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   Natasha Jay :mastodon: (natasha_jay@tech.lgbt)'s status on Tuesday, 30-May-2023 21:41:03 JST Natasha Jay :mastodon:

   Gender Dysphoria: I deliberately stopped using this term or dysphoric (whenever possible) a while back. I have been feeling as a trans woman how loaded the term still is with medical diagnosis and mental health connotations. A term of our oppression, a phrase of 'symbolic violence' as Judith Butler might say. A weak dilution of 'gender identity disorder'

   If by rejecting this term *at every level* outright I lose my ability to get a UK Gender Recognition Certificate, so be it. I keep my pride, my full trans agency and that - for me - is far more priceless

   Gender dysphoria, no I don't have

   Gender? Now *this* I have, in spades! :Fire_Trans:

   Sitting in a coffee shop as is my way ...
   #Musings #TransMusings #Trans #TransRightsUK #TransRights

   Cw: selfie, full eye contact

   • Embed this notice
     Kit Rhett Aultman (roadriverrail@signs.codes)'s status on Tuesday, 30-May-2023 21:41:02 JST Kit Rhett Aultman

     in reply to

     @Natasha_Jay I've seen similar arguments for pushing back with the term "gender trauma", and in some ways, I like it. I wouldn't have been dysphoric if I'd been free to follow my needs in the first place. I wouldn't cry in a mirror when I finally approach an appearance I recognize if I hadn't had to repress it for so long. Dysphoria is, at best, a symptom of engaging with a world that wouldn't let me take the actions I needed early enough. Not fully convinced, but it's interesting.

   • Embed this notice
     Kit Rhett Aultman (roadriverrail@signs.codes)'s status on Tuesday, 30-May-2023 23:21:39 JST Kit Rhett Aultman

     in reply to

     @Natasha_Jay Oh, yes, I also very much agree with that, and I agree with the history of that term coming not only from patriarchal gatekeeping but also from a gatekeeping system designed to minimize the number of "truly trans" people and steer a wide swath of them into other "pathologies", too.

   • Embed this notice
     Natasha Jay :mastodon: (natasha_jay@tech.lgbt)'s status on Tuesday, 30-May-2023 23:21:40 JST Natasha Jay :mastodon:

     in reply to

     • Kit Rhett Aultman

     @roadriverrail It's not actually a mental health condition or something to be diagnosed though. That view is purely patriarchal gatekeeping, and (imo) severe abuse of trans folk ...

   • Embed this notice
     Kit Rhett Aultman (roadriverrail@signs.codes)'s status on Tuesday, 30-May-2023 23:38:50 JST Kit Rhett Aultman

     in reply to

     @Natasha_Jay Yeah, I think the point about something like "gender trauma" others on Fedi have suggested is to really discuss the ways in which many of us (myself included) have been traumatized for our variance, often in ways we didn't understand when we were young. And working through trauma is good work to do, but it's not like doing so will "cure" us, either.

   • Embed this notice
     Natasha Jay :mastodon: (natasha_jay@tech.lgbt)'s status on Tuesday, 30-May-2023 23:38:51 JST Natasha Jay :mastodon:

     in reply to

     • Kit Rhett Aultman

     @roadriverrail Yeah, I don't deny the experience although I might have a nuanced view on the causes for sure. But the word itself I have stopped using generally because of ALL the connotations "loaded" onto it

     "Gender incongruence" maybe ... in fact I believe I *generate/trigger* "gender experiential mirroring" which disturbs some *other* people far more than me 😉

     #NewPerspectives

   • Embed this notice
     Kit Rhett Aultman (roadriverrail@signs.codes)'s status on Tuesday, 30-May-2023 23:46:18 JST Kit Rhett Aultman

     in reply to

     @Natasha_Jay Not quite sure I understand the question, but most traumas come from experiences. And so, of course, talking about trauma won't capture the entire trans experience, but it's not meant to, either.

   • Embed this notice
     Natasha Jay :mastodon: (natasha_jay@tech.lgbt)'s status on Tuesday, 30-May-2023 23:46:19 JST Natasha Jay :mastodon:

     in reply to

     • Kit Rhett Aultman

     @roadriverrail *Exactly* And even any trauma is inflicted upon is, it is not (in itself) innate?

   • Embed this notice
     Kit Rhett Aultman (roadriverrail@signs.codes)'s status on Wednesday, 31-May-2023 08:10:34 JST Kit Rhett Aultman

     in reply to

     • Ada

     @Natasha_Jay @ada I'll happily admit this was a term I saw elsewhere on the Fedi and I've been kinda kicking it around since, including here. I appreciate that y'all have turned the subject over and prodded it and experimented with it in a thoughtful way. I'm less convinced of the term's usefulness than I was before, but I do want to take it back to the lab, because *something* in there resonates.

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     Ada (ada@blahaj.zone)'s status on Wednesday, 31-May-2023 08:10:35 JST Ada

     in reply to

     • Kit Rhett Aultman

     @roadriverrail@signs.codes @Natasha_Jay@tech.lgbt My issue with framing it a trauma is that I want to define my existence on my own terms. Framing it as a trauma response takes away my agency and centres the impact that transphobes have had, rather than centering our own personal empowerment.
     
     Yeah, we all experience trauma, but I don't want that to be the lens through which I focus my experiences.

   • Embed this notice
     Natasha Jay :mastodon: (natasha_jay@tech.lgbt)'s status on Wednesday, 31-May-2023 08:10:35 JST Natasha Jay :mastodon:

     in reply to

     • Kit Rhett Aultman
     • Ada

     @ada @roadriverrail
     Ada, I agree. I think so much (maybe all) of all this has been externally inflicted onto us in different ways, none of it should define us.

     And almost all of it needs to be "re-framed", which is kind of why I started this ... a thought provoker