Trans Community on YouTube

Like their lesbian, gay, and bisexual peers, transgender people can feel very isolated and alone in their communities. In response to this perceived lack of likeminded people, a flourishing community of thoughtful trans individuals began sharing their experiences on YouTube. Over the last four years, this community has skyrocketed in number of vloggers and number of subscribers, making YouTube one of the largest trans community portals on the internet.

Though many identify in their videos simply as "trans," they are, in fact, transsexual people, those who transition both socially and medically from one sex and gender identity to the other.

The premiere of these trans vloggers is Grishno, a trans woman who essentially began the YouTube trans community with her vlog a little more than four years ago. You can access her YouTube profile and her videos by clicking here. In January 2009, she launched grishno.com to further her exposure and reach; the link to grishno.com is here. Grishno enjoys a kind of internet celebrity, if you will, and she focuses more on trans activism than personal experience, meaning that her videos don't always offer incredible insights. But she is a powerful speaker and meaningful figure who deserves to be recognized. Personal note: in November 2010, Grishno was a speaker at the Montana Transgender Day of Recognition, a not-for-profit organization I conceptualized and helped begin with a fabulous trans activist named Bree in 2009; Grishno was a lovely, kind, and vivacious young woman. If you would like to share a laugh with Grishno, check out her hilarious video called "SEX," linked here.

Ashley, I feel, is the heart of thoughtful and intelligent trans discourse. Under the handle icecoldbath, which you can find here, Ashley records the totality of her transition. Seemingly inspired to live as her true self due to the death of her mother, her three-year-long video history chronicles everything from  her first hormone replacement therapy regimen to (today) her life mostly-post-transition. Ashley's first moments are particularly tender: piercing her ears and purchasing a pearl bracelet make interesting windows into the feelings of being deprived of the "proper" childhood many trans people experience. More important than the journal of her physical transition, however, Ashley uses her vlog to muse about the philosophical elements of trans identity and community. For example, she tackles her objection to the notion of "stealth" in her video called "stealth is wrong," explores inequality within the trans community in "More Trans than Thou," and deconstructs the semantic meanings of trans community jargon. Truly, Ashley's videos should be watched from beginning to end, if for nothing else than that she sometimes revisits old topics with new perspectives, and you don't want to miss out on that. Ashley's video production has slowed down considerably now that the majority of her physical and social transitions are over, but she does continue to update occassionally. (Ashley, if you ever read this blog, I would very much like to brainstorm with you; please contact me!)

Charlotte is the pseudonymn of a trans woman who vlogs as karmatic1110, who you can find here. She is particularly interesting to me for two reasons. Firstly, Charlotte tends to focus on the darker, sadder elements of being a transsexual person. Though not a happy realm of ideas - and they take obvious tolls on her happiness - these are real, very human aspects of trans identity in modernity. In particular, Charlotte seems to talk about the ways people react to her as a trans person, both online and in person. As a lesbian, she also gives great detail to discrimination against trans women within lesbian communities, a topic that majorly affects her on the personal level. This discussion about the interplay of gender and sexuality is the second reason Charlotte captures me. Though her subject matter is not particularly joyful, Charlotte is unafraid to dive into the topics that bother her most, and in doing so, she offers a perspective that no other trans vlogger provides.

Leonardo is royale76, who you can find at this link. A trans man in Canada, he often focuses on how passing as a cisgender man (which he does very easily) fails to provide him the kind of internal happiness he hopes it will. His ethnic identity as an Arab-Canadian is also discussed in his videos, and becomes particularly important in his coming out process to his family. The majority of his videos, though, focus on self-loathing, particularly on how his internalized transphobia inhibits him from meeting straight women, something he very much wishes to do. His video about what he calls "penis dysphoria" touches on this issue. Since his top surgery, he no longer posts new videos, but his older material is still relevant. It's worth mentioning that Leonardo also does song covers in many of his videos, and he has a lovely voice. He's also quite handsome....

TrannyGirl15 is the screen name of Maxine, a French-Canadian trans woman and prolific vlogger. Her intended audience seems to be younger trans women, who she coaches through various aspects of transition, such as makeup, sex and relationships, and "passing." Like Ashley, Maxine focuses on intellectual aspects of trans identity; unlike Ashley, I disagree with almost everything Maxine has to say! It's true; I've honestly never gotten through a whole TrannyGirl15 video without wholeheartedly disagreeing with something she has to say, but I find that to be a testament to both the magnificent nature of intellectual discourses and her perspicacious personality. Being an intelligent woman, Maxine is a graduate student of artificial intelligence, and so much of her vlog focuses on her transition at school. Maxine is also a femme-identified lesbian. Having saved for her medical transitions, many of her recent videos focus on surgical elements of her transition, something that sets her apart from most of these vloggers. Maxine's videos are often very long, upwards of twenty minutes, so those of us hyperwired technology natives will need to take breaks during her videos. Given my love-hate relationship with many of the things she has to say in her videos, I fathom I will inevitably write about TrannyGirl15 in the future.

Braunwyne vlogs as Bronwyn031, the link to which can be found here. Her perspective is laid back and highly diary-like, and I appreciate that she occassionally touches on being a trans person of color. Working within the US military, her transition while on the job is of particular interest. Her more recent videos include continuing her physical transition, the effects of marriage inequality in the state in which she lives, moving into adulthood, and her relationship with her wife. Upon her marriage, she and her wife begin to do videos together, sometimes discussing what they call a "trans-lesbian" relationship; thus, the interplay between gender and sexuality is a key topic to see in action through Braunwyne's videos. Personal note: Braunwyne's wife happens to be a friend of mine!

Perhaps my favorite vlogger of all time - trans or cisgender - is Candi, who vlogs under the name CandiFLA. Candi is notable for her incredible male-to-female voice work and the unique manner in which she transitioned. Candi's transition can only be described as slow and methodical; she began transitioning later in life (though she looks very young, she is forty-years-old) and didn't begin living full-time until years into her transition. Candi's patience in transitioning is mirrored by the unique ways in which she comes out to (or rather, how she doesn't come out) to her family and coworkers. At present, she now lives full-time as herself and is partnered, meaning that she now releases videos at a slower pace. Did I also mention that Candi is hilarious? Cuz she is. Given the slow process in which she transitioned, Candi actively mantained a male identity in her day-to-day life for the first few years of her vlogging; in that time, she goes on "dates" with her male and female selves, plays dress-up for the camera, makes suggestive videos about powertools, and brings a lighthearted element to a topic and community that, sadly, feels the serious sting of depression and inequality. Oh, and she loves the boobies.

The last vlogger I will include here is Aydin, an eloquent trans man who focuses on life post-transition. He vlogs under the handle 33Aydin, and his YouTube channel can be accessed by clicking here. Like many of these individuals, I've been following Aydin for several years, but I'll cut my analysis and recommendation short, as I will have more to say about him in an upcoming post.

Hero: Beth Ditto

Sexpertesse occassionally will feature heroes, people who embody the humanistic principles of this blog. My first hero is the beautiful, talented, and wise Beth Ditto.

"I got my period just 10 minutes before we got there, and I was totally bleeding. I was doing it with my tranny boyfriend, who I’m in love with, and I was totally bleeding — how radical is that? — and I’m a fat person, and I’m a femme." - Beth Ditto about her NME photo shoot

Beth Ditto is best known as the leader singer of the indie rock, queercore group Gossip. With Gossip, Ditto is an unwavering advocate for LGBT rights and feminist causes. Ditto, who is a lesbian, tackled many LGBT and feminist issues during her stint as an advice columnist for The Guardian. You can read her column, What Would Beth Ditto do?, by clicking here.

Ditto is also an inspiration to trans people and their partners; Ditto's partner Freddie is transgender-identified, having transitioned from female-to-male. He and Ditto have been together supposedly since before his transition. Ditto, then, is a rare notable example of a lesbian-identified woman whose partner transitioned into a man. (Though you ladies might have guessed it, Ditto identifies as a femme.)



Beth Ditto and her partner Freddie

Given her outness, then, it might come as a suprise that the controversies that surround Ditto don't focus on her sexuality nor her feminist causes, but instead on her weight. Yeah, you read that correctly: in countries where the status and human-ness of LGBT people are under constant scrutiny (and sometimes up to popular vote), the part that really irks people about Ditto is the size of her waist.

Some, including Alex Bilmes of GQ, have criticized Ditto's weight, claiming her media exposure normalizes unhealthy weights. Ditto's weight has also encircled her success as a fashion icon. Appearing in numerous fashion magazines and runway shows, Ditto is arguably the only fullfigured fashion icon. Marie O’Riordan, former editor of Marie Claire, suggests that Ditto is used by the fashion indstury as a human shield against criticism of their size 0 standard. Ditto, thus, O'Riordan claims, is the fashion industry's attempt to avoid being labeled "body fascists." My questions is, though, does it much matter? No matter their intention in hiring Ditto, she still appears on covers, in spreads, and on runways, meaning, invariably, that some young voluptuous person will see her picture and think, "She's beautiful, and so am I," and thus Ditto's body-positive messages are reaching the very people who need them most.


Ditto at Paris Fashion Week for Spring 2011 collections

 In light of these criticisms, though, Ditto remains dignified, saying, "It's really interesting to me that people will look at a thin person and go, 'That's a healthy person.' To be thin and to stay really thin, some people literally do coke all the time. Some people smoke cigarettes instead of eating. That's crazy. But that's 'okay' because you look healthier." In 2009, Ditto also expanded her body-positive message by releasing a fashion line with Evans, the UK-based plus-size fashion designer and retailer. For readers in the EU, you can purchase some of Ditto's designs by visiting Evans, located here.

Ditto's fearless acceptance of her body, her sexuality, her trans partner; her commitment to body positivism and equal rights; and her rocking style make her a Sexpertesse hero. Please support her by purchasing music by The Gossip or her 2011 solo EP on Amazon or iTunes. The world needs more people like Beth Ditto, and her continued success in music is what permits her to have a relevant voice.