NickSister was so kind enough to direct an inquiry my way about whether I suffer from gender dysphoria. I would be glad to answer that question now. First though I'd better look at the definition of gender dysphoria is before I try to answer accurately. Oh ok.
So heres what I could dig up on what it means compliments of Wikipedia:
Gender identity disorder, as identified by psychologists and physicians, is a condition in which a person has been assigned one gender, usually on the basis of their sex at birth (compare intersex disorders), but identifies as belonging to another gender, and feels significant discomfort or being unable to deal with this condition. It is a psychiatric classification and describes the problems related to transsexuality, transgender identity and more rarely transvestism. It is the diagnostic classification most commonly applied to transsexuals.
The core symptom of gender identity disorders is gender dysphoria, literally being uncomfortable with one's assigned gender.
Strangely enough based on this definition of GID and Gender dysphoria, I suffer from neither currently. The reasoning is pretty straightfoward(I think). First off I have not been assigned a gender that is conflicting with how I identify. Being the "silent partner"(I'm in no way silent, but more the not obvious partner) makes things a little different. A transexual has had to deal with being one sex but feeling their gender doesn't match their physical sex or assigned gender as per the definition above of GID. In our case though, the body in which we reside is male, to Marq, his gender identity matches his assigned gender and physical sex. Now when anyone that tries to assign a gender to us, Marq kind of "jumps" in the way of the comments and goes "Yep I'm a male, yay me!". That takes the burden off me being assigned a gender inconsistant with how I feel, so I'm given the freedom to append to his comment "And I'm female, yay me, yay us!"
This isn't one sided either. People that try to call us girly, too feminine, etc, I step up and say "Yes I am female, yay me!" and Marq doesn't feel offended. Because we're both together we watch out for each other like this so we don't feel GID. And because gender dysphoria is literally being uncomfortable with one's assigned gender, again I'm not being assigned something other then what I identify as and neither is Marq. That would actually be hitting on another important question, people ask how does that work exactly having two of you there always. Well envision me and Marq standing at a podium together. Every situation or question that comes up can be assigned to one or both of the skill sets that we are equiped with. Usually whichever is best suited to handle a situation, they're the one that gets represented at that moment and we just tag team constantly as life unfolds before us. Pretty neat right?
A couple of other questions were posed. Do I feel uncomfortable in a male body? Well its not exactly my first pick
but that doesn't exactly mean I can't work with it. Sure a male body is less likely to look very good in any attire appropriate for my gender, but we're pretty lean and so we fit pretty well into most things. I recognize that were our body to match that of a females one day, Marq would find himself in the same situation as I do now, so because it wouldn't change the big picture any, I can make do. My biggest concern is that we take care of our body and keep it well groomed, a battle I don't think I've won yet, but it gives me something to work towards. I'd also be satisfied if we could get our body to look like that of a "pretty boy" because thats close enough. I just want to look and feel pretty and that would probably work for achieving such a goal.
Does Marq dislike it when I dress gender appropriate? You know I'm not really sure how he feels. I used some "cross-dressing" (its not crossdressing if its appropriate for your gender) back before he would accept my presence to make him question one day what was wrong. It worked out quite well because that was one of the things that got him to open his eyes finally(metaphorically). So I know at the time he thought it was odd but didn't do anything drastic to stop it. He's very noble and true to his word so when we made the agreement that I would have free reign of our attire for half of the day, he sticks to his word the whole time. Overall I don't think its really that important to us when our clothing is not gender appropriate. We both have different styles we want to show but we both know we dress the way we do when the other picks clothing because the other wants to express themself that way.
Thank you for your questions and I hope I answered them fully.
-Mia
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Topic: Do I suffer from Gender Dysphoria? (Read 1125 times)
