Gender Dysphoria Isn’t In The Body Or The Brain/Just Ask The Ladies
Sometimes I hear trans people talk about gender dysphoria and I wonder
“What is that?”
I made some episode about it forever ago I don’t even remember what I said.
Probably something along the lines of the same shit I’m about to explain.
Nowadays, to me
Gender dysphoria, is the feeling
Of being in the wrong gender’s socialization.
I don’t really think it’s that helpful
To acknowledge
My “body’s” dysphoria as a thing that is
Separate, pure and somehow
Not tainted with body dysmorphia and other complexes.
I don’t think my experience socially
In the world, as a gender, is free from
Other implications either– however
I don’t think it’s fair
To say that gender dysphoria
Comes from the body– Or–
Even the mind. Honestly.
I think gender dysphoria is what happens
When someone treats me like a lady
Because that is a thing
Just ask all the ladies
Who prefer being called ladies
Instead of women!
Gender dysphoria is the sensation I experience
When I am at conflict
With my gendered socialization
I don’t really think it’s possible for trans rights
To progress any further
Until trans people acknowledge sex discrimination, as well as
Gendered socialization, as things that
Our world lives with, and will continue to live with
For ages.
Gendered socialization
Is when I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about
And the guy I’m working with
Screams at me about it lmfao
Gendered socialization
Is when I was pre-t, pre-top surgery
And the guy I’m working with
Rolls his eyes, shrugs, and gives up–
Does it himself.
Gendered socialization is everywhere
All the time, constant
To deny gendered socialization
Is to deny gender
To say that my gender dysphoria
Is my problem alone, that my gender identity
Relies on shit like pronouns—
Do you see where I’m going?
My gender identity relies mostly
On the socialization I experience in the world, and partly on me
Being myself, authentically.
If someone chooses to treat me
With feminine socialization
They are a transphobe and it’s not subtle to me any more
It’s a massive difference.
If someone reads me and responds
Naturally and authentically
As I have seen other people talk to men
To me, I understand that to be
Amazing.
Anyway, I think gender dysphoria
Affects your mental health tremendously
But that isn’t the same
As being a condition caused by you, your feelings, your body,
Your “identity”–
It’s the pain of being misgendered by your social treatment,
Which can be flared up by discrimination
As subtle as tone, cadence, or feeling.
TBH the best way to explain it besides
Chivalry, is watching the scene in Queer Eye
Where Tan France meets his first trans man.