Here's a thought: what if the current queer/trans obsession with identify, self-ID, your chosen identity being recognized and respected, also has something to do with internet naming culture.

At some point, we've started seeing trans people being a lot more violent about their pronouns being respected and all of that. So I wonder if the way how they interacted with online culture, and how they transitioned while participating in online communities, influenced things.

Ever since early internet days, we're all used to assuming an online ID, an online name, an online persona, that often has nothing to do with your IRL name, with who you actually are. It's something considered normal and people generally respect these names people chose for themselves (aside from the occasional doxxing). That's how you get someone with a boring name like Carl Benjamin to be called after an historical figure like Sargon of Akkad.

Now mix this internet culture with the trans movement. They're essentially doing the same thing when they transition. They assume new names, new personas. And they get used from how this is treated in the online space, that their personas get recognized and respected as who they are. But somewhere along the way, they forget that when we normal people go IRL, we don't use our online names. They expect their chosen names to continue being respected IRL... which doesn't really go as planned, because you can't hide behind an avatar IRL.

Normal people usually segregate their online selves from their real life selves. But maybe the modern batch of internet raised trans people didn't get the memo. My theory is that a lot of people formed their trans persona while on Tumblr. Then they started emigrating their new trans persona, first in other online spaces (Twitter, Reddit), and finally in real life. So at every step of the way, they expect to be treated like when they first formed their trans identity on Tumblr.

Since Twitter, Reddit, mostly function by the same internet culture regarding naming, they probably didn't get much opposition. After all, you wouldn't know that behind the anime avatar named Sally, is a fat Matt Dillahunty looking guy. So the "respect my pronouns!" mostly works. They got validation in most internet spaces, because the culture simply allows anyone to assume any name they want.

So when they meet real life... of course they'll act like spoiled brats, because the internet essentially did spoil them regarding their self-ID. Of course they react violently to even the smallest accidental misgendering. In their minds, they simply do not even comprehend that their appearance simply doesn't match a "Sally". Internet gave them a skewed view of reality, that they are indeed a "Sally". After all, all the online spaces they participated in called them Sally.

So what do you think? Is my idea a "yay" or a "nay"?