A cis person who is distressed over experiencing hair loss doesn't take that hair loss to mean that they'll never be/be seen as a "real" member of their gender
So I guess my confusion lies in that my friend is a man and doesn't worry about being perceived as not a man based on balding, but still experiences gender dysphoria about it?
I'm a trans woman, so I don't know that I can explain the intricacies of trans men's experiences. So just keep that in mind.
For me, dysphoria is most often what I described, about not being seen as our gender, usually mixed with imposter syndrome. But there's one type of dysphoria called Existential Dysphoria that has to do with all the life experiences we missed because of when we came out. Like "even if I transition right now and pass immediately, I'll never get to experience having a sleepover with my girl friends" or whatever- this is why a lot of adult trans people hold proms and such.
So my instinct is that that might be part of what your friend is experiencing? Like, even though quite a lot of men go bald, they usually had the experience of being a man with a full head of hair for at least some time. Idk I don't want to put words in his mouth
Idk, I am somewhat skeptical of not analyzing a lot of stuff cis people do through the lens of gender dsyphoria. Maybe I'm projecting my own experiences onto cis people though.
different example in the same vein - I'm pretty sure that a lot of the men in bodybuilding communities who supplement androgens are experiencing some form of gender dysphoria. they're cis men but they experience a kind of a lack in their deviance from hypermasculinity that I've really only seen replicated in circles of trans people.
That isn't true. Women's hair has been culturally tied to their femininity for so long that women would no longer think they would be treated as real women if they started to bald, which did sometimes happen. This has changed somewhat in modern times, but for much of history it was the case. I can't compare it to gender disphoria as experienced by trans people because I've never been a balding woman or trans. But those are both experiences stemming from a similar root cause, balding as a sign of non-femininity.
A cis person who is distressed over experiencing hair loss doesn't take that hair loss to mean that they'll never be/be seen as a "real" member of their gender
So I guess my confusion lies in that my friend is a man and doesn't worry about being perceived as not a man based on balding, but still experiences gender dysphoria about it?
I'm a trans woman, so I don't know that I can explain the intricacies of trans men's experiences. So just keep that in mind.
For me, dysphoria is most often what I described, about not being seen as our gender, usually mixed with imposter syndrome. But there's one type of dysphoria called Existential Dysphoria that has to do with all the life experiences we missed because of when we came out. Like "even if I transition right now and pass immediately, I'll never get to experience having a sleepover with my girl friends" or whatever- this is why a lot of adult trans people hold proms and such.
So my instinct is that that might be part of what your friend is experiencing? Like, even though quite a lot of men go bald, they usually had the experience of being a man with a full head of hair for at least some time. Idk I don't want to put words in his mouth
That could be it.
Idk, I am somewhat skeptical of not analyzing a lot of stuff cis people do through the lens of gender dsyphoria. Maybe I'm projecting my own experiences onto cis people though.
different example in the same vein - I'm pretty sure that a lot of the men in bodybuilding communities who supplement androgens are experiencing some form of gender dysphoria. they're cis men but they experience a kind of a lack in their deviance from hypermasculinity that I've really only seen replicated in circles of trans people.
This is a pretty good example yeah.
That isn't true. Women's hair has been culturally tied to their femininity for so long that women would no longer think they would be treated as real women if they started to bald, which did sometimes happen. This has changed somewhat in modern times, but for much of history it was the case. I can't compare it to gender disphoria as experienced by trans people because I've never been a balding woman or trans. But those are both experiences stemming from a similar root cause, balding as a sign of non-femininity.