i’ve been lurking /a/ and /lgbt/ for years and something kept popping up that no one wants to really admit. tons of guys who are deep into anime, especially the cute girl slice-of-life stuff, end up transitioning or calling themselves trans. not like one or two. i’m talking a full-on trend. they start posting with anime girl pfps, joke about being “eggs,” start asking about HRT, and boom. next thing you know they’re full-time she/her on estrogen. people just act like this is a normal pipeline and don’t stop to ask why it keeps happening
being a guy in our world is kind of trash for a lot of us. you’re expected to be emotionally dead, aggressive, dominant. no crying, no softness, no comfort unless it’s a joke or porn. masculinity is cold. and anime is the total opposite. it gives you girls who are warm, emotionally open, affectionate, kind. it hits you somewhere deep. i wrote it like this, “the femininity of anime girls is expressive, soft, emotionally intelligent and affectively warm. it is everything that masculinity is not” and that contrast feels like a lifeline if you’ve grown up feeling numb and isolated
characters like Rui from Gatchaman Crowds hit different. he’s a guy but dresses femme, looks better than any girl you know, and still commands respect in the story. not treated like a freak, just exists. i said, “Rui is gender-non-conforming and not punished for it” and that’s huge. when you’re used to being told to man up or shut up, seeing someone like Rui makes you think maybe there’s a way out. and slowly, you start to feel more like him than the angry gym bros you’re supposed to relate to. you start to post anime girls not just because they’re cute but because they feel like you
this is where it gets uncomfortable for people. autogynephilia. the idea that some dudes start getting turned on or emotionally hyped by imagining themselves as girls. and yeah, it’s real. i said, “I think anime girls function as a kind of metaphor for the concept of femininity itself, and the idea of femininity becomes eroticized through repetition” and that’s the key. the more you stare at these idealized girls, the more you start to want to be that. not just to look like them but to feel the way they feel. over time, your brain starts rewiring. “When you are constantly looking at anime girls and thinking about them and using them as your identity, you are literally conditioning yourself.” it’s not just fetish, it’s identity forming through ex
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