Four reasons to stop saying "gender dysphoria"

[catduckgoose]

https://4w.pub/avoid-saying-gender-dysphoria/

Saw this posted on Ovarit, the author makes some great points about how "gender dysphoria" is a sexist term that is underpinned by the ideology of transgender.

Not a mismatch between our sexed bodies and something else, but a mismatch between our likes/wishes/personalities and the gender stereotypes imposed upon us by society by virtue of our biology.

When one of my sisters and one other young were were studying science A Levels in a mixed rather than single sex school (catchment areas and boundary changes), their classmates wrote phrases on the blackboard such as

[Sister's name and other young woman's name] eat Pal.

There would also be lewd diagrams and similar barracking all through the classes and lab sessions. Such was society that the teachers didn't find this sufficiently problematic to intervene.

I've always thought that any dysphoria was not on the part of my sister or her female classmate.

Is this a better phrase to use: Uncomfortable with societal stereotyping?

If you're a gender non conforming woman what exactly is a gender conforming woman? Do they have to conform to every single gender stereotype that has ever existed or has ever been thought up? Or do they just have to conform to some of them and you're non conforming because you don't conform to any? Or is there a specific number you have to conform or not conform to to qualify as conforming or non conforming?

Yes. I thought those tired old sex stereotypes had died out in the 1970s.

Genderism had to revive them, with a vengeance. Otherwise the concept of ‘changing sex’ wouldn’t have even a veneer of making sense.

On the other hand, given that the stereotypes have been so aggressively revived, I can see why dissidents describe themselves as gender-nonconforming. They (we) are not conforming to the new ‘rules’.

The people who use the phrase 'gender non conforming' are ones who conform to gender stereotypes. Possibly not the stereotypes traditionally associated with their sex.

They have no right to impose that stereotyped world view on the rest of us.

I used to hate being called a tomboy. I was no sort of boy. I was a girl. So don't call me a boy just because I do things differently! I happily embraced the gender non-conforming label

As an adolescent I was one of those who described herself as having a man's brain in a woman's body.

But throughout I was confident that I was female, a girl and then a woman, and I was angered by the drive to separate my personality from my body, and what I saw as an attempt to deprive me of womanhood just because I was not feminine.

If gender is merely a morass of stereotypes, then the description gender non-conforming is very helpful as it demonstrates how ridiculous these stereotypes are.

Haha this is my issue with the GNC concept... Plus different cultures and families have different ideas of what constitutes feminine and masculine. And some lines are so blurred. If you do the ironing and enjoy it - is that gender conforming? What if you do ironing but don't enjoy it? I never iron anything, I'm very GNC 😂 in my family the men always do the ironing as they're more likely to own shirts that need ironing. Is that typical male behaviour or is it emasculating?? 😂

We're all gender non-confirming to some extent. That's because gender is daft grouping of inconsistent stereotypes.

I'd still much rather be called a GNC girl than a tomboy.

Oh come on! We all know one in a 1000 trans'women' are gender non conforming women and make precisely zero effort to look like anything other than ( stereotype of) their sex.

I know that none in a thousand transwomen are women.

Trans is all about conforming through clothes and mannerisms to imagined gender stereotypes. Transwomen to 'feminine' stereotypes. Transmen to 'masculine' stereotypes.

This

Its body dysmorphia and we need to keep saying this over and over

It’s not body dysmorphia. BD describes how a person feels about their body, usually a specific part of their body. While GD describes how a person feels about the sex role stereotypes that are imposed upon them as a result of being a man or woman.
A gender non conforming woman is a person who doesn’t conform to certain normative stereotypes; eg I’m tall, angular, hairy, mathematical, opinionated, athletic. My friend, who is much more gender conforming is small, curvy, removes her body hair and facial hair, she loves cooking and babies, she is very nurturing, she is compliant and avoids conflict.

this all relies upon stereotypes. But norms are there for a reason

Norm is a statistical term. Similar to average. Norms and averages exist to enable planners, advertisers etc to work out their target population. As such, they exist for a reason, but individuals hardly ever conform to them - eg, the average number of legs adult humans have is less than 2 because amputees exist. Average heights, or the norms for heights, can be calculated and can be useful for eg assessing population nutrition and health. But most people are not average height.

Stereotypes are different - something related to fashion and what can be sold to a target audience. Not real, not rooted in fact, just in fantasy.

Biological sex exists, and DSDs notwithstanding, it is a binary and there is no spectrum. The way human beings live, otoh, is infinitely variable.

And btw, height and body shape aren't something a person can opt in or out of, so how can they be stereotypes or in any way connected to 'gender'?

Not sure where my mother would have fitted on your imaginary chart - short, curvy, fantastic cook, loved babies and children, taught maths to A level standard and opinionated enough to end up with a later life career as university philosophy lecturer.

Not a woman to conform for the sake of conforming.

My friend, who is much more gender conforming is small, curvy, removes her body hair and facial hair, she loves cooking and babies, she is very nurturing, she is compliant and avoids conflict.

I don’t know any women who are like this. And I don’t think there is any societal expectation for women to be like this either. Certainly not in the UK in 2024.

Not in the UK in the1950s to the 1980s either according to my mother, or in Ireland from the 1970s on. It's the genderists who invent these stereotypes. I'm still baffled (and appalled) by the idea that height and body shape are in some way 'gendered'.

Its body dysmorphia

To want to remove breasts, genitalia, grow hair where it doesnt normally, to feel those parts are not part of you.

No it's not Body Dysmorphia, this is a definition of BD: "Body dysmorphic disorder, or body dysmorphia, is a mental health condition where you spend a lot of time worrying about your appearance. You may have body dysmorphic disorder if you worry a lot about how a specific part of your body looks and it affects your daily life."

How does that fit in with the obsession most trans-identifying people have with their voice?

Voice is part of how one physically manifests (or 'appears') to others. It is the same thing.