If gender is in the mind and not the body, what do you think of species dysphoria?

Did you know there are people in this world that think they are an animal. That's right. Seriously. They are otherwise seemingly normal people, but identify mentally and emotionally as something other than human.

It is called species dysphoria.

Species dysphoria is the experience of dysphoria, sometimes including dysmorphia (excessive concern over one's body image), associated with the feeling that one's body is of the wrong species.[1] Earls and Lalumière (2009) describe it as "the sense of being in the wrong (species) body... a desire to be an animal".[2] Outside of psychological literature, the term is common within the otherkin and therian communities.[3] The phenomenon is sometimes experienced in the context of sexual arousal to the image of one's self as an animal.[4]

en.wikipedia.org...

Hold onto your hats folks! The world is about to get weirder.

a reply to: queenofswords

The first thing that comes to mind is.. Furries.

Nothing new under the sun really.

I'm torn between wondering if people are converting pseudo-bestiality fetishes into identity politics or if spiritually sensitive people are simply mistaking "power animals" and other such concepts as legit identity crises.

Either way, I think it's a little out of my ability to accept in any way, shape, or form. I'm pretty tolerant, but I draw the line at that.

I think there are lots of folks who want to be "a special little snowflake" so badly that they will identify with almost anything they think makes them different/unique/special. In a world where we have taught our children (in the last couple of generations) that everyone is absolutely equal, everyone can be whatever they want to be, and everyone is super special... People want to stop blending in and being as special as everyone else. Now they want to be "more" special and are going to '"special" extents to do that.

Do some folks have some issues? No doubt. Go to Walmart if you ever need confirmation. But seriously, I think a lot of this stuff has to do with people having to go further and further to separate themselves from the herd (pun may be intended) and there will always be people willing to go there regardless of what it takes.

The biology textbooks have been thrown out the door when we can claim that a little snip here, a little tuck there, a mutilation of one's body along with giving yourself a new name of a different sex suddenly makes it so. When we insist that gender is all in the mind...it's how you feel and how you identify emotionally and mentally, then why not species?

Where is the dividing line?

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

I think that we are Equal as far as we deserve the same rights and we are all Human Beings that deserve to exist freely without bigotry or hate.

but i also think that we are not all the same as far as Personality, expression Etc. we are all our own special little snowflake as you put it, we are(should be) original and unique and we shouldn't get placed into the hive-mindset. there are many of Grey areas that people exist in without being "This" or "That"

a reply to: Darth_Prime

The equality bit in that end I agree with 100%. But I think you got my main point. No matter how much we want everyone to be born super extra special... They (we) are not. We may well be super extra special to somebody, but not to the world at large. Not all of us can be Einstein but we've somehow talked ourselves into telling our kids that lie through their whole lives.

My point in short I suppose is this... We've gone overboard with the whole everyone is the same thing and it has led to people going out on a ledge to be different, to prove they are different. I get it. I'm one of those that despise fitting in. I'm just not willing to do certain things to stand out.

We have taken what was a good thing and taken it overboard as we so often do. Our children are all very special to us. I would kill in a heartbeat for mine, but she is no more valuable to the world than you are. Raising her to think that she is, is setting her up for failure and disappointment. Beating "we are all one in the same" into her would have been a disservice as well IMO.

She knows full well that the sun rises and sets on her in her father's and my eyes, but not the eyes of the world. So she does not expect the world to act as we do. She has been taught that she is her own person and not always equal to everyone around here so she is secure with what sets her apart and what sets others apart.

This is different from a sexual fetish, I think, although the two may both be present in the same person.

I'm old-fashioned; I think we are what nature makes us, not what we wish or say we are.

I am, however, well aware that nature doesn't always make it clear to us what we are.

Consider hermaphrodites. A physical manifestation of what in other people may be a psychological condition.

I was still a schoolboy when I first met someone who had manifestly been born the wrong sex. There was no physical abnormality but this little boy, still years from sexual maturity, clearly should have been a little girl.

He emigrated as an adult, and for a time was a successful drag act in his city of adoption. I hear he's still alive, but I don't know what he (or possibly she) does now.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

Exactly. I have furry friends, and even they understand this reality. Research "Objectum-sexuality". Despite most articles you'll see, it goes way deeper than some than being a fetish for some. Some people actually claim a sort of Object Dysphoria.

a reply to: queenofswords

Well, we are animals in a general sense of the word. So what do you mean exactly???

Do they think they are a specific animal, like a dog or cat or something??? What do they mean they think they are animals?? Because that isn't exactly wrong. We are Human Animals.

If they don't think they are Human, what do they think they are??? Don't say Animals because that isn't an answer. It would have to be a type of animal to make sense.

a reply to: queenofswords

No.

The "gender is all in your mind" thing is propagated by well-meaning people who don't understand what gender dysphoria truly is. There is a very real physiological connection with gender dysphoric people so it's not just an imagined thing or strictly psychological. Structurally, there are markers between male and female brains. They are finding that transgender folks match the markers of their true gender as opposed to the ones their chromosomes correspond with which is why chromosomes is becoming an obsolete way to determine sex.

With that, there are no comparisons to people who think they are animals. To suggest it is to play an old card that has been brought about by every person who thinks they're funny when talking about transgender people. They are the same people who bring up marrying animals when marriage equality is debated.

It's a dumb stretch and not a view any intelligent person would continue to hold after about 15 minutes of research.

Sorry, I'm just getting tired of the "Oh yeah, well I'm a black guy trapped in a white body or a tiger trapped in a human body derp derp" line. And every time somebody says it, they act like it's something you've never heard before.

Ok, rant over. Now this whole animal-mind thing is pretty fascinating. Let's not compare it to something it's not related to, though.

Gender is NOT in the mind but in fact IS in the body. Those that deny this are simply one of the "everybody gets a trophy" type that think that they can change reality to their demented way of thinking just by pretending it is so. We are born into this world and what we find when we get here is the way it is and always has been. Why is it that those that cannot deal with reality are allowed to "change" reality to suit their own shortcomings? Why does society not require these dimwits to conform to what is or leave? Why does this society coddle those that are clearly dysfunctional? Perhaps it is because we are a decadent, demented, damned near retarded society and that collapse is really the next step.

a reply to: queenofswords

So how long until this thread degenerates from its pond scum beginning into

"I sexually identify as an attack helicopter" ?

a reply to: Astyanax

I, too, knew a toddler that identified with females. But still, at 17, he did not grow a uterus nor ovaries, and he still has the XY chromosome. So, no amount of mutilation, wardrobe changes, makeup, hormones, nor name change is going to make him female. We can pretend that he is. We can insist everybody call him Bonnie instead of Ronnie, she instead of he, but he is still a male.

In the case of the trans species, the girl that wants a tail so she can feel more like the wolf she believes she is, will not now or ever transform into a different species, even if they figure out a way to give her the tail of her dreams.

If you're male, and you feel like you're a female, go ahead and have your member removed.


If you're a female and you feel like a male, go ahead have a member surgically attached.


These folks need to quit asking for some kind of special treatment if they're not willing to commit to their belief.

originally posted by: queenofswords
a reply to: Astyanax

I, too, knew a toddler that identified with females. But still, at 17, he did not grow a uterus nor ovaries, and he still has the XY chromosome. So, no amount of mutilation, wardrobe changes, makeup, hormones, nor name change is going to make him female. We can pretend that he is. We can insist everybody call him Bonnie instead of Ronnie, she instead of he, but he is still a male.

I knew a little girl who was born without hearing. She would have never been able to hear no matter how badly she wanted to. Her mother saved up for the surgery to fix her hearing.

I'm glad you weren't her mother.

double thingy, sorry.

a reply to: Cuervo

Oh, for heaven's sake. That didn't even make sense.

originally posted by: queenofswords
a reply to: Cuervo

Oh, for heaven's sake. That didn't even make sense.

Of course you didn't get it. You think that people born with bodies that are wrong should never get them fixed. You also think that there is some sort of similarity between gender dysphoria and this animal shapeshifter thing you are talking about. You also think that being transgender is a purely psychological issue.

Anybody who believes those things would obviously not understand a perfectly apt analogy.

a reply to: Cuervo

Isn't hearing on a totally different level than gender? Can biology be so wrong as to provide a man with ovaries and a female with a penis?