Jump to content

Does Switching Affect Gender Expression?


GrayTheCat

Recommended Posts

For those who don't know me, I'm gender-fluid. I go by Gray and/or Cat depending on what gender I feel most comfortable being. Each of my identities have their own form in wonderland (I'm a businessman as Gray, I look like Pauline from the Donkey Kong / Mario games as Cat, and I'm a cat in a business suit as both genders and go by Cat anyway.)

 

Normally I use my Gray identity/form in wonderland because the form is older than Ranger himself and I haven't used my other forms in wonderland for very long. When I switch, I usually cling onto my male identity even if I'm going as both genders or female.

 

For the first time I switched out yesterday using my both-gendered identity, or the cat in a business suit I usually have as my profile picture. When it was time for me to switch back in, I remained in my both genders form but decided I wanted to be female again.

 

I randomly had the thought, does switching affect what gender I think I am?

 

I thought it was kind of a silly question because I kind of already knew the answer to it. In the original context of that question though, I wondered if switching in of itself triggered the change. I wasn't feeling like I should be female before I switched, so did that trigger the change?

 

I don't think Ranger did anything obvious to make me want to change genders. In fact, him calling me Gray when I was both genders irritated me a little and I realized I want to be female again.

Edited by Ranger

Meow. You may see my headmates call me Gray or sometimes Cat.

I used to speak in pink and Ranger used to speak in blue (if it's unmarked and colored assume it's Ranger). She loves to chat.

 

Our system account

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I mean..... *squints at question*

Well.....

 

No? 

Switching isn't magic and it doesn't really change the host so much as it might reveal what is not quite as bone-deep as they once thought. I.e., you start to realize more and more what's tied to your own personal identity, because you're able to witness your body act in different ways, under different identities. 

 

In this very round-about-way having had the experience of switching may lead someone who, note, has already had gender questionings/been experimenting, to kinda change their minds about things. It's just a new experience to consider. 

 

I'm phrasing that carefully because I don't want any guys out there to think that switching with their girl tulpas will make them "turn trans" or anything. It doesn't work like that. 


I have to be honest and say, I always think a lot of this "switching" conversation is more about in-system power dynamics rather than the actual act of switching. 

 

Genderfluid-ness is pretty personal. I'm sure there are people who will identify as genderfluid til the day they die but everyone I've known IRL settles after a few years. I bring that up because it is entirely possible that, well, look at the demographics of the rest of your system and make an educated guess about what your brain is leaning toward (at this moment.) Just be yourself, I guess. It could be that Ranger being switched into the body gets the inertia going toward being male, I guess. Like a streak starts. I don't know. 

 

This is more in the realm of "go think about gender stuff" than "switching" to my eye. (Our PMs/DMs/Ask Thread is always open and I promise we won't actually just tell you "you're cLEaLRLY TrANs", we are... surprisingly conservative about that stuff nowadays.) 


 

Short answer no. Long answer, read above. 

 


 

I wanted to add in what I put in LOTPW, for anyone seeing this later on:

 

 

Quote

I answered. It was a bit of a messy answer. See, there's two types of systems that will have a gender host with a shitload of cross-gender tulpas. Harems and the Vicarious Proxiers. (I mean that in the sense of using someone as a proxy, not in the tulpamancy term of typing for someone not controlling the body). Like, as Bear has made very clear, he's not going to transmute into a lovely angel girl. 

 

I don't want to scare any of the Harem types into thinking "I'm gonna turn into a girl" or "I'm going to be emasculated" if they switch. But the second parties are the ones where I also don't think switching and having resulting gender weirdness is a new thing, but rather, I mean... you make proxy version of yourself that's a different gender, have the other-gendered version of you live in your body.... no sh*t it'll make you think, "maybe I am that gender." I'm not saying that makes anyone "trans" or anything. But if you have pre-existing gender weirdness going on, watching an alternatively gendered self go and live life is probably going to cue more gender weirdness, or at least I can sure see it happening.

 

Nasty nasty stereotypes! How bad to draw a line between the Harems and Vicarious Proxiers! Don't you know people can be both

No, no, that's mean....

 

Edited by Jamie

The world is far, the world is wide; the man needs someone by his side. 

Our Thread

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I thought this question was kind of stupid from the beginning.

 

I think it's unlikely the switch itself made me change my mind, and I'm not sure if Ranger being switched-in created a "more male" streak or something. If anything, I was wondering if me being female is a rebound affect? But I think that idea is a lot more rediculous than my original question, so probably not.

 

I'm not worried switching in of itself will make me trans. I'm not sure if Ranger will change his idea about his gender identity or not after spending more time switched-in, but that's a different and more interesting thread.

 

If the switch actually did anything, I guess it created randomness or it gave me an opportunity to think about my form in wonderland.

Edited by Ranger

Meow. You may see my headmates call me Gray or sometimes Cat.

I used to speak in pink and Ranger used to speak in blue (if it's unmarked and colored assume it's Ranger). She loves to chat.

 

Our system account

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

Does Switching Affect Gender Expression?

 

It definitely can!

 

I don't necessarily agree with Jamie, like maybe the act of even having an opposite-gender tulpa who learns to switch could be influenced by the host deep down if you wanna get into Freud-level weirdness, but I don't because I think a lot of his ideas were kinda dumb lol

 

Anyways, assuming we're not assuming super complex Freudian psychology, I think it makes perfect sense that an opposite-gendered tulpa spending time switched could affect the host! I mean, that's time that the brain is overall living as if it's the other gender in a lot of cases, right? Girl tulpa feeling feminine in guy body or vice versa? It's really the same thing as if a depressed host switched out for a long time with a super positive tulpa, and it affected the host (probably by affecting the brain/mindset as a whole) and influenced them to be more positive, or any number of other equivalents

 

that saaaaid, I DO agree with Jamie that if the host had any underlying gender-curious-ness, that maybe they or their tulpa might subconsciously explore that through switching, but that really is deep-psychological stuff I'm not sure we're qualified to talk about - still very possible though

 

 

aaand for us specifically, nope, nothin' lol. Lumi still exclusively identifies as male with his masculine thoughts and feelings towards girls, while the rest of us absolutely identify as female with our... thoughts and feelings? it's weird to call them specifically feminine, I think maybe that stuff doesn't apply to us.. well, Flandre definitely has "feminine" energy to match Lumi's "masculine" energy at least, though I wonder how much that really has to do with gender (it's almost more like yin-yang energy tbh)

 

but I still think it's very likely it can affect the host (and the host can affect their tulpas) in other systems, especially since we know at least one cis-male who said he felt slightly feminine after his tulpa had fronted for a while, maybe even two people? and I'm sure there's way more than just them

Edited by Lucilyn

Hi, I'm one of Lumi's tulpas! I like rain and dancing and dancing in the rain and if there's frogs there too that's bonus points.

I think being happy and having fun makes life worth living, so spreading happiness is my number one goal!

Talk to us? https://community.tulpa.info/thread-ask-lumi-s-tulpas

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Jamie said:

Switching isn't magic and it doesn't really change the host so much as it might reveal what is not quite as bone-deep as they once thought. I.e., you start to realize more and more what's tied to your own personal identity, because you're able to witness your body act in different ways, under different identities. 

 

I think this sums it up as a rule of thumb. You're uncovering shadows in tulpamancy because whether you like it or not, it's like meditation and meditation uncovers shadows and promotes introspection.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

or... a girl being a girl in your male body/brain can get your brain used to thinking/feeling about itself differently than how it's used to...

 

buncha Freuds

Edited by Lucilyn

Hi, I'm one of Lumi's tulpas! I like rain and dancing and dancing in the rain and if there's frogs there too that's bonus points.

I think being happy and having fun makes life worth living, so spreading happiness is my number one goal!

Talk to us? https://community.tulpa.info/thread-ask-lumi-s-tulpas

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...