A semi-vague, sort-of interesting look at gender dysphoria.

There was a point in time where I didn’t want to be a girl, do girly things, dress up, wear makeup, wear dresses… I wanted boy stuff like Hot Wheels and boy clothes and a boy name. The stage lasted from age five to twelve, when I started experiencing puberty… And I suddenly liked my body. I suddenly felt like a girl, and I liked it. I’m not transgender.

Of course, I have the monthly half-Electra complex – otherwise known as “Stupid Mommy, why didn’t you give me a penis?” (sometimes referred to as “Give Me Chocolate and No One Gets Hurt”) mode. Of course, it was my mother’s choice. I was an Immaculate Conception, just ask me!

But I don’t have what is called gender dysphoria.

Gender dysphoria is a term used to describe the feeling that one doesn’t belong in his/her body, and one doesn’t belong as the gender he/she was assigned at birth. This applied to those who were born male or female, not, for example, hermaphrodite. Someone with gender dysphoria who was born female, for example, believes that she should have been a male. Wishing one was born the opposite gender for social “advantages” does not constitute gender dysphoria, according to the DSM-IV. As treatment for gender dysphoria, there is therapy of many kinds, testosterone or hormones to make his or her body appear more like the gender he or she wants to be, or even sex reassignment surgery.

But, of course, nothing is as easy as black and white, or male and female… Some people just don’t feel either gender, or some consider themselves both genders. Some even consider themselves a third gender, which is a concept that I won’t even try to explain, because I don’t want to confuse anyone.

Bottom line? Not everyone is happy with the cards dealt by fate…