Transgendered children

[Regina]

What I don't understand is how a child knows what another gender feels like. Or anybody really. When a biological male says they feel female, what does being a female feel like?

Sure, if you have a man's body you don't know what being physically being a woman feels like. However, you can feel very different to "other men" you know because you just don't fit in with anything they like to do. You have much more in common with the girls, and can relate to them more. Then there is also gender dysphoria which in severe cases can cause a sense of discomfort at your genitals, which I can't see any reason why a child can't feel that. I think it's very ageist and patronising to think a child can't work out how they feel about their gender.

It's very easy for a child to know they are different. We have a gender put on us before we can even talk (this strict rule that we have to wear blue because we have a penis or pink if you have a vagina) and they continue into childhood. Any time a child does something that is not in society's comfortable little bubble of "men do x, women do y", they are policed and told not to behave like the opposite sex. I experienced this a lot growing up as a very feminine boy "you're a boy, don't do that". My parents entertained it and didn't stop me, but I could feel it from wider society, so obviously, that I knew even from a young age that my femininity was something I should hide and be ashamed of.

It's very easy in an environment like that to be conscious that you are different, and that you don't like what society expects you to be. Sure, not all men who exhibit feminine traits see themselves as female as I also explained before (I never have felt female). However, it's definitely not hard to understand a child who feels they are being shoe-horned into a gender identity they are not comfortable with.