Would anyone truly feel dysphoric or even suicidal if they woke up as the opposite sex/gender?

submitted by jacques1102 from self.TumblrInAction

I'm sure a lot of you have seen this argument from TRAs."If you woke up as the opposite sex, you'd understand the pain that trans people go through".I don't know about anyone else, but if i woke up as a woman one day i'll admit that at first (key words are at first) i would be weirded out by it, and probably be uncomfortable, but eventually i'd learn to adapt to my new body.I would never make the jump to"killing myself" because such a thing is too extreme for me.What about anyone here?If so then why do these people seem to think that if such a thing happened that everyone would just refuse to accept themselves, and just become suicidal?

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[–][deleted] 10 insightful - 3 fun10 insightful - 2 fun11 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

Id certainly be dysphoric, but thats because I've had a male body for 39 years. But this is a disingenuous argument and beside the point, they didn't just wake up in another body one day, its the one they've always had. If the world's greatest athlete woke up in my body one day, I'd expect they'd be awfully dysphoric about the sudden change in athleticism, what they've dedicated their whole life to would be taken from them. I on the other hand have had decades to comes to terms with the fact that I won't ever be a professional athlete and have based my self-worth and identity on other qualities. I would have to be insane to say, 'but in my brain I was always a professional athlete and I was born in the wrong body and we are all gonna play pretend or else'.

P.S. - The doctors incorrectly assigned me as a peasant at birth, I was meant to be a member of the royal family. You will call me Baron von Phooey III and curtsy in my presence or I will have HR send you to sensitivity training

[–]Alienhunter糞大名 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I mean that's the rub. Most of us can probably emphasize somewhat with the "I don't feel right in my own skin" feeling but we aren't literally "in the wrong body" and they didn't wake up one morning suddenly the opposite sex of what they've always been.

I think the biggest problem is self acceptance. I just accept myself as myself and see no reason to make drastic changes to myself in order to be happy. If by some magic I was the opposite sex it would probably be mentally distressing to come to terms with it, but I'd have the same mentality, it is what it is so just deal with it.

[–]xoenix 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

they didn't just wake up in another body one day, its the one they've always had.

I've heard that some MtFs have destroyed their brains and gone senile at an early age due to taking lot of estrogen and forgetting they were trans. Then they're distressed about missing their penis or having boobs and wondering why the nurse is calling them a "she".

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

No. No I'm pretty sure if I woke up in Michael Nando's body I would be fine. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of Afghani and Iranian girls who would be happy to wake up as boys.

I also can't reconcile a reality where, if I suddenly sprouted a kickstand, I should be allowed to just strip off in the women's changerooms.

[–]LordoftheFliesAmeri-kin 2.0. Pronouns: MegaWhite/SuperStraight/UltraPatriarchy 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

I also can't reconcile a reality where, if I suddenly sprouted a kickstand, I should be allowed to just strip off in the women's changerooms.

Protip from a life-long male: you gotta work up to that level of exposure, you can't just go all in (or out, rather) your very first day. My advice is to start with those weird European swim briefs, the ones that hairy, rich Greek dudes wear that look like painted-on rubber. If you can handle that without wanting to curl up and die of embarassment, you're fine the changerooms!

[–]ClassroomPast6178Problematising the things you love. 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

But Stavros just wants to feel seen! Don’t Greek-shame Stavros!

[–]Wanderingthehalls 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

If I woke up as a man, especially as a man who is a male equivalent of myself in terms of age and fitness levels, I'd spend a lot of time lifting things, doing pull-ups and running and jumping, so I could experience what male strength and explosive power is like. And I'd dance and do yoga to see if I missed the fluidity that I feel in my body. I'd probably do some experiments where I'd deliberately hurt myself a little to see if men and women experience pain differently. And yes, I'd absolutely have a wank because it would be odd not to see what that's like.

Then I'd feel sad about not going back to my own body because I like being me. But mainly because of how very, very, very disturbing it would be for my son to have to accept his mother in the wrong body. And that's the big difference between me and people who trans themselves. I want to stay in my body because the relationships I have with other people are centred on me being me and the most important relationship I will ever have with anyone is my relationship with my son. It would take the ground out from under his feet if I was to suddenly expect him to accept me as a different person. And at least if I was genuinely in a different body, I wouldn't be gaslighting him to accept me as someone else when I'm clearly still me, in the way that parents who trans themselves do.

[–]chadwickofwv 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It makes perfect sense you would want to experience male strength and explosive power. It is on a completely different level than any woman has ever experienced. I think if I woke up as a woman my primary thought would be "holy shit I'm weak!" Because I am so used to being very powerful in comparison to those around me. I would also have to rub one out to see what it was like for women.

[–]slavdude0 2 insightful - 5 fun2 insightful - 4 fun3 insightful - 5 fun -  (0 children)

Dunno but I would definitely play with my boobs and go crash a car.

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

I'm dysphoric, so I'd jump of joy if I woke up as a man. :P That being said, I've never thought about killing myself just because I believe being a woman kinda sucks. Mostly I'd want to be a man (a REAL man not a botched mutilation experiment) just to find out if I was right in thinking men have it better.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think those suicidal trans people end up being suicidal when they realize that maining and mutilating permanently their body didn't turn them of the opposite sex....

[–]UncleWillard56 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I'd be shocked because that's fucking impossible.

[–]Q-Continuum-kin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It's funny how there were movies about this in the 80s and 90s but none of the reactions were like "omg i turned into the opposite sex now I need to have a mental breakdown."

[–]Alienhunter糞大名 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I feel it's a good fictional idea to explore a bunch of social expectations on the sexes that aren't often discussed. But fiction often tends to just devolve into rather lewd situations rather than something interesting.

[–]AriShekelsteinDDS 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

If I woke up in a woman’s body, I would miss being a man but then I’d at least get a bunch of new privileges and get to live life on easy mode.

[–]JulienMayfair 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah . . . but that's not really what happens to trans people. They don't suddenly wake up one day to find that their body has changed, so it's not really a great analogy.

[–]LyingSpirit472 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If I woke up in the opposite body, I know I'd spend the first day just looking at myself naked and masturbating.

With that, I believe I truly understand what most snarts go through.

[–]jet199 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

No, I'd have a great time

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

First off, all this is unfalsifiable, making it a bad argument. But let's imagine anyway. I want to break this into a few parts:

As far as physical dysphoria, yeah the physical sensation of having a couple weights on my chest would probably be pretty distracting. For how long that would last, who knows?

Socially, I wouldn't want to be hit on by guys, but I can't see myself running around insisting that everyone call me a man.

Of course all of this is not a direct comparison, as this situation is about actually being one thing instead of another, as opposed to claiming that you are and know what it's like to be a thing you never physically were.