My gender therapist told me this in response to something I said referencing my chest. It was a while ago but it’s stuck with me. I’m wondering what you all think of this comment? The comment felt disqualifying, like I was less male for calling my chest a “breast”, or I would be seen as less male because of it, but I can be pretty sensitive so I might be overthinking and she might be right that men don’t talk like that.
You are a man and you said “breast” so by definition, men say “breast.”
Or maybe more directly, referring to breasts as “breasts” does not in an absolute sense disqualify someone from being a man.
Even if this seems trivially true, it doesn’t stop people from taking generalizations (like men typically say chest rather than breast) and applying them in either a policing fashion or in a disqualifying / gatekeeping fashion.
OP might just need to talk to the therapist about the comment and walk through how they experienced it.
In voice therapy a trans person might intentionally train to mimic common stereotypes in gendered speech patterns, sometimes it’s just pragmatic and useful to be clued into those gendered generalizations to help pass - we don’t know if the therapist was trying to likewise be helpful and accidentally came across as policing or gatekeeping.
Wishing you luck OP!
As an observation, I think it’s valid. As a criticism of any kind, it’s shit.
I refer to my man boobs, sure, but don’t really say breasts. It is what it is, anecdotally of course.
But I also don’t know I’d even notice if a friend of mine said something about his breast.
Also not trans, just want to be part of the conversation.