For this week, I chose a subject my partner has been asking for: gender expression. When thinking about trans people, the first thing that comes to mind is “gender dysphoria”. Gender euphoria can be just as important for trans folks, and for some, it might be more characteristic of their particular experience.

Although gender euphoria may sound exclusively for trans and queer people in general, all of us benefit from it; trans and nonbinary people are more aware of it as they have questioned their gender and gender expression.

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We all perform gender

Gender is a social construct.

Genders and their roles are defined by the society an individual is part of. A gender is assigned to a person when they are born and they have to carry expectations from the environment they grow in. Gender dictates what to wear, what to like, and who to love.

When people don’t perform gender the way they are expected to, they are judged and shunned by their peers and are sometimes forced to conform to fit. For some (especially neurodivergent people), this can be hard to understand and, in some cases, they even lack the interest to.

Either you follow gender roles, intentionally avoid adhering to them, or are indifferent, you are perceived by a societal lens. We live in a binary world and in the same way we make various judgements of someone at first sight, assuming their race, age, and socioeconomic status, we also make assumptions about their gender by their presentation.

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Gender is customizable

There are many ways to express your gender: your hairstyle, the clothes you wear, mannerisms, facial and body hair (or lack thereof!), makeup, etc. For trans and cis (those who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth) people alike, the way they perform gender is a unique combination of various factors, even when they might seem archetypical of their gender identity.

Contrary to what some people believe, (binary) trans people don’t support and enforce gender roles. The beginning of some people’s transition* can be confusing and exciting. All the rules they’ve been following (or rejecting) are questioned, and they might feel pressured to perform their identity in a certain way in order to be recognized differently from how they were perceived (i.e. their assigned gender at birth).

*I’m not claiming this is a generalized experience.

Non-binary people (who fall under the trans umbrella, even when some don’t identify as such) don’t feel a strong exclusive connection to either of the binary genders (“man” or “woman”), they might feel somewhere in the middle, more related to one than the other, fluctuate between them, or even neither of them. The way non-binary people express their gender (or their non-gender in some cases) also varies from person to person and isn’t necessarily always androgynous. Gender identity is not defined by gender expression.

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How to experience gender euphoria

Not every trans person experiences gender dysphoria, and cis people can suffer from it too. In the same way, cis people can feel gender euphoria, but some might feel they are appropriating the term from queer people. Gender-affirming surgery isn’t solely for trans individuals.

Regardless of your gender, being called “feminine”, “masculine” or causing confused or shocked looks in others might be what brings you gender euphoria.

You probably have a favorite outfit, one that makes you feel more confident. People of every gender feel good noticing results after those hard gym sessions, rocking a new hair color, being called by a nickname rather than your legal name, or wearing a nice perfume or a new watch.

What small things do you find gender euphoria in?

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