Gender Euphoria vs. Dysphoria
In our current society we tend to spot treat issues as they come up, which makes sense because we tend to not realize that things should change until there's a problem. A natural consequence of this mindset is that the experience of gender dysphoria has become in many ways central to the idea of being trans.
There are many people who argue that you cannot be trans unless you experience dysphoria. I don't think that that is right, especially given that we live in a society where people do not get to decide for themselves who they are unless they are willing to fight for it, especially when that identity falls outside of the typical cisgender, heterosexual expectations that society places on all of us. I think we should shift our expectation away from an experience of gender dysphoria to an experience of gender euphoria. What are the things that make you happy in your body, in your presentation, in your identity?
You don't have to realize you were trans because you felt you were born in the wrong body from age 3. You might realize you were trans at age 30 because a friend asked if they could put makeup on you to practice and you loved it more than you expected. You might realize you're trans at age 15 when you decide to cut all of your hair off and the fact that it makes you look more masculine brings you joy. There is often a default assumption that transgender identity is based in the idea of pain and suffering as a prerequisite. But that's not the point. The reason we transition is to find joy, and to love ourselves, and if we focus only on the pain that we feel it's harder to see that joy and love and might exclude those who don't feel dysphoric in their transition. Maybe they just feel apathy in their assigned gender and presentation, but when they present in a different way, when they use different pronouns, when they use a different name, they feel much more at peace. They feel so much joy, so much more excitement. That they feel apathy and not pain shouldn't disqualify them from transitioning because the point of transitioning is to become happier and that's why I think it's really important to move away from focusing so much on our dysphoria and start focusing on our euphoria.
