Leo, I really enjoy your content. I think you speak on issues that a lot of people experience, but not a lot of people talk about. Myself, I am not transgender, I am fully cisgender and while I identify as male, and was born with a penis, for the most part this sense of identity feels so natural its not something I even think about, in the same way I don't really think about how I am a bipedal mammal that doesn't use my upper limbs for walking but for manipulating things in the world. I can only try to imagine what not feeling this way about your own body is like, and I deeply empathize with you. However, even though I am not Dysphoric, I am highly Dysmorphic. My body is very different from what my mind feels my body should be like, and there's very little I can do about it. I can't diet myself into being taller, and I can't exercise myself into having a different skull shape, I'm stuck in a body that I have often found so disgusting, I didn't even own a mirror for 4 years. It's certainly not the same thing that you are going through, but that sense of self loathing, whether you want to admit it's presence or not, I'm very familiar with. One thing that grounds me is the philosophical realization that every category or class we put ourselves in is merely a heuristic, a way of quickly and lazily making a judgement about a far more complex reality than our monkey-minds can readily handle. We think Male and Female are natural dichotomies, when plenty of species on Earth look at those dichotmies and laugh at the obvious oversimplification. There are Fungii with thousands of distinct genders/sexes, fish that switch sexes as needed, animals whose gender is determined by how warm the pond their egg was basking in. Biology is incredibly messy, and there is no wrong way to be alive. Humans have this weird notion that they are somehow unique and separate from nature, but that's just not true, we are fundamentally natural, and nature is way more messy than our monkey-minds can comprehend. It's important that you be you, to your truest you, but also you need to recognize that you arose out of an environment, that means complications, contradictions, and consequences. It's wonderful that you can and are changing peoples perceptions of what Gender really means, but do not expect it to get easier. While I have many disagreements with more conservative personalities, Being realistic, there is a very tangible reality that their fear of change from the familiar and understood makes a lot of sense. We need to push for the common humanity of those of us who are different and atypical, but we also need to recognize that the wariness of those who are typical and conservative has it's own value and reason. Much Love, I wish you the best.
Thank you for sharing such an in depth comment! I agree, despite human history of trying to distance ourselves from it, we are fundamentally a part of the natural world as you’ve said, and indeed that world is way too complex and messy to compact into two categories or rules. It is fascinating to learn about the different ways in which biological sex can form and morph and evolve within a range of species 🌿 ~Leo
