I have stumbled into a strange YouTube niche: feminization hypnosis. It’s a category of delusional videos in which voices whisper at you, telling you to put on make-up or become trans or encouraging your butt and boobs to grow larger. I listened to a few of them — they’re rather boring and ridiculous. If you want to see them for yourself, go to YouTube and search for “sissy hypno”. Be prepared for a deluge of results, none of them particularly pornographic or persuasive or even interesting. I don’t see how anyone could fall for this nonsense, unless you’re a real idiot.
Like Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire, who thinks it explains the existence of transgender people.
MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): And Genevieve can shed some light on this phenomenon that — frankly, as I’ve said on the show, I don’t even want to look into because I have been told and then I’ve read on different fora that talk about this phenomenon that there is a kind of pornography that is, apparently, a driver of the transgender identity that is so perverse that it constitutes a kind of hypnosis where men will say, I was a normal guy, I lived to be 41, 42, and I was basically normal. But then I fell into this kind of pornography and it essentially melted my brain. I had a nervous breakdown. Now I think that I’m a woman. So, rather than have to expose myself to that and then, you know, I have to go to confession, potentially my brain gets melted, I can just talk to Genevieve about it. Genevieve, thank you for coming on the show.
GENEVIEVE GLUCK (GUEST): Thank you so much for having me on the show.
KNOWLES: So, there’s a lot I want to talk about with you. We don’t have nearly enough time, so maybe we’ll just have to have you back and talk about it at greater length. But can you just give, not only the audience, but me a rundown — what is, among all of the types of pornography that lead to transgenderism, what is this hypnosis pornography?
GLUCK: Well, you touched on a good point there. There are many types of pornography that are, sort of, involved with the transgender movement. But hypnosis pornography is a little bit different in that it incorporates your lifestyle. So, typically when we think of pornography, we think of it as something that is passive that you’re, sort of, watching. But this type, it asks you to, sort of, change your behavior, change the way you dress, even to start taking hormones. And it’s sometimes called sissy hypno. So, that’s short for sissification hypnosis pornography. And, you know, I myself, I have personally been somewhat mocked for the suggestion that this is having a powerful impact on men. However, trans activists themselves will say things like it influenced them.
Oh, gosh, unlike Knowles I listened to some, and my brain didn’t melt — I just thought it was rather silly and harmless. Do I have to go to confession now? That would be even sillier than a sissy hypno video.
Although maybe he has a point. Going to church every Sunday and listening to a repetitive drone does work at turning people into Catholics.
If you’re experiencing a sissy hypno panic, have no fear. There’s a whole ‘nother genre of anti-sissy-hypno videos to change you back.
It’s a self-reinforcing grift all the way down.
I haven’t watched any of these videos, but I would guess that the audience for these videos is people who already fantasize about doing this stuff and are turned on by the sense of doing something “forbidden.” My impression is that actual trans people are more likely to look for how-to videos.
There is a whole category of this stuff that IS pornographic (not on Youtube of course), but it is just a kink some people are in to. Not literally brain melting viral firmware updates…
Knowles must have spent a fortune on those x-ray glasses and hypnotize women into dating you courses in the back of comic.
I don’t think it’s going to church every Sunday that turns people into Catholics. It’s being in a culture in which Catholic ideas are normalized, to the point that believing anything different is seen as crazy. There are converts, but it’s not the “repetetive drone” that does that; they probably have more understanding of Catholicism than 99% of Catholics.
From my point of view as a trans person who is also on the ace spectrum, it’s more like cisnormativity and heteronormativity are inculcated in the same way. I feel like I’m drowning in Western culture’s propaganda for gender roles and heterosexuality. If you were assigned male and aren’t like the Marlboro man or some other masculine icon and ready to bone anything with a vagina, you’re crazy or defective; by the same token, if you were assigned female and aren’t into the beauty myth and being a lust object for men, you’re a [insert the usual slurs.] And if you don’t have (hetero-) sex on the brain all the time, what’s wrong with you, anyway?
Actually living trans is the opposite of being hynotized by subliminal and not-so-subliminal messages. It takes a lot of strength of character and guts to stand up to the non-stop propaganda and listen to your inner voice and live in a way that fits who you really are.
The people you quote are IMHO the ones living in a fantasy world, as much as flat-earthers or people who think the moon is made of green cheese.
“Sissy Hypno” is a great drag queen name, though.
Happy April the First to all.
I can’t comment on YouTube videos, but I can say that in the independent small video-game development realm there is a whole genre of sissyfication, including sissy hypno. They’ve been around for more than a decade, are often (but not always) written in Twine, and are kind of an evolution of the old text-adventure games, but with embedded multi-media.
While sissyification is not really my bag, I am interested in game design, text adventures, and fascinated by what individual creators write, so I’ve played a few of these.
I will not say I’m any expert on the subject, and I know there are probably people reading this thread who are for more aware than I am, so I’m open to correction if my understanding is in error, but I would say that the idiots in the quoted part of the OP have it backwards, i.e. the desire of a person to change their gender led to the creation of videos purporting to be able to do so. That is because most of these games (not all), deal with the player’s character being sissyfied. They are typically written in the first-person and describe physical and mental changes which convert the player’s character into a woman. That fact, and the apparent popularity of the topic (I’ve seen hundreds of them), suggest that people do enjoy the fantasy of changing their gender. The hypno-sissy route is only one of a dozen fictional methods which these games use to suggest a gender transition, other routes include medications, genetic modification, and, of course, magic.
What I find disturbing about these games as opposed to other games which transform the player is that the sissyifcation games generally transform the player into a slave with no will of their own, completely dependent on someone/something else (there seems to be a lot of overlap with parasite infestation games, talk about body horror). Usually this also includes exaggerated sexual characteristics, mental changes to an uneducated and poorly thinking state, and an heightened sexual drive. There is a similar genre known as harem games which the player does this to other people, but in the sissyifcation games the player is doing this to themselves (or accepting that it is being done to them). Maybe there is a desire among a lot of people to retreat from responsibility and the pressures of the world, and become absolutely reliant on others. Frankly, I do not find that enjoyable. I’m not condemning people who might like these games, only saying that I do not.
My impression is that no one who writes or plays these games believes that any of the methods used in them for sissyfication actually work. They are all well aware that they are writing fiction and playing an imaginative game. At best it’s a representation of a wish that gender transitions were easier than they are.
Again, I have only encountered this through the lens of my knowledge and experience as an older cis-male. I don’t normally bring up these topics in a conversation because while I have an interest and opinions, I don’t have a great deal of knowledge of who and why these games are being written. So my knowledge is likely incomplete which means my opinions are likely immature.
Can’t be any more brain-melting than having pants-pissing tough-guy Trump podcasts or AM radio on in the background while you oil your rifle and jam cartridges into magazines.
This shit is dumb.
It’s a very elaborate April Fool’s joke requiring years of piling up hundreds of videos. I’m impressed.
It’s not (mostly) delusional, it’s (mostly) a fetish. Engaged in primarily by either cis people (who don’t have any intention of changing themselves, but just want to be emasculated), cis or trans hypnosis fetishists (who do sometimes believe the things they’re doing, granted), or someone who is the intersection of these things.
It’s not grift to sell people shit to get them off, when that’s what they’re (mostly) signing up for. Granted, a non-zero number of english language hypno fetishists (and content creators) sincerely believe in it, but for the most part it’s just play.
Hi Rutee, long time no see.
Hey again. ….also goodness, it’s some nominative determinism to be surnamed ‘gluck’ and covering porn. I actually checked to see if it was an elaborate bit, but no, of course the Daily Mail can’t be that cool.
I have personally been somewhat mocked for the suggestion that this is having a powerful impact on men.
Has he ever shown any EVIDENCE for such an effect?
However, trans activists themselves will say things like it influenced them.
“WILL say?” Is that a prediction? Have any trans activists actually said this yet? If so, who?
A lot of “sissy” media is tied up in misogyny and racism.
The idea that the worst thing you could do to a man is make him a woman.
Plus, it is just about always an exaggerated, cartoonish caricature of “woman.” Either the big brainless bimbo cliche or an infantilized, frilly, doll-like figure.
And frequently the stories have a Black man in them depicted as animalistic, hyper-sexual figure. The “they’re coming for your women!” slander.
PZ: It sounds like it could have STARTED as a joke, just like flat-earth-ism, nanotech in vaccines, child-sex-trafficking in pizza-parlor basements, etc.
For good reason.
It’s a cosmically stupid thing to say.
The vast majority of the population, men and women, have never even heard of “sissy hypno”.
I had to read this entire thread to even get an idea of what it meant.
It is apparently some sort of unusual kink that probably never existed before the internet and tiktok were invented.
Whatever.
Growing up listening to a Catholic priest drone on once a week and other priests and nuns and other Catholic teachers drone on throughout the week had a lot to do with my becoming an atheist, which many evangelicals would probably take as confirming their precise paranoia about the RCC.
Michael Knowles? The guy who dressed in drag? That Michael Knowles? The cross dresser Michael Knowles? The guy who dressed as a drag queen, Michael Knowles?
Just making sure we have the right guy here…
Well, now we know what Michael Knowles is into. I’d honestly be more surprised if he wasn’t into that kind of thing, as there’s a huge subset of it designed to cater to misogynistic transphobes like him. It’s all about humiliation and subservience and viewing women as things to be used by men.* I’m not interested in dissecting the psychology of the kink and I’m going to refrain from shaming everyone who is into that particular thing but I will say that, if you are into that sort of thing and you say things like Knowles has said about trans people, you are a disgrace of a human being who should be ashamed of who you are and what you do.
This idea that most pornography is a passive, though, is absurd. It’s the kind of thing people who want to absolve themselves from any degree of participation in it would say but, if you physically “enjoy” it on any level, it’s participatory. You are engaging in a fantasy aided by an artistic performance or work (in the case of drawn/painted/animated stuff).
To really understand why what Knowles and Gluck are saying is so stupid and wrong, you have to understand what hypnosis pornography is. Hypno is a subset of what might be called “Ordered Pornography,**” which is a type of porn wherein the maker of an audio or audio/visual piece orders the person watching to do certain things. OP often a form of explicit dominance/submission play, but not always. There are many types of OP, of which hypno is only one, and many different flavors of hypno. Like most kinds of pornagraphy, there’s a huge swath of deeply problematic material in sissy hypno, but I’m not prepared to say it’s all bad.
Hypno in particular, and OP in general, aren’t about turning yourself into something you’re not, although with hypno the idea that that’s what it’s doing is sometimes part of the fantasy. What it really is is a kind of permission to engage in fantasies that you struggle with.
Perhaps you struggle with specific activities because you find the activity explicitly shameful. Possibly you even spend a great deal of time condemning such activities in your public life. Or, perhaps you’ve simply been raised to find certain activities, or sex and sexuality in general, bad and have trouble getting past those mental blocks, even if you’re fully aware that they’re irrational. Or maybe it’s just a fun way to let go of control for you.
Whatever the case may be, hypno is a form of OP that allows you to pretend that you are not in control. You are, in the same way a submissive in a safe and consensual S/M relationship is, but it’s lets you say “I just can’t help myself!” while you’re “under.” Whether you’re a mean-spirited misogynistic control freak like Knowles and Gluck or a merely someone who struggles with long-term inculcation in repression and shame, hypno is a fantasy that let you absolve yourself of responsibility for your desires and actions for a little while.
What it isn’t is actual mind control. You’re not actually out of control at any point- it’s just a game- which is why the people Knowles is describing are having problems. They’ve been taught that harmless things they might be into, like dressing up in “girly” clothes or being penetrated or other men, is pure evil. Therefore, when the fantasy is over, they’re still left with the knowledge that they do, in fact, have control and that they are into those things. People like Michael Knowles have taught them that they’re broken and disgusting for feeling that way.
To be clear, when I say that I suspect that men like Knowles himself are into this kind of thing, it’s not necessarily as “sissies.” There’s the other half of the equation to consider- misogynistic, trans-and-homophobic men who get off and humiliating and abusing self-styled “sissies,” while simultaneously insisting that they’re 100% heterosexual.
Sorry for the long post, but I hope it was edifying (assuming anyone is interested in the topic). Or at least coherent.
*This doesn’t necessarily apply to all “sissification” stuff, but I can just about guarantee that those are the kind Knowles and men like him find most appealing.
**”Command Pornography” would scan better but, given that I’m going to be abbreviating it for the rest of the text, I’m going to stick with OP.
I should have made it clearer in my previous post that consuming sissy hypno has nothing to do with being transgender. I have no doubt that some people have come to revelations about their gender identity and sexuality through engaging with that type of material, but that’s not remotely the same thing as it making you into something you are not.
I am continually astonished and confused at how weird the cis community is. @ pz as an example of your people I demand you explain the cis to us normal people.
I don’t understand them either.
It seems to me this genre is a legit kink, so no judgment here, where people can safely explore fantasies. Whether the “hypno” actually works is doubtful (did Hypnotoad ever influence anyone?), but I’d be concerned with seizure induction more than anything else. Probably a rapid fire mix of images of ciswomen, transwomen, cisdudes who may be of color, and such, if I had to guess. Huge amounts of copyright infringement and objectification if we’re getting judgy.
There might also be a whole genre of turn you gay hypno videos that probably don’t actually do that I would guess. Another moral panic to launch a crusade on.
People are already going to lean into bi, gay, or trans without having some gimmicky video converting them. They may even realize it’s not for them.
@25– The Hypnotoad didn’t influence me at all. All Hail the Hypnotoad!
Porn is a bit like the Vulcan ideal: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.
(Rule 34, too)
And not to change the subject, but what’s up with ASMR? Is that legit? I’ve watched a few of those (or listened). Maybe some sounds give susceptible people the tingles. I know someone obsessed with popping bubblewrap.
One Youtube genre that insinuated itself into my feed was those sleep videos with music allegedly calibrated to tap into brain patterns with special frequencies.
I did get into green and brown noise stuff to help sleep more quickly and deeply. Brown noise is not to be confused with the “brown note” from South Park.
The nature sounds or music seems relaxing enough, but I still go for some old school Kitaro (eg “The Field”) to put me in a trance state.
“And not to change the subject, but what’s up with ASMR? Is that legit?”
It’s legit in that it exists; scientifically, however, there is no consensus.
Me, I reckon it’s basically bullshit.
BTW, the ‘brown note’ idea well precedes South Park:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/in-search-of-the-brown-noise/
John Morales @30
I see that South Park referred to brown noise instead of brown note, so I was off a bit on that per them. I think brown note is a better term for that alleged effect to differentiate from brown noise:
Brown noise is actually background noise that is alleged to help with sleep and other activities as is green noise:
If that made anyone poop themselves I am sorry.
I prefer nature sounds like waterfalls or beach surf or relaxing music to induce sleep, or some valerian root.
Hmmm…I wondered more about the brown note and from John’s Vice link 7 Hz seems important. I don’t know if “back in my day” any of the booming bass competition sound systems got that low in frequency. They got pretty f’n low. Otherwise electrobass competitions would have resulted in mass poopings. These days there is:
https://www.aia-cinema.com/products/subwoofers/the-80-sub-pro-passive-sealed.html
Quoting: “An 80-inch subwoofer, seriously?”
I really don’t know how low the competition system went down in Miami back in the 80s. Were there 80 inch subwoofers in car systems in the 80s? 12in was commonplace. Plus there’s the power of the soundsystem in watts I think. People had second batteries.
Hearing damage yes. Incontinence not so much.
Reminds me of when Dr Jordan Peterson retweeted a fetish video about milking sperm from men as being taken inside a Chinese Communist Party “sperm bank”, with the caption: “What’s going on in China? Three children policy?” Conservatives like Michael Knowles narrow world views can lead them some weird places since they don’t understand everyone can be different in what they like and that’s a positive.
This is a standard anti-trans trope they keep in the filing cabinet labelled, “everything we can think of to invalidate trans people”.
The “hypnosis” is a fantasy. And the fantasy is misogynistic. The idea is it’s very degrading and humiliating for a man to be like a woman (sissy) so you’re being forced against your will. Humiliation (in fantasy) is a well documented kink.
Nothing to do with trans people. The whole humiliation angle rests on identifying as a man but being made to be womanly against your will.
@ ^
The sub-folder in the filing cabinet is labelled, “… and portray them as perverts”.
I won’t speak for all trans women, but in my experience sissy hypno, whenever it is discussed at all, is as a joke. Like I don’t know who’s consuming thos content, but in my experience it isnt trans women.
@29: ASMR works for some, but not everyone. If you have misophonia it can be an absolute nightmare. My husband loves ASMR vids with whispering because they give him a rush; those trigger pure unadulterated rage when I hear them. I do not kid. My husband will be blissed out, while I’m trying not to scream or send a fist through a wall. Massively different results.
So, as a trans woman who had no idea I was trans 10 years ago, I experienced sissy/feminization stories and sissy hypno stuff in the late 00s. At the time I had a lot of deep seated misogyny baked into my thoughts, and being feminized did seem tantalizing, taboo etc. I can say that, it did long term lead me to think more about gender, and why I was interested in it. Why did it seem like something I wanted, why did I consider being something “less than a woman” humiliating, why is being feminine humiliating at all?
As far as I can tell, sissy hypno scares the right because it leads people to actually consider these things, despite it being silly as hell and not actually, you know, transforming people as magical hypnosis people want some people to believe. Hypnosis really isn’t magic, it’s trying to find the things that someone else wants to do and finding subtle ways of encouraging the behaviour and enabling the subject to do what they want. And that’s part of the crux of it, they don’t want it to exist, because it might lead “men” into realizing they’re actually trans. It doesn’t actually transform them through the magic hypnosis, but instead through forcing them to self reflect.