Transvestigation



Another thing that gets me are transvestigations, conspiracies about people's gender, like Justin Bieber being a girl and Miley Cyrus being a guy. It’s just so stupid.

Transvestigation is a portmanteau referring to a conspiracy theory that proposes that some group of people (possibly a large portion of the world population) are secretly transgender, perhaps as part of an Illuminati or New World Order plot. Adherents to this belief, called transvestigators, can be found on various sites across the Web such as Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, 4chan, Twitter, Reddit, and blogging platforms.

It often focuses on powerful or elite individuals, such as celebrities, historical figures, models, actors, or politicians. Though, the accusation of being a secret transgender person has also sometimes been levied against fellow conspiracy theorists, essentially as a means of characterizing another as an agent provocateur, or infiltrator. When focused on "elite" groups, however, they are in their own terms exposing "Elite Gender Inversion" (EGI). This can often tie into claims of Satanic ritual abuse, with conspiracy theories about "elites" secretly changing their gender and abusing children to receive influence in society.

Examples
Instances of transvestigation are countless: nobody is spared from their detection. Not Anne Frank, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kyle Rittenhouse, Elon Musk, Joseph Stalin, or even J.K. Rowling. Adolf Hitler (also known as "CLITLER" by some) was exposed as a "Gay & Transgender Man With Fake Mustache" in one enlightening YouTube video that nevertheless abruptly cuts off with a paywall. Allegedly, even the well-known drag queen RuPaul is actually "a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman". Some even believe that cisgender people are almost extinct. This can be proven by photographing strangers in public and "analyzing" them.

One notable target of the transvestigators' scrutiny is Michelle Obama; they claim that she is a transgender woman. Some claim that her original name is "Michael Obama". Alex Jones was involved with promoting this theory (because of course he was). Also picked up by the right-wing clogosphere, the theory has been compared with birtherism and criticized for stereotyping African American women as masculine.

In another case, the Flat Earth community chased off one of their own adherents when she was falsely "exposed" as transgender. She provided them with photos of herself in childhood as a girl, but even that wasn't enough — they claimed she had been a boy who took the place of the girl in the photos after her death.

The first lady of France, Brigitte Macron, was accused of having been born "Jean-Michel Trogneux" by far-right French activists. This was despite the fact that she had given birth to several children — the transvestigators claimed that another woman was the true mother. She later took legal action against those who spread the rumor.

In 2021, British national Benjamin Glynn was convicted in Singapore of breaking laws that mandated mask-wearing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Publicity around the case drew attention to his social media, which documented his belief that just about every public figure in the world is trans; including everyone in Hollywood and the entire British Royal Family. According to Glynn, Elton John is a trans man and gave birth to Princes William and Harry because their mother Princess Diana was also trans.

Methodology
Transvestigator methods (such as they are) of ascertaining whether somebody is transgender, often involve a "radical oversimplification of the human skeleton" — photographs of a person are sometimes compared with simple geometric shapes or lines as "evidence". That is, a body is compared with somebody's "universal ideal" of man or woman. If they don't line up, something must be fishy. Something as simple as a woman having an Adam's apple can be given as absolute proof that she is actually a man. Failing to uphold any kind of real process or evidence though, some opt to simply trust their intuition. This form of "trans investigation" is where the term "transvestigation" comes from, if you were wondering.

Impact and influences
Transvestigation can have a detrimental effect on its adherents, with some accusing family, friends, or acquaintances of being in on the transgender plot. Even some elected politicians have promoted the theory that Michelle Obama is transgender.

In recent years, female cisgender athletes have been scrutinized for being "too masculine". As a result, at least one girl was investigated in an official regard after false claims that she is transgender. This incident has been compared with transvestigation conspiracy theories that have emerged online. Similarly, cisgender women have been accosted in public for trying to use the bathroom due to something as simple as wearing a short haircut.

Thus, while it may be easy to dismiss transvestigators as a small group of Internet kooks, perhaps they aren't so far from the mainstream these days. As such, Gawker described how a paranoid defense of "true womanhood" against transgender women is linked to the transvestigator mindset. Otherwise, transvestigation conspiracy theories have been observed in action as a gateway into other conspiracy movements such as QAnon and the anti-gender movement. Workers' Liberty, a socialist outlet, observed similarities between transvestigation and antisemitic conspiracy theories. Additionally, they compared their methodology to phrenology — an Adam's apple is just a bump near the head, right?

Possible cause
Based on a 2022 survey, Americans have an insanely disproportionate view of United States demographics. Respondents guessed, on average, that transgender people are about 21% of the US population (in reality it's more like 1%). Even when weighted, the respondents' estimate was 12%. This kind of response wasn't exclusive to transgender people: similarly disproportionate estimates were given, for instance, of military veterans, Jews, atheists, Native Americans, and millionaires. But maybe this is why some transvestigators believe there are transgender people hiding behind every corner: poor understanding of demographics.