What does it mean to be trans without dysphoria?

It doesn't actually erase nonbinary genders. There are multiple ways nonbinary genders can exist and be compatible with transmedicalism, depending on your perspective: someone with with dysphoria that causes them to need a mix of sex characteristics or no sex characteristics could be considered nonbinary, or someone who specifically needs both or no genitalia.

Just to be clear, I don't fully support transmedicalism, but I do think the views get a much worse rep than they deserve, so I wanted to clear up the misconception that transmedicalists don't believe in nonbinary genders.


My overall view on the question is that most people who identify as trans without dysphoria are simply using an altered definition of dysphoria or don't realize they have it. I also believe that gender euphoria is simply the relief of dysphoria you hadn't been aware of. Obviously, these aren't things I know for sure; it's just my perspective and beliefs.

 

The best way I've had it explained to me is that they don't have really crippling body dysphoria and that it's more social and mental; but I may have been told wrong.

 

I am trying very hard not to throw around mean words here.

 

I can accept that, however there are actually many non-binary people who experience physical dysphoria.

 

ok, im going to say this. no matter what definations, or such you are comfortable with or studies/medical articles you have read no one should be policing the idenity of anyone here. there is a lot of that going on in this thread and as a trans person who does not experience any kind of crushing dysphoria the hair splitting and round about talking is insulting to me personally as a BiGender person.

 

I don't personally self-describe as trans (it always feels like stepping into a place that isn't mine, I guess) but as a generally non-dysphoric person of...uncertain gender, here's my take:

I acknowledge that my body is, by a lot of people's definitions, a "female-looking" body. But I struggle to recognise it as such, and I'm not sure I'd want to. I appreciate a lot of things about my body, I love a lot of things about my body, and I'm happy to have it. I'm happier with it than I would be if I'd ended up in the other standard model.

But as far as I'm concerned, the assumptions people make about my body do not reflect anything about me as the person who rides around in it. If I'd been given the option at the Character Select screen of life, I think I'd have chosen more ambiguous features (I remember my wide hips being a long-standing point of annoyance post-puberty, I've since adjusted) but for the most part I kind of shrug and go 'Well, it's a nice body.'

I would love to be able to grow facial hair, but don't experience any distress at the idea that I can't - just again, that kind of 'shrug, oh well'. I don't care for the idea of the level of masculinisation that going on T would cause alongside growing more hair on me. (If I could pick and choose, that'd be another story.) Being either direction too far on the feminine/masculine slider makes me vaguely uncomfortable.

Negative feelings surrounding my gender tend to focus more on 'I'm upset that other people don't see me the way I see myself,' rather than 'The way I look actively conflicts with how I perceive myself.' I'm okay with the hand I got rolled, even if it's not what I would have chosen for myself.

Honestly, it's thinking too much about my gender that causes me any mental anguish, rather than the ambiguity of my gender itself, which to me at this point is practically a regular fact of life.

 

I used to wrestle with this a lot, but the conclusion that I've come to is that people are defining words differently. Most common is people having different definitions of dysphoria.

I've heard the argument of gender euphoria a lot. That is, people state that they experience no dysphoria around their body or being treated socially as their birth gender, but experience joy or euphoria when treated as a different gender. Therefore, they are that different gender and are therefore transgender. I can see how this line of reasoning makes sense if and only if their conclusion is that they are bigender, genderfluid, or one of the other many non-binary options that includes some amount of attachment to or identification with their birth assigned gender.

Gender euphoria is not enough, however, to conclude that your real gender is completely at odds with your birth gender (ie, binary transgender or perhaps agender) and here is why: People, in general, NEVER experience gender euphoria when treated as the gender they have been treated as for any significant portion of time. Have you ever seen a cisgender man's eyes light up when you call him "sir"? Even a trans person's gender euphoria quickly fades as when they begin to pass consistently.

Therefore, gender euphoria can easily be enough to know that you are a gender other than your birth gender, but it cannot be enough on its own to tell you whether this is in addition to or in opposition to your birth gender.

Now here's the part where people's definitions tend to be different. In my opinion, if anything is telling you that your birth gender is wrong, that thing can be described as a type of gender dysphoria. In some people it is crippling dissonance between brain and body. In some it is overwhelming anxiety about being treated as their birth gender. And in others it's hardly noticeable at all - a feeling that is difficult to pinpoint and almost just like knowledge they've always had. Some people, for whatever reason, don't seem to think the second half of that scale "counts" as dysphoria. Some also don't seem to think it counts if they are able to find coping mechanisms to deal with their dysphoria (there were several examples of this in this thread!). I don't know why they think these things, and frankly, it doesn't matter. We're just defining words differently.

But to me, whenever someone says, "I don't experience dysphoria, but I know that the gender I was born as is not the gender I truly am," for ANY reason, it is like saying, "I am not a pilot, I just fly planes."

 

I am not policing anybody's gender. I am simply explaining that there is a difference between trans people who feel physical dysphoria and those who do not. There needs to be a way to distinguish the two because frankly we are not the same. We should totally support each other and everything, but there should still be some sort of distinguishing term between people who feel physical dysphoria and people who don't. That's why I use "transgender" to describe everybody in the community and "transsexual" to refer only to the people who experience physical dysphoria. The difference is that transsexual people have a neurobiological condition which causes their brain to expect a different body than hat they have, which causes physical dysphoria. Transsexual people often experience phantom body feelings, much like amputees with ghost limbs. The absence of physical dysphoria indicates that one does not have this neurological condition. I am in no way saying that a non-dysphoric person's identity is wrong or doesn't deserve respect, I am just saying that they do not have the same medical condition that dysphoric trans people do.

 

I feel that we are all the same wither we experience dysphoria or not.

 

That is simply not true. If you don't have physical dysphoria, you cannot even begin to understand what my experiences and struggles have been like.

I have a neurological condition that you don't, so no, we are not the same.

 

Just because I do not have something does not mean I can't understand it.

Just because one trans person has an experience that is different from another trans person does not mean they are different.

 

Actually, it does. Just as a cisgender person cannot understand the experience of a transgender person, someone who does not have physical dysphoria cannot understand what it's like to live with it.

We are different. We are different but equal.

 

As I said in an earlier post, I did have physical dysphoria as a teenager. I do understand what it is like. And anyone with an imagination can image how horrible it is.
And I understand that trans brains and cis brains are different, but you can not claim that those who do not have dysphoria do not have a trans brain. You have no proof of that.
And there are trans people who have transition who ha en't experience dysphoria, and they are still trans.

I believe this is a topic best left dropped because as toucan see from other posters, it is upsetting to people.

 

That's like saying you can understand what it's like to have post traumatic stress disorder just by imagining it.

And actually the point I have been making this entire time is that without dysphoria, your brain is not in opposition to your physical body. And there is extensive proof of this. The scientific, medical understanding of transsexualism is a mismatch between the neural map of the body and the body itself, similar to those with phantom limbs or xenomelia. This dissonance between brain and body causes dysphoria. If you don't feel dysphoria, you don't have a mismatch between your somatic neural hardwiring and your body. It's a very simple concept: you have to exhibit the symptoms of a condition to have that condition. You can't just choose to have it.

And like I said before, I'm not intending that to mean that your identity is invalid, just that you do not have the medical condition that I have.

Frankly I don't care if I'm upsetting people because there's a little thing called free speech that's more important than people's feelings. I feel strongly about this and I'll express myself regardless of whether people disagree or are offended.

 

Well, my belief is that you are wrong..
I do not choose to be trans nor does anyone, by thanks for thinking that.

 

I don't think that you are not trans. I only think that you don't have the same medical condition that I have.

 

THIS!! there are enough people out there trying to divide us, lets not do their work for them.:bang:

 

excellent question. i live in the trans spectrum, am i like caitlyn jenner? no, am i like rou paul? no. that i am trans has no bearing on how much or how little dysphoria i have or dont have. someone elses impostion of a label or oh your label isnt like mine sooo..... is policing weither or not they have some medical articles or studies to confirm their opinion.

 

I've only now figured out a way to describe what I meant, though I've used the explationation before in the past.

I have a cealic disease and among other things it is an auto immune disease (which is how I sort of view gender dysphoria as well).
The thing about this disease is that it is hard to diagnose because there are over 300 symptoms, and because of that it is often misdiagnosed as other digestive diseases or even chalked down to a person being depressed....But, there are a large number of people who have atypical symptoms, or who show no symptoms at all. They don't realize they've had it till their body is so damaged that then they started showing some symptoms. I myself didn't start having signs till I was 18 and my gallbladder was rremove, though judging by damage mine was triggered around 12 years of age.

And this isn't disease that is like this. There are several diseases that have this wide range of symptoms.

So my reasoning is that if other medical diseases can range from no symptoms to mild symptoms to severe symptoms, then why can't gender dysphoria be the same way. In the end the only thing that separates a person with the same disease is the level of suffering, but that doesn't mean they are suffering from completely different medical conditions.

Now I'm sure someone will find a way to say that i am wrong, but this is my belief and I will.hold to it till there is concrete proof that I am wrong. So far all we have are a few tests, studies, theories, and best guesses. And all the test show is that a trans person brain is different from a cis person's brain. But in have yet to read one that says a non-binary identity or a person without dysphoria brain isn't mapped the same as a binary or dysphoric person's brain.

And, Dreamer, its not so much degrading of labels. Trans medical people do try to be supportive, but often their idea of trans comes off sounding like "we are real trans because our suffering is greater, and the rest are fakers". It is probably not what they mean, but it is how it comes off and is why a lot of people don't support them.