not sure how to articulate this but I really donât understand the ~phantom limb~ explanation of dysphoria. I often see the example of people born without certain limbs experiencing phantom sensation in said limbs used to explain how people born with certain genitals might have sensations pertaining to the other set. But this doesnât make sense to me. Humans /all/ have two arms and two legs, unless they are born with some birth defect that causes them not to develop correctly, so it follows that there could be phantom sensation in that situation. I donât know anything about biology/anatomy/physiology beyond high school ap bio (I got a 5 thanks very much) but Iâm willing to believe that. If somethingâs not there that should be, I suppose there could be some sort of feeling in a missing limb.
but that doesnât make sense wrt sex dysphoria. in that case, nothingâs missing. Itâs not like all humans have penises and âpeople with vaginasâ experience phantom limb pain since theyâre missing them. They were never supposed to have them, because unlike all humans having, say, arms, all females arenât supposed to have penises. Since nothing is missing, thereâs nothing to be missed. The connections donât exist for there to be phantom sensation, unless you want to get all castration complex and say all females have phantom penis pain. and that doesnât even account for males having sex dysphoriaâwhatâs their phantom limb if theyâre not ~lacking~ to begin with? either way in the dysphoria-as-phantom-limb-sensation model, thereâs no problem like there would be if someone was born without a limb. everythingâs working fine and any discomfort has to be socially constructed rather than a result of ~wrong neurological pathways~
