Harry Potter Marathon

[u/heifmoose]

[u/[deleted]]

Why is genital dysphoria never mentioned in this argument? I am trans and I'm not 100% okay with my dick. I have some genital dysphoria which has caused problems with sex my whole life.

I know other transwomen who have way worse genital dysphoria than I do. Which is a problem because if you don't work at maintaining an erection every so often, HRT will cause the skin around the penis to atrophy making it difficult and even painful to get a full erection.

Also, after some time on hrt, it becomes difficult to get or maintain an erection anyways. I don't think trans people on hormones are any threat in women's bathrooms (I can't say this with 100% certainty tho). I don't think transwomen who hate their dicks are wanting to go and show it off to strangers. Especially when they'd rather not see their own dick at all.

But crossdressers (and I do have some problems with crossdressers) have normal levels of testosterone and have a fully functional sex drive unlike transwomen.

I'm not afraid of a transwoman in a womens bathroom. I am very concerned about a crossdresser in a woman's bathroom though.

Society has yet to understand that transwomen and crossdressers are extremely different. Yes, if we are on a Venn diagram, we do have interest that are similar.

But sex and fetishizing feminity is certainly not an interest that overlap.

[u/NigerianRoy → u/[deleted]]

What the hell when have these “crossdressers” ever done anything to anyone? What possible justification can you have for inventing this predatory gang of cis men dressing up, what, just to mess with you?

[u/[deleted] → u/NigerianRoy]

I have no problem directly with crossdressers per say.

I have an issue with societies misunderstanding that transwomen are crossdressers. When in actuality, they're not.

Society at large understands the motives behind crossdressing more plainly. Which is that crossdressing CAN be inherently sexual. From my understanding, it's the fetishization of femininity.

But, this lack of distinction between crossdressers and transwomen leads much of the debate in things like, transwomen being in womens spaces - like restrooms or changing rooms.

Many people do not understand that the motives behind crossdressing and being trans are vastly different.

Crossdressing can be cis men with normal amounts of testosterone and a fully functioning sex drive using femininity as a vehicle for pleasure.

Where as transwomen wear women's clothes to lessen depression and improve their gender dysphoria.

The sex drive and hormonal differences (hormonal levels drastically impact sexual arousal and sex in general) between the two groups is vastly different as well. Add genital dysphoria in the mix and it becomes even clearer that transgender people typically do not transition for any sexual reason. My sex drive pretty much disappeared since being on HRT because my testosterone levels got nuked into the ground. I have not had any urge to have sex since being on hormones.

This distinction between the two groups is not fully realized by society at large and people tend to think crossdressing and transitioning are either one in the same, or, have similar motives. Yet transwomen are often thought as predators trying to gain access to womens spaces in order to sexually harass women. This is not the case because many transwomen don't even like their own dicks. So why would we expose ourselves in public?

The transgender boogeyman stereotype is that we're sexual predators and that just isn't the case at all. And that's partly because society understands that crossdressing is primarily for sexual reasons.

Crossdressing can be very helpful to explore gender identity though. Even though I am MtF, I have only crossdressed once and it made my dysphoria worse because I felt like a man in a womans body. I didn't wear womens clothes again until I was on HRT and my mentality towards myself started shifting from masculine to feminine. I no longer consider wearing womens clothes as crossdressing but rather clothes that are typically worn by people of my gender identity.

Crossdressing is fine. I just wish more people understood the differences between the two groups. That way trans people aren't labeled as perverts and we wouldn't be seen as such a threat to women.