> gender dysphoria is a pretty sensible trauma response to society’s unrelenting and coercive gendering

Admittedly, I still have an immediate and defensive reaction to this.

The experience I have with HRT is a stark before vs. after of 'my soul somehow fitting into the folds of my brain like a glove, for once' (or something to that degree), and yet it still feels so maddeningly unexplainable because, indeed, I agree that no mannerisms, interests, or ways of adorning oneself or being are inherently gendered, or ever should be. We just...are. I just...need a flat chest with my sweater dress, for the same sort of reason I prefer vanilla ice cream over chocolate ice cream, which I cannot articulate.

Maybe it's a hormone receptor thing, and a 'male brain' is just one that feels normal as opposed to 'like a gray blob' on one hormone cocktail vs. another. Does it matter? (It feels like it does, when I'm terrified of losing my 'miracle drug' and struggle to think past that.) Should it matter? Probably not. Ideally, we just do whatever we damn well please with our bodies, and the 'why' is nobody's business. It's not like those who mean harm actually care.

At any rate, your writing often challenges me, and I appreciate it.