Trans TikToker freaks out after AI filter keeps 'misgendering' him

An AI filter on TikTok that changes a person's appearance to an anime character stepped all over one trans person's last nerve when he continued to try to get the filter to portray him as an anime woman.

The clip shows the man with long curly hair, long painted fingernails, and makeup. He tries repeatedly to get the AI filter to give him a female avatar, and gets increasingly angry as it does not do so.

"You guys, this TikTok filter keeps misgendering me. Look," he says, before posing in front of his phone and waiting for the filter to process a new image.

"No! No f*cking way," he says, when the filter shows him as a male avatar. He tries femme pose after pose only to gain the same result, growing increasingly agitated. 

"I gotta give TikTok credit for once..." Robby Starbuck said, "It seems their AI is smart enough to tell the difference between men and women."

There's a trend of trans people on TikTok fighting hard to get the AI anime filter to "stop misgendering" them. Each video shows TikTokers trying—mostly failing—to strike the right post to get the filter to recognize them as their desired sex as opposed to their actual sex.

Many of these videos show young women trying desperately to appear and be perceived of as male, but being repeatedly identified by the AI filter as women. 

When the filter gets it right, the user gets "pure gender euphoria." "Gender euphoria" often results from "passing" as the opposite sex.

Online trans health company Plume defines gender euphoria in three different ways, "cognitive euphoria," "body euphoria," and "social euphoria." It is the latter that these TikTokers are trying to achieve. 

Plume defines it as "when others gender the person correctly, title them correctly, and call them by the right name, it sparks a powerful sense of happiness and belonging; especially important with family members, coworkers, and friends because it creates community."

"Some people say that gender euphoria, not gender dysphoria, should be the diagnostic requirement for transgender people," Plume said, noting that they offer prescriptions for cross-sex hormones.

"Not all of us experience the negative aspects of gender, but all of us know what it’s like to feel 'right' in our bodies. All of us are free to try out different names, pronouns, gender expressions, and modifications on our journey. The 'click' when something feels authentic is the best—truly, a sense of coming home."

Apparently, most people aren't going to find that affirmation on TikTok.