You know how it feels when you walk through a spiderweb and you catch it right in the face? You get the immediate, visceral disgust reaction and try to GET IT OFF as quick as possible.
But like, nobody can really see it. You can’t see it well, so you kind of flail around trying to catch enough of it to get it off of you, and everyone just sees you flailing around is like “what’s up with them??” cause they can’t see it either.
And then even after you get off (which is such a relief!!) it still sometimes feels like there’s some caught in your hair (even if there isn’t) or something crawling on you (even if there isn’t), which makes you mess around even more trying to get rid of it.
Anyway, gender dysphoria is like having a spiderweb on your face your entire life and transition is flailing around trying to get it off.
Thanks to my transmasc friend Ty who has no public online presence for this analogy.