Inspired by this dorky exchange I had, thank u BountifulEggnog.
I want to know what your gender means to you, how you define it, what it means for you to "be" that gender and how you define it. Don't fuss about 'correct definitions' or anything, this is about your experience, I want to know what it means to you. How you relate to that gender, perceive it.
Genders have a social construction aspect and is very subjective, so I think people's subjective, personal views of their own are both important and interesting. Inquiring mind wants to know!
I'll share some of mine I guess.
I was a trans woman until the contradictions sharpened to a razor's edge after reading Gender Outlaw and The Gender Accelerationist Manifesto. My brain got cracked in half. I have always hated the effects testosterone would have on my body, so estrogen was a given, but while I do identify with certain things that are commonly associated with being a woman... if nothing is inherently gendered, what even is a gender? I had a whole little episode about it in the megathread once.
As I went on from there, I realised that while I like certain things about "being a woman", equally I found I'd been sort of stifled by trying to fit into the social role. The women I have always related to most are the cis autistic women who basically yeet presentation in favour of dressing for sensory comfort. Almost kinda non binary, in a way... The more I interrogated binary gender in relation to myself, the more I dug up stuff like this. Also I didn't really like that "woman" is associated with cis people a lot, I really like the trans part of my identity, feel a lot of love for it. I've felt freer and mentally clearer and truer to myself as a Non Binary Transfem, it's cool and funny. What does it mean to me? It represents my goofy sometimes-androgynous presentation, my lack of cissie gender, how being neurodiverse influences my view, being a funny noody goblin. Share yours =)
Gender, Growing up CW some abuse talk
One of my earliest feelings as far back as I can remember is that my sexual anatomy is wrong.. like deeply wrong and misaligned. I'd not really associate gender with that feeling, more I knew when I was very young that something was different and not correct with my body.
I was also beaten and abused for expressing myself in any non conforming way.. which forced me to disassociate and try to repress.. though I still didn't know what I was, I just remember feeling alienated and alone.
Not feeling anything gender kind of made it feel even more weird when puberty hit and then my body went a different way from the cis normative presentation I was brought up as.
The years of abuse took their toll and I'd be bullied at school to go home and then live in my bedroom and avoid my family as best I could. I had no friends to reach out to either so it was a hard way to grow up trying to figure myself out.
As for gender well I still tried to figure myself out.. found out from the crying game at least that things can be different but now I had some idea then seeing all of the hatred and jokes made about that film and others growing up well that kind of added to feeling alienated, I spent most of the 90s trying to figure out what I was in the very limited capacity I could..
I've huge holes in my memory so trying to recollect stuff is difficult or what I felt at some time but the thing that stuck with me was the feeling I had around 8 but could be younger, earliest memory I have was being on a surgical table.. but it's so hard to remember much of my childhood past the abuse.. between autism and trying to express myself.. I remember crying my eyes out most nights because my anatomy felt wrong.
Genders one of those things that didn't really play much part, I didn't fit the roles I was pushed into I was something caught between a binary that still got called gay daily and beaten, spat on etc all the nasty shit.. but gender didn't really play a part in my growth. Just whacky weird things under the surface and mostly kept hidden.
Years later when I was ready to transition, I still didn't have any idea about gender or feel it. I liked the aesthetic of femininity.. I already had the body so I felt that would be a possible way to go to help me feel better about myself? But I didn't.. I didn't get gender euphoria, I've never had that no matter how I present. I just felt when in spaces with other trans women that they'd be very excited and happy and that made me feel more alienated again..
This was before I found out about more non binary.. once I read Gender Outlaw things clicked and I felt seen for the first time in my life.. Autism and a lot of abuse has made it a very slow painful process to figuring out myself and I've only recently figured out I'm agender.