So how is the concept of "Gender Dysphoria" transphobic?

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

As a transgendered person, I find that I suffer from the basic symptoms of gender dysphoria. I have phantom limb syndrome, mostly in the regions that you could imagine a transgendered person having it in. And I do feel a got bit of physical discomfort with my gender, which is the most intense during depression but is still constantly prevalent. However when I was browsing a post on here some one said that the concept was transphobia. I don't understand why, after all doesn't transexualism imply that you are uncomfortable with your gender?

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Uncomfortable isn't the word I would use as Transgender people feel that they were born in the wrong body (so it would be much greater feeling) so the need to transition is not merely a matter of being comfortable or not (as there are other identities where a person will behave in a manner usually attributed to another gender and not transition). Not sure about your Phantom limb syndrome; I am not Transgender but have not heard any of my Transgender friends talk about such occurrences so I am ignorant in such matters. To answer your question though it is Transphobic because gender, much like race, is something humanity made up: it doesn't actually exist. Therefore one cannot be considered "mentally ill" if one does not feel as if their birth gender is the one who they actually are on the inside.

[Yuppie Grinder]

The designation of Transsexualism as a mental illness serves to rob it of its legitimacy. Mental Health institutions that exist today are tools of social stratification. A mentally ill person is a pariah and a parasite from the perspective of bourgeois society. The labeling of the transsexuals as mentally ill only further dehumanizes them imo. I also don't buy it's scientific validity for a moment.
There might be some good arguments to the contrary that I'd like to hear.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Glad to see that somebody agrees with me that gender is an artificial social construct. Not surprised to see that it's you, TGU.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

The problem is how our society conceptualizes being trans. As a trans person, I don't consider myself to have a mental disorder.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

gender, much like race, is something humanity made up: it doesn't actually exist.
That's an oversimplification, I think. Gender is a complex mix of different elements.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

gender is an artificial social construct.
Partly, but not entirely.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Biological sex and gender are interrelated but separable. One is necessarily a constant in human nature, the other a mode of hierarchical role assignment.
Sorry if I am typing gibberish again I haven't slept in a long time.

[ind_com]

Biological sex and gender are interrelated but separable. One is necessarily a constant in human nature, the other a mode of hierarchical role assignment.
Sorry if I am typing gibberish again I haven't slept in a long time.

Can you explain that a bit?

[TheGodlessUtopian]

That's an oversimplification, I think. Gender is a complex mix of different elements.

I tend to simplify when answering posts but could you expand on this bit a bit, which elements?

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

I tend to simplify when answering posts but could you expand on this bit a bit, which elements?
I think it's hard to pick out what's social construct and what isn't, because it's all interwoven, but as a trans person I know my gender identity isn't a construct even if how gender is expressed in society is.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I think it's hard to pick out what's social construct and what isn't, because it's all interwoven, but as a trans person I know my gender identity isn't a construct even if how gender is expressed in society is.I think seeing gender as a social construct doesn't mean that our actual experiences in this social order are any less legitimate; race is a social construct, but it obviously has a very deep effect on people both in being oppressed for being part of a scapegoated race, but also in personal experiences (certain tradditions and so on).

I think because it is a social construct, that is all the more reason (other than just being against oppression of groups in society) to fight for equality and ultimately sexual liberation. Rather than gender being innate (in the sense it is used in this society that social gender and sex are the same and men are like this and women are like that...) gender in this context is what people relate to and identify with (which is not to say this is always a consious choice, it can be felt deeply and on a fundamental level) and no more legitimate if people identify with the social gender connected to their biological birth sex.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

Social activity and personality traits associated with gender, such as the concepts of masculinity and femininity, are social constructs that ought to be abolished. However there is clearly some kind of gender since if there wasn't then I don't think transexualism would exist.

[ind_com]

Social activity and personality traits associated with gender, such as the concepts of masculinity and femininity, are social constructs that ought to be abolished. However there is clearly some kind of gender since if there wasn't then I don't think transexualism would exist.

I don't know much about this topic, but can gender be defined by the set of sex-organs a person prefers to have? That would be independent of personality-traits.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

I don't know much about this topic, but can gender be defined by the set of sex-organs a person prefers to have? That would be independent of personality-traits.

The thing is, gender doesn't necessarily correspond to sex organs, and a person can be trans* without having any desire to change their body. Part of what's deeply problematic about ideas around "gender dysphoria" is that it locates gender as sex-characteristics, whereas the desire to have a particular type of male/female body, and the desire to be a man/woman/neither don't necessarily correspond.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

The thing is gender doesn't necessarily correspond to sex organs, and a person can be trans* without having any desire to change their body. Part of what's deeply problematic about ideas around "gender dysphoria" is that it locates gender as sex-characteristics, whereas the desire to have a particular type of male/female body, and the desire to be a man/woman/neither don't necessarily correspond.

I am not the best source on information on this topic, but are you referring to Androgynes?

[ind_com]

This is very interesting. How do trans-people define being a man or a woman, comrades?

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

I am not the best source on information on this topic, but are you referring to Androgynes?

I'm referring to the fact that there are many trans* people, across the spectrum, who may wish to change their gender, but feel A-OK about their bodies (ie have no desire for surgery, hormones, etc., and simply see, for example, their male-assigned-at-birth body as a woman's body with atypical "bits").