Pursuing Gender Euphoria: A Model of Gender Dysphoria as a Social Process

Abstract

Using data from a series of semi-structured interviews with gender-diverse participants, we propose reframing the phenomenon of gender dysphoria as part of a larger social process rooted in the pursuit of gender euphoria. Our findings suggest that gender dysphoria is the result of a social process of negotiating access to gender-euphoric desires across the macro, interactional, and individual levels. Those desires were confronted at each level of social interaction with what we term lenses of impossibility, which comprise cisnormative institutional barriers, cisheteronormative family values, and individual transnormative expectations. These lenses of impossibility foreclosed gender-euphoric desires. The resulting experience was dysphoric distress, described as feelings of invisibility at the macro level, interactional misrecognition as a personal failure, and individual embodied tightness. When trying to solve this distress, participants were faced with transnormative material realities such as disaffirming interactions with medical personnel, interactional peer pressure to pursue transition, and individual agency or normativity when engaging with gender-affirming medical interventions. We call this the social process of gender dysphoria.

Plain Language Summary

Pursuing Gender Euphoria: Rethinking Gender Dysphoria as a Social Experience

Our article looks at interviews with 16 trans and gender diverse people to challenge the idea that gender dysphoria (the distress some people feel about their gender) is just an individual problem that needs medical treatment. We show that both gender dysphoria and gender euphoria (the positive feelings people get when their gender is affirmed) are part of the same social experience. By seeing gender dysphoria as a social issue instead of just a personal one, we explain how social expectations can change the way trans and gender diverse people feel. We also introduce a new idea called “lenses of impossibility,” which shows how society’s expectations limit the chances for gender euphoria, turning them into feelings of distress instead. This new way of thinking helps us better understand how personal experiences and social factors shape the search for gender euphoria, creating both opportunities and challenges for gender diverse people.