Push and pull factors in transitioning

I would include in the "pull factors" the way people feel that their bodies or minds have been improved in some way by hormones. The clear skin that a man with acne gets from oestrogen. The energy boost and anti-depressant effects that either sex can get from testosterone. These are medical mood effects of taking anabolic steroids which transmen may confuse with happiness about their new gender and parents may say "I didn't approve but look how much happier my child is now, not depressed any more and much more energetic. They must be truly trans!"

(edited for mssing word)

Agreed. You don't explore the doubts - and you don't explore the alternative explanations either, even though there are many of them. Which would already be bad in itself, but is made so much worse by the fact that this one conclusion is the only one that encourages body modifications. It should be the last option examined, not the first, let alone the only.

I can’t speak for the OP, but it sounds like she’s read up on the stories of lots of different people.
Many trans people share their lived experience in TikTok’s, blogs, magazine articles, fora… It’s all out there to be read and considered.

In addition to that, most of us have experiences with family members and friends.

Lots of people here falling for the debate on "gender identity".

It's the same as the debate about religion. Does god exist? Prove he doesn't!

No. You have no evidence to begin with that god exists. I can't prove a negative. Therefore, you must provide evidence for your assertion.

That is indeed hilarious!

The “I doubt, therefore I’m trans” is an interesting conundrum though - I suspect it acts as a sort of internal thought-terminating shibboleth, in the same way that “no debate” is meant to shut down external discussion with GC people. By which I mean, if you have doubts, then (under normal circumstances) you might explore those doubts, and discover that you’re not trans (or not trans enough?). Safer to say that, if you have doubts, those doubts are themselves evidence of your true transness - and then you don’t explore the doubts.

Here are some of the factors which may explain the great increase in the number of girls presenting with gender incongruence/confusion/dysphoria:

...the impacts on girls who, as recent statistics showed, were now much more likely to seek treatment from gender dysphoria services than boys. NHS England was encouraged to investigate and publicise the degree to which possible causations such as internalised homophobia, exposure to social media, trauma, bullying, difficulties in navigating bodily changes at puberty, experiencing sexual objectification, familial and social situations and social contagion had played a part in this trend”.
EHIA: Children and Young People’s Gender Service: Service Specification for the National Referral Support Service

OP, what are your sources?

Are you basing any of your analysis on the lived experience of trans people?

I actually had a rather hilarious experience related to this yesterday.

I was on a fandom forum where people can discuss anything, fandom-related or not. Someone posted about trans people, and it predictably devolved into a fight - but not the one I expected! On one hand, you had people arguing that anyone who isn't cis is trans (so similar to the view expressed in your post, TwoLoons) and only internalised transphobia would stop them from identifying as trans. On the other hand were those who said that people are free to define themselves, that there is more than just cis and trans, and that telling people what you think they are is beyond rude. I was laughing my head off as the accusations of transphobia and bigotry were flying back and forth :P

cis people don’t ever question their identity

Hell, people couldn't even agree on that either! Some said that "cis" meant specifically "feeling like one's gender aligns with one's sex", while others argued that "cis" covers everyone who doesn't actively question their gender.

The best part? The post that said that they used to support transidentity, but they coudn't quite get their head around it, so they went looking for more and more info in the works of trans people and supporters (Judith Butler was mentioned)... and concluded that it makes absolutely no sense! I doubt the insane battle going on helped convince them otherwise :D

A community of vulnerable teens and adult men. What could go wrong?

I was making a very specific point about respecting someone’s identify. Paula is still a trans woman, but I don’t feel any obligation to refer to him that way.

Yes and arguably why a lot of these types of men are so invested in “trans youth” issues, who are mostly teenage girls who have very different reasons for “transitioning”.

“Seductively” needs to be in quote marks

The men in the second category aren't going to admit it.

Eddie izzard leans heavily on the factor that his mother died when he was young, rather than any other possible reason.

Its why the lots of men say they 'knew' when they were three. Its not true, or what they remember of their 3 year old self isnt what motivates them as adults. But it bats away any possibility its porn related.

Meanwhile there are millions of videos of men in stilettos and tight skirts preening in toilets or walk seductively to the camera.

The self-reinforcement path comes up in research - in particular, in online communities, it’s been found that any expression of doubt is seen as evidence of a trans identity. So, a girl says “I am confused, I don’t know if I’m a boy or a girl”, or “I don’t know if transition is really the right thing for me,” and is told “that absolutely means you are trans, because cis people don’t ever question their identity.” This then becomes the questioning child’s own internal narrative, and they begin saying “I know this confusion is all just my own internal transphobia / I know my reluctance is a clear sign that I’m trans.”

Regarding the OP: I can't find myself anywhere. But I think I can still categorise my reasons.

Push: since my brain "sees" my body as male, I am dissatisfied with my body's sex, and take measures to make it look more masculine.

Pull, maybe? : since I see myself as a man, I am happier when people interact with me as though I were a man, and I take measures to make myself look more masculine to them.

I'm not sure what I think of that categorisation. It's intriguing. I'll have to think more about it.

So transwoman Paula ceases to be a transwomen and reverts to being a man when Paula does something bad?

Paula must be a man because Paula 'show[ed] shown themself to be one.'
Is that literally, as in displayed 'her' penis?
Or does it mean that only a non-trans-identifying man would ever commit sexual violence, and therefore TWAW doesn't apply to Paula?

It looks like an an example of the 'if a transwoman does something bad they must not be really trans', and under that logic, transwomen never do anything bad.

There are less dodgy pull factors too.
Wanting to be part of a particular social grouping.
Wanting to be what you admire in a hero worship not sexual sense.

I think there is a third factor which is simply self-reinforcing meme, intrusive thought or whatever you call it. Once someone gets hold of an idea from whatever source, mental tracks that reinforce it are preferred and mental tracks that contradict it go unnoticed.

Combine that with a belief in gender identity and it takes very little to start you down a track, and once you're started it becomes a feedback loop.

Trans boys and men are more at risk when they transition. They experience more sexual harassment and abuse than before.

As usual, I don't suppose you have studies and statistics to back that claim up? Because it doesn't align with neither my own experience, nor that of other transmen I've talked to.

Wasting your life explaining why a minority you don't belong to exists is not normal behaviour.

You don't belong to it either, so why do you spend so much time and energy defending it? Also, arguing that only the members of a community should investigate topics related to that community is blatantly idiotic. We don't argue that men can't study female matters, or women male matters, do we?

life is not a computer game

Indeed: there's no respawning. Once body parts are gone, you can't get them back...

Yes, it is odd that while there has been an explosion of middle aged men suddenly finding and being able to express their true selves as women, there is no corresponding cohort of middle aged women.

Why is it that a non-dominant part of society can't just identify and be accepted into the dominant group?

I see that TPA is still insisting that posters on this board don’t know or talk to Trans people whilst simultaneously ignoring Seethlaw on other threads,

You’re the one who made this about spaces. I just commented that it’s incredibly reductive to try fit everyone into two groups where one side is vulnerable and confused, and the other is predatory.

I have no problem treating someone with decency, but if they commit sexual violence I have no problem calling that person a man because they’ve shown themself to be one.

If trans people were born we’d see hand prints of cave men in pink lacy dresses masturbating in the women’s spaces of course….

We’d have years of evidence and it would be in all societies.

Except we don’t. We have examples of sexual abuse or coercion - such as eunuchs or young boys used in place of girls in society where access to girls is more limited in some respects.

Your child was not born ‘trans’ anything. Your belief they can ‘trans’ forms a large part of their behaviour.

Agree with some of your points but you don't have any data or research to support your conclusion.

Based on the people I've met I think 90%+ of trans people I've met fall into the abuse survivor bracket. They're effectively crying for help and instead of providing therapy they're being given drugs and being encouraged to lop off parts of their anatomy.

I haven't met anyone who would fall into your definitions of pull category. I understand from press articles they do exist but I struggle to believe they are a majority. If thinking being the opposite sex would bring advantages from being that sex was enough of a driver to transition, I'd assume we'd see a massive number of women transitioning to wanting to be men. White, straight men specifically.