What is your gender?

I saw this on Andrea_TheNerd and her post on Gender Identity.

COMPONENTS OF GENDER

A core component of Queer Theory is that gender is performative, but if this was necessarily so, it would invalidate transsexualism from the outset. Since the treatment of gender identity disorder recognizes that the brain cannot be sufficiently changed and that the body must be altered so it aligns with the mind, it seems that at the very least identity is a factor of gender outside the sphere of performance.

Androgynes are a sort of transgender people with the gender identity of both a man and a woman or neither. For them, the notion that sex is between the legs while gender is between the ears is key. Because they are neither men nor women, these non-binary gender variants are most expediently differentiated as male-born and female-born. The remaining categories are intersex, M2F (male-to-female transsexual), and F2M (female-to-male transsexual). For more on androgynes, http://androgyne.0catch.com is recommended.

From my own perspective as an androgyne, gender's makeup is comprised of gender identity, gender presentation, gender performance, and gender role. Gender identity concerns how you think, gender presentation how you look, gender performance how you act, and gender role how you contribute socially. Any of these aspects of gender can be mutually exclusive of another depending on the individual and/or circumstance. Gender presentation is like the flipside of Bornstein's gender attribution, since it hinges on how you yourself -- rather than others -- interpret your gender cues.

While gender role tends to go with gender identity, it doesn't always. For example, there are male nurses and librarians and female security guards and construction workers who arguably have a traditional gender identity. It is also entirely possible to have a gender identity and gender role that does not match up with one's gender presentation and gender performance. Just because someone feels a certain way and performs certain tasks doesn't mean they have to look or act the part.

Copyright 2006 Stephe Feldman

Survey!

1. What is your gender identity - how you think?

2. What is your gender presentation - how you look?

3. What is your gender performance - how you act?

4. What is your gender role - how you contribute socially?

My answers:

1)  As I have mentioned previously in this blog, I identify as the T in LGBT. This means that my gender identity is Female. Everytime I am looking at something, thinking about something or just trying to figure out how to get things done, if someone were to psychoanalyze it without seeing me, they would think a girl is doing all that.

2) My current presentation is less than favorable. This is because I have some extra stuff that I don't wish to have (this is numerous things, not just the main 3). However, I do dress feminine every chance I get and have also grown my hair out as well.

3) In pretty much everything I do, I always take a female perspective and hence act accordingly - feminine. While I'm sure this comes off to people in the everyday public that I'm gay or something like that (which has been voiced a few times), I feel it's better for people to see me acting the proper way I feel.

4) This, unfortunately, is a VERY convoluted subject matter for me. While my physical appearance is that of a male, I'm expected to act accordingly, socially speaking. However, since I do not take a male perspective (and never have actually) and act female, I try to contribute to social circles in the way girls do, not fully as I do not like the societal standard that is still placed on women (stay home, have kids, cook, clean, be subservient to a male's every wish that is head of the house, etc.). I will contribute on an emotional empathic level and try to help out those around me as often as I can. Unfortunately I don't suffer stupidity or idiocy very well and may come off as a bit apathetic, though, if there is a reason behind it and the individual is not just being stupid or idiotic, then yes, I will help them

I would encourage any readers of my blog to take a look at these 4 questions and to look at yourself using these 4 questions. You may be surprised what you learn, others may find out something they've already known. But what I would ask people to take away from this, is an understanding that not everything around fits into a standard mold of what is societally acceptable.