Would You Like to Join the Gender Cult?

How Teenagers on Tumblr Created a Religion that Stole their Futures

What we know of as Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) is the outward expression of someone who has inadvertently joined a Social Justice cult. This cult was accidentally created by college age girls on Tumblr circa 2012-2014. They were on Tumblr primarily for the fandoms (Harry Potter, Dr. Who, etc.) and they were in college for some kind of humanities degree. That is most likely where they first encountered postmodern philosophy and its applications to social justice. Obama had just been elected to his second term and same sex marriage was now legal. What then would be their social justice focus? Fighting injustice and bigotry in ALL it’s manifestations.

These fandoms full of teenage girls became the breeding ground for what we have come to know as wokism. They took faulty interpretations of two contradictory academic philosophies- Intersectionality and Queer Theory- and layered them with a kind of sacred morality. What resulted was a caste system of marginalization. To be ‘oppressed’ is to be virtuous. To be ‘privileged’ is to be evil. The more points of privilege one has, the worse of a person they are. Likewise, the more points of oppression, the better. Each identity category is either a point for or against your value as a human being. Are you white? Take a point away. Are you straight? Take a point away. Are you cis? Are you neurotypical?

Here, you can play along. Give yourself one point for each of the following identity markers you have:

Gay
Trans
Person of color
Mental illness or disability
Physical disability

Do you only have one or two or even zero points? No one cares, you able-bodied, cishet oppressor! Actually, since this is just for educational purposes, I’ll help you out this time. Here’s how you can immediately earn some points (and therefore humanity):

Because trans and gay are their own discrete identity markers, you can gain two points by coming out as trans. You will automatically become gay without your attractions changing, thanks to the purifying power of Queer Theory.

That was a pro tip. Most girls who entered those online spaces didn’t realize this trick immediately. They instead gained their oppression point by identifying as a lesbian. Unfortunately the lesbian identity wouldn’t last very long for one or more of the following reasons: they’re attracted to boys, they needed another dose of that outpouring of love and support they got when they announced the previous marginalization point, they learned the point hack I just taught you, or most importantly, they internalized the fundamental cult doctrine that the gender binary is an oppressive construct they are duty bound to dismantle.

Did you notice how ‘woman’ wasn’t one of the oppressed points you could have chosen from? That’s because, according to this application of Queer Theory, sex is either irrelevant or not even real. The gender binary is a social construct that exists to oppress gay and trans people. Cis people are those who are either too dumb to realize this, or who actively condone that oppression because it benefits them. A trans person is someone who sees the gender binary for the evil lie that it is and actively opposes it.  As you can see, once you’ve adopted the doctrine of the cult, it’s almost impossible to identify as “cis”.

According to the doctrine, identifying as trans doesn’t require medical transition. You get to remove yourself from the binary by simply identifying outside of it. Unfortunately though, only people within the cult recognize this. The ignorant cisheteronormative world only understands transness through a pathological framework. Therefore, when explaining your transness to cis family and friends, you have to use that pathological understanding of it. You have to tell them you have gender dysphoria and that you ‘were supposed to be a boy’. The fact of the matter is though, you are naturally feminine and have no desire to actually be a man. That is simply what is necessary in order for your transness to be taken seriously. The good news is, once you take testosterone and get top surgery you can go back to girl clothes and make-up. This, you’ll conclude, is the ultimate ‘fuck you’ to the gender binary.

By 2014 this ideology had breached the confines of nerdy girls on Tumblr. It had spread to high school and universities through female friend groups. Sociology and psychology professors began to take note of this strange obsession with victimization and hyper-sensitivity to language. It seemed to spring out of the blue. But it had been these new student’s world view since they got their first iPhone a few years prior. And the girls who weren’t online in high school learning the truth about these oppressive systems of power and the sacred duty to dismantle them, were now learning the good news from their college roommates.

You switch your major from Economics (or something else potentially useful) to Gender Studies a few weeks before Planned Parenthood writes your testosterone prescription. If your parents object, it’s proof they’re transphobic enforcers of the binary. Best to go ‘no contact’. You don’t need that toxicity in your life. If you dislike how hairy your body is or how deep your voice is becoming, it just means you need to do the work to disrupt your internalized transphobia.

It’s 2015-2017. By now you’ve sacrificed your body to your religion. You’ve cut out any friends and family who don’t adhere to it. Your identity is comprised of very little else. Naturally you should dedicate your career to it as well. Besides, it’s your duty to combat cultural norms that uphold the binary and make the world unsafe for you and other trans folx. You go to grad school for psychology, law, education, or medicine.

Today these medically abused zealots are adults in positions of power and influence. They aren’t just working in gender clinics. They’re middle-school teachers, surgeons, social workers, lawyers. They have PhDs in Psychology and they are writing the American Psychological Associations guidelines for treating “gender expansive children”.

The whole world must convert to your religion. Because if they don’t, it leaves open the possibility it’s not true, and you’re in too deep to face that.