The Nebraska Electrology Association asked me to put together a 90 minute Transgender 101 presentation for their group. My audience will consist of professional electrologists and cosmetologists who have never worked with the transgender community.
I worry that some members of my audience will struggle with transgender issues, they will be utterly unable to understand why someone would want to change their gender, or be inclined to dismiss transgender people as fetishists. I fully expect to be asked questions along the lines of:
"How can someone 'feel' like they are wrong gender?"
"What does it mean to 'feel' like a boy/girl?"
I can't find the words to answer these questions for my audience. Explaining gender dysphoria to a cisgender person is like explaining 'red' to a blind or colorblind person: its very difficult to capture in words what the first-person experience is like when your audience has likely never had to deal with it.
How would I describe the first-person experience of gender dysphoria to a cisgender audience?
I worry that some members of my audience will struggle with transgender issues, they will be utterly unable to understand why someone would want to change their gender, or be inclined to dismiss transgender people as fetishists. I fully expect to be asked questions along the lines of:
"How can someone 'feel' like they are wrong gender?"
"What does it mean to 'feel' like a boy/girl?"
I can't find the words to answer these questions for my audience. Explaining gender dysphoria to a cisgender person is like explaining 'red' to a blind or colorblind person: its very difficult to capture in words what the first-person experience is like when your audience has likely never had to deal with it.
How would I describe the first-person experience of gender dysphoria to a cisgender audience?
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