trans-is-here

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Feel like it is now a good time to return to this blog. Trans people will not be erased! We are here.

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A Gender Dysphoria Master-Post

Disclaimer: Most sections will preface with my own conceptions and ideas of what these different things mean, primarily from my own experience. I do this mainly because it might help some people more than just a huge list of links. This doesn’t mean it isn’t creditable, but rather that it doesn’t have sources to back up my claims. I’ve done a lot of research and thinking on this topic and it would be tiring to try to find sources for everything I talk about. This Master-Post will be opinionated in some ways, however, I tried to make this post as inclusive as possible! 

TL;DR: This post highlights gender dysphoria, it’s different types, gender euphoria, misconceptions, transition and more. It can be used as a general resource, but I recommend not using it as your only resource for this topic. I’m not all knowing! I’ve sectioned things out if your only interested in reading on one thing. If interested read below. 

If you have questions or concerns with this post I am willing to answer questions and accept messages! However, I ask not to add them onto this post, except if they are in your tags. I may not see tags but I do tend to read them. Thank You!

Keep reading

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This was linked as part of that twitter thread I shared earlier, but I want to bring special attention to it because it outlines how three anti-trans websites basically invented the idea that trans identities spread as a “social contagion” among teens.

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Does dysphoria always mean that a person is transgender? For example, could a cis woman experience physical & social dysphoria, but still be a woman? I thought I was ftm for a few years, but being called a man felt off too. Then I started playing with genderqueer labels, but lately I've been wondering if I'm just a dysphoric cis woman. Is that a thing?

Lee says:

Identifying as trans is what makes someone trans. I actually recently read a book on gender dysphoria that said “Not everyone who is transgender experiences gender dysphoria, and not everyone who experiences gender dysphoria is transgender.”

Some cis people may experience dysphoria but not identify as trans, which seems to be more common with women and especially lesbians. Gay men also seem to have a higher rate of gender dysphoria than straight men, but they don’t seem to be able to be as open about it because of toxic masculinity.

A cis lesbian woman who got top surgery

The second question in this post is a cis gay man who wants bottom surgery

Is transitioning the only cure for gender dysphoria?

Can cis people have body dysphoria?

cisgender female who’d be happier without boobs

What are some examples of cis people experiencing gender dysphoria?

Cis With Dysphoria

Can cisgender people experience genital dysphoria?

Of course dysphoria is more commonly experienced by trans people than it is with cis people, and it’s experienced by many (and maybe even most) trans folk. But some trans people may not experience dysphoria, or label what they’re experiencing as dysphoria, so you don’t need dysphoria to be trans. 

Non-dysphoric trans people are still trans

More about non-dysphoric trans people

Non-dysphoric trans people

Gender euphoria

Do I have to have Dysphoria to be Trans?

I think it’s really invalidating and gatekeeper-y for someone to insist they know someone else’s gender better than they do. If someone has questioned their gender and explored the trans community but ultimately decide that they’re cis but have dysphoria, who are we to say that’s invalid? I think that it’s always best to believe someone when they state who they are, instead of trying to impose rules on their identity and claim they have to fit within certain guidelines to identity as either trans or cis. If it isn’t okay to tell a trans person that they’re actually cis and in denial, it isn’t okay to tell cis people they’re actually trans and in denial.

So in the end, having dysphoria not having dysphoria doesn’t automatically make anyone trans or cis. Basically, yes, it’s possible to identify as a dysphoric cis woman or whatever makes you most comfortable.

Ren says:

There’s a lot of discussion about this (not all of it nice, or trans-inclusive). When it comes down to it, though, I’m not really sure that anybody can tell you what the answer is for you in particular.

A lot of people will say that it’s common for women to feel uncomfortable about their gender, because of misogyny, and also because a lot of womanhood is built on things that are inherently discomfiting (like sexualization and objectification). I can see where that argument is coming from, but I think it’s taking a lot of things for granted (like gender essentialism, i.e. the belief that gender is a static, unchangeable, unquestionable fact; a “universal female experience”, which simply does not exist; and the fact that being trans and otherwise queer can look and feel and be an infinite number of ways).

Generally, I would say that if your gender doesn’t feel right, it’s for a reason, and you should listen to that reason, and try to follow it. It sounds like that’s what you’ve been doing, which is great - but also that your journey thus far hasn’t been very fulfilling or productive for you, and it makes sense that it’s been a frustrating experience because of that.

Here is the advice I would offer. Let’s say that you can be a dysphoric cis woman. If that’s the case, what does being a cis woman mean to you? Likewise, what does your dysphoria mean to you? What are the changes you want to make in order to reduce that dysphoria, if any, and what do those changes mean to you?

A butch lesbian can consider herself a cis woman, experience dysphoria, and make changes to alleviate it - maybe the same changes that a genderqueer person or trans man would make. What would make that person trans is the decision to use the word.

If you find comfort and community and fulfillment in the word trans, then I would encourage you to keep exploring nonbinary identity - there is more out there than genderqueer. You may also consider looking into different ways that traditionally cis, but otherwise queer women experience gender: butch women, lesbians, and bi women have a rich history of expressing and understanding gender in very different ways from the traditional cis non-queer woman. It may be there that your journey takes you, and that is okay.

Here’s some resources that might give you some insight into other nonbinary identities and other queer gender experiences:

Non-binary resources

NB Flowchart

What am I?

Harper says:

I’m going to add on something a little contrary to your advice Ren, but I’d absolutely second the latter half of your advice: if a transgender embodiment is right for you, absolutely go ahead and embrace that, it is nothing to be ashamed of or shy away from if it is for you.However, I’d absolutely say some cis women experience dysphoria, and I’d also say this is a point that can be made (and something that can be felt) without being gender essentialist at all.Although dysphoria is often the grounding experience for a lot of trans people, and it is often the reason that many trans people seek medical assistance with their transitions.However, if we’re going to talk about dysphoria, we need to first approach it from a wider approach. We are all living in the same world and so are subject to the same material and social forces. Each of these forces will impact us and affect us in different ways. These forces can be understood largely in terms of oppressive forces that systematically benefit the ruling class: rich, white, straight, cis men. In such a world, misogyny is a force that dictates which bodies are allowed to exist, and for what purpose.I won’t make any rulings on what is and isn’t dysphoria, but an appreciation of dysphoria rooted in being non-consensually gendered (at birth: ”It’s a boy!”, “It’s a girl!”) can be a way forward. This notion always then reflects back onto constructions of gender that uphold cis heterosexuality: certain bodies are made to be girls, or women; and girls and women are aspects of a class that is made to always and only reflect back onto men for their advantage. This is a violent and non-consensual state of affairs, and it is not one that will come with any comfort for anyone who doesn’t benefit from it: LGBT people, women, and so on. It doesn’t surprise me, at all, that a dysphoric experience can be attributed to an individual’s experiences within womanhood, and also to an individual’s experiences being otherwise gendered.For example, as a trans lesbian, I experience dysphoria given the world’s instance that I should not be a woman (the “usual” dysphoria that comes with being trans). I also experience dysphoria when I dress in a way that makes me look “straight”. If I don’t dress in a way considered gay, or lesbian, etc., I get distressed, dysphoric. This latter dysphoria is completely within the axis of being a woman and the pressures that comes with to make myself available and centered around men: through the way I act and the way I dress.I also know several cis women (admittedly all lesbians, so perhaps that limits the scope of my argument here), who experience dysphoria. Being cis doesn’t mean you can’t have a troubled relationship to gendered forces, and it doesn’t mean you can’t question them. It also doesn’t mean that you can’t, at any point, and for any reason, re-analyse your position to gender: to consider a transgender identity, or to re-consider your identification in sexuality.I think, therefore, that the notion that “dysphoria means you’re trans” can be unhelpful; diverting women from a way of conceptualizing their profound discomfort to a world that aggressively sexualises and oppresses them. It can also divert attempts at solidarity within a community of trans and cis women, and between women and trans people as a whole. Dysphoria, and conversations about our lived experiences, can then be used to form a more cohesive (and less lonely) class appreciation of what it’s like to live under white heteropatriarchy.In the meantime, see our dysphoria page, and the above links. Hope this helps somewhat!

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Sometimes being a different gender than you were assigned at birth is a simple matter of that. You aren’t that but you are something else and you don't even need to know what that something else is. There need be no explanation or things to point to as evidence, for what just is a fact about yourself. 

[trans-is-here]

Let’s discuss Gender Dysphoria, GID, and criticism of the DSM

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s noticed that the mere fact that the DSM has been criticized by psychologists has become a pretty common truscum talking point lately, though most have been reluctant to engage with those criticisms in a meaningful way. One of them was kind enough to link me a study, so I’d like to take a look at it, as well as a couple of other DSM critiques that focus more specifically on the old “Gender Identity Disorder” diagnosis that was replaced by “Gender Dysphoria” in the DSM-5.

(this is going to get long, sorry mobile followers.)

Keep reading

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(AUTO POST)

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Assimilate // 2019

Part 1 of an on-going body of work

I had to redact one of my photos since tumblr staff lied about nudity being allowed in art apparently

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Hello, I’m conducting a study in order to gauge the opinions surrounding discourse in the trans community. Please take this survey. :) Reblogs are appreciated :0

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Soy milk is a lactose free and nut free option that’s still high in calcium.

trans people taking testosterone need to drink orange juice cause testosterone weakens your immune system!! trans people taking estrogen need to drink milk cause estrogen causes calcium to be absorbed less

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The tumblr trans community has this disgusting trend of transfeminine erasure so shout out to the transfeminine gals and pals out there you deserve more than what this site gives you!

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There are not too many trans people

A response in relation to how transmedicalists view the rise in trans visibility and access to care. 

Saying there are too many trans people quickly leads to there shouldn’t be any trans people at all. Trans people who think there may be too many trans people may rather believe that there are fit trans people who are the real trans people an unfit trans people who are not legitimate, and those who are unfit should be mocked and push out of their community, even soliciting that we should be preventing their access to medical and psychiatric care and revoking their right to identity. (which is they’re really trans is gonna kill some people)

We have seen this sort of rhetoric and belief used against the poor, people of color, Jewish people, the mentally ill, homosexuals, and pretty much anyone who wasn’t the quote-unquote example of fit for the society in a given place and time. I’m saying that this falls in line with eugenic frameworks of thought because it stems from an idea that only a few should be allowed to live an prosper while others should not, based on “science” as it’s justification. And while the effective aim may not be genocide, the efforts are to suppress them so that the people who are fit to rule may prosper because that is what is proven as fact.

The recent rise of transmedicalist thinking actually stems from cis-sexist medical practitioners in the 20th century, who developed frameworks for deciding who was fit to be trans, and who could then transition. These frameworks to transition account essentialist ideas about gender, denying some on the basis that they may be ugly, homosexual, or not a perfect example of the roles of the gender. Thus gatekeeping real trans people from their right to transition on account for what's best for society to see and not them.

Much of these same ideas carry over to the ideas that transmedicalist believe about the so-called “not really trans people”. They deny the gender nonconforming, differing ideas of gender, based on culture or community, a lot of time nonbinary people, and those who do not directly benefit from the current medical frameworks like non-dysphoric trans people.

A lot of their own conception of themselves have foundational roots in this notion of superiority for being fit for the society in their given time and place. They often have binary identities with conceptions of their gender following Judeo-Christian western culture, and conform very strictly to the roles society has laid out for their gender. They also are benefiting from the system, and feel change or shift in the benefits is a threat to their own identity.

When it is actually a threat to an idea that they are the superior form of trans people because they conform and therefore are best fit to be transgender in our society. A society that to begin with kinda just wants to believe there shouldn’t be any trans people at all. If you believe that simply changing the face of the community to be the peak of what is accepted would end transphobia in our society you’re wrong,  you’re only feeding it what it wants. Proof and justification for transphobia.

Now I can not say the ideas of eugenics specifically are 100 percent applied here, I don’t think “genetic disposition” is being used to deny some trans people. However, the notion is that some people are more legitimate than other people based on science, and clearly, science can be misused and I believe gatekeeping is a very big form of that. I think it is most apparent in something like eugenics that led to both a justification for jim crow and a justification for the Holocaust. I think in a way denying the diversity of experiences based on science, in this case, gender essentialism theory and gender dysphoria is a justification with the motif of having oneself appear socially acceptable therefore saved from transgender denialism. Which as I’ve suggested on one end is speculation about trans people, and on the other is genocide. So my usage of this is only as it pertains to the similarities, as both I feel are used as misapplied science for social gain. 

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On The conflation and generalization of transgender experiences...

I said three years ago that every single person will have a different conception and self-definition of what gender dysphoria means to them and how that applies to their life it doesn’t help to argue for a generalized this idea or conflate experiences into a singular definition.

Which is a big factor of why I believe you don’t need dysphoria to be trans because everyone’s ideas and experiences may differ and trying to fit into a definition that doesn’t really make sense to your own life unless you really stretch and bend away in it isn’t very beneficial. Especially when questioning, or even when you’re needing time to reestablish yourself as this very different identity than the one you likely grew up knowing. 

It isn’t rewarding to those who are questioning and it isn’t rewarding to those who have lived narratives that have little to no correlation with what’s now deemed a norm of experience. Ruminating on an aspect you can’t see yourself belonging to will only be even more confusing the longer that isn’t there. It’s confusing when that aspect is seen as so fundamental to the truths of being transgender and yet despite everything else completely making sense and feeling correct perhaps that lacking means everything else is somehow less real than it should be. 

Hinging an identity on any aspect in of itself isn’t very helpful since all these things I find can fluctuate and change over time. The way I thought of myself and gender three years ago is very different than it is now an over that period I had so many moments of self-doubt because I was hinging on an aspect I thought I needed in order for that to be real, when clearly how I am at my core, my gender identity in of itself, remains completely unchanged by outside forces. 

The only shared experience had across all non-cis folk is that of being not cisgender. We experience our lives as a gender different than the one we were assigned to. How we feel think and live out our lives is on an individual basis that we should always respect. 

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Hey Trans Peeps - Do You Need Help Picking A New Name?

Hello! Welcome to this new blog, trans-namehelp. This blog is here to help transgender people (binary and nonbinary) decide new names for them based on either:

-what name they look like (submit your face for this!) 

-any kind of specific (starts with, similar to, certain meanings, goes with another name, etc)

[trans-is-here]

Dysphoria isn’t only physical

Heyo! You’re local enby here to tell you something many people don’t seem to know or understand!

DYSPHORIA ISN’T ONLY PHYSICAL. That’s right! Many people think “dysphoria” means that you have some sort of physical discomfort or dislike, that is not the only thing it is!

Let me introduce you to SOCIAL dysphoria.

Social dysphoria: Dysphoria triggered by/based around societal views of you and your gender. This falls under the DSM-5 category of “Gender Dysphoria”.

Now, what exactly does that definition mean? Well…

Social dysphoria can happen when:

-you are misgendered

-people use the incorrect pronouns

-people deadname you

-people say transgender isn’t real

-people tell you that you are going to hell

-saying you won’t find love that way

-saying it is just a phase

-people not supporting your identity

-people push gender roles onto you that aren’t yours

- P = boy, V = girl (usually excluding intersex people)

and much much more!

Basically, social dysphoria is what happens when other people invalidate you and your identity.

And for those of you thinking “yes it is!” / “it’s the physical dysphoria that counts!” or something along those lines, that is incorrect. Ask any therapist that specializes in gender identity and they will tell you that is very far from the truth!

[trans-is-here]

Gender Identity is not to be won or earned, it does not function as a competition. If you have the Identity you earn that upon Identifying w/ it, not when you “win it” through shifting presentation or completing obstacles that “prove” you’re existence w/in it.

Presentation, in general, shouldn’t even be considered as so paramount to this subjective goal that ultimately, while mentally for many is the correct action to take, not every person desires to conform to the norms of society, and many don't even have the means to. And in the case of NB genders, there are no norms as there is no president to base specific factors upon as it is all-encompassing lying completely outside the socially normative constraints binary genders (sorta) have.  You can’t be more or less of the identity, you just are it. At no time is someone “winning more” at having their identity. Someone’s ability to “pass” or “appear cisnormative” rather doesn’t denounce any persons ties to their gender identity. Likewise, to elect not to present in ways that are normative, or to not go through some or any the various often permanent processes of transition doesn’t degrade it either. Example: A feminine man and a masculine man are both men, neither is less man or more man than the other. The presentation doesn’t negate either's identity as men, the same goes for any other gender Identity.  Besides presentation, no identity is better to have than another, an identity rarely is something you choose, perhaps choosing to specify specifics* about the identity but that’s about it. In other words, NB genders are just as valid as identities as Binary genders. *: There are several umbrella terms within gender that people can pick inside of to specify more specifically how they identify, or they could just identify with the umbrella term, it’s a choice on specifics though not literally choosing an identity.

In conclusion, there is no amount of transition or conformity to what is cisnormative that would make a person more transgender than someone who has not done what they have. Therefore we can not force people to give up their identities (which they did not choose to have) simply because of a subjective view that somehow being able to do all these things and be comfortable with that is better than not. 

Ultimately following this line of thinking allows for transphobia against these trans people, as it is perpetuating that being able to conform to a cis ideal is a normal trans existence, and the rest are just not trying hard enough and are less valid by extension. And when you recall that nonbinary people don’t even have a norm to fall onto, this pretty much says that whatever a nonbinary person does will never truly validate their existence. IE: pretty damn transphobic. 

Note: I’d like to point out that while Identity is not a game to be won gender itself socially does function within hierarchies, and usually with masculine qualities being seen as superior to femme ones (Cough patriarchy cough). I find that a lot of the conversations made by these people I’m denouncing lean pretty heavily on misogynistic ways of thinking to win their arguments, even if indirectly. So perhaps think about that but this is a post for another time.

[trans-is-here]

A Gender Dysphoria Master-Post

Disclaimer: Most sections will preface with my own conceptions and ideas of what these different things mean, primarily from my own experience. I do this mainly because it might help some people more than just a huge list of links. This doesn’t mean it isn’t creditable, but rather that it doesn’t have sources to back up my claims. I’ve done a lot of research and thinking on this topic and it would be tiring to try to find sources for everything I talk about. This Master-Post will be opinionated in some ways, however, I tried to make this post as inclusive as possible! 

TL;DR: This post highlights gender dysphoria, it’s different types, gender euphoria, misconceptions, transition and more. It can be used as a general resource, but I recommend not using it as your only resource for this topic. I’m not all knowing! I’ve sectioned things out if your only interested in reading on one thing. If interested read below. 

If you have questions or concerns with this post I am willing to answer questions and accept messages! However, I ask not to add them onto this post, except if they are in your tags. I may not see tags but I do tend to read them. Thank You!

Keep reading