All: Is body acceptance better than transitioning?

submitted by Penultimate_Penance from (self.GCdebatesQT)

How is it not toxic to believe you need to take wrong sex hormones and get surgery to be your authentic self? Shouldn't you be able to be authentically you without modifying your body?

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[–]HouseplantWomen who disagree with QT are a different sex 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Infinitely superior.

Accepting one’s body as their self is vital to mental well-being.

Reinforcing the idea that the body is a thing someone owns, and that it is constantly displaying some signal or other regarding the person who posesses it is destructive, useless, exploitative, and cruel.

Millions of dollars wring out of vulnerable and emotionally struggling people who have been promised that all their problems will be solved by this perfect transformation.
Nobody gets the transformation they were sold and the results of experimental surgeries can only be romanticised for so long.

[–]cars 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Yes yes yes yes YES. If you read detransitioner stories on Reddit and Twitter, you'll see that their "gender dysphoria" is mostly general body dysmorphia, internalized misogyny/homophobia, porn/sex/masturbation addiction (we think this mostly affects men, but I've seen several female detransitioners say porn played a role in their transition too -- think yaoi fangirls), discomfort with social roles, and pressure to fit in with what is trendy. These are all things that can be overcome without wrong-sex hormones and surgery.

[–]peakingatthemomentTranssexual (natal male), HSTS 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, it’s probably better, but is it always possible? I don’t know. Dysphoria is real and I don’t know if self-acceptance is always enough. Maybe it is for some people and that is wonderful. It’s better I feel like not to transition, but some people have to I feel like to be okay. You could be authentically you without modifying your body, but you would still have dysphoria and that is really hard.

[–]Lizzythelezzo 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I definitely think body acceptance is better than transitioning. But I doubt that treating people with gender dysphoria is as simple as helping them accept their bodies. Most I've met have pretty major structural dissociation and Cluster B disorders (on top of diagnoses like autism and ADHD), which are notoriously challenging to treat on their own - whether they have gender dysphoria or not. My hypothesis is that gender dysphoria is generally a symptom of structural dissociation, so you have to treat that in order to resolve it properly. Obviously in many cases there are other factors going on like porn addiction and autogynephilia too.

[Edit] Janina Fisher has some great resources on treating structural dissociation if that's of interest.

[–]GenderbenderShe/her/hers 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

While body acceptance is better than physical transitioning, for some people only transition alleviates dysphoria and that's OK.