The post-conclave white smoke has barely cleared, but the new pope is already being dragged into internet conspiracy theorists’ favorite bigoted past time — transvestigations.
A viral post from "Skull & Gait," an X account dedicated to "transvestigations," claims Robert Prevost has a "bio female skull" based on… what appears to be some lines drawn in MS Paint.
"Pope Leo XIV, the first-ever American Pope - Bio Female skull (skull check only)," they posted on Thursday morning alongside the goofy annotated pictures.
For those who have managed to remain blissfully unaware, transvestigating is a ridiculous phenomenon in which basement dwellers spend their free time inventing "proof" that various celebrities and public figures (or even statues) are secretly transgender. They generally do this through highlighting features that they believe can tell whether a person was born male or female, all in service of exposing some imagined mass gender conspiracy.
Of course, science, logic, and reason all go out the window in these scenarios. These so-called investigations rarely, if ever, account for the ways features and bone structure shift as people age, vary across ethnicities, or simply don’t conform to their predetermined ideas rooted in bioessentialism and pseudoscience.
The whole phenomenon is so absurd that it’s become fairly difficult to gauge whether someone conducting a "transvestigation" is a true believer — or just mocking those who are. The same can be said for @SkullandGait, whose bio reads "Bones never Lie, but people do ~wake up from their Lies ~" before referencing Bible verses and listing their location as "They are Everywhere !"
Deeply delusional or a pitch perfect mockery? Who can say?
Well, the internet is taking the account at face value, and dunking on them accordingly.
"I'm not sure this overlay is a human skull at all. The proportions look very weird, compared to the 'female' version."
"if you dissociate from reality hard enough this is hillarious"
"#girlpope mission complete"
"tweeting from the conclave (2024) universe"
"They used a fucking stock photo drawing with a fish eye lens effect instead of real skulls you can't make this shit up"
"you haven't truly made it until you've been transvestigated by right wing extremists"
