45 - Helena Part 1: Social Justice, Fandoms & FtM Gay Boys

Gender: A Wider Lens

Sasha Ayad and Stella O'Malley

Health & Fitness, Society & Culture, Mental Health

4.6 • 961 Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2021

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation with Helena. She is a 23-year-old detransitioned woman, well-known on Twitter and YouTube for her insights into the FtM trans kid mindset. The self-described “gender apostate” shares her thoughts on ROGD’s relationship with critical social justice, fandom culture, “shipping,” and the extraordinary fascination many teenage girls have with young gay men.

Links:

Helena on Twitter:

Twitter.com/lacroicsz

Extended Notes:

Helena is a detransitioned woman. She identified as a transgender man at 15, but by 19, she wanted to become a woman again.
A little bit about Helena and her detransition journey.
Before Helena started testosterone, she had this fantasy that not being female would be amazing. Helena was very isolated in her journey. Her ex, also a trans person, was against her detransitioning.
As she was on this journey as a man, she was so tired of pretending to be masculine and wearing clothes that didn’t fit her body.
What was it like psychologically to suppress Helena’s feminine side for so long?
Has social justice affected or played a role in trans identity?
Helena remembers reading things like, if you feel different than everybody else, it probably means you're trans.
Teenagers are biologically more sensitive to social rejection from their peers, and they’ll do anything to fit in and belong.
Whenever Helena was questioned about her new identity, she just thought they were just stuck in old beliefs and just wouldn’t listen.
Helena explains what a trans medicalist is and shares her thoughts on the difference between non-binary people and trans people.
What makes someone a cis girl or a cis boy or what really makes someone trans? The reasons are very superficial.
Cis allies are finding it difficult to be allies to the transgender community because they’re being told their opinions don’t count.
What is trans fandom all about? And what is “shipping” all about within this fandom culture?
A lot of these “shipping” content has sexual undertones of gay pairings of common fictional characters.
Growing up, it can get confusing. Men, that you’re basing your identity off of, are being written by teenage girls.
Let’s talk about Tumblr and how these trans mood boards all originated.
Helena remembers this internet time very fondly. She loved being on the “gay” side of the internet where it was all acceptable.
Helena wishes there was a way people can indulge in their sexuality in a non-threatening way, but she also understands that too much of it can lead down the wrong path where it creates dysphoria.

This podcast is partially sponsored by ReIME, Rethink Identity Medicine Ethics:

Rethinkime.org

Learn more about our show: Linktr.ee/WiderLensPod

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.widerlenspod.com/subscribe

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to gender, a wider lens.
0:04.0	I'm Stella O'Malley, a psychotherapist in Ireland.
0:06.5	And I'm Sasha Ayad, an adolescent therapist in the United States.
0:10.6	Since 2016, my practice has been exclusively dedicated to gender questioning teens
0:16.1	and families impacted by gender dysphoria. I also work with gender questioning
0:20.7	teenagers and I facilitated support meetings for families and
0:24.2	individuals who have been impacted by gender issues. We're curious about the
0:28.1	concept of gender and how it's unfolding in the wider culture. Join us as we look at gender through a wider lens.
0:35.0	Helena is a 23 year old
0:39.0	detransitioned woman who's been writing and speaking extensively about her experience with gender. a and started taking testosterone at 18. She was 19 when she began her detransition and now
0:57.2	describes herself on Twitter as a detransgender apostate. We discussed the complex landscape of youth gender identity
1:05.5	culture and specifically look at the phenomenon of the gay trans guy. This is a
1:11.2	female who identifies as a guy, but is only attracted to males.
1:15.0	Now here is our conversation with Helena.
1:18.0	Hi, Sasha, how are you?
1:20.0	I'm well, Stella. How about yourself? I'm very good. It's late at night here but I'm
1:26.8	delighted to be here. Expanding the boundaries of gender as we speak.
1:34.0	With our special guest,
1:37.0	Helena.
1:38.0	Hi Helena.
1:40.0	Hi, Helena.
1:41.0	Nice to have you.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Sasha Ayad and Stella O'Malley, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Sasha Ayad and Stella O'Malley and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.