Post #4107725

When I explained what being a therian means to my girlfriend she asked if it was like being trans. I tend to be cautious of such comparisons because it makes a lot of trans people who believe their dysphoria is the only dysphoria ever invented very angry. But honestly I'm kinda tired of these people being delicate about it. One source of anger is "how could this possibly be real?" Well transphobes say the same thing about gender dysphoria, so I won't entertain this argument as it's trivial to rebut. Dismissing the suffering of others isn't it chief. I think the real *primary* source of anger from is: "How can you be dysphoric about THAT? That is STUPID. Now nobody will take my pain seriously." And I think there's this expectation, if you will, that others will somehow care about their dysphoria as much as they do. That they're suffering and want to be heard and are afraid that this "nonsense" they don't experience will prevent them from being heard or being seen as non-respectable freaks. There are two problems I have with that. One: no one else can feel the way you do. No one. Empathy is imperfect. It can be intense in some people, but others just don't have it very strongly. That's not a character flaw per se, that's just how brains are wired. Even still, things like dysphoria are intangible and difficult to envision for people who don't experience it. I'm trans and *I* do not know how bad your dysphoria is. I have no way to know. I have no insight into your brain. I cannot, and do not, experience transness the same as you do. It might be similar, but it is not the same. Maybe you have more dysphoria than me. Maybe less. I don't know, and a comparison is frankly meaningless. Two: transphobes don't care about dysphoria. They don't care about your pain. They never have and never will. Many would say "suck it up" or some bullshit about mental health being irrelevant or dysphoria being induced. They would rather see you suffer in agony and exist in pain than be trans. That is the fundamental premise. Your assumption baseline is empathy. Their assumption baseline is nobility in suffering and not being a "freak." They are incapable of caring about your suffering. They see you as "just" a "freak" and deviant. Not "like" the therians. Just the same grab brag of every other "freak" they hate. It's about conformance to normalcy and expectation. Therians who feel their experience is comparable to dysphoria aren't hurting you. They aren't making transphobes not care about you. Transphobes just don't care. Nobody makes them do anything. They choose to be transphobic, and choose to hold that worldview. The fundamental premise is: "be normal." Not "lol look the therians are freaks too." If you think that's the case, you've read too much far-right Twitter propaganda. That is what you must accept. They hate trans normies too (and they very, very much exist).