I think this contains a large measure of truth. My current view is that an unusual pattern of (social) identity formation is the major reason why autism and associated comorbidities (acting as proxies for autistic psych.) is such a strong predictor of trooning even after you cut out all the other mediating factors. ADF is the extreme version of what I'm talking about here, but it also turns up in a moderated form as autistic metal heads (metal head->troon is an underremarked on pattern), fedora+trenchcoaters and in the general susceptibility for aesthetic political ideologies, subcultures etc..
Moreover, it explains why when the major mediating factors are present -- things like AGP related (yaoi/gay fanfic) fetishes, anxiety or depression, having mostly female (male) friends, ultra progressive environment, social isolation/failure etc., autists are so much more likely to troon out.
Conversely, it means that among troons, those that have stronger presence of mediating factors are actually less autistic despite said factors being themselves correlated with autistic traits. In particular, I'm quite certain that a kind of
Berkson's Paradox exists between trooning out and intensity of fetishism. Troons who don't seem to score particularly high on the autism scale like (David)
Torrey Peters are almost always
absolutely consumed by their fetish, whereas the confused 14 year olds who have literally never jacked off almost invariably have an ASD or ADHD diagnosis plus clear social delays.
Also on a related note, I've been looking into budding "woman" author, David Torrey Peters (
background for those who have not heard of him) -- who, even if not as great, is at least as much of a woman as
Elena Ferrante from whom he (ironically) claims a measure of inspiration.
View attachment 2276673
This is Mr. Peters before he trooned out. They ended up divorcing, naturally. However, the relationship actually lasted quite a while and it seems to have been a pretty classic doomed AGP relationship in its broadest outlines.
She met him in Cameroon of all places, she was working at an NGO and he had some sort of grant to go there. This would have been comewhere around between 2003-5. My guess is that it was in 2004/5 based on her
LinkedIn. He, naturally enough, didn't tell her about his fetish for the first 3 or so years of the relationship until she stumbled upon his alter ego 'Tori' (he says "she had noticed an online transgendered support group cached in my Web browser"). Depending on the date when they met this would be about 2007/8 which is also by chance the time he says that he 'came out' as a troon. Except he didn't really, he just kept cooming in private for the most part and living as a man just with odd admission here or there, I guess.
It was as a man that he got married in July 2009 (see above) and as a man that he got
the essay that I sourced most of this information from, also in 2009. It seems that after she discovered his secret that she was able to tolerate, or even accept it, taking photos of him
en femme. On Mr. Peters' telling she hadn't been all that happy to find out his crossdressing to begin with:
View attachment 2277189
Maybe, they'd struck a bargain, or he'd given her some story about how he was definitely not going to troon out and that he deeply loves her or whatever. Quite possibly he could have even meant it, they often do, even if later they find that they don't care much about their own word.
The interesting twist in this story is that in 2007 she began her PhD at NWU and as a research topic this is what she stumbled on:
View attachment 2276713
Maybe her dissertation took a bit inspiration from a certain source?
In 2011/12, Mr. Peters finally decided he was bored of his cooming and began taking HRT. However, in 2014 his wife was still with him and she "dedicates" her dissertation to "D. Torrey Peters: my brilliant intellectual collaborator, my indispensable companion, and the love of my life." D for David, which I thought was a bit odd since by this point in time he'd been on HRT for a couple of years and why is he now D and not David? This strikes me as the period of attempted renegotiation, perhaps that's part of the story behind his starting HRT too? It's interesting, because in an interview he said this:
View attachment 2276803
He actually began writing his book Detransition Baby in 2016 which is also when he self-published his two coomer novellas. This, I believe, is when he actually trooned out. This also means there was a huge delay between him starting HRT and actually trooning out. My guess based on other similar cases that I've seen is that either (a) HRT was some sort of concession his wife granted him, just under the proviso that he didn't actually troon out, or (b) he went behind her back, since he wanted to take his coomer LARP to the next level, which then became (a) over time. Wives who love and don't want to 'lose' their husbands often get bent into this kind of situation only to find that their AGP husbands don't give quite enough fucks and just troon out anyways which ultimately proves intolerable. I assume this is basically what happened to Mr. & Mrs. Peters.
Would be nice to hear his ex-wife's side of the story though.
A small number of HSTSs are like that, so it's not totally unheard of. It's still rare though, because most HSTSs are relatively lower class and almost none have children (even adopted or step), hence they never get into that sort of stuff.
I often get the impression there's a sort of Catch-22 that happens for some troons, especially the more functional ones. When they fail to 'make it' by passing, being generally treated like the opposite sex, then they are obvious miserable, but they're also supported by fellow troons & other queer sorts. Once they 'make it' though they always want to leave behind the LGBTQIAAP2SP+ crowd, because (a) the disconnect in experiences that he mentions and (b) because, frankly put, these people are complete losers and guys like him are too 'good' for them. These days being some sort of sexual or gender minority is pretty much just a high school style parallel hierarchy; a way for people who otherwise lack social standing -- who aren't 'cool', to pretend otherwise. But when you come to sit at the top of any of these down market parallel hierarchies, then you can't help see that fact and so, you want out. You don't want to hang around with a bunch of tards and assorted cross-eyed blobs.
The tragedy for these troons is that there really isn't an out; being a troon naturally & inevitably closes off so many avenues and opportunities in life, it makes you a permanent stranger. So, even if you've achieved what you thought the preconditions for happiness, you still find yourself miserable, because now you're isolated. This seems to be a really common story for a lot of "successful" troons and probably the most common cause for regret, or at least wistful reflection.
