What are your thoughts of this sentence: trapped in the wrong body?
Do you feel that way? Did you feel that way? When did you stop feeling that way, if ever?
Do you think that phrase accurately depicts the trans experience? Do you think it over-simplifies our experiences? Or do you think that's a good thing to make cis people understand?
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I always felt uneasy about that phrase. It felt almost as if I was expected to feel trapped in someone else's body, other than my own.
In general it of course very well describes to cis people what this is about. That you feel your biological body and your assigned gender are at odds with your actual identity as a person.
In practice I don't like that that much. In theory I'm 'trapped' in a female body, pretty accurate. In practice I don't like to even think I have a female body. Like my spirit was inhabiting an alien woman. Like I was woman on the outside but male only on the inside. Well, that might be accurate too, but I get dysphoric thinking it like that! I don't like to view myself as 'woman' anything! I'm not female. I'm me! I much rather view my body as mine, as a guy body with a twist. With top surgery and T I can get rid of most of that. To me this is a medical condition like any other. I wouldn't like to view myself as 'trapped' if I had any other medical condition or disability either!
Trapped to me represents something dysphoric, a claustrophobic condition you can't escape from! I much rather view my existence as normal and T as a permanent medication I'm about to take. I much rather think that I already have a guy body. A clit is the equivalent of a dick. So I already have a dick too, that will only grow on T! The eunuch body shape I have will vanish once I'm on T. After top surgery I will have a male chest. Once I've done all that no one is even able to know I was anything else than a cis male to begin with! The only 'female' part would then be my genital region. But that I'm mostly okay with to begin with. Plus that is only needed for sex so that's not a concern for others.
So, though I agree with the description in general, I really don't feel I'm 'trapped'. I'm very much alive and can affect my life's course. Like you wouldn't ask a little person, 'do you feel you are trapped in a child's body' right?! Same thing here! I habitate my own body - and I'm not trapped by it!
