To clear up the confusion:
Yes, you do need to experience/have dysphoria to be transgender.
Gender dysphoria does not mean you have to hate your body; It means you don’t identify with the gender that aligns with your biological sex.
Apparently on Tumblr, this “opinion” identifies me as “Truscum”, which is the side of the trans community that believes you need to have gender dysphoria to be considered transgender- which I do.
“Tucute” people believe that you don’t have to experience gender dysphoria in any way and can still identify yourself as transgender- and by extension, it seems- if you are transsexual or pass as the “gender conforming” version of your gender identity, you are transphobic.
So I, a transsexual man who takes hormones, has undergone top surgery, and physically presents as a male 100% of the time because that is how I identify; that makes me transphobic.
On the other hand, Tucute people support what is known as the “fake trans people” [shown below & drawn by @vince-dafreak]
These “trans-bois” or what are known as “transtrenders” are often the louder face of the trans community who prefer to scream and whine instead of educate; which any person who is a mature and reasonable adult should have the common sense to do. If someone is asking a question that clearly has no malice behind it, you should try to answer it or at least explain to the person that it isn’t an appropriate question or one you’re personally comfortable with answering.
Anyways, my point I’m getting to is that it’s really hard to shut down people who are “tucute” or are the stereotypical “loli-trans-bois” from Tumblr who give legit trans-folk a bad name. It’s surprisingly hard to know when someone is being “trendy” versus when someone is in the questioning period of their life (which can come and go as they age). Everyone goes through a questioning period in their life, and for anyone new to the trans community, these “transbois” may be the first thing they see or be the physical look that is easiest for them to embody for the time being because of how feminine the clothing already is.
In the case of myself as a young 14 year old who had just learned what that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach was being caused by (learning that being transgender was even a thing); the “trendy trans boy” outfit was something that was basically already in my closet at the time and was the only thing I had (also without family questioning me before I was ready to come out) that I could consider “trans” because of the status that particular dress style had online. It was a bit of a comfort for myself in the beginning because I had something that made me feel like I was a member of the trans community so I didn’t feel alone- even if it was just a weirdly strung together outfit. Of course, I learned the hard way that by wearing those clothes in public, I was always identified as female in an instant, and it felt really bad to always be misgendered when I was trying so hard to present as male when I didn’t have any clothes from the actual mens section that would make me feel more masculine.
As I matured, I realized that if I wanted to pass, I needed to dress more masculine, and once I did, the change was basically instant.
I wasn’t a kid who was active in the trans community when I was that young, but I can imagine I might have fallen into to “trucute” phase and would have made a fool of myself trying to change the people around me instead of changing myself.
If you are someone who actually is transgender who experiences dysphoria, it is important that you not take part in the often uneducated Tumblr discourse and actually take time to yourself to learn who you are. It takes a lot of time, but the best thing to do is ask who you are, what you want and what it will take to achieve it.
To those who are still “tucute” after reading this, Instead of being PC and trying to be all inclusive to anyone who doesn’t “conform to societies dress standards”, you should recognize that legitimizing these trans-trenders does way more harm than good on both sides.
These transtrenders do take up resources and time, and the public voice they have for the community is incredibly damaging. I went to highschool with a dude who intensified strictly as a transman, but presented 100% female. (His family was supportive of him and everything, and he even started hormone treatment before I cut contact with him), and whenever someone used the wrong pronoun for him, he would go off on you and rip your head off. I can’t stress enough that someone who is legitimately transgender who wants to be taken seriously should always seek to educate ignorant people.
By supporting these younger kids (or under-developed adults) who are following these trends, you are making it more likely that they will accidentally convince themselves that they actually may be trans (when in their core they know they aren’t) and may actually attain treatment to begin transitioning, and too late into their life they will realize they’ve made a huge mistake and have to de-transition.
While I am a public trans advocate and actually teach about this stuff in highschools, I often don’t bother with things online because of how unreasonable people usually are; “lol, DLDR, you’re truscum and a transphobe. BYYYYYYYEEEE”, but after seeing a string of these hard “truscum are transphobic” related posts, I wanted to add something constructive to the debate.
DLDR: You need dysphoria to be transgender. Legit trans people who want to be taken seriously shouldn’t identify themselves as “tucute” because of the damage they influence on the community. If you want to be taken seriously as a transperson, you should seek to educate people instead of “ >:O Did you just assume my pronouns?!” (getting offended over tiny mistakes.)
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