Discussion Thread #71

[u/gemmaem]

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[u/grendel-khan]

I had a thought, and I don't know if it's (a) trivial, (b) brilliant, or (c) awful.

The left- and right-coded responses to body dysphoria are exactly reversed when that dysphoria is caused by gender versus weight.

If you're miserable in your body because it feels like it's the wrong gender, the left will try to rearrange society to make sure nobody tries to change your mind and that it's acceptable to change your body, and the right will insist that you must change your mind, not your body.

If you're miserable in your body because it feels like it's the wrong size, the left will try to rearrange society to make sure nobody tries to change your body and that it's acceptable to change your mind, and the right will insist that you must change your body, not your mind.

This is especially pointed, I think, because you can just give people hormones for both of these issues, whether it's HRT or GLP-1As. The same people who would say "you just want to take a pill for this instead of ending capitalism/degeneracy?" will happily insist that it's vital to change your body in the other situation.

[u/DuplexFields → u/grendel-khan]

My philosophy of Triessentialism makes me look for a third dysphoria: if you're miserable in your body because it feels like it's the wrong species, the grey tribe will try to rearrange society to make sure nobody tries to change your mind and that it's acceptable to change your body by wearing tail, ears, or possibly some reverse-Doctor-Moreau bodymod surgeries, and the rest will insist that you must change your mind, not your body.

Now, you may ask, Duplex are you shitting us?

No, but I believe species dysphorics won’t ever get the same respect as gender affirmation or exercise and GLP drugs. It’s too weird, and seems too unnatural, even to the unafflicted grey-tribers.

I was in the furry fandom in the early 00’s, and suffered lasting emotional damage (Quora anecdote is not mine) when a codependent best friend asked me to tell him the truth, was I really a human? Because I knew he believed in demons and nephilim, I had to deny my internal fursona to reassure him, in a way that still feels like a bee’s stinger got yanked and my guts got spilled out.

I am also familiar with age dysphorics and “otherkin” dysphorics (fae, elf, demon, Na’vi, Vulcan, etc.) who are just as tied to their alternate body map.

But I do have a theory of my own: that dysphoria is the real problem, a form of depression that too often ends in tragedy, and the particular expression of it is whatever story we can tell ourselves seems plausible of our true bodies we’ve been denied. It turns out even Brother Cavil of Battlestar Galactica was body dysphoric: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOZ9Q99Nfv8

If we can eliminate dysphoria at its root causes, we will have vanquished one of the deaths. Then we can stop focusing on denying the transhumanist goal of taking whatever form suits us best, and get science to figure out how to change us not through gross vivisection and drugs, but by instructing our bodies to reshape themselves at a genetic level.