How micro gender identity was developed by teenage girls on Tumblr: may help parents

[pattihews]

Angsty teenage girls on Tumblr played out their fantasies developing ever more genders, which found their way into mainstream society and politics. Really useful lecture delivered by young academics demonstrating how gender micro identities were developed by girls and picked up and used by Stonewall et al. Presented at the LGBA conference last year. Research-based.

For anyone who's ever wondered where this all started, some of it started here.

I remember when I was a student.

I used to frequent a forum/ community.

And I was introduced to the idea that sexuality was a spectrum. With heterosexual on one end and homosexual on the other.

And I was told that everyone is somewhere on the spectrum and it was presented as fact.

Obviously it's all blown up since then.

It's fascinating: girls in their bedrooms on Tumblr introspectively creating fantasy micro categories, taking the language of academic queer theory and creating hundreds of genders and micro-genders to define themselves — and Stonewall and other interested parties taking it on. Next thing you know, it's mastectomies and hormones and ruined lives unless the girls are able to escape and develop real, healthier lives.

Hannah Berelli is brilliant in general. Almost everything she says is razor sharp and cuts through to the essential issue.

I remember feeling embarrassed and shamed for liking the colour pink. Even feeling heavy implications online that it was somehow oppressive to women or that only dumb "cis" women liked pink so I was a closet lover of pink and frilly dresses.

I wore a cute very conservative dress I would say one could wear to work easily and went to university and everyone stared at me and refused to talk to me. I showed up the next week exhausted and tired in casual pants and shirt. My partner for my assignment waited till the end of class to ask me why I wore it and I simply said "because I was tired and felt like it." And he very harshly and cruelly said "GOOD it looks better on you then that stupid dress anyways." And everyone laughed and walked out.

I didn't expect that from him because up until that moment he was nice to me. (Or so I thought) This was in 2014. Meanwhile there was a MtoF transperson who wore dresses far more ridiculous than mine and nothing was said to them.

It felt weird like some kind of reverse sexism. Like women who are comfortable being themselves need to keep it to themselves and men who aren't need to be celebrated and applauded dressing the exact same way. Society always finds a way to turn it around on us don't they?