Gender Identity...?

[Cristóbal]

I agree with what your friend said. That you just have to work a little harder than the rest. The way I see it is an exceeding of man. If you were born biologically male do you think you'd still be born with the same strengths you've gained from your whole experience? Not to mention the puberty a biological girl has to go through. Not one man has every experienced that, though I'm not saying that a boys puberty isn't tough as well.
I also like that phrase of yours, that God F'd up. Very true.

[A]

insideontheoutside: Hmm, actually, I may be mistaken, but I think a transsexual actually seeks and requires (not to "live" in all cases, but to achieve more happiness at least), situational, medical and economical aspects aside, medical treatment to make their body as congruent as possible to the chosen sex/gender, no? Else they would be called "transgendered" without going in the "transsexual" category, wouldn't they?

What I meant is that an homosexual, social stigma aside, theorically, is happy as is and does not require surgery or something. We (most of us, I think, anyway), even if we were allowed to dress as whatever gender we would want to without any social disregard or anything like that, theorically, should still seek transition. Else we would be crossdressers, right? That means we cannot achieve optimal happiness and/or functionality without a medical transition of sort.

This is a phenomenon that has yet to be explained and as individuals affected by it need physicians' attention, at least until they better understand it, I think it's appropriate to call it a disorder. Aren't all things people are born with that greatly affect their lives normally called something like that? I mean, they need a starting point to actually understand things.

If someone were born with a greatly disabling birth defect that cannot be removed without surgery, wouldn't it be some sort of "disorder"?

[Taka]

If someone were born with a greatly disabling birth defect that cannot be removed without surgery, wouldn't it be some sort of "disorder"?

nope, it's just a birth defect. something was not aligned right during pregnancy, just as with any kind of ->-bleeped-<- where body and mind have been assigned different sex/gender. of course a birth defect may lead to disorder if not treated correctly, but that's all (as i see it). so the reason why so many transsexuals seem to have some kind of disorder is that their condition has been kind of maltreated, often from a very young age. if that makes any sense

[A]

Oh, perhaps I have the wrong vocabulary, then...

But isn't it still a "problem" that needs to be corrected? How do you call it then if it's not a disorder?

[Taka]

But isn't it still a "problem" that needs to be corrected? How do you call it then if it's not a disorder?

that's a good question. it is certainly a problem of sorts that you may either correct or learn to live with, but what one decides to do should really be an individual choice, and not a prescription a doctor gives someone after diagnosing them. i have no idea what it should be called, but it's not a disorder as there's nothing about being transsexual that automatically makes one unable to function in any way

i understand that transsexualism can come with a lot of body dysphoria, but i often wonder what would happen if the entire society accepted a female-bodied man as just as much of a man as a one-armed man (or the other way round for an mtf). if the entire social stigma just disappeared and people were what they said they were, and even families accepted this reality, a whole lot of the reason for body dysphoria might disappear for many of those who suffer now, for all i know. unfortunately it's impossible to study this, as we're not in a society where girls would tell their friend (in the shower) not to bother about those things between her legs, because she's still a lot cuter than many of them feel like they are

[insideontheoutside]

insideontheoutside: Hmm, actually, I may be mistaken, but I think a transsexual actually seeks and requires (not to "live" in all cases, but to achieve more happiness at least), situational, medical and economical aspects aside, medical treatment to make their body as congruent as possible to the chosen sex/gender, no? Else they would be called "transgendered" without going in the "transsexual" category, wouldn't they?

I believe the term transgender is not a psychological "condition" but is just used to describe people who don't fit their biological gender. Transsexualism was first coined by Harry Benjamin in which he defined "levels" of it in a psychological capacity. At the core, transsexual individuals desire to live and be accepted as the opposite gender they were assigned at birth. Not all want to have surgery or alter their bodies though.