Dysphoria=/=Internalized Transphobia!

[u/Creativered4]

I am starting to see more people equate dysphoria with internalized transphobia, and it's getting really frustrating to see.

Internalized transphobia is when you see and experience transphobia in the world, things like "trans people are lesser" , "trans people aren't their gender", "trans people will never find love" etc. and you internalize that. It becomes "I am lesser, I am not (gender), I will never find love. Because I'm trans"
Internalized transphobia is putting subjective opinions of bigoted people into your mind and into your communities, and believing that they are fact.

Dysphoria, on the other hand, is something that nearly every trans person has experienced!
Dysphoria is when a trans person experiences an aspect about themselves that relates to their AGAB, and it makes them uncomfortable, because it is incorrect. When someone gets dysphoric about being clocked or being seen as trans in some way, that is NOT a judgement on anyone else. (Honestly people's dysphoria about anything is not a judgement on anyone else and is HIGHLY PERSONAL)
It is a very normal thing. They don't think that being seen as trans or clocked makes them lesser. They are reminded "Hey, I am born (AGAB). Remember this thing that's causing me a lot of pain? Yeah, you need to remember that. Also other people can see that thing that's causing you pain. They can see your AGAB"
If a trans woman just wants to be seen as a woman, and not as a male woman or an amab woman (which, a trans woman means a woman who was not born female.) or a trans man wants to be seen as a man, and not a female man or an afab man (and trans man means a man not born male)... Neither of those is internalized transphobia. Neither of them is wrong for wanting to be seen as only the most authentic version of themselves.

A trans man being dysphoric about his lack of penis or a trans woman being dysphoric about her lack of vagina is not internalized transphobia. Physical dysphoria is not about society saying "I'll only use she/her if you have a vagina". It's about the brain being like "wait no that's not right. I am uncomfortable!"

This is an INCREDIBLY important conversation that needs to be had, before more damage can be done. Because this kind of talk is hurting people who are ALREADY HURTING. It's making dysphoric people feel vilified and unwelcome for something completely normal. It pushes people away. And unfortunately when people are pushed away and made to feel bad for something they can't even help, sometimes it takes them down a dark path, and then they DO adopt ACTUAL transphobic ideas. Thankfully there are a lot of us who DON'T go down that dark path. But I want to stop people from even having a chance of going down that dark path. Because that just perpetuates a cycle of hurt.

I also think it's incredibly important to mention that a lot of these ideas that normal trans things are "transphobic" come from transphobes infiltrating our communities and spreading hatred to splinter us apart.
I'm not claiming everyone who does think like this is a LARPer, but I will say that whoever convinced you that that is the case may very well could have been a transphobe pretending to be trans or an ally.
Sadly this is a known thing. They will infiltrate our communities, steal our images, take screenshots, spread misinformation, and cause as much mayhem and harm as possible.

Please be aware of what you are saying to or about other trans people, and think twice before you label something as "internalized transphobia" PLEASE!

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[u/YukikoBestGirlFiteMe]

Say it louder for the people in the back!

[u/Harvesting_The_Crops]

Believing that gender dysphoria is the internalized transphobia is a very slippery slope to other very harmful ideologies that will hurt trans people. Demonizing an extremely common part of being trans is very VERY bad for the community.

[u/cryptichourglass]

Yes! Agree. Dysphoria is not self-hate. It’s the (albeit uncomfortable) drive to authentically self-express.

There is nuance to this, bc of course society can pressure trans people into medically transitioning beyond what they truly want in order to attain legal status or protection or acceptance as their authentic gender, and it’s perfectly fine to not want to medically transition with surgeries and whatnot, for any reason, especially since it’s so expensive and difficult.

But it is very weird and incorrect to call gender and sex dysphoria “internalized transphobia”. I think there are plenty of people with internalized transphobia but what makes them have internalized transphobia is that they constantly misgender and berate other trans people and hope to be “one of the good ones”. It’s trans people who date chasers or barely-tolerant-transphobes because they think that’s all they deserve/can get.

[u/Last_Swordfish9135]

I think there is some overlap, even though this is generally correct. Like, I've seen a fair number of trans people essentially project their own dysphoria onto other (mainly non-passing) trans people, which is internalized transphobia in a way. When someone says 'I don't like seeing or acknowledging other trans people who don't pass because that gives me secondhand dysphoria', that is rooted in dysphoria, but it also is a kind of internalized transphobia.

[u/Creativered4 → u/Last_Swordfish9135]

I think what you're talking about is a fine line, and also I think it should have its own term, like projected dysphoria. Because it's really not transphobia, it's projecting dysphoria, which can harm others when acted on.

[u/Last_Swordfish9135 → u/Creativered4]

Fair enough.