“Really, what little boy wants to be the girl lion?”

“What are your earliest memories of being transgender?” is the title of a thread on an online forum for transgender people. Let’s have a look at some of the replies:

“Painted nails, long hair, earrings”

There are many replies like this, focusing on grooming standards.

Wanting to play with barbies

Other comments focus on gendered toys.

Clothing preferences

Other comments mention clothes.

Playing with dolls and having long hair.

Note how feeding a baby with a bottle and putting it to bed is a “mothering skill”, not a “fathering skill”. This commenter also mentions hair.

Sitting with legs crossed and having an ear piercing

Crossing one’s legs is significant somehow.

Playing pretend games and dress-up

Being “sensitive” means being a girl.

Liking a female cartoon character

Liking a female cartoon character is felt to be a significant indicator of trans status for a boy.

Pretending to have long hair

Long hair is mentioned again.

Not fitting into the male gender role

And finally, one commenter straight up mentions not fitting into the expected role based on sex. And the solution is to change sex, not toss aside the roles.

“What were the dumbest, most obvious signs that you were trans that you still missed growing up?” is the title of another, similar post.

Liking “girl books”

Hair and nails are mentioned again, and “girls series” of books.

Watching “Mean girls” and thinking “wow, being a girl would be cool”

Playing dress-up with cousin, liking Sailor Moon

Childhood pretend play is seen as significant, and again liking female cartoon characters is mentioned.

Hating sports

Hating sports, and again “girls books”.

“Really, what little boy wants to be the girl lion?”

Wanting to dress up as a female character for Halloween, because “really,what little boy wanrs to be the girl lion?”. How deeply misogynist is this statement? As if female characters are so beneath regular boys that wanting to dress up as one immediately robs you of membership in the “boy” category – that’s how little this person thinks of girls.

Never liking sports, action figures, car toys

Another commenter feels that not liking sports means something significant.

Prefer playing house and dress-up

A young male child who likes dancing, playing pretend and wants to learn a craft. Why should this be something abnormal?

Laundry list of stereotypes

This commenter has a long list of points, notable is wanting overalls with a truck pattern”, not wanting to be seen as a lesbian, and wanting short hair.

Hair

Hair AGAIN.

Another long list of stereotypes

 

And finally another long list, with preferred hair length prominently featured as an important characteristic to mention when talking about being transgender.

Remember posts like these when transgender people claim that being trans is not about gender roles.