What does it mean?

Some people may describe themselves as:

• born in the wrong body
• a woman trapped in a man’s body
• a man trapped in a woman’s body

These terms all attempt to communicate how someone can feel a sense of intense “wrongness” about their body. This is one way that people can experience gender dysphoria.

Simplified view of gender

"Born in the wrong body" is a word that describes people using a view of gender that is deliberately oversimplified.

Words like this can:

• make it easier to explain your situation to people quickly

However, words like this can also:

• reinforce problematic ideas about gender
• make people think that you do not properly understand gender
• imply everyone feels either like a woman or a man
• imply that what someone's body looks like is the gender of that body
• imply everyone who wants to change things linked to gender has a clear or stable sense of gender identity
• imply everyone who wants to change things linked to gender has a gender identity that doesn’t match the gender they were assigned

Think carefully before using this word to describe someone or a group of people - they may not wish to be described that way.

Errors and omissions

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