the real world doesn't work like that and things won't always go their way, and they need to learn to handle it like mature adults. A cringe phase during your teen years is normal, healthy even, it's the period where you start introspecting and thinking about who you are as a person. Early 2010's era teens knew how to separate real life from their online activity though, and I think that's one of the major differences.
But today this isn't segregated to just twitter shitposting or whatever. Kids get this type of coddling everywhere they go, so of course they don't grow out of it and instead end up as adult babies who demand everyone accommodate their every need. They never get that much needed reality check whenever they close their phones.
And this stuff trickles to older generations, so now even adults see that it's become socially acceptable to be like this, so of course they capitalize on it.
rights.