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And why it’s not a reason to identify as trans.

Gender euphoria has become a term that non-dysphoric trans-identified (i.e. cis) people use to justify their problematic trans identities. To them, it means feeling pleased or happy with the way they are presenting themselves to the world. To use a real example that is representative of most “gender euphoria” claims, one non-binary-identified man I followed on social media spoke of his “gender euphoria” at wearing a dress and make-up to a social event. If we break this down, the only thing that’s happening is the usual reinforcement of gender stereotypes and an ignorance of genuine trans experience that seems to dominate the “trans” community.

The first part – ‘gender’ – is, quite literally, gendering something that doesn’t need to be gendered. Wearing a dress or make-up is only “not male” if you have internalised social gender roles so much that you cannot distinguish modern Western gender stereotypes from gender (which is actually just your brain’s “map” of your sex characteristics). This man was saying “Men don’t wear dresses and make-up, but I’m comfortable with my male body, so I must be neither male nor female.” Of course, it doesn’t take an advanced study of feminism to see why that is an insulting and damaging myth to perpetuate.

The second part – ‘euphoria’ – is where it becomes particularly insulting to trans people. We are born with dysphoria. The distress we feel at our natal sex characteristics is an inherent pain that, for most, dates back to childhood, if not our earliest memories. To be born without dysphoria – without a need for medical transition – is, to a trans person, gender euphoria. Your brain is in alignment with your body and while you may take that for granted, it really is a euphoric experience for people who have never had that alignment before. It’s a bit like how walking is not inherently a euphoric experience, but to someone who has spent their life in a wheelchair and then gains the ability to walk, walking will give them a happiness and gratitude that an able-bodied person won’t feel when walking.

Personally, I didn’t quite realise how insulting the term “gender euphoria” was until I had lower surgery; for the first time in my life, I was able to truly feel what non-dysphoric “trans” (i.e. cis) people have felt all their lives without even knowing they’ve felt it. I looked at my naked body and felt completely neutral about it – then the euphoria hit as I realised that I had never felt neutral about my body before. Gender euphoria is the result of surviving gender dysphoria – not simply a happiness or comfort in how you present, but a recognition that your body is your own. Feeling neutral about one’s sex characteristics is, to a trans person, a euphoric experience because it means we are no longer suffering from dysphoria. To a cis (i.e. non-dysphoric) person, gender euphoria cannot exist because they have never experienced the distress of gender dysphoria.

Trans people transition to achieve a sense of safety and comfort in their own skin. We pursue survival, not euphoria, and many of us can’t even comprehend the reality of true happiness until we complete our transitions. I remember believing that I could never be truly happy because of my dysphoria, but I knew that medically transitioning would at least make me feel okay. It would mean I could continue to survive for the rest of my natural life. I found, though, that the further I got in my transition, the more happiness was starting to creep in to my life. That was true trans joy – not a woman getting a haircut or a man putting on a dress and each of them calling it “gender euphoria”, but the unexpected reality that someone who was born with dysphoria is absolutely capable of experiencing genuine happiness. As I’ve already said, this peaked upon completing my transition and I’m now regularly delighted at how happy I am!

Is it really euphoria?

Euphoria is an intense feeling of happiness; the peak of positive human emotion. It can be the result of something healthy and natural like, for example, falling in love, but it can also be the result of taking drugs like ecstasy or heroin. So is that really what trans-identified cis people are feeling when they talk about gender euphoria? Do they feel loved up or high? Or, as is too often the case with internet-guided self diagnoses, is it a case of people not understanding the true meaning of the words they are using to justify their self-diagnoses?

Given that screen time exceeding one hour a day has been linked to a higher risk of depression, particularly in young and female people (which is relevant given that the majority of trans-identified cis people are young and/or female), it’s fair to say that the online world does a great job at sapping our happiness while promoting a craving for novelty. With happiness in short supply for online-addicted people, novelty becomes the next best thing – and what’s more novel than being a whole other gender? All too easily, the buzz felt from experiencing novelty can be misidentified as euphoria (especially when meaningful happiness is lacking in a person’s life), and any glimpse of positivity from being welcomed in to a new community that celebrates you for just existing can contribute to this misidentification.

It’s worth noting that if someone feels genuinely euphoric – that is, at the absolute height of happiness and joy – at wearing certain clothes or being referred to in a certain way, it is still not a normal or healthy experience. Our brains thrive on homeostasis – balance between extremes – and euphoria is about as extreme as it gets. To medically transition in an attempt to chase euphoria is no different to addicts who relentlessly pursue and escalate their use of addictive substances in a chase for a high they can never really get back. Euphoria is not a natural state of being. Novelty, however, is more easily achieved.

I know so many people who felt “gender euphoria” at being referred to as a gender that is not their own, but eventually that novelty faded as it happened more and more and stopped being novel. They pursue the next step of that novelty, which is usually medical transition. When the initial changes from medical transition are happening, they’re feeling something; it’s not a long-term positive feeling, but it’s another novelty – and in a world where most people are seeking intense stimulation from dopaminergic screen-based activities like social media use, gaming, and porn, an illusion of positivity wrapped up in novelty is often enough for a cis person to keep misrepresenting themselves as a trans person under the belief that their excitement at the novelty of their transition is “gender euphoria”. At least, it’s enough for a little while. Once that novelty fades, they’re left with their first glimpse of true gender dysphoria. It will never be the same intensity as genuine trans people have experienced, but it will still be there – and it will all be because they pursued the myth of “gender euphoria”.

The problem

A huge issue with cis people using “gender euphoria” as a reason for their trans identities is that it’s so tied in to the reinforcement of gender stereotypes. Just like the “Gender is a social construct” myth, it others and mislabels normal human behaviour (i.e. Enjoying novelty, attention, and/or self-confidence, each as a result of presenting yourself in a way that is not typical of your usual or expected presentation) as “trans” which in turn leads to a massive misrepresentation of transsexualism and – as you’ll see me write about a lot in these posts – a loss of trans healthcare.

Given the suicide ideation that is almost inherent in gender dysphoria (and I’ll remind readers again that the word ‘dysphoria’ is the opposite of ‘euphoria’; where euphoria is the best you can possibly feel, dysphoria is the worst you can possible feel), the loss of trans healthcare that has come about from transsexualism being reframed as a social issue rather than a medical one has led and will continue to lead to the deaths of genuine trans people to their dysphoria. Of course, the more trans people who die before they’re able to access the treatment needed to gain a voice and speak out, the more the false gender ideology can thrive. While I don’t believe trans-identified cis people want trans people to die (although I have heard such wishes expressed about those of us who speak out against the social identity-based “trans” movement), I know from experience that trans-identified cis people would rather let trans people die and ignore their own small contribution to those deaths than experience the discomfort of challenging and working to change their own beliefs, biases, sources of “information” (read: misinformation), and identity.

Essentially, if you’re a “trans” person who feels no strong need to medically transition, you are experiencing a brain-body connection that, for a genuine trans person, would be felt as gender euphoria. That brain-body connection means you are cis. And that’s an incredible thing! I’m always shocked by how many people are unaware of their own good fortune; to have sex characteristics that you have no strong feelings about either way is normal. You don’t need to love your beard, your breasts, your penis, your vagina – whatever it is you feel indifferent towards or unhappy about – so long as you can look down at your body and recognise it as your own.

So if you’re able to live with your sex characteristics, congratulations on having gender euphoria! It is, genuinely, a really positive experience, even if you can’t see it as such. And if wearing certain clothes or presenting yourself in a way that it not typically expected of your gender makes you feel confident and happy or even just gives you a buzz from the novelty of it, by all means enjoy it – but understand that labelling those positive feelings as “gender euphoria” and “being trans” is misleading and harmful to trans and cis people alike.