This is an interesting article but it’s a little superficial. I wish it addressed where that internal gender originates from. It’s something I’ve been trying to understand. We know gender dysphoria is real and transgender is something that needs to be addressed through presentation (I hope I’m saying this right). But doesn’t that presentation ultimately conform to arbitrary societal norms on gender presentation?
It’s because we are social creatures who are not entirely in control of our schemas, or conceptualisations. We can’t just decide to have logical opinions and have it work instantly. There’s always a difficulty, and the difficulty scales with personal relevance and importance. When we aren’t in control, society decides how we define things like “man” and “woman”. And the internal sense demands that we be able to categorise ourselves as the preferred gender, to the standards of not just our ego but also our irrational id.
Kinda? I dress feminine because it makes me feel attractive and it’s my style. But the dysphoria took hormones and bottom surgery to deal with. If I’m a woman in a suit, I don’t feel dysphoric at all unless people are misgendering me, meanwhile before transitioning I attempted crossdressing and I swear I never felt more dysphoric in my life than then. But also other people have different experiences.
Thank you for sharing your experience. This clears up quite a bit for me and I’m a bit surprised with myself it wasn’t obvious sooner. I think I’m just fascinated by societal norms about gender presentation and how it evolves over time. What you explained makes total sense to me.
This is an interesting article but it’s a little superficial. I wish it addressed where that internal gender originates from. It’s something I’ve been trying to understand. We know gender dysphoria is real and transgender is something that needs to be addressed through presentation (I hope I’m saying this right). But doesn’t that presentation ultimately conform to arbitrary societal norms on gender presentation?
It’s because we are social creatures who are not entirely in control of our schemas, or conceptualisations. We can’t just decide to have logical opinions and have it work instantly. There’s always a difficulty, and the difficulty scales with personal relevance and importance. When we aren’t in control, society decides how we define things like “man” and “woman”. And the internal sense demands that we be able to categorise ourselves as the preferred gender, to the standards of not just our ego but also our irrational id.
Kinda? I dress feminine because it makes me feel attractive and it’s my style. But the dysphoria took hormones and bottom surgery to deal with. If I’m a woman in a suit, I don’t feel dysphoric at all unless people are misgendering me, meanwhile before transitioning I attempted crossdressing and I swear I never felt more dysphoric in my life than then. But also other people have different experiences.
Thank you for sharing your experience. This clears up quite a bit for me and I’m a bit surprised with myself it wasn’t obvious sooner. I think I’m just fascinated by societal norms about gender presentation and how it evolves over time. What you explained makes total sense to me.
Thank you!