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by MetaDark 2069 days ago
I'm trans and I've struggled so much with gender dysphoria, but this doesn't bother me at all.

I don't get why there's this stereotype of trans people being so fragile. All the trans people I know are stronger because of what they've been through.

4 comments

I meant the comment not as "you're going to offend someone experiencing it", but rather "this is a weird phrase, a bigger issue, and has consequences you're ignoring". Recently the idea of trivially switching someone's gender somehow appeared in my home country so I feel it's worth calling out.
It is a complex issue, but I also think the issue is different for everybody. Not everybody has a strong gender identity, and thus isn't equally vulnerable to gender dysphoria.
Maybe there’s a survival bias in your circle of friends?

Nothing special to trans here: by passing through the same hardships, different people might not get all stronger, some might just give up life all together. So only those who went stronger will meet.

There absolutely is a survival bias. I should have phrased my comment better because my point wasn't that all trans people get stronger by what they go through.

I was trying to say that the comment isn't transphobic at all, and if people think stuff like this is the reason why trans people kill themselves then they're probably blind to the actual transphobia that happens in the world.

Also, I strongly believe that we shouldn't be restricting language out of fear of being offensive, because then people become too afraid to talk about important issues.

Not to be insensitive, but we obviously don't know the ones that have killed themselves when they were teenagers or hide their identity and suffer silently.

Transgender people face many issues, sadly with debilitating psychological consequences for many individuals. This isn't because any of them are more fragile, everyone else would struggle just as much in their shoes. But the 'suffering breeds strength' narrative is a very romantic one.

I don't care who you are. I care what you overcome so I wished there were more people like you the community.