queer uncle friend ☾

Feels important here to note the difference between CSAM and CSEM here too: The A in CSAM stands for "Abuse", and means images which are of children being abused- and where the act of taking the photo itself was abusive. CSEM stands for "Exploitation", which means that the image itself could be innocuous, but that it has been exploited (and by extension, the child has been exploited in the process) - this is stuff like where a parent has taken a totally innocent photo of their kids swimming, but then a paedophile collects up a thousand images of kids swimming, and shares them with other paedophiles. CSEM is why you're advised to not share photos of your kids online, and is the problem with mummyvloggers who share every detail of their child's life.

My point is, that the way that terfs collect photos taken by trans people of themselves, and strip them of their context, and form them up into big folders of what I can only really describe as exploitation material, is really, really familiar. They use these images to find each other, to prove loyalty to their sect, and crucially they get off on them.

Look at this groomer in the screencap, trying to persuade a traumatised young woman to "Share her scars with the world" (ie, to provide more exploitation material for their hard drives).

The groomer is using emotional leverage ("You should do this, to Save Other Victims"), and making Barnum statements about her childhood to try to increase the feeling of intimacy and thus trust ("You were forced into procedures you didn't understand"- yes, someone who is regretting a procedure probably will feel like they didn't understand the implications) - the groomer then switches to "Our" rather than "Your" to lean on the false intimacy, ("Our scars remind us of our mistakes" encourages the detrans girl to think of herself as part of a group which includes the groomer - Again, increasing the false sense of intimacy and familiarity.)

Whether or not the original post on r/detrans is real, the method the groomer is using is real - Even if the original poster never sees it, they will make it more likely for a real person who is in the position that the OP was in, will contact them and share photos of their scars, and their stories.

It's a masterclass, in a handful of words. Make the target feel damaged and alone, suggest that you-the-groomer will understand and care about the target and that other people won't, and then persuade the target to do the action that you want from them, by telling them that it's for their own good, or the good of other victims.

The groomer is doing a more sophisticated version of sketchy older men preying on teenagers: "You must feel like your parents are totally suffocating you- you know what would really spit in their eye? If we had sex. You'd be claiming your body as your own, and you'd be showing your friends that they don't have to be prudes either."

But then, the other thing that the groomer is doing is showing other groomers on twitter, how to begin to groom someone - Seek out posts like the one shown - pay attention to those highlighted phrases, which are how you will know who to target - and use the script you're being given.

A normal person would, obviously, not tell her to share pictures- she's 21 at the absolute oldest, and sounds like she's really struggling. Groomer knows their audience- they will be cruel about her body, call her mutilated, ask her invasive questions about her sexual function, and save her photos to re-share over and over for decades (I often see photos lifted from Transbucket in the early 2010s, still being shared as "new" by terfs.)

The responsible thing to say would be something more like: Don't put anything online that you don't want to be shared around forever- People online will be cruel about your body and that can be surprisingly hurtful even if you feel very confident. Seek out people in your life who you already trust, before putting your faith in strangers who had no interest in you before your current problem.