Gender dysphoria

This article is rated M for Honest Content It may contain content deemed not safe for work. Reader discretion is advised.

Health disclosure: This article contains in-depth discussion of Chris's physical and/or mental health. This page is not to be construed as a substitute for medical advice or a professional diagnosis. All diagnoses are either taken from outside documentation or based on amateur analysis.

“	I would rather suffer a painful gender-change operation than ever be a homo.	”
Chris's written testimony in Sonichu 9, 2008. As of 2024, Chris has not undergone sexual reassignment surgery even after identifying as trans.

Chris describes his 2014 switchover in Sonichu #11

Gender dysphoria, also known as gender identity disorder, is a psychological disorder in which a person identifies as another gender and experiences distress from the discordance between gender identity and actual anatomy. Many people who have gender dysphoria become transgender, although this is not always the case. Chris was officially diagnosed with the condition in 2016, after he made efforts to gender transition prior to this point.

Chris's gender identity has been the subject of intense discussion by observers, and it's been debated whether his feelings of gender dysphoria are real and the logical conclusion of Chris's own feelings and lived experiences (given that he overemphasized his own "straightness" and acted like what he thought was a stereotypical man, before feeling more comfortable acting like a stereotypical woman and embracing being transgender and bisexual instead), whether they are just the result of a combination of a warped understanding of gender dynamics stemming from being exposed to too much fiction combined with years of gaslighting and manipulation by trolls, or whether they are just just an elaborate attempt by Chris to find a boyfriend-free girl (or boy), although there is evidence for these different interpretations. No matter what the case may be, the reality is that Chris has began showing preference to crossdressing in early 2011 and later fully committed to a transgender lifestyle since the end of 2014, with some evidence of Chris's gender dysphoria becoming clearer with the power of hindsight.

Psychological symptoms

According to DSM-5, the symptoms for gender dysphoria are:

• A strong desire to be of a gender other than one's assigned gender.
• A strong desire to be treated as a gender other than one's assigned gender.
• A significant incongruence between one's experienced or expressed gender and one's sexual characteristics.
• A strong desire for the sexual characteristics of a gender other than one's assigned gender.
• A strong desire to be rid of one's sexual characteristics due to incongruence with one's experienced or expressed gender.
• A strong conviction that one has the typical reactions and feelings of a gender other than one's assigned gender.
• Associated with clinically significant distress or impairment.

Chris & Dysphoria

Through the years one thing strikingly evident about Chris is the complete and total lack of understanding he has for his own body. Though he believed that he was strong, handsome, charismatic and on the TRUE and STRAIGHT path, those beliefs have habitually found themselves to be quite the opposite, and nothing shows this principal more true than his prior belief that he is the absolute peak of the male form. Aside from moments when he would show some sort of discomfort or unfamiliarity, Chris tried his absolute hardest to convince everyone around him (as well as himself) that men are physically superior. That being said, it is easy to believe that Chris doesn't exhibit gender dysphoria at a glance, however his surface level bigotry has historically been hypocritical and shouldn't be taken at face value.

Early Signs

Chris choosing between being transgender and being gay, in a 2009 panel from Sonichu #9. Note his personal signature below that statement. (Ironically enough, Chris would eventually identify as Bisexual, but would not undergo a gender reassignment surgery.)

Although Chris did not officially admit to be a transgender person until 2014, there have been many events prior to even the Tomgirl Saga that foreshadowed this inevitable path.

The earliest known sign was when Chris attended Manchester High. There he hung out almost exclusively with his Gal pals, a group of girls who Bob appeared to have arranged to hang out with Chris, as Chris appeared to have a difficult time forming friends with other male classmates.

Chris' imagining of his daughter Crystal Weston Chandler and the creation of his imaginary sister by the same name were also signs of his gender dysphoria. While his daughter has not been personified in any medium Chris has released, she shares his middle and last names, and his sister in the comics bore a striking resemblance to Chris himself at the time of drawing despite only being gender-swapped. In 2008, Chris posted to the Sonichu Girls webforum an introduction to any females that would be on the site. Within the introduction, Chris mentions the distaste of witnessing his own Duck, stating:

Also, I feel discomfort when shopping for underwear for myself; they do not need models pictured on the package. It grosses me out to see that thing. It's bad enough that I sometimes see my own when I look down (of which I don't feel as much discomfort), but the very sight of others is like kryptonite to me; it makes me feel like throwing up even when the image randomly pops up in my head.

Earlier in the same introduction post to the webforum, Chris discussed his feminine side and ponders if he was supposed to be female.

Aside from the understood fact, I feel that I am truly in touch with my feminine side, to the point where I am capable of learning from that to better understand how to treat women in a caring, nurturing, positive way; I've also learned from Red Skelton of how to be a gentleman. Sometimes I wonder between my caring attitude and the lack of a Sweetheart if I was born the wrong gender; I would wonder what life would have been like if I had actually been born a girl. But afterwards, I'd realize that I should still appreciate being born a boy to gentleman; God gave me the package, and I signed for it.

In 2009 Chris wondered what his life would be like if he was born a woman again within Mailbag 27, stating:

Sometimes, I wonder what my life would be like if I was born female instead, because of some of my emotional, caring, self-conscious thoughts I had in my lifetime. Then I would later remember that God must have made me all straight male for good reasons.

The Butterfly Effect

The catalyst for Chris exploring crossdressing happened around 2011. There is some dispute as to the events that unfolded. According to Champthom:

Someone said to Chris "You should get in touch with your feminine side!" and he ran wild with it.

However, when a fan asked Emily if she was the one to make that comment, she gave a different perspective:

I've jokingly told him that before back when he was a dang dirty male and he would get pissed at me for it. What really kicked off the tomgirl and eventual tranny shit was some rando who was talking to Chris and suggested being a tomgirl since being a guy was too hard for him.

Surfshack Tito provided a similiar explanation:

Chris decided that being a man was too much work. It often involves stressful activities such as getting a job, excercising, and supporting a family. The role of the man was too stressful for the life of Christian Weston Chandler. He decided he would take the route that was easier for him. The path that he was so familiar with in Highschool. The manchild felt that he could identify being a lady seeing that he has had vast experience of hanging out with girls in the cafeteria. Chris decided that being in touch with the femine side would be the truth key in his quest. But wait! Does that make him gay? Not in Chris' lifetime it doesn't. Thanks to 3 months of dry spell and constant hours of TV have deluded him. Based on the archetype you would see on movies and video games, you would learn of the "Tomboy", The girl with boyish next to dykish features would allow her to be swarmed by the opposite sex with her short hair and her appreciation of the Dresdon Dolls. "If a girl could do it, So can a boy", Chris thought. Thus he has coined the term "Tomgirl". A man in touch with his feminine side, and totally heterosexual.

Both of those accounts are consistent with Gender Dysphoria's symptoms of wanting another gender's characteristics and feeling incompatible with a birth gender's social roles. Later that year, Chris also mentioned that in public places, he felt more comfort using the opposite sex's restroom rather than one matching his gender at birth, which is a common rite of passage for transgender people (even though Chris did not identify as transgender at this time).

The dildo harness Chris used for tucking.

Over the next several years, Chris's feelings on his sex characteristics morphed into a loathing of his penis. In 2014, he took to forcing it to stay tucked with a makeshift harness.

Males Offend Me, even my own Penis Totally Grosses Me Out! I am glad that I tuck it underneath my taint, so I do not have to look down at the Ugly Bulge!

In 2016, Chris attempted a DIY gender transition using Subliminal Frequency Hypnosis. He was particularly drawn to tracks which claimed to convert a penis to a vagina.

I would feel better knowing if the ovum do get created and further produced after the testies to ovaries transformation. [...] Ugh, we may not know for as late as six months after someone else uses the frequency set, gets herself examined, and confirms it.

Chris's dysphoria and impatience over the Subliminal Frequencies resulted in the self-inflicted taint wound, an episode wherein he cut open his taint with a knife in an attempt to free his vagina.

In 2016, Chris saw a psychologist specializing in gender identity issues. The psychologist confirmed to him that he is transgender.

How Chris views himself after becoming a Tomgirl.

Miscellaneous signs

Gender dysphoria explains a lot of Chris's past behavior; an example being Chris's insecurity in failing to live up to cultural perceptions of masculinity. His tendency to exaggerate or overcompensate for his fragile masculinity could be caused by subconsciously knowing that his intellectual gender does not match his biological sex. The way Chris interacted during the Kacey calls is another piece of evidence; normally, guys subconsciously lower the pitch of their voices to seem attractive to women, but when Chris was trying to woo Kacey, his voice drifted higher than hers. Additionally, Chris is known for his pathological hatred of change, unless the change is beneficial or positive for him. To assume Chris "became" trans purely for the quest for china is fairly extreme, as suddenly identifying by another gender identity is generally a life-changing event for anybody, and Chris has shown that he is incapable of substantially changing himself even with the promise of a relationship laid in front of him.

Autism and trans identity

There is a correlation between autism and trans identity, though the exact reason for this correlation is still up for debate. According to a Dutch study, 7.8% of trans people are on the spectrum. There are a number of similarities between the two disorders. Autistic people have a harder time picking up on social norms, including gender norms. Therefore, autistic people tend to have "androgynous" mental qualities and interests, and those people could perceive their brain difference as simply having the brain of the opposite gender. Both autistic and trans males tend to have mostly gal-pals, because men tend to be rowdy and more explicitly judgmental. However, they may miss the socially complex and subtle elements of female socialization, and the actual women end up treating them with kid gloves.

The androgyny of autistic people has caught the interest of brain experts. MRI studies reveal that autistic men have "mosaic minds", which aren't just androgynous, but are extremely male in some aspects and extremely female in others. The autistic brain parts responsible for general thoughts are more masculine than the average man, with less connectivity and more localization. Autistic men excel at systemizing and struggle with empathizing, an exaggeration of the male profile. However, the parts of the brain responsible for sensation, perception and motion are more feminized. Like women, autistics have a high pain tolerance and a low pain threshold – observable in Chris. However, gender differences in the brain are only averages, and saying a man with feminine brain traits has a "female brain" is like saying a short man has a "female skeleton". Also, the gendering of autism is highly controversial, with many pointing out that the condition is a spectrum.

Kenneth Zucker, a controversial gender expert, found that gender dysphoria manifests as an obsession, and that autistic people may think they're trans if they fixate on the issue of gender.

It's also possible that Chris is genuinely transgender, but his transgender signs were "scrambled" through autism. This could be why he adapted nonstandard language for so long, and why he had to "ease into" his trans identity instead of coming out outright. For example, he identified as a tomgirl for years before his transgender identity came to the forefront, and he speaks of a "female soul" more than a "female brain."

Pre Tomgirl Saga

Chris getting in touch with his feminine side by wearing a sports bra in public.

Chris was known to experiment with cross dressing many times before officially declaring himself a lesbian tomgirl and crossdressing regularly. In 2008, the identity of Blanca Weiss asked Chris to take photos of himself wearing his mother's undergarments, to which he happily obliged. Later in 2009, Chris confided in Ivy that he enjoyed wearing women's underwear. In September of that same year during a call with Kacey, he told her that he planned on buying a sports bra to prevent the excessive bouncing of his breasts while jogging. Chris purchased some bras, and immediately loved wearing them, claiming that he enjoyed the feeling of donning them and felt confident. This is an effect of Chris' well known aversion to seeing bare male breasts, including his own. Chris would continue to wear these sports bras from this point onwards, and would eventually move on to wearing everyday bras typically used by most women.

In 2010, Chris would experiment wearing these bras in more open and public places. Chris would be spotted and photographed 18 June 2010 at Fridays After Five flaunting a sports bra with "WANT WOMAN!" written in permanent marker on the front face of the bra.

In 2011, Chris started to get in touch with his more "feminine side." Chris would admit to being more comfortable using the opposite gender's assigned restrooms in public places. Shortly after that same year on 26 March, Chris sent an email to Jackie revealing that he had begun fully crossdressing at the start of the month. Then four days later on 30 March, Chris would change the quote on his PSN to read "I am Tomgirl" marking the beginning of the Tomgirl Saga.

Tomgirl Saga

"Ladies, please. Contain your orgasms."

Sometime before 28 April 2011, Chris took several photos of himself dressed in women's clothing, posing in what he believes to be seductive positions. Surfshack Tito leaked these images on that day. Later that year on 16 August, Chris recorded a makeup tutorial video and posted it to YouTube titled Kaka Makeup Basics. Chris created a new fantasy band in the same vain as Christian & the Hedgehog Boys aptly named Robee Sonee and the Tomgirls to show his support for tomboys and tomgirls everywhere and the first and only album that was created was leaked on 12 November 2011. Despite still claiming to be a heterosexual male, Chris began to use women's restrooms more frequently, and confided in Jackie that he fantasized about "fit[ting] in at a lesbian bar" before the Tomgirl Pictures were taken on 26 April 2011.

Chris' parents were very unsupportive of Chris' new lifestyle. Bob called Chris a "fag" and Barbara made many negative remarks to try to persuade Chris from continuing being a tomgirl. On 15 May 2011, Barbara would forcefully cut Chris' hair. In his shock, he called her a bitch. He revealed this to Jackie on 17 May, stating in an email:

Last Sunday, My mother comes upstairs and yells at me about how She Thinks I'm turning queer from being Tomgirly and Feminine, AND she fears that I would kill her. Hand to God, I would never kill Anyone, including my own mother and father. Violence and Murder is Rarely the answer; murder is Morally Wrong; I care about my mother and father Very Much. And even worse, she threatens to kill me in her episode of emotional rage. She also took my keys. And shortly later, she tells me to come downstairs, so I go; she tells me to sit down, and she does the worse thing that broke the last straw on my camel's back, she Cuts my Long Hair Short and Butchered. After seeing the butchered hair in the mirror, I was soo in shock, I wield the double-edge sword I have been holding in for weeks since a much earlier fit of emotional rage of hers. I called her a Bitch. With her as a bitch, that makes me a son of a bitch, and it hurts me deep too. My hair is soo bad, I have to wear my PaRappa wool hat to cover the whole mess when I go out; I can not be seen in public with this short-hair mess.

Also in May, Chris would be yelled at by a man when he was caught using a women's restroom, and Chris would be asked my a male customer of Sheetz in June if Chris was gay, to which Chris took much offense. When Bob would pass away later in autumn of that year, he reportedly told Chris that he accepted Chris and loved him for who he is, revealed publicly on page 68 of Sonichu 12.

On 16 December 2013, Chris would send an e-mail correspondence with a troll pretending to be his old classmate Rebeckah Bentley further reinforcing his late onset gender dysphoria, stating:

I have a personal hatred for 99% of the worldwide population of my own gender. I often even find myself disgusted at my own penis, as well as thinking, "I wish I was born female, with the possibility of being a lesbian", or something like that. I find the males most ugly, offensive, horrendous, crazy, creepy and all that shit.

While not fully admitting to being transgender at the time, Chris would send another e-mail to Rebeckah Bentley on 23 December, where he stated that if a person were to consider him a "tranny," then one may do so.

I have no personal offense or beef against Lesbians, Bisexuals or Transgenders. If you consider cross-dressing a tranny act, then I guess you may count me as one there. Seriously, if I could do it more often, I would; my mother hates seeing me in a skirt a LOT, and I have a LOT of stress and emotional devastation as it is. But after consideration, with the gender-change operations, I would never want to date or anything like that with any of those trannys. Anna McLerran, my friend; she is a lesbian.

Chris' gender dysphoria would become even more evident as the years progressed. In a conversation he had with LoveYouLongTime, he talks about putting his penis in between his thighs, a practice normally referred to as "tucking", and also talks to LoveYouLongTime about the different conditioners he used to improve his hair quality. Chris would also have a vision in July 2014 while meditating about being a lesbian in a former life. On 14 August 2014, Chris posted to Facebook revealing that he is a "Tomgirl, Intersex of Female Soul with Male Body, and a Tranny Cross-Dresser," however he would later clarify that he is actually a lesbian in a male body. Chris would contemplate sexual reassignment surgery, also known as gender affirming surgery, around this time in order to transform himself into a "birth-able" female. However, Chris has not to this day had any type of procedure done to drastically alter his body. It was revealed in September of that year that he often would force his penis to be tucked using a makeshift harness. A fan would reach out to Chris during this time, and ask about his preferred gender and pronouns, and Chris would mention that he is indifferent. In addition, Chris would begin attending the Impulse Gay Social Club around this time as well.

It was not until 2015 when Chris would change his mind regarding his indifference of pronouns, and would begin to call himself a "Lesbian TransWoman" marking the beginning of his transition from tomgirl to a transgender woman.

More Extreme Examples of Dysphoria

After Chris began to truly transition, he's shown an opposite attitude towards his presentation, now wanting to eliminate any and all masculine traits of himself, which included his penis, or to at least have a vagina.

See also

• Chris and gender
• Hermaphrodite
• Transgender
• Self-inflicted taint wound