Sooo… I’ve thought about this too, sometimes. But I’ve never felt an urge to transition or, like, felt uncomfortable inside my body. Aside from being chubby and getting bullied back in school, that is. I just liked entertaining the idea of having a female body. I always thought to myself “Who wouldn’t like that?”. What does that make me?
Surprisingly, an awful lot of men :3 One other factor to consider is how often you think about having a female body. An occasional “heh, that might be cool for a day” when you watch a gender-bending anime, or whenever your mind wanders?
A good way to confront your internalized phobias and biases is to ask yourself, if being a woman sounds good, why haven’t you transitioned already?
A couple of answers I hear a lot from trans-questioning people are:
“I’m ok with being a man.” ⇨ Does “ok” really mean “ok”, or is it perhaps “I don’t like it, but it’s all I know” (could be repressed dysphoria).
“Being born a woman would be OK, but I wouldn’t want to be a trans woman” ⇨ This could be internalized transphobia presenting as a fear of not passing.
“I don’t feel like a woman” ⇨ nobody “feels like” their gender, but you know who wants to be a woman? Women.
“I’m worried about what family/friends/society would say” ⇨ in other words, I want to transition but other people don’t want me to.
The “girl button” thought experiment is just a fun correlation; It’s not a requirement or a signifier of being trans. Being your ideal self also applies to cis people
Having done the experiment I can say from experience that this is the case. I wouldn’t give up the life I’m living but i would love to also experience that one, and all the other ones in between.
I think it’s definitely something to explore more. I was never really uncomfortable with my body, and when I started working out heavily, I was actually pretty happy for a bit. However, there was also that background thought over time of “It’d be cool to be a girl” and once I started exploring my femme side, I very quickly realized how much happier I was.
It’s one of the cruel things about the way trans people have been presented over the years, as feeling “trapped in the wrong body” and having this active hatred towards your AGAB. I figured that just because I was “okay” with being a guy, I wasn’t actually trans or anything, and wanting to be a woman was just something everyone did. It wasn’t until I started transitioning that I realized how much I did actively dislike my masculinity, but societal expectations told me that’s what I just had to suck it up and deal with it, and enjoy what few parts I could.
Just food for thought more than anything else, and echo the fact that the worst case is finding out what makes you happiest.
I cannot blame you for that. Being a guy (read: comfortably male) is very difficult in modern society. It’s far too wraped up in belligerent confidance in status quo more than what it means to be male.
I felt like that too. I thought I felt comfortable with my body (minus unrelated medical issues and being overweight). A lot of trings trans people cared about seemed foreign to me. Turns out I’m far more content with my body with HRT and being my current weight (obese) than I was when I was 30lbs lighter (borderline healthy/overweight). But I never really had a point of comparison since I had always been stuck with my body - I just assumed my feelings were normal and blamed any negative feelings on objectively factual problems with my body. I’ve come to realize I’m actually really bad at recognizing and understanding my emotions in general. Also, being trans need not be defined by suffering. It can be defined by what bring peace or happiness.
As for what that makes you, only you can figure that out. My experiences are only my own. And trying to make a guess on this based on this comment would be like trying to diagnose someone with ADHD because they said they sometimes forget where they put their keys.
Its not a hard indicator, but it could be your opportunity to really dig in to your feelings about gender. The outcomes are “you affirm that you are cis” or “you discover that you aren’t cis” both of which are excellent outcomes!
Who knows 🤷🏼 I think we’re still missing some vocab here, or I’m just ignorant lol.
I’d press the button but I’m not usually dysphoric about my body, it’s just what it is. I’m mostly uncomfortable with assumptions based on my assigned gender. I simply consider myself queer, don’t know what else to call it.
Sooo… I’ve thought about this too, sometimes. But I’ve never felt an urge to transition or, like, felt uncomfortable inside my body. Aside from being chubby and getting bullied back in school, that is. I just liked entertaining the idea of having a female body. I always thought to myself “Who wouldn’t like that?”. What does that make me?
Surprisingly, an awful lot of men :3 One other factor to consider is how often you think about having a female body. An occasional “heh, that might be cool for a day” when you watch a gender-bending anime, or whenever your mind wanders?
A good way to confront your internalized phobias and biases is to ask yourself, if being a woman sounds good, why haven’t you transitioned already?
A couple of answers I hear a lot from trans-questioning people are:
It just means you’re a curious person!
The “girl button” thought experiment is just a fun correlation; It’s not a requirement or a signifier of being trans. Being your ideal self also applies to cis people
Having done the experiment I can say from experience that this is the case. I wouldn’t give up the life I’m living but i would love to also experience that one, and all the other ones in between.
I think it’s definitely something to explore more. I was never really uncomfortable with my body, and when I started working out heavily, I was actually pretty happy for a bit. However, there was also that background thought over time of “It’d be cool to be a girl” and once I started exploring my femme side, I very quickly realized how much happier I was.
It’s one of the cruel things about the way trans people have been presented over the years, as feeling “trapped in the wrong body” and having this active hatred towards your AGAB. I figured that just because I was “okay” with being a guy, I wasn’t actually trans or anything, and wanting to be a woman was just something everyone did. It wasn’t until I started transitioning that I realized how much I did actively dislike my masculinity, but societal expectations told me that’s what I just had to suck it up and deal with it, and enjoy what few parts I could.
Just food for thought more than anything else, and echo the fact that the worst case is finding out what makes you happiest.
Masculinity is a terrible way to view being male.
I mean, thats fair enough, but even as a not particularly masculine male, I didn’t enjoy being a guy.
I cannot blame you for that. Being a guy (read: comfortably male) is very difficult in modern society. It’s far too wraped up in belligerent confidance in status quo more than what it means to be male.
I felt like that too. I thought I felt comfortable with my body (minus unrelated medical issues and being overweight). A lot of trings trans people cared about seemed foreign to me. Turns out I’m far more content with my body with HRT and being my current weight (obese) than I was when I was 30lbs lighter (borderline healthy/overweight). But I never really had a point of comparison since I had always been stuck with my body - I just assumed my feelings were normal and blamed any negative feelings on objectively factual problems with my body. I’ve come to realize I’m actually really bad at recognizing and understanding my emotions in general. Also, being trans need not be defined by suffering. It can be defined by what bring peace or happiness.
As for what that makes you, only you can figure that out. My experiences are only my own. And trying to make a guess on this based on this comment would be like trying to diagnose someone with ADHD because they said they sometimes forget where they put their keys.
Its not a hard indicator, but it could be your opportunity to really dig in to your feelings about gender. The outcomes are “you affirm that you are cis” or “you discover that you aren’t cis” both of which are excellent outcomes!
Who knows 🤷🏼 I think we’re still missing some vocab here, or I’m just ignorant lol.
I’d press the button but I’m not usually dysphoric about my body, it’s just what it is. I’m mostly uncomfortable with assumptions based on my assigned gender. I simply consider myself queer, don’t know what else to call it.