State of My Gender, Revisited: The Mix And Match Edition

[pantryslut]

Not only are you all shy, you are all also so respectful! I promise, I am not going to be offended by any way you choose to describe my gender. In fact, I am mostly over it at this stage in my life. I make up answers whenever anybody asks me. I invent new genders on the spot. Why not? You all have that freedom, too. I grant you permission to describe my gender any way that makes sense to you, and I will continue to call myself anything that I feel like, and express my gender or genders any darn way it occurs to me to do so at the moment.

So, here is the answer I promised:

Right now, my gender is "mix and match." "Mannish woman" will also do. "Genderfucked" is fine as well. "Gender euphoric" is charming me at the moment but may seem to cutesy tomorrow. "Butch" is always OK but also always feels incomplete. And so on, and so forth.

What all this means: I definitely see myself (and, I think, anybody who knows me can also see this pretty quickly) as a chopped salad (not a blend) of gender attributes, listing toward the masculine more than most folks born with my sort of body tend to, but only up to a certain point -- I would be a very feminine man, you see, had things gone another way. I would be a shy nerdy bookwormy sort regardless.

Also, I like gender as a playground, and I like making up games to play on it. So "gender playful" might work, too.

Comments

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

If you say "Mannish girl" rather than "Mannish woman," you get this neat Muddy Waters resonance. Da-da-DUM-di-da-dum!

[imnotandrei.livejournal.com]

Also, I like gender as a playground, and I like making up games to play on it. So "gender playful" might work, too.

I can see the gender swings, and the gender see-saw, and I know people who've been stuck on the gender...what the heck do you call that thing that spins around and around with bars to hold onto?

I want to know the rules for gender hopscotch. ;)

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Is there some reason we can't call it the gender merry-go-round?

[imnotandrei.livejournal.com]

Because I somehow had merry-go-round stuck in the same category as "carousel", and applied them only to big carnival rides -- I think I blame "Something Wicked This Way Comes".

[pennski.livejournal.com]

I'd call that a gender roundabout.

And what about gender skipping? Or Gender french-skipping (for which you need at least 3 people).

[thette.livejournal.com]

My gender is geek.

I usually say butch, but as soon as I started identifying as butch, I started finding ways to undermine the new gender role, like I did with the old one. This is a very geekish response. There are more things to it, but I am prepared to argue that geek is a gender identity.

The corresponding sexual identity is, of course, pervy geek fancier. I'm one of them, too.

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

My partner says something similar: that geek is a sexual orientation.

[koan69.livejournal.com]

"geek is a sexual orientation"

Hey! I resemble that!

Actually, I think those words speak a lot of truth.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I have another friend here who has said a similar thing in the past.

[goodbadgirl.livejournal.com]

Gender playful is awesome! :) xo

[nadyalec.livejournal.com]

fencesitter! liminal! girly man! mannish woman!
classic butch... (singing along with jane's addiction)...

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

:)

[mojokat.livejournal.com]

amen