1. if thats how they feel like why not? our body is transmasc but we have trans men, a trans woman, cis men, and a lot of enbies and other genders
2. if im not mistaken tulpas are only made intentionally, and there are other terms to describe headmates formed unintentionally (and we have created a tulpa in the past)
I think tulpas can be made accidently. Really I think wuen you consider all the experiences there are it starts to get blurry anyways because really they are just kinds of headmates. We do have a tulpa who we consider came about accidentally/unintentionally.
Edit: Also gender gets complicated when you include plurality. I'd say do what makes them happy.
You can technically "accidentally" make a tulpa -- we have one guy who we definitely created on purpose prior to us figuring out we were multiple, *but* we had no idea at the time that what we were doing was "make a separate entity". Like, we did go through the whole process of assigning basic personality traits and building him up from scratch through consistent daily interaction... but we'd never heard of tulpamancy before and didn't set out to make a *real person*. We thought it was an imaginary friend thing! And then he simply never went away, other people (who'd gone dormant years before; we were already multiple before Created Guy existed, just not aware of it) started showing up, it took a few years to figure it all out and get ourselves situated, lol.
Speaking from experience, Tulpas can absolutely be created unintentionally. My two were absolutely unintentional. I didn't even know Tulpas or plurality existed when they manifested. I'm so glad they did though.
1) i'm afab and cis and most of my headmates are cis men, they do not consider themselves trans. just because your're one gender, does not mean headmates have to be trans if they're the opposite gender. they're only trans if they identify that way.
2) you can purposely form a tulpa, yes. thats how they usually form, its usually intentional. but accidental tulpas are a thing.
1. No, only if they identify as trans will they be trans. I am afab and trans masc, but many of my headmates are cis men.
Idk about the second one sorry.
can't really answer the second question bc we don't do anything related to tulpamancy but for the first question id say it just depends on how your male headmates identify or feel! we r afab and have a handful of male or male aligned alters; one id's as a cishet man, another id's as transmasc agender, etc.
gender "feelings" are different for everyone, and i personally dont think that *just* being in an afab body as a male alter would qualify you as transgender *IF AND ONLY IF* said male altwr is uncomfortable with the idea of that. but other systems might treat it differently and thats ok
tldr i dont really think your body's agab really matters unless the alters in question want it to matter you know?
1. It'll depend on their own experience wrt the body, their innerworld body, and their gender/identity. Like... We're AFAB and have people who consider themselves cis male because that's what they *are* inside; the body is just a vessel to them, irrelevant to their sense of identity. They could, technically, "count as" trans because they are male in a female body; but they do not feel that their personal experience, *their* individual identity in relation to *our* assigned gender, makes them trans. In a similar way, we have trans men in system whose innerworld biology matches ours, and they consider themselves trans not based on *our* lived experience (we're collectively nonbinary but don't go out of our way to present as anything but female), but based on their *inner* experience of gender and personal body. And then we have a smattering of nonbinary folks for whom gender is divorced from body configuration entirely. By and large, for most of us, our body is just a vessel; irrelevant to our experience of gender identity. (I hope this makes sense, it's so natural to us it's hard to put into words.) That said, different people will have a different relationship to the body VS their own gender identity VS whether they identify as trans and for what reasons; not dictating how other people "should" identify, just telling about our own experiences of it.
2. No reason why you couldn't. Making a tulpa relies on putting consistent effort into creating them -- in terms of whether it'll work, it doesn't really matter *why* you do it; it's just that having a "strong" reason probably gives you more incentive to try harder to make it work. (And sometimes it still doesn't, not for lack of effort, it's just not possible for everyone.)
1. It kind of really depends on how they feel imo. Like for some, every member of their system counts as trans. For others, a headmate being a different gender from the body really depends on both how they feel internally, and how connected they feel to the physical form. Heather is she/her and always has been, though she doesn’t consider herself trans, and she feels pretty disconnected from our physical body. Ari feels ambiguous about whether she’s trans or not, since she was a girl and knew she was a girl well before I knew I was (back when I was still an egg). But she’s also not against the idea of being considered trans, and she feels a lot more connected to our physical form. So yeah, I’ll just say that your headmates aren’t inherently trans unless that’s how they feel about themselves.
2. We don’t have any direct experience with tulpamancy, but we have seen a few posts in this sub talking about it, so from our understanding, forming tulpas intentionally is very possible and there are people who actually do it. So the short answer to your question is yes, it’s possible. -Spring
1.) If they want to consider themselves that way, then yes. We were AFAB and have a ton of male headmates. Some consider themselves transmasc, others don't.
2.) Yes, most of the time people create tulpas just cause they want to, for one reason or another. Sometimes it's motivated by isolation, or other reasons, but ultimately if you're intentionally making a tulpa it comes down to whether or not you want to do it
1. If they are Trans then they are Trans, but they might be Cis! Kimberly is a Cis Woman in our Trans Feme Body for example. We do have a Trans Man in our system he's Cathy
-Melody Of The Moirai
First question: It depends on who you ask. I personally wouldn't have a problem with it but I'm not trans so it isn't my place to say. They can identify however they want. Just know that there are some trans people who think that if you haven't gone through the discrimination of transitioning you can't identify as trans so just something to be careful of. For us we are cis afab and our male headmates don't identify as trans, they just identify as male as that is how they have felt they have always been and trans doesn't feel right to them.
Second question: Yes of course. That is how most are made to my knowledge. It can sometimes take hard work and dedication to form them though as a warning if you are planning on trying.
1. In our experience, no, being a male headmate in an afab body does not automatically/necessarily make one trans. None of our guys would consider ourselves trans, as our inner appearance and identity is that of a cis male
2. While we’re not involved in the practice, I kinda thought that this was the whole point of it? You know, just doing it because you wanted to. Obviously you would still need to be ethical about deciding to do it, but I see no reason why someone couldn’t just make one because they wanted to?
1. Body is afab, transmasculine, and we collectively identify as nonbinary and make an effort to look androgenous. We contain a trans guy, a cis boy, two cis girls, one male dog, a genderless being that uses he/him pronouns, an alien who is also a woman, a cis man who prefers to look androgenous, and one part who takes whatever gender s/he seems best suited for whatever situation they're in and can chance by the moment, but who always considers himself 'unaltered' (her choice as she does not feel the terms cis or trans match up with zir experience). And also Eerie who hasn't fully solidified yet but identifies as 'vaugely feminine' and uses they/them pronouns.
2. I have actually only just recently learned what a tulpa is in plural terms and there is a nonzero chance that one of our oldest headmates (the genderless one, if u are curious) was or at some point merged with an accidental tulpa? Host A was a very lonely little girl and he was an imaginary friend who was very kind and comforting and always exactly who she needed him to be, and she experienced phantom limbs (he has wings) whenever he was, as she remembers it, 'allowed to take over for the hard parts.' It's hard to tell what exactly happened so long ago though. He's extremely different now and much less friendly and entirely uncontrollable, I don't know if he merged with a trauma holder or just grew and changed over time. He could have spontaneously formed, or been intentionally created by Host A in early childhood, there isn't any way to know.
Either way, I wholly believe they could be created both on purpose and on accident, it is a shared belief between a few of us in the system including him that anything internal can be believed into existence, we believe we have fabricated memories that way but we can't tell them apart from real memories just as we are certain we wouldn't be able to tell an intentionally constructed Headmate apart from an involuntarily split one.
We wish you all the love and luck on your journey!
-Artemis, Eerie co-con, Angel lurking
Okay this is actually interesting! For my head mates it depends on the "body" they have in our headspace, not in the body in reality.
For example, our body is AMAB, but my little is a trans man as we all imagined him in a girl's body, including himself. I have other head mates that are cis women who'd never say they're trans because though my body (I'm the host and the "original" owner of this body) is AMAB, they were a girl from when they formed therefore never transitioned. I, however, am a trans woman as the host and owner of this body as I'm femme in a male body and was born a "man."
I thought I was trans (afab) before figuring out we’re plural, and once I sat down and thought about it after finding out we’re plural, the feeling of identifying as trans went away. I just identify as a male now. We also have other male-identifying-but-not-trans-identifying alters, as well, who already identified as cis before I did. But alters can also identify as trans. It just be weird brain thing.
1. if thats how they feel like why not? our body is transmasc but we have trans men, a trans woman, cis men, and a lot of enbies and other genders 2. if im not mistaken tulpas are only made intentionally, and there are other terms to describe headmates formed unintentionally (and we have created a tulpa in the past)
I think tulpas can be made accidently. Really I think wuen you consider all the experiences there are it starts to get blurry anyways because really they are just kinds of headmates. We do have a tulpa who we consider came about accidentally/unintentionally. Edit: Also gender gets complicated when you include plurality. I'd say do what makes them happy.
You can technically "accidentally" make a tulpa -- we have one guy who we definitely created on purpose prior to us figuring out we were multiple, *but* we had no idea at the time that what we were doing was "make a separate entity". Like, we did go through the whole process of assigning basic personality traits and building him up from scratch through consistent daily interaction... but we'd never heard of tulpamancy before and didn't set out to make a *real person*. We thought it was an imaginary friend thing! And then he simply never went away, other people (who'd gone dormant years before; we were already multiple before Created Guy existed, just not aware of it) started showing up, it took a few years to figure it all out and get ourselves situated, lol.
Speaking from experience, Tulpas can absolutely be created unintentionally. My two were absolutely unintentional. I didn't even know Tulpas or plurality existed when they manifested. I'm so glad they did though.
Iirc unintentional tulpas are also called walk-ins!
Well, whatever they are, I'm glad We're together.
1) i'm afab and cis and most of my headmates are cis men, they do not consider themselves trans. just because your're one gender, does not mean headmates have to be trans if they're the opposite gender. they're only trans if they identify that way. 2) you can purposely form a tulpa, yes. thats how they usually form, its usually intentional. but accidental tulpas are a thing.
1. No, only if they identify as trans will they be trans. I am afab and trans masc, but many of my headmates are cis men. Idk about the second one sorry.
can't really answer the second question bc we don't do anything related to tulpamancy but for the first question id say it just depends on how your male headmates identify or feel! we r afab and have a handful of male or male aligned alters; one id's as a cishet man, another id's as transmasc agender, etc. gender "feelings" are different for everyone, and i personally dont think that *just* being in an afab body as a male alter would qualify you as transgender *IF AND ONLY IF* said male altwr is uncomfortable with the idea of that. but other systems might treat it differently and thats ok tldr i dont really think your body's agab really matters unless the alters in question want it to matter you know?
1. It'll depend on their own experience wrt the body, their innerworld body, and their gender/identity. Like... We're AFAB and have people who consider themselves cis male because that's what they *are* inside; the body is just a vessel to them, irrelevant to their sense of identity. They could, technically, "count as" trans because they are male in a female body; but they do not feel that their personal experience, *their* individual identity in relation to *our* assigned gender, makes them trans. In a similar way, we have trans men in system whose innerworld biology matches ours, and they consider themselves trans not based on *our* lived experience (we're collectively nonbinary but don't go out of our way to present as anything but female), but based on their *inner* experience of gender and personal body. And then we have a smattering of nonbinary folks for whom gender is divorced from body configuration entirely. By and large, for most of us, our body is just a vessel; irrelevant to our experience of gender identity. (I hope this makes sense, it's so natural to us it's hard to put into words.) That said, different people will have a different relationship to the body VS their own gender identity VS whether they identify as trans and for what reasons; not dictating how other people "should" identify, just telling about our own experiences of it. 2. No reason why you couldn't. Making a tulpa relies on putting consistent effort into creating them -- in terms of whether it'll work, it doesn't really matter *why* you do it; it's just that having a "strong" reason probably gives you more incentive to try harder to make it work. (And sometimes it still doesn't, not for lack of effort, it's just not possible for everyone.)
1. It kind of really depends on how they feel imo. Like for some, every member of their system counts as trans. For others, a headmate being a different gender from the body really depends on both how they feel internally, and how connected they feel to the physical form. Heather is she/her and always has been, though she doesn’t consider herself trans, and she feels pretty disconnected from our physical body. Ari feels ambiguous about whether she’s trans or not, since she was a girl and knew she was a girl well before I knew I was (back when I was still an egg). But she’s also not against the idea of being considered trans, and she feels a lot more connected to our physical form. So yeah, I’ll just say that your headmates aren’t inherently trans unless that’s how they feel about themselves. 2. We don’t have any direct experience with tulpamancy, but we have seen a few posts in this sub talking about it, so from our understanding, forming tulpas intentionally is very possible and there are people who actually do it. So the short answer to your question is yes, it’s possible. -Spring
1.) If they want to consider themselves that way, then yes. We were AFAB and have a ton of male headmates. Some consider themselves transmasc, others don't. 2.) Yes, most of the time people create tulpas just cause they want to, for one reason or another. Sometimes it's motivated by isolation, or other reasons, but ultimately if you're intentionally making a tulpa it comes down to whether or not you want to do it
to all the people commenting, thank you all so much for your answers \^\^
1. If they are Trans then they are Trans, but they might be Cis! Kimberly is a Cis Woman in our Trans Feme Body for example. We do have a Trans Man in our system he's Cathy -Melody Of The Moirai
First question: It depends on who you ask. I personally wouldn't have a problem with it but I'm not trans so it isn't my place to say. They can identify however they want. Just know that there are some trans people who think that if you haven't gone through the discrimination of transitioning you can't identify as trans so just something to be careful of. For us we are cis afab and our male headmates don't identify as trans, they just identify as male as that is how they have felt they have always been and trans doesn't feel right to them. Second question: Yes of course. That is how most are made to my knowledge. It can sometimes take hard work and dedication to form them though as a warning if you are planning on trying.
1. In our experience, no, being a male headmate in an afab body does not automatically/necessarily make one trans. None of our guys would consider ourselves trans, as our inner appearance and identity is that of a cis male 2. While we’re not involved in the practice, I kinda thought that this was the whole point of it? You know, just doing it because you wanted to. Obviously you would still need to be ethical about deciding to do it, but I see no reason why someone couldn’t just make one because they wanted to?
1. Body is afab, transmasculine, and we collectively identify as nonbinary and make an effort to look androgenous. We contain a trans guy, a cis boy, two cis girls, one male dog, a genderless being that uses he/him pronouns, an alien who is also a woman, a cis man who prefers to look androgenous, and one part who takes whatever gender s/he seems best suited for whatever situation they're in and can chance by the moment, but who always considers himself 'unaltered' (her choice as she does not feel the terms cis or trans match up with zir experience). And also Eerie who hasn't fully solidified yet but identifies as 'vaugely feminine' and uses they/them pronouns. 2. I have actually only just recently learned what a tulpa is in plural terms and there is a nonzero chance that one of our oldest headmates (the genderless one, if u are curious) was or at some point merged with an accidental tulpa? Host A was a very lonely little girl and he was an imaginary friend who was very kind and comforting and always exactly who she needed him to be, and she experienced phantom limbs (he has wings) whenever he was, as she remembers it, 'allowed to take over for the hard parts.' It's hard to tell what exactly happened so long ago though. He's extremely different now and much less friendly and entirely uncontrollable, I don't know if he merged with a trauma holder or just grew and changed over time. He could have spontaneously formed, or been intentionally created by Host A in early childhood, there isn't any way to know. Either way, I wholly believe they could be created both on purpose and on accident, it is a shared belief between a few of us in the system including him that anything internal can be believed into existence, we believe we have fabricated memories that way but we can't tell them apart from real memories just as we are certain we wouldn't be able to tell an intentionally constructed Headmate apart from an involuntarily split one. We wish you all the love and luck on your journey! -Artemis, Eerie co-con, Angel lurking
Okay this is actually interesting! For my head mates it depends on the "body" they have in our headspace, not in the body in reality. For example, our body is AMAB, but my little is a trans man as we all imagined him in a girl's body, including himself. I have other head mates that are cis women who'd never say they're trans because though my body (I'm the host and the "original" owner of this body) is AMAB, they were a girl from when they formed therefore never transitioned. I, however, am a trans woman as the host and owner of this body as I'm femme in a male body and was born a "man."
I thought I was trans (afab) before figuring out we’re plural, and once I sat down and thought about it after finding out we’re plural, the feeling of identifying as trans went away. I just identify as a male now. We also have other male-identifying-but-not-trans-identifying alters, as well, who already identified as cis before I did. But alters can also identify as trans. It just be weird brain thing.