meteorickestrel:
lgbt-askthetics:
Nope! Sorry, but you’re wrong.
Tansgender is defined as “denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.”
There is no mention of dysphoria in there! Being Trans* is simply being any gender that is not the gender you were assigned at birth! That’s it! You do not need to experience dysphoria to be Trans* :)
Please keep your gross gate-keeping off our blogs, and have a lovely day :)
Uh… Sorry man, but I don’t really think that’s right. I mean I ain’t no expert ‘bout all this gender shit but some friends had told me that it is indeed needed.
Do ya think in any case ya could like explain me why is yar viewpoint the correct one? ‘Cuz so far I’ve been told that ya do need dysphoria to be trans.
Sure thing! There are a lot of reasons why I think the way I do, so this post is going to be rather long.
Reason 1 - Dysphoria is temporary.
Imagine for me a Trans* man, who hasn’t medically transitioned. He grew up in a supportive involvement, so he never had to deal with internalized transphobia, however he hasn’t had any gender-related surgery, and hasn’t started HRT, all he has is his binder and name-change. He is extremely dysphoric, to the point where he can’t even get out of bed. I think that we can both agree that the man in this scenario is Trans*.
Years later, the man in this
scenario has undergone HRT, and had multiple gender-related
surgeries (for this example, let’s say he’s had
Double Incision, and Phalloplasty). Visually, he “passes” for Cis. He is finally content with how his body looks, so his dysphoria is gone. He is happy to go hang out with all his other Trans* friends and enjoy his life. However, if we were to believe that dysphoria is necessary to be Trans*, then he would no longer be considered a Trans* man, and that just doesn’t make sense. He was assigned female at birth, but is male, so of course he’s Trans*! Calling him “Cis” or “not trans” now that he has transitioned is transphobic, cisnormative, and down-right disrespectful.
Reason 2 - There are different types of dysphoria.
There are three main types of dysphoria: Physical, Social, and Mental. However, the one most commonly cited by people arguing that you need
dysphoria
to be Trans* is physical, and they never take into account that there is more than one way to be
dysphoric. I’ll go over the tree main types real quick so we’re all on the same page for the rest of this reason:
Mental is often the first that people encounter, despite it being the least known. Mental Dysphoria is the internal struggle you face when you first start questing your gender, or even before that! It’s the over-whelming feeling of general wrongness that you just can’t pin-point it’s cause or meaning. It’s the struggle with internalized Transphobia. It’s the fight you have with yourself over who you are.
Social Dysphoria is feeling distress about how you are seen by society. This includes how other people perceive your gender, what pronouns/name people use to refer to you, or anything else that involves gender-related distress caused by outside influences.
Physical Dysphoria is the feeling of distress about how your body looks, and how you perceive your own body.
Now that you know there are different kinds of dysphoria, I want you to think back to that Trans* man we imagined in the first reason. What type of dysphoria did he experience? Physical, yes that part is very clear. Social too, as shown by the fact that he changed his name. But what about Mental? No, this particular Trans* man never
experienced Mental
dysphoria.
Does that make him any less Trans* in your mind, knowing that he didn’t
experience
every type of
dysphoria there is? Probably not! So why is this particular lack of dysphoria any different then if someone lacked social, or even physical dysphoria?
So if you don’t have to
experience
every type of dysphoria to be Trans*, who’s to say that you need to
experience
any?
Reason 3 - Everyone
experiences dysphoria in different amounts.
You could find a Trans* person who
experiences dysphoria constantly, and overwhelmingly. You could also find a Trans* person who feels dysphoric only once in a while, and not very strongly.
When you say that someone has to have dysphoria to be Trans*, how much dysphoria do you mean? Do they have to feel dysphoric every single day? What about people who feel it every other day- that’s close enough to the standard of every day, right? What about every third day? That’s only one day off of the every other day person. Dysphoria is not a constant thing for everybody, even those with the most overwhelming dysphoria can have good days, and you wouldn’t accuse them of not really being Trans* because they don’t constantly feel dysphoria.
Likewise, there is no minimum intensity. It could be so bad that you can’t get out of bed, or it could be an annoying hum in the back of your brain- annoying, but overall manageable. There is no limits to how much or how little dysphoria a person can have- so why put a limit to it at all, where none is necessary?
Being Trans* is not a contest. A lot of the time, I see Trans* people invalidating other Trans* people because they do not
experience as much dysphoria as them, and this is one of the many reasons people continue to believe that you have to
experience
dysphoria to be Trans*- because Trans* people say it themselves.
The statement “you have to experience
dysphoria to be Trans*” is much too broad to hold any truth, because it doesn’t specify which type(s) you have to
experience, or to what degree.
Reason 4 - Gender euphoria
One of the main arguments people who believe that dysphoria is a necessary part of being Trans* use is “if you’re not dysphoric, how do you even realize you’re Trans*?”
To that, my answer is simple: Gender Euphoria. Gender euphoria is the feeling of overwhelming joy one feels when they are gendered correctly. Sometimes, being accidentally called “sir” or “ma’ma” while shopping and loving it is the first hint that you’re Trans*! It’s entirely possible for one to discover they’re Trans* this way- and never experiencing dysphoria while still knowing that they are much happier than they were when they identified as Cis.
Reason 5 - It enforces the “pitiful Trans*” trope
The idea that to be Trans* you have to
experience awful self-loathing or hatred for your body is a negative stereotype that paints all Trans* people’s lives as some sob-story and gives Cis people the idea that they should pity us based on the fact that we’re Trans* alone. This enforces the idea that being Trans* is somehow tragic, and that once you come out as Trans* you’re doomed to a life of misery until you manage to transition and “pass” as Cis- which in turn enforces the idea that Cis is the “default” and that all Trans* people want to be Cis.
Reason 6 - There is no benefit to gate-keeping
You may think that you’re helping “real” Trans* people by enforcing the “you have to have dysphoria to be Trans*” rule- but you’re really damaging the community. By holding this statement as truth you’re enforcing the idea that there is a “right” and a “wrong” way to be Trans*. No one benefits from gate-keeping. Not even the people who feel the most dysphoric! It hurts them too. By believing that there is a certain standard that must be met to “qualify” as Trans* makes it harder for all of us to transition, or even to be consider as “really” Trans*.
Even the most dysphoic Trans* person is being harmed by this line of thinking, because if this idea of gate-keeping is followed it could grow from someone not being considered Trans* because they
experience no dysphoria, to people not being considered Trans* because they do not
experience enough dysphoria. And as I said earlier, being Trans* is not a contest.
So even if you still don’t agree with me, please stop accusing people of not being Trans* just because they don’t fit into your idea of what a Trans* person should
experience, it harms the entire community. Thank you for reading this, and have a lovely day <3
