Bryon Noem’s alleged fetish is not the same thing as being transgender

What are forced feminization, bimbofication, and sissification?

In order to understand how forced feminization, bimbofication, and sissification can overlap with gender exploration, while still remaining distinct from transgender identity, it helps to define the terms.

Sissification, at its core, refers to someone who wants to be turned into a “sissy,” or a submissive person who is forced to feminize themself by their dom. Often, sissies identify as cis men who eroticize cross-dressing, gendered labor like housework, or even taking hormones in order to make themselves more feminine under the direction of a dom, sometimes with the goal of humiliation, per Sexual Health Alliance. Sissies aren’t always cis, however, as there are trans people who explore their genders through sissification.

Not all people who engage in sissification are using the fetish to explore their gender. For many cis people, it is purely a kink. And according to sex educator Sex With Catalina, for some cis men, it’s even a reaffirmation of certain misogynistic ideas about women being subordinate to men. This is all to say, like many forms of sexual play, the root greatly depends on the person engaging in it.

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Similarly, forced feminization rests on the same idea of a dom forcing their submissive to become feminine through different means, often with the goal of humiliating them. Bimbofication also involves a level of gender play and feminization, in which the submissive becomes a bimbo, slang for an attractive, hyper-feminine, but ditzy woman, sometimes through dressing up, sometimes through changing their personality, and sometimes through pretending to get body modifications such as breast implants.

Ultimately, all three exist within overlapping fetish communities centered on feminization and gender play. For some people, those experiences are purely sexual. For others, they may intersect with broader questions about identity, presentation, or self-expression.

Some transgender people later look back on participation in these spaces as part of their journey toward understanding themselves. Others do not connect those experiences to their gender identity at all. Like many forms of kink, the meaning depends heavily on the individual person engaging in it.

Are people who are into forced feminization or sissification always trans?

The short answer is no. Again, anyone of any gender can be interested in fetish communities.

Can trans people have an interest in these fetishes? Yes. Can trans people sometimes discover their identities through participating in these fetish communities as a jumping-off point? Yes. But think of it as a Venn diagram of experience, rather than as inherently the same identity. While some people who engage in forced feminization or bimbofication are trans, not all people who are part of that kink community are.

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Cross-dressing fetishes are not inherently queer or trans because gender presentation doesn’t necessarily say anything about a person’s internal gender identity or sexual orientation, per GraceMed Clinics, a system of health clinics across Canada that provide gender-affirming care. Straight people of all gender identities engage in kink and fetish communities, including bimbofication, forced feminization, and sissification. Similarly to why LGBTQ+ organizations like GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign say it’s important to never assume someone’s identity, you shouldn’t make conclusions about their identity based on engaging in a certain kink.

Conversely, it is not productive or accurate to invalidate a trans person’s identity for having participated in these fetish communities. Historically, trans women and transfeminine people, in particular, have been reduced to the transphobic trope that they are cross-dressing sexual deviants. It’s so common that there are several popular films that reaffirm this false stereotype, such as The Silence of the Lambs, placing undue stigma on trans women. This trope is also currently being used as a conservative talking point to target trans women and ban them from public life, such as restrooms, locker rooms, and women’s sports.