"I ate civilization. It poisoned me; I was defiled. And then," he added in a lower tone, "I ate my own wickedness."

—Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

As Aldous Huxley said it would be, the Brave New World is foisted upon us.

Enter "sissy hypno," a fascinating and eerie steampunk-style mass-scale psychosocial "movement" (for lack of a better word) that encourages men to renounce their masculine identity and become — as the term is used in the LGBTQ4GF150 community — a "sissy."

The term "sissy" has a long colloquial use dating back to the 1890s.  In its original conception (and the way it was almost always used until the 21st century), it meant "a person (usually male) regarded as effeminate or cowardly."  Essentially, it was a flippant term of derision and nothing more.

In the context in which the term "sissy" is currently used, the meaning is shifted subtly in a more sadomasochistic direction: "a process where submissive men learn to take on traditionally female roles. The submissive, known as a sissy, learns to adopt ultra-feminine behaviors and perform feminine activities under the guidance of his Dominant partner." 

The long form of "sissy hypno" is "sissification hypnosis," with the goal being to indoctrinate male viewers into new roles as sissies while leaving old gender identities and practices behind — hence the "hypnosis" portion of the term.

According to Andrea Long Chu, sissy porn functions as a type of "metapornography" in which the viewer becomes aware of the psychological effects of the content he is absorbing through the medium:

Sissy porn's central conceit is that the women it depicts are in fact former men who have been feminized ('sissified') by being forced to wear makeup, wear lingerie, and perform acts of sexual submission.  Captions further instruct viewers to understand that the very act of looking at sissy porn itself constitutes an act of sexual degradation, with the implication that, whether they like it or not, viewers will inevitably be transformed into females themselves.

Academic works have lexically dolled up the sissy hypno phenomenon by terming it as "trans porno remix," also known by its acronym TPR:

Through digital editing techniques, TPR (trans porno remix) creates haptic spaces for the viewer to imagine themselves as trans subjects.  Through modes of direct address to the viewer, on-screen captions, and audio-visual montage, TPR videos construct a trans imaginary that is coproduced with the porn consumer and create space for viewers to experiment with gendered embodiment through imagining a future-oriented transformation into a trans subject.

—Aster Gilbert, Ph.D. student in women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Kansas (pronouns: she/her, they/them)

Trans porno remix comes in multiple forms: the common meme, on Twitter using hashtags like #sissyhypno and #sissytraining, on internet forums like the sissy hypno subreddit page, and hundreds (if not thousands) of websites.

Typical examples of "remixed" trans porn in video format feature female voiceovers that inform the viewer that you have "been a woman longer than you've ever known… You are a woman right now… Just by listening to me right now you have already become a woman."

The central idea is that you, the target of the meme — a (probably white) 20-something, frustrated, nominally heterosexual male — have always been a woman deep inside.  The issue is that, until sissy hypno came along, you had no idea of your true nature.

Since the foundational tenet of the "sissy" lifestyle is that you are and have always been a woman but lacked the capacity to express yourself accordingly, one of the major recurring themes in the sissy community is the "release" from the burden of having to pretend.

Masculinity is treated as a burden; becoming a sissy, on the other hand, is liberating.  In light of the skyrocketing suicide rates and mental health disorders among young adults in the U.S., this dichotomization of gender roles offering promised relief from the burdens of life may be one of the most effective appeals of the sissy hypno "movement."

In terms of coming around to their full gender transition, the architects of sissy hypno understand the natural hesitancy that their targets are prone to.  Accordingly, they have apparently predicted and factored in pushback against their manipulation into their propaganda stew.

The sissy hypno meme offerings are consistently sprinkled with reminders — and, just as often, commands — that the heterosexual lifestyle is a thing of the past.  Maybe you aren't sure that you want to transition, but you have to — and the deeper you go, the harder it will be to "come back" to a normal lifestyle:

The sissy hypno targets are encouraged to aid their transition with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) — otherwise known as "chemical castration" — consisting of regularly injected estrogens (female sex hormones) and anti-androgens that suppress testosterone production.

Male-to-female HRT causes alterations to physiology that cannot be undone.  Gender transition regret is a growing mental health burden, the effects of which will reverberate throughout society for decades at a minimum.

If the Great Meme War of the 2016 presidential election taught a central lesson, it is the awesome power of a high-quality meme (or even better, an orgy of high-quality memes) to shape the national psyche.

Social media have, in effect, turbocharged the dissemination of slick agitprop to the masses.  Whether the social engineers in Silicon Valley or their earliest bankrollers could have predicted the awesome power they would soon hold is irrelevant — in any case, they now hold the keys to our collective psyches.

Generally speaking, with history as a guide, those keys are ripe for manipulation, gaslighting, and myriad other forms of abuse.

Ben Bartee a Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.  Contact him via his portfolio or on LinkedIn.