Sexism illustrated through male to female transitioning.

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There is person I occasionally follow on youtube who makes technology oriented videos and has for many years who is also transgendered. One of her channels is called Rinoa Super Genius. She first began making her videos before she started transitioning years ago and continues to make them today. Though she has been very public with the fact that she is transgendered, she passes very well these days and many of her newer viewers are unaware of her transgendered status.

As she began to pass, I saw a stark change in the nature of the comments left on her videos which I think very well illustrates the type of disrespectful treatment that women in the tech community are often subjected to and is one of the reasons I do not care to make videos showcasing my expertise.

Comments on this Youtubers channel went from rather neutral comments pre transition...thoughts, speculation, or questions about the technology, often directed at no one in particular or other commenters, to being peppered with disrespectful comments, demanding comments, and condescending comments post transition...sexual comments, commenters trying to dictate what she wears or how she should make her videos or behave, and commenters telling her things she probably already knows. As result of this, she has had to start banning people.

The purpose of my posting this is not to illicit any action on the part of anyone here or make anyone here feel as if they are being held accountable for the actions of others.

I've just found what had been unintentionally illustrated as fascinsting because I have been subjected to the kind of treatment this Youtuber is now being subjected to since becoming active in the tech community with my sex known to be female, and it is difficult for others to understand what I and other women who have been subjected to these types of things are talking about when we bring it up because a verbal account of a situation leaves out much of the information necessary for someone who has not been subjected to the phenomena to really understand the experience, so when I realized that this Youtuber had unfortunately become a target of this type of treatment frequently now that she passed as female, I was shocked at the example of this phenomena that it provided and thought I would share for those who might be interested in it or the subject of her channel.

I am so sorry that you and others have had to experience this sort of behavior. It is unfortunate people can't always treat others with respect and the equality they deserve. I personally look forward to a future wherein, humans can overcome tribalism and learned behaviors that create artificial barriers that separate us all. Not that I think this will happen anytime soon or at all, but I am a dreamer so I will hold onto this dream.

Thankyou for your support. I would like to reiterate though that I only hold accountable the individuals responsible.

I remember my bad experience on a myspace forum years ago. Its like because my profile picture wasn't sexy enough I guess. I mean IDK I was a teen and not even so sure how exactly I wanted to identify or if I was straight or not. And I just had a crappy webcam on my laptop I don't think there were even smart-phones yet, either way I did not have a phone. But yeah so admittedly looking back yeah those were not great profile pictures...but sheesh the amount of flaming I got from then on out was ridiculous. I even tried to take some better ones but nothing mattered because I had the one where 'it doesn't look like you have a chin der'...bla bla bla, you're ugly, I wouldn't find you attractive bla bla bla. And like I wanted guys who seemed to be in their 30's and late 20s to find me hot that is not what I was there for...I just wanted to talk about metal music. They certainly responded to girls who posted more ditzy/giggly things that had little to do with really discussing metal much better than they responded to me.

Of course the trolls would be nice to more conventional girls who posted, but for me it was all 'oh you're a gross cave troll...no don't laugh at that its an insult, you suck and no guys will ever like you bla bla bla'. Well guys have liked me and I have a LTR now so f*ck you all.

Of course I could have let that turn me off from metal and wanting anything to do with anyone else who likes metal, but those were just toxic a**holes...they hardly represent the whole metal community. But yeah at the time I just thought they were a**holes, but looking back at some of the ways they insulted me it probably was sexism to.

Well that is a good view to have, however at the same time it seems like its a little bigger than just the individuals responsible for overt sexist behavior. Like its in our culture...so in some ways its conditioned, like even someone who doesn't think they are sexist might still have some sexist ideas.

I mean I saw a bit of something on netflix I forget who it was about but some actress from the 50's or something, but she was also a scientist...but she was most well known as being a pretty face in movies. Like that is all people cared about to hell with whatever else she did, she was pretty and appealing in movies. I doubt all the people who recognized her more for that were actively sexists but collectively the culture recognized her more for her looks than anything she accomplished in science. I think my grandma is a little bit sexist, once she went on a little tirade of how you have to find a man and change him into what you want...well that also seems kind of sexist. I mean what make him a man, make sure he knows he has to live up to the man stereotype of being the provider and you the providee. Women can be sexist to that is for sure.

Also though I have kind of wondered for a while what it would be like for a person transitioning to female. Like how sexism might factor in...and also due to said sexism why would any man want to go through a whole sex change procedure just for 'attention'. I mean I guess I wonder how it is being treated differently as a woman than they were as a man.

Even worse though there is probably a lot of stigma for that, but like its a huge choice no one is going to lightly make a choice like that. I mean I wonder what has worse stigma transitioning from male to female or female to male. It must be even more difficult if they got in a relationship and the other person is uncomfortable with the sex change. I mean it cannot nessisarily be helped. But basically why would someone potentially lose their relationship and experience more sexism just for attention. Also for female to male transition I wonder if perhaps they'd have some insight on the difference experiences males face. I am not one to just look at one side of an issue so I am also curious about the experience of female to male transitions and what sort of things change when they become male.

I mean when I was a kid I always found comedy to due with men dressing up as women and vice versa to be very entertaining, and I know its not all comedy...but its like even since a young age I just accepted that is how some people are and how they express themselves. So it was not hard for me to accept that a person can feel so uncomfortable in their birth sex, its actually beneficial for them to have it changed to what they feel is appropriate. I anything I just want to learn more about what the experience of it all is.

Also a while back I met a woman who was undergoing a transition, she already had boobs...the only thing that kind of gave away she was transitioning was her hair. It was still pretty short like she had it cut short like most guys and had only started growing it out. She still put it up in pigtails as best she could but it was still pretty short. I mean I know women can have short hair but hers looked like it was growing out from more of a male type hair-cut. But yeah not once did I think 'this is a man just trying to get in womans pants and sexually harrass people' She was clearly a person who identified as a woman like way more feminine than me. And I am a straight female.

I think the actress you are thinking of was Hedy Lamarr. She was one of the inventors of spread spectrum frequency hopping radio guidance systems for torpedos and missiles (spawned by her hatred of nazis) and was the holder of many patents. The technology is still used today. On a somewhat similar note, the queen of England was a diesle mechanic during the war.

Which direction yields worse stigma depends on the culture. In western culture there seems to be more stigma for MTFs than FTMs and I think this is attributed to the fact that females are afforded more freedom of expression in our society. A female being a "Tom Boy" is not seen as shameful but a male being a "Sissy Boy" or "Girly Boy" is seen as shameful and wrong and these notions extend in to transgendered realms.

But Thailand and India have a third gender, Kathoeys and Hijras respectively, and these are biological males who typically identify as a feminized third gender or female gendered. But a female unidentifies as male and who wishes to transition is more of a foreign concept in these cultures and not widely accepted. There may be practical reasons for this. Biological males filling traditional female roles in the form of eunuchs have existed since antiquity. Castrate a male before puberty and he grows tall but does not virilize and can pass as female. But most females cannot pass as male without testosterone, and access to that is through modern medicine .

In rural Albania, however, they have the concept of a "sworn virgin". These are biological females who take a vow of celibacy and must live as men and are accepted as men with the exception that they must not have sex. It is not a widely known concept in Albania though.