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Trans 101: What Everyone Gets Wrong About Transgender People

Taboo Science

27,239 views

- Got a rainbow sticker? Follow trans creators? Have trans friends? Cool. But if you're like most people—even the well-meaning ones—you probably know just enough about trans people to be dangerous. In this episode, we're dismantling the "born in the wrong body" narrative and exploring what being trans actually means. With help from University of Victoria transgender studies chair Dr. Aaron Devor, paleontologist Riley Black, PhD student Hibby Thach, and comedian Charlie James, we're breaking down sex vs. gender vs. gender expression, debunking the "social contagion" myth, and explaining why asking "but have you had The Surgery?" is never okay. Trans people are rarer than redheads, but somehow they're at the center of a political firestorm—so let's actually understand what we're talking about.

00:00 Introduction: The "born in the wrong body" trope
02:32 Aaron Devor introduction
03:26 Riley Black introduction
04:12 Transgender definition and prevalence
06:18 Why are more young people trans?
08:11 Why are people trans in the first place?
12:09 "Egg cracks"
15:10 Sex, gender, and gender expression
17:42 Hibby Thach introduction
19:28 Gender expression in cis people
20:37 Gender dysphoria
23:39 Medical transition: hormones
25:35 How many have surgery?
27:49 Wrap-up
29:21 Outro

More from Aaron Devor:
Website: https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic....
Podcast for Inquiry appearance: Aaron Devor explains the ABCs of the Trans...

More from Riley Black:
Website: https://rileyblack.net/
Order her latest book, The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: https://us.macmillan.com/books/978125...
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/restingdinof...

More from Hibby Thach:
Website: https://www.hibbythach.com/
Twitch: Twitch: hibbybobibby
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hibbythach.com

More from Charlie James:
Website: https://charliejamescomedy.com/
Order his book, I’m Just a Little Guy: How to Escape the Horrors and Get Back to Dillydallying: https://www.quirkbooks.com/book/im-ju...
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@malecowgirl?l...

See citations and a transcript here: https://www.tabooscience.show/trans-1...

Need music for a project? Use my Epidemic Sound referral link: https://share.epidemicsound.com/kbva2h

Connect with the show:
Join the Patreon: Patreon: tabooscience
Leave me a voice memo: https://podline.fm/tabooscience
Instagram: Instagram: tabooscience
YouTube: @tabooscience
Website: https://www.tabooscience.show/

20 Comments

@RealShebang 11 months ago

As a trans person these kinds of videos are risky clicks

@JulietRosenthal 11 months ago

Trans person here. I never felt like I "changed" my gender. I just set it free.

@Billie4321Unable 11 months ago

Never underestimate the power of social influence on your mind. I learned in school about how homosexuals would often repress their own feelings to live with a woman as they were told they should. I thought I was above that kind of influence. I had denounced the Christian faith, and considered myself to be an independent thinker who was "logical." Nothing could have been further from the truth. Even with obvious signs of being trans growing up (very obvious ones) I still never faced those feelings, because I thought I already knew they were wrong. It wasn't until I was educated on the topic properly that I finally accepted it myself.

The mental anguish of coming to terms with it was immense. I learned first hand what it was like to actually resolve cognitive dissonance, and integrate all of who I am into one person. Not just the parts society said was okay.

@catyad7661 11 months ago (edited)

I'm trans and I truly believe i was born in the wrong body, before i transitioned i had such bad dysphoria i couldn't function, a suicide attempt at 13 and things got so bad at one time i was so depressed i stopped being able to speak, when i transitioned things where tough at the start because of bullying but i left the small town i was in, went to university in stealth and had a ball and got my degree , moved to france fell in love and in my thirties im truly happy but yes i was definitely a girl born in the wrong body.

@anniebunny722 11 months ago

Hibby and I went to high school together and were in the drama club! Seriously, one of the sweetest most caring people I’ve ever met!

@hibbythach 11 months ago

Hi! Hibby here from the video : )

Just wanted to leave a comment that Ashley was a wonderful interviewer and was very respectful towards me and others involved in this. Yes, the video isn't perfect, but it's a Trans 101 video. You may have your own little nitpicks or critiques, which are valid, but do not defeat the purpose of the video: providing 101 information to those unaware of or misinformed about trans people.

Not that this will change anything because comments sections (especially on trans videos on YouTube) are always a cesspool of hate, self-indignant anger, and reactionary behavior, but touch grass, support trans creators and trans people, and be as vocal as you're being here offline as well (if you are able to, of course!). : )

But by all means, continue to give this video and the future ones more engagement. <3

One last note: to all the trans people saying "the wrong body model is right (for me / in general)", great! It's not right for everyone, and that's the point! The majority of mainstream representations of transness rely on this model and it's harmful to act as if it is the one, true model for transness. Both things can be true: it is helpful for those who ascribe to it, and it is harmful for those who do not ascribe to it.

@chaoticatom6150 11 months ago

When I was a kid, I didn’t understand gender. I’m neurodivergent and it wasn’t until Puberty ever felt something was off. When I was growing up I played with both “girl” and “boy” toys, and my friends were a varied gender mix until grade 4. If I was asked to choose a gender then I would have went to my assigned gender side just simply because I understood that’s what my family called me. But until puberty gender was just words, when puberty started happening I realized I was looking like a woman and I didn’t want to, I would have rather stayed genderless then my body drag me down that path. My brain didn’t click what gender and sex was until I was 12 and still didn’t fully understand until 16. When I was 16 I came out as Non-binary because I knew that I wasn’t a woman and I now go by Trans-masculine and have passed since 95% of the time since around the 6-9th month mark. I’ve had no surgeries yet just on HRT ans won the genetic lottery, and I guess I already acted fairly masculine.

@AndrewCrawford-m9r 11 months ago

6:52 Exactly.

At age 5 was planning how I could have SRS, and I didn't even know surgeons already had techniques for doing that. It wasn't until way past my adult age that I realized I wasn't the only one who had this condition, and that the medical procedures I need exist. Even still I didn't talk to any doctors until a decade later. It's no wonder transgender population statistics have been under reported in the past.

@reginanjus 11 months ago

I was beaten and told to be a male! No way would my parents let me be a Female! There was no information at all about trans!

@serenasynthesis 11 months ago (edited)

Good episode. Thank you for having trans people on to offer their stories. I transitioned from male to female during my early 40s and have negotiated quite a few aspects of it… medical/surgical, relationship, the current US political landscape… and the one huge thing I was able to take away from it was similar to what Riley said at the end, that I was able to feel as if I finally “fit” and that allowed me to really engage with life in so many positive ways, like getting involved in advocacy / local politics and chasing some of my employment dreams.

I hope resources like this can be around for others, because of how education is so important for everyone… including us trans folks, so that we can hope to understand ourselves too and be able to reach our awesome potentials as others can.

@tychovw 11 months ago

I don't hate the body I was born with, I hate what my body has become because of testosterone.

@bcmpinc 11 months ago

The right are stripping us from our rights because its easy to throw billions at propaganda to make society afraid enough of a small minority that they go along with. Once they can strip us from our rights, they can strip everyone from their rights. We already see that second stage happening. It was never about the children.

@tychovw 11 months ago

16:14 Gender expression is not necessarily a way to show your gender identity. Your expression and identity can be different, like, a man can be feminine, a woman can be masculine.

@RealSlowLike 11 months ago

6:53 this is my exact experience, I had feelings and even experimented when I was a kid, again as a teen, and again in my 20s. I didn't have the knowledge or vocabulary to explain what I was experiencing and kept suppressing those thoughts out of fear of being ostracized. I hated myself, I never took pics of myself and didn't allow anyone else to photograph me. I couldn't look at myself in the mirror out of disgust. I didn't understand where these thoughts came from, only that I found myself to be revolting.

I'm now 40 and last year I allowed myself to explore these feelings which led me to start my transition. Since then, those feelings have mostly melted away, I still have some hangups that I'm working through, and I still have some biases and ingrained behaviors but it's getting better. I cried yesterday for the first time in nearly 20 years, and it felt great.

Many trans people have no idea they are feeling dysphoria until they experience the absence of it, euphoria. The reasons there are more trans people coming out are because of access to knowledge and more acceptance from society (although that seems to be backsliding lately). To all of you that are older and reading this, it's never too late, if you want to explore yourself, do it. And if you find yourself in the same position as me, do some research and figure out what that means for you. A great resource to start with is "the gender dysphoria Bible", it's easy to Google. We are all here for you and accept you for who you are.

@filminginportland1654 11 months ago

4:29 For me, I don’t “identify” as trans, I am trans and at least for some of us, it’s an important distinction. To the extent that I identify as anything (it’s very limiting), I “identify” as female. It’s just that my biology kind of makes me trans by default, as does transitioning.

But I do think humans are far more than we perceive, and the more we try to label or box ourselves in, the more limited it can become.

The idea of trans itself being an identity I guess is confusing to me. But everybody has their own take on that.

@The_Book_Of_M 8 months ago

The funky, bass-driven soundtrack to this episode hits surprisingly hard.

@kattikoskinen9122 11 months ago

From my own experience of being trans and talking to a lot of my friends who are trans, the "wrong body" experience seems to be more prevalent in trans people whose egg cracks before/during puberty vs those whose egg cracks earlier. It kinda makes sense.

It's nice that someone's still making these kinds of basic education videos in a time when we have become a political scapegoat for no other reason than conservatives hating us for no fucking reason.

We are just normal people.

@L8Boom3r 11 months ago

Trans rights are human rights.

@ColoradoCarol55 7 months ago

Nice job with the video, I am a Trans-Elder who gives a very similar lecture to church groups as " Trans 101: who are these people really? " And much more in depth lectures to future care givers of the Trans community (Psych, Counseling, Medical and nursing students at various universities). I transitioned in the 1980's and have lived in a world that hated and beat us, tolerated us, kind of accepted us, for a little while almost liked us to now when the hate and brutality is returning. It is so important that truthful information is presented to counter the misleading conservative media. Thank you for your part; we need all the help we can get.

@look_see1355 11 months ago

My own children exploring their gender identity and expression caused me to examine my own. I had no idea some people felt SO strongly that they were a man or a woman, be they cis or trans. I have never felt that way. I just feel like this is the body I ended up with, and it happens to be afab, and sometimes that helps me, but most of the time it annoys me. People make a lot of assumptions about how I am supposed to "woman". But I don't feel a strong sense that I'm a woman. I also don't feel like I'm a man. I've learned that I am probably agender. I still try to look somewhat acceptably feminine, because, like she said in the video, it's hard out there