The "Truscum" View and its Negative Stigma

You probably know what I think of this... based on the threads I have made! lol

Could you explain truscum further though?

 

So you believe being a "Truscum" is okay? (sorry I'm slightly confused by the wording of the question).

Correct me if I'm horribly wrong but being a Trans* individual should not be considered a medical condition, as being Trans* can (in simplest terms) mean that ones gender identity does not align to their birth sex? Ergo if someone is a "Truscum" that is a bad thing?

 

From what I've read, there is a conception that some ftm folks want to eventually reach male status in the eyes of society and forget they were ever "trans" and eventually adopt all of the stereotypically male views and "oppress" on females and such.

I don't have trouble with transmen who view their condition as medical (I say transmen because, based on the gendered world we live in, trans men gain "privilege" and trans women lose "privilege" when they transition). But trans folks are in a unique position to understand what it's like to be viewed by society based on the two genders they have presented to society.

As long as trans folks treat everyone with respect and understand that they are a part of an oppressed minority (even if they go "stealth"), society has no right to say what they self identify as. This goes both ways trans-medicalists to non-binaries/those who see trans as not being a medical problem, and vice versa.

My only question is, how do you know you have a male or female brain? Always wondered about that.

 

People say the same thing to binary trans folk. Also there are non-op binary trans people.

 

I'm in a bit of a weird spot when it comes to this. I don't think that it should be considered a medical condition, because there's nothing medically wrong with me. It's just that I was born as the wrong sex. I feel that it being considered a medical condition adds stigma to the transgender community, and that is the last thing that we need.

But, for medical coverage and for safeguards for getting surgeries and hormones, I think that it should be considered a medical condition, otherwise, insurance companies will not cover the costs of things.

 

I haven't heard of a truscum before, and I'm a bit confused by this thread. How did the term come to be? Cause I'm seeing tru+scum for trans-medicalist?

 

Yeah, I dunno. See, I know a few people who are truscum- lot of truscum blogs I follow on Tumblr because I happen to agree with them about...80% of the time.

The way I see it, I view being trans as not a mental disorder but as a condition where someone's brain and internalized gender identity conflict with the one presented by that individual's birth sex. I'm not a man because I chose to be one. I'm a man because I experience dysphoria from living in a female body.

Gender isn't a choice, regardless of whether you're male, female, or nonbinary. I've heard a few people describe transsexualism as a possible intersex condition and I've gotta say, the notion intrigues me. (and not just because, from a few years back, I sometimes wonder if I was born intersex, even though that notion is highly unlikely)

Mainly, I disagree with the wider trans community view that gender expression has anything to do with one's gender identity or that it means someone is transgender. If a woman is masculine but is perfectly comfortable identifying as a cis female, she's still a woman despite not fitting perfectly into her culture's views of acceptable masculine/feminine behavior. What cultures define as socially acceptable for different genders (and in fact, many cultures have more than 2 genders as part of their culture- like the Indian hirja, for instance) varies based on social mores. For example, there's a tribe where men are expected to be gossips while women are expected to be tough and to spit- the opposite of what we in the West define as typical male/female behavior (I wish I knew the name of the tribe, I had it in my anthropology text book, which I unfortunately left at my mother's). So I don't think gender expression or behavior has any bearing on someone's actual gender- simply because gender expression can vary from culture to culture.

And yet transsexuality exists over cultures and throughout history.

(you might find this link interesting Transgender History: Trans Expression in Ancient Times | The Bilerico Project)

I'd be intrigued to know more about the biological basis of gender and being transgender and/or genderqueer.

 

I did not choose to be genderqueer in the same way I did not choose my sexuality.
If I made the "choice" to bottle up either of those feelings I would be in a worse state than I am in now.

If I did "choose" to be transgender (meaning not cis), why am a so bothered by male pronouns or many of my male features?

 

Uh. No. I'm not going to have bottom surgery. It has nothing to do with cost and all to do with the fact that I'm not impressed with the quality of the surgeries.

And really, what qualifies as dysphoria? No two people are going to have the same severity nor dislike the same parts.

 

Where do we draw the line between dysphoria? If a non-binary experiences serious bouts every now and then, but doesn't feel the need to transition medically, does that make them a transsexual? What about non-binary trans men and women? And those who want body parts of the opposite sex, but not the entire package or experience, ie full-time living?

Julia Serano identified first as a heterosexual male, then a genderqueer, and finally a lesbian trans woman. Some would argue she is still one of the two, others that she was a trans woman all along. Is the problem drawing boundaries between many categories that obviously overlap, or just people doing what people have always done: fight with those who are different, or at least perceived differently, from themselves?

Furthermore, gender expression can play a large part in a person's identify being validated, since someone who has surgery, but still lives their day-to-day lives as their sex assigned at birth is still going to experience discomfort at being called by names and pronouns that don't match his or her gender.

 

I should have been more clear, I was talking physical problems. I was not including the mental health issues that transgender people face. I was more trying to say that my body biologically functions fine..

There is a stigma behind the diagnosis of gender identity disorder. If there is anything listed about GID on my insurance papers, they will not cover it. Instead, I am diagnosed as having an unspecified hormonal disorder. Also, many people see GID as a mental diagnosis, which leads to mental health stigma as well. You get the double whammy of medical stigma.

Nowhere in my post have I said that I decided to be transgender. I did; however, decide to transition, and that is something that not all transgender people decide to do.

Also, give me a definition of dysphoria that covers all transgender people (and that includes non-binaries) experiences. That's impossible.. everybody has a different experience, and you (and everybody else) have no right to tell that person that their dysphoria is less then yours.

 

Personally, I've heard a number of people put out the possibility that genderqueer people have a brain with a more ambiguous gender structure (?). But there's so few studies out there on this kind of thing, which is a real shame.

Transsexual differences caught on brain scan - life - 26 January 2011 - New Scientist

No one said being genderqueer isn't real. Quite the opposite.

I'm just saying, being genderqueer wasn't your choice.

 

Is it even necessary to have such a term, and doesn't it imply that transgender identities are, by nature, wrong?

 

There are other people who could better explain my views on this subject (I'd be the first to admit I'm not the best at wording things), but I'll give it a shot anyway.

The vast majority of the truscum I have had experience with had nasty habits of policing other peoples' genders. Which is not okay. If a person feels a disconnect between their biological sex and their gender, but they are neutral about their body itself or they otherwise don't experience dysphoria, that is their own business. It isn't up to anyone else to decide they aren't ''trans enough''. It isn't up to anyone else to invalidate a person's identity because of their personal opinion on what the trans experience is supposed to be.

Additionally, the vast majority of truscum I've had experience with participated in pronoun hate and attacked people who identify as demigirl/demiboy and other nonbinary labels. It is not okay to attack and disrespect other peoples' pronouns or identity labels, even if you personally think they're ''silly''. It is NOT okay to intentionally misgender people because you think their identities are silly, and it is not okay to blame other non-cis people for cis peoples' inability to respect pronouns.

So in light of my experience thus far with truscum, I do feel pretty uncomfortable about them in general. Bear in mind that this isn't meant to call out anyone specifically or be rude. But I havent yet met a self-identified truscum who didn't bash neopronouns or act as gatekeepers for the trans umbrella.

Feel free to prove me wrong.