Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Meredith Russo (@Mer_Squared), 2019-02-09:

Person A: What would you do if you woke up in a body with a different hormonal/genital situation than you have now.
Person B: Haha pee standing up! Touch my boobs!
Me, Without Looking Up From My Phone: Dissociate. You would dissociate. Enjoy staring at the wall above your TV.

Responses from pre-transition trans people were along the lines of "Offer up a prayer of thanks," and from post-transition trans people things like, "Be really angry about all the progress of my transition being undone," but this is mostly about cis people in another thread greatly underestimating the effects of having a body that doesn't fit one's gender. There are people whose sense of gender is so faint that it wouldn't matter much, but AFAICT they're relatively rare (I know a few). Most people would have trouble with it. Some cis actors who have lived cross gender for a while to prepare for a trans or cross-cast role have described pretty severe psychological effects from just the effect of just doing that, and IIRC one who wore a binder and a packer to play a male role found doing so just for a day of shooting at a time wound up pretty distressing.

Another difference folks noticed about trans responses was the request for more details: "Is my proprioception pre-adjusted or do I have to learn that?" "Are my ID documents, transcripts, etc., and everyone else's memories magically altered at the same time, or is this a shock to everyone else too?"

The thing is, it is an interesting question, can be a fun fantasy, is easy to joke about ... but some of us already know what such a mismatch is like, only without the "suddenly you wake up..." part.