115 — How Online Communities Shape Thought, Desire, and Doubt about Transition: with Eliza Mondegreen
In this episode, Sasha & Stella chat with graduate student and Substack author Eliza Mondegreen, who is dedicated to the study of online trans and detrans communities. She also studies the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs underpinning affirmative care.The conversation with Eliza begins with a deep dive into what led to her intimate exploration of gender. She shares how her history with eating disorders, an early interest in the study of totalitarianism, advocacy work around women’s reproductive health, and her relationship with a close friend during their transition experience all helped pave the way for her intense interest and curiosity about gender, specifically the psychological experience as it relates to projecting distress and the medical interventions for managing the distress. Eliza shares how she explores these concepts in depth through her engagement with online communities (like Reddit) where she observes and reflects on the stories, ideas, and reactions shared by other members inside the internet-based groups.Eliza also speaks about her attendance at both the EPATH conference recently in Ireland, and the WAPTH conference last year in Canada for a fully immersive experience and a first-hand account of the affirmative approach to trans healthcare and medicalization. Eliza writes extensively on her Substack about her encounters and observations, and her first-hand exposure from inside the online and medical communities indulging the identity that is “trans.”Links:gender: hacked by Eliza MondegreenGraduate student researching and writing about all things gender identityhttps://elizamondegreen.substack.comFTM Over 30 | FTM Over 30A place for FTM/FTN/FTX folk over 30 to come together for support and discussion. If your life experiences better align with those who are usually over 30, you're welcome here. https://www.reddit.com/r/FTMOver30/FTM Men | FTM MenA support and community-oriented space for binary FTM men.https://www.reddit.com/r/FTMMen/r/detrans | Detransition SubredditWelcome all detransitioners/desisters and self-questioners.https://www.reddit.com/r/detrans/r/actual detrans | detrans_supportAn alternative to r/detrans that provides support to detransitioners, reidentifiers, retransitioners, and questioners in an environment free from gender-critical ideology and rhetoric.https://www.reddit.com/r/actual_detrans/r/ftm | A place for the guysSupport-based discussion place focused on trans men, trans-masc individuals, and other people assigned female at birth who are trans.https://www.reddit.com/r/ftm/Egg IRL Communityhttps://www.reddit.com/r/egg_irl/EPATHhttps://epath.eu/If you liked this episode, more episodes you might find...