I'm not asking this to start an argument, I genuinely want to know: do you realise there are non-dysphoric people who ID as labels you deem acceptable, and there are dysphoric (even severely dysphoric people) who ID as genders you call made up, like xenogenders? Also, do you know of the concept of gender euphoria?
Hello anon! I definitely agree with your first two questions - I’ve seen plenty of people on this site who claim to be non-dysphoric and identify as demigender, genderfluid, and so on, as well as people who identify as various [noun]genders who make a lot of posts expressing their discomfort/disconnection with their physical bodies that suggests they also experience dysphoria.
I’m definitely not here to tell people what they can and can’t identity as, and I apologize if I came across in previous posts as sounding like I’m trying to force people to conform to my personal beliefs. If someone wants to proudly identity as stargender or similar, there’s really nothing I can do about it other than to say that I personally think it’s a bad idea. Everyone has the freedom of choice to believe in what they want to believe and express themselves how they want after all.
So assuming your question is more along the lines of “why do you draw pride art for [these genders that non-dysphorics can also ID as] and why do you refuse to draw pride art for [these other genders that dysphoric people sometimes ID as]?”…..it’s probably because the deciding factor on if I’m going to draw a gender or not rests completely on the gender’s definition.
It’s no secret that I have transmedicalist beliefs, so it shouldn’t come as a shock for me to say that I interpret gender as something that’s mostly physical; e.g. something that’s dependent on how your brain is wired, and how that wiring causes you to perceive the rest of your physical body.
(I think social dysphoria IS a legitimate thing, but there’s a lot I still need to look into about it, so I’m going to ignore that aspect of this discussion for the time being. Especially since this post is making me question some things).
Anyway, so when thinking about different genders and which ones I think are “acceptable” to draw pride art for, it’s of utmost importance to me that the definition of a given gender has the potential to be interpreted as a physical thing. For example, the definition of bigender taken from the gender wiki - “someone who experiences 2 gender identities, either simultaneously or varying between the two.” While this definition is vague enough that an androgynous, non-dysphoric person conflating gender identity with gender roles can easily apply this identity to themself, the idea that someone can be 2 genders (e.g. both male and female) is more fitting in my opinion to a dysphoric person who sees their ideal body as physically having both male and female sex characteristics.
So even though the pride art on this blog can be applied to anyone and interpreted by the viewer whichever way they see fit, when making the gender dinosaurs dysphoric people always come first in my mind. And even though the definitions for agender, genderfluid, demigender, etc. are usually written in a vague enough manner that non-dysphoric people can identify with them too, I think there’s ample room in the definitions themselves that someone with physical dysphoria can use these genders to describe how they feel about their body (e.g. “I’m agender because I feel disconnected from my primary and/or secondary sex characteristics” “I’m a demigirl because I see myself as having some secondary female sex characteristics, but I’m not ok with the idea of having female genitals” etc).
Now onto xenogender. The definition on gender wiki literally describes this identity as “defined by characteristics with no relation to female or male” interpreted through “familiar archetypes such as animals or nature” or a metaphorical “warm feeling.” While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using metaphors to describe how you feel about yourself physically (especially since gender can be an extremely confusing thing to figure out, especially for young people going through puberty), I personally believe making pride flags/art for things like “colorgender” and “genderfox” is going a bit too far. Even though a dysphoric person can use these words to describe themself, the fact that the definitions of these identities are entirely removed from the physical realm make me completely opposed to drawing any sort of pride art for them.
(And while I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making pride art or even pride flags for otherkin communities or similar spiritual things, the fact that my pride art at the time being is only for GSRM related identities also makes me opposed to drawing anything otherkin related).
Now as for gender euphoria….I pretty much agree with this post’s take on it. It mostly seems like something that stems from dysphoria, although I guess you could argue too that a non-dysphoric person who claims to only experience gender euphoria probably is experiencing a mild sort of physical/social dysphoria as well. But that’s something that, as with the origins of social dysphoria, I probably need to look into a bit more.
So tl,dr (since as usual this response turned into a novel lol): I choose what gender identities are “acceptable” to draw pride dinosaurs for based on whether or not their definitions have the possibility of referencing physical traits instead of just spiritual or metaphorical ones. I don’t usually look very far into the amount of dysphorics vs. non-dysphorics that identify as a particular gender, especially since I believe a good portion of self-proclaimed non-dysphoric trans people probably do have dysphoria of some sort (and because if I did base my art on such a poll, I probably wouldn’t do any demigenders at all, since there’s so many demigirls and demiboys who claim to not have dysphoria on here. But as always dysphorics came first, so if there’s even the slightest chance one single dysphoric demigirl or demiboy sees this art and it makes them feel happy about themselves, then I can consider that drawing to be successful).
I hope this makes sense anon! Feel free to hmu if you have any other questions or concerns :)
