Conflation of g
ender dysphoria and
body dysmorphia seems hard to imagine to those who are very well aware of both of these terms. However, it seems to be a fairly common point of confusion in articles about transgender individuals and extremely prevalent in the comments sections of other transgender related articles.
While both serious issues, they are very different. As surprising as it is, even sometimes sources trying to
support transgender individuals get it
wrong. And the usage of a combined term almost always accompanies
other types of errors when speaking about transgender individuals, such as the use of incorrect pronouns or a refusal to recognise the difference between sex and gender. Indeed, because it is so prevalent, especially in tabloid media, it's possible to see it or hear it used by transgender people themselves who are unaware of how that both undermines the reality of
gender dysphoria and marginalises the experience of those who suffer from
body dysmorphia. This is a lose-lose situation.
In order to understand the differences, and why it is a harmful conflation for both groups of individuals, those with
gender dysphoria and those with
body dysmorphia, we must look at the differences between the definitions of the two.
According to Britain's
National Health Service, the definition of the latter is as follows:
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), or body dysmorphia, is an anxiety disorder that causes sufferers to spend a lot of time worrying about their appearance and to have a distorted view of how they look.
I want the highlight that very last clause, "have a distorted view of how they look." This is crucial to understanding why even the physical aspects of
gender dysphoria (sometimes called
sex dysphoria to differentiate those aspects from the gender expression and presentation aspects) cannot be compared with
body dysmorphia.
To be consistent, I will use NHS's
definition of
gender dysphoria as well:
Gender dysphoria is a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there is a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity...This mismatch between sex and gender identity can lead to distressing and uncomfortable feelings that are called gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is a recognised medical condition, for which treatment is sometimes appropriate.
It is not a mental illness.
