Questioning my gender and how to define it
Posted: Sat May 13, 2017 11:28 am
Hi! I'm relatively new here and don't know much about gender yet, so I do apologise if I've posted in the wrong place/used the wrong terminology.
In terms of sex, I'm a girl, but recently I've been questioning my old concepts of gender. Probably largely because of the cisnormative culture I live in, I always assumed that I was also female by gender. However, recently having learnt more about the differences between sex and gender, I started to get a little confused about my own gender.
I've never been concerned about using female pronouns for myself, but then, I've never really questioned it. I feel comfortable with my anatomy. I like skirts, dresses, long hair, dancing, netball and many other things which are traditionally associated with femininity. However, I also like trousers, blue, football, martial arts, physics and many other things which are traditionally associated with masculinity. Most of my friends are additionally boys and I have often been labelled a "tomboy" around them. As a feminist, I've always thought I was a girl that broke gender roles. However, when I learnt more about the concept of gender, I realised many people who break as many gender roles as I do identify as transgender because of it. Based on my own current ignorance of these issues, I would currently have an issue with labelling myself as anything other than a girl because girls can like traditionally masculine things, and surely that doesn't automatically make them boys. Please note that I do completely respect anyone who does consider themselves a different gender to the one they have been labelled with at birth, I'm just not sure I understand what gender is if not in terms of biology or gender roles. Can someone please explain, and does this make me agender/bigender/pangender/genderfluid?
Thank you! :0)
In terms of sex, I'm a girl, but recently I've been questioning my old concepts of gender. Probably largely because of the cisnormative culture I live in, I always assumed that I was also female by gender. However, recently having learnt more about the differences between sex and gender, I started to get a little confused about my own gender.
I've never been concerned about using female pronouns for myself, but then, I've never really questioned it. I feel comfortable with my anatomy. I like skirts, dresses, long hair, dancing, netball and many other things which are traditionally associated with femininity. However, I also like trousers, blue, football, martial arts, physics and many other things which are traditionally associated with masculinity. Most of my friends are additionally boys and I have often been labelled a "tomboy" around them. As a feminist, I've always thought I was a girl that broke gender roles. However, when I learnt more about the concept of gender, I realised many people who break as many gender roles as I do identify as transgender because of it. Based on my own current ignorance of these issues, I would currently have an issue with labelling myself as anything other than a girl because girls can like traditionally masculine things, and surely that doesn't automatically make them boys. Please note that I do completely respect anyone who does consider themselves a different gender to the one they have been labelled with at birth, I'm just not sure I understand what gender is if not in terms of biology or gender roles. Can someone please explain, and does this make me agender/bigender/pangender/genderfluid?
Thank you! :0)