What does being a [INSERT GENDER/SEX HERE] mean to you?

[Galactic Turtle]

Hello humans.

 

The question is in the topic title! I figured this could be a convenient reference for people to learn about various perspectives.

 

What does being a [INSERT GENDER HERE] mean to you?

 

What does being a [INSERT SEX HERE] mean to you?

 

For me, being a woman means as I go about the world I am perceived as someone with a female body and with that comes the cultural expectations placed on women regardless of whether I choose to follow those expectations or not.

 

For me, being a female means I have a female body. 

[letusdeleteouraccounts]

I guess for me being a guy means that people expect me to be this specific person that I just wasn’t meant to be. People aren’t going to understand when I’m finally comfortable being who I am, expression wise, and they’re going to criticize me for not conforming but it’s just a journey that I’ll have to get used to

[abandoned-account]

I feel odd with this because I have a lot of disgust towards having a female body with breasts and a uterus, but on the social/psychological aspect I just like to think of myself as just... me. Not a woman, not a man, at least by how society defines them. Yet at the same time I don't feel dysphoric enough to officially identify as non-binary. I still use female pronouns and such, and I believe my gender should be nothing more than a simple identifier of my body type (even if I hate that body to some degree).

[Lord Jade Cross]

.

[ColeHW34]

Being nonbinary to me means not in the american or any version of stereotypes of the binary.

Plain and simple.

Other than that I'm unsure what to say.

[Andrea KF]

Trying to answer this messed with my mind a bit😊

 

I'm probably being percieved as a man by others and that means following a lot of stereotypes I don't like and having certain interests, some of which I like.

Agender? I have to try it!

 

For me, being male is having a male body and genitals. I definitely don't like having that. It's acceptable at best.

Female? I have to try it!

[PoeciMeta]

I am a... wait, I'm nothing! Or I'm agender... but I'm definitely not a gender... I mean, I'm me? 

Seriously though, being agender is... no, precisely, it isn't '-' It's about what I'm not. I'm me and me isn't gender-able. 

But there are still feelings behind it. It's still important. Because gender is so alien to me, it's painful when I'm associated with one. Exactly the thing about people sticking you in a box you don't like. The only difference is that it's not that the box is wrong, it's that the existence of boxes is wrong. So there's still dysphoria and all that nice stuff~

 

About my s-... NO I REFUSE TO CALL MYSELF SOMETHING WITH ''SEX'' IN IT oh sorry that was a reflex I assume you get the point I simply loathe it and will do everything to have it gone~

[thyristor]

As a traindriver and activist I feel like a traindriver and activist. Honestly, I have never been discriminated in my life for being a woman and have never refrained from activities because they were typically for guys. I only realized that women might be discriminated from hearing about it from media, but I also realized that I have been a very lucky person all through my life [even for living in Germany and Sweden]. If you asked me today whether I would chose female if I could chose my sex, I'd say female, mostly for the sake of not bothering to change, rather than because I'd identify with female more than with male.

[Guest]

It means being something that people can't understand so keeping it to myself.

[Sarah-Sylvia]

Hmm, would 'sex' be how we were biologically born? If so it's pretty much just a contrast for me.

Being female means being myself, who I am at heart, both in terms of how I feel my body's sex should be, and levels of femininty I'm more able to reach being female. At this point it's a very big thing for me, precisely because I haven't lived that truth in society. It means a lot to me, when I'm able to feel more like myself, and that includes being female.

Being born as physically male didn't mean as much in the past when i didn't know as much (including about myself) as it does now, in terms of not being how I want to be physically.. Feeling a discrepancy. It also carries the societal expectations, which make it very hard to be much more feminine, which clashes with how I feel and would like to because of how I am inside. Things that are very important to me are very hard to represent and express in this society, and that's a bad feeling.

I am trying my best to find more of myself and find my way through, and be more confident in myself, and make steps towards being more feminine. Slowly, but I can only work with what I've got, and try to look beyond to what might be possible. I want to be happy, so I don't want to just sulk about things, I want to try for me, and beyond ❤️

[Homer]

Absolutely nothing. For me it's just a piece of vocabulary, like callig a house "a house" or calling a dog "a dog".

[wyrdwyrm]

2 hours ago, Veezle said:

I feel odd with this because I have a lot of disgust towards having a female body with breasts and a uterus, but on the social/psychological aspect I just like to think of myself as just... me. Not a woman, not a man, at least by how society defines them. Yet at the same time I don't feel dysphoric enough to officially identify as non-binary. I still use female pronouns and such, and I believe my gender should be nothing more than a simple identifier of my body type (even if I hate that body to some degree).

This is almost exactly how I'd put it!

[kiaroskuro]

4 hours ago, Galactic Turtle said:

For me, being a woman means as I go about the world I am perceived as someone with a female body and with that comes the cultural expectations placed on women regardless of whether I choose to follow those expectations or not.

 

For me, being a female means I have a female body. 

I couldn't have said it better.

 

I'm very happy to be a female-bodied person, and at the same time I'm very unhappy with all of society's expectations which are the cause of my social dysphoria.

Also, being of the female sex means that I'm part of a group that is being discriminated against and experiences all sorts of abuse and violence. That's why I feel so strongly about the feminist cause. But I'm only a "woman" inasmuch as I'm part of a community of fate, and inasmuch as I have a female body. In all other regards, I don't identify with this social category, it means nothing to me.

The concept of androgyny, however, as well as the androgynous gender expression - they mean a lot to me. They feel right.

[Zagadka]

For the most part, nothing, though I am aware of the social constructs of masculinity and femininity. As for masculinity, I feel very detached, personally. I don't feel obligated to behave in a certain way, and I feel no attachment to that identity.

[CajunAce]

That I happen to have tits and 2 X chromosomes which leads to some physical and mental differences to those with a Y chromosome. 

 

I dont fit a lot of the female stereotypes/ expectations and I'm 3000% fine with that.

[Miss Okapi]

To me, being a female means I have boobs and a vagina (although some days I wish I  could get rid of them)...

And also it means I have a load of stereotypes shoved on me by society

 

[frostboot]

I really dislike talking about bodies as "female" or "male". I am nonbinary and therefore my body is a nonbinary one. For me, being nonbinary means that I embrace both femininity and masculinity, as well as the rest of the gender spectrum. 

[PoeciMeta]

2 hours ago, frostboot said:

I really dislike talking about bodies as "female" or "male". I am nonbinary and therefore my body is a nonbinary one. 

This. My body doesn't belong to a female. I admit I have trouble really thinking of it as not (intrinsically?) female, since biologically, well, it is, but once I'm done transitioning it won't be anymore. 

[frostboot]

19 hours ago, NoelciMeta said:

This. My body doesn't belong to a female. I admit I have trouble really thinking of it as not (intrinsically?) female, since biologically, well, it is, but once I'm done transitioning it won't be anymore. 

What is biology, though? It's a mess! You don't have to call yourself biologically anything if you don't want to.

To quote my favorite tweet dealing with a transphobe: "I'm biologically trans. Also you can go biologically fuck yourself"

[PoeciMeta]

18 minutes ago, frostboot said:

What is biology, though? It's a mess! You don't have to call yourself biologically anything if you don't want to.

Indeed! And within this mess, the categories we defined is just a means for us humans to make things a little bit easier to understand~

 

Quote

To quote my favorite tweet dealing with a transphobe: "I'm biologically trans. Also you can go biologically fuck yourself"

Of course, silly me, psychological phenomena most probably all stem from physiological ones... if transness is etched in my brain, there's do denying I am biologically trans

Even before the process of taking off sex characteristics which can argueably render one's body mostly unclassifiable with binary sex! 

[anisotrophic]

To me, being non-binary means I am more than what I was.

Being female means – or meant – I lived, worked, and loved as a woman. I tried to be attractive. I wore a lovely wedding dress. I gave birth, I fed those children. I was frustrated by weakness. I struggled with sexism. I worried a lot about others. I was vulnerable. I cried.

Becoming male – or masculine, on T – means that I am more things, mostly, although there are some losses. I'm getting stronger, my arms are looking great, I can lift things more easily. It's much harder to cry, I'm more inclined to be silent when unhappy. I feel calmer, more assertive. I fuss over the growth of new facial hair. I enjoy my changing voice.

Being non-binary, being trans – I explore my new, hybrid physiology, I love the new parts while still happy with the old ones. I pull out necklaces that were long ago consigned to storage. I'm looking into getting my ears re-pierced. Feminine things have become fun again, because they're no longer required. I joke and ask my oldest kid, "should I be a boy or a girl today?"

[PoeciMeta]

43 minutes ago, anisotrophic said:

To me, being non-binary means I am more than what I was.

Being female means – or meant – I lived, worked, and loved as a woman. I tried to be attractive. I wore a lovely wedding dress. I gave birth, I fed those children. I was frustrated by weakness. I struggled with sexism. I worried a lot about others. I was vulnerable. I cried.

Becoming male – or masculine, on T – means that I am more things, mostly, although there are some losses. I'm getting stronger, my arms are looking great, I can lift things more easily. It's much harder to cry, I'm more inclined to be silent when unhappy. I feel calmer, more assertive. I fuss over the growth of new facial hair. I enjoy my changing voice.

Being non-binary, being trans – I explore my new, hybrid physiology, I love the new parts while still happy with the old ones. I pull out necklaces that were long ago consigned to storage. I'm looking into getting my ears re-pierced. Feminine things have become fun again, because they're no longer required. I joke and ask my oldest kid, "should I be a boy or a girl today?"

This!! 

I love how fantastic you make it sound! I'll never be male or female in the slightest, but I think I could say my expression is androgynous or fluid... and I want to be able to claim anything traditionally associated with a gender because I'm free of gender. It won't limit me one way or the other. I can be pretty and handsome and strong and sensitive and adventurous and good with animals and gender is completely left out of the equation, because it is nothing to me. That is such a precious thought.