i read an amazing explanation years ago on why wellness mlms and cults tend to target women in their 30s to 60s, often mothers. it's not just that these women tend to be isolated and simultaneously stressed and bored, looking for purpose.

so many women of this age have untreated 'minor' yet life altering symptoms like chronic pain, fatigue, 'brain fog', low mood, and general malaise. these symptoms in women are not taken seriously, but how many women do you know who feel chronically tired, sore, or ill?

then wellness mlm appear, shilling supplements, diets, exercise programs, essential oils and other expensive resources, all claiming to cure these exact symptoms. they also come with an inbuilt community and a business opportunity (mlms give discounted products to resellers).

they take advantage of the fact that women are ignored by doctors, that illnesses like fms and endo are underdiagnosed, and that many of these women are probably dealing with stress and overwork due to unequal divide of parenting and household duties.

i think the trans community and transitional medicine is identical to this approach, but targeted towards a different demographic - mostly teenage and young adult females, though sometimes young gnc males. (for agp males, a different approach is taken).

they single out a vague yet nearly universal symptom of this demographic - discomfort with ones sexed body and/or expected gender role - and offer a miracle cure, which comes at great financial and personal cost.

also similar to these mlms is the idea that if one 'cure' (hrt, top surgery, bottom surgery) doesn't work, you need to keep investing in the group. maybe you need more surgeries. maybe you're just genderqueer. maybe you need a trans 'family' to support you.

wellness cults never encourage members to do anything that could realistically help them - they actively discourage, for example, mainstream medicine. similarly, the trans community never encourages dysphoric people to leave the group and find peace in a different way.

this comes back to my criticism of rogd. i really don't see this as a social contagion, a disorder, or a silly phase. this is a cult targeting completely normal experiences that young girls have, and offering them a miracle cure to banish their insecurities forever.