QT: Doesn't gender-identity only make sense for trans people? Why use it for non-trans people?

submitted by FlanJam from self.GCdebatesQT

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[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

We’ve been round about this. It’s about the body dysphoria. You know that I wholly support the removal of gendered behavioral expectations.

No matter how effeminate a man is or masculine a woman is, unless they have substantial body dysphoria they aren’t trans.

[–]loveSloaneDebate King 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

So there’s no such thing as gender identity? Because we aren’t talking about dysphoria and that’s not what I was asking about.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It’s not some phantom ideal of what clothes suit, it’s just whether you match up with your body or not. If there’s a mismatch - disphoria - trans. If not - no dysphoria- not trans

[–]loveSloaneDebate King 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There are dysphoric people, even on this very sub, who aren’t trans. So dysphoria doesn’t always equal trans. But my point is the body discomfort a dysphoric person experiences is not any type of identity, so to claim a gender identity because of having dysphoria is a huge leap that has never been proven or explained well. I get that people have dysphoria, I’m saying it doesn’t make sense to claim to have a gender identity because of it. As Houseplant asked, what makes discomfort in a male body translate into a female identity? Feeling out of place in your body doesn’t mean you somehow magically understand what it is to be the opposite sex/gender, wouldn’t it mean, and only mean, that you feel discomfort in your body? Even if it means you wish you were the opposite sex and intend to hormonally and surgically alter your body to appear as the opposite sex, there’s nothing that validates the idea that you can know what it is to be that sex/gender and identify with it. At best, trans people can only provably claim that transition helps alleviate dysphoria, nothing backs up the idea that a trans person can identify as something they just aren’t and (at least pre transition, assuming they pass after) haven’t been socialized or seen as.