One of the most essential boxes on society’s ‘transgender checklist’ for binary trans people, as such, is to ‘pass’ as your gender. For example, if a person born a biological female is a boy, that boy looking like the typical masculine imagine of ‘a boy’ would be considered by society as them ‘passing’. On the surface, this appears to be something that would be a step towards eliminating an individual’s gender dysphoria, but, really, it’s a negative concept to spread around – but why?
1. It enforces the idea of gender roles.
The idea that a binary trans person must look like the stereotypical idea of ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ that society has created for men and women is enforcing the idea that men and women must be this or that in society. If a CIS man has long hair, it is “rock n’ roll and sexy”, but if a trans guy has long hair, people ask “I thought you wanted to ‘look like a man?’”. Ultimately, this means that if a trans guy wears a skirt, wears lipstick or uses any of the objects assigned by society as ‘feminine’, he is not valid in his own gender. Similarly, if a trans woman were to have short hair or wear clothes advertised in the ‘men’ section of shops, she is apparently ‘not feminine enough’. In fact, an organisation called ‘Broadly’ promoted a video about trans women experiencing stereotypically female beauty habits as ‘Dressing the Part’ – as if, A) trans people have a criteria to meet or an expectation to fill in order to be valid and B) a trans woman is not, effectively, a woman because she’s dressing the ‘part’ as if it is an act, or something that must be put on.
2. It can actually increase gender dysphoria.
Gender dysphoria, by definition, is this: ‘the condition of feeling one’s emotional and psychological identity as male or female to be opposite to one’s biological sex’. Essentially, people think, “well, surely the idea of ‘passing’ would combat that, then?” Wrong. For some people, it’s great. In the event that you want to look masculine/feminine as a trans person and do look masculine/feminine, it’s fulfilling and makes your life a whole lot better… but what about the people who feel they do not look ‘masculine’ as a trans man or people who do not feel ‘feminine’ as a trans woman? Binary people do not always want their appearance to align with the expectations their gender brings. However, if they do want to feel they look a particular way as a trans person, and are told they don’t “pass” or that they don’t “look trans”… well, it can be crushing for that person. So, whilst the idea of ‘passing’ elevates some people – it makes them feel valid as a trans person – it actually brings others down – it makes them feel invalid. Really, you don’t need to fill any sort of criteria to be an actual trans person – all you have to do is exist as you are, and look however you want to look.
3. Some people don’t want to complete some/any aspects of transition.
This might come as a shock to you, but there are some people out there who don’t want the physical features society thinks they should have. An example of this is how a person who is a trans boy might want breast reductions, but not to change his genitals, or how a trans woman wouldn’t necessarily want ‘speech therapy’ (the wording of this term implies there is something wrong with a person’s voice – untrue) to make her sound ‘more womanly’. Therefore, binary trans people feeling their true selves is not black and white, “I want to have a complete ‘sex change’”. So, the concept of ‘passing’ is invalid – everyone feels valid as themselves in different ways. To tell a girl she doesn’t look like a girl because she doesn’t have breasts when she doesn’t want to get them in the first place is cruel and defeats the whole object of ‘transition’, if you want to go through it at all – ‘transitioning’ is supposed to make you feel like you are the gender you are on the outside, as well as the inside. If some/all of the aspects of you already make you feel that way, then that’s great. If that isn’t the case, that’s also great, because you can make yourself feel more comfortable and confident with your body. So, ‘passing’ is really a strange and ill-fitting concept – it just doesn’t work when applied to every binary trans individual.
All in all, the concept of ‘passing’ means some CIS people (people whose gender and biological sex have aligned since birth) have an excuse to decide what they think does and does not make a trans person valid as themselves. In truth, a trans person does not need to be anything in particular to ‘be trans’… all they need to do is be who they already are.
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