30 day genderqueer challenge

[aleon515]

This is a pretty interesting "self-awareness" activity. Might be interesting to compare notes if anyone is interested in this.

It applies very much to people who don't wish to use this term.

The concept is that each day you take a different question and answer it.

http://genderqueerid.com/post/19662297051/30-day-genderqueer-challenge

--Jay Jay

[Jamie D]

Day 1
1) Do you use any other terms to define or explain your gender?

I have used "bigendered."

This is going to be fun ... and scary.

[Edge]

1) Do you use any other terms to define or explain your gender?

I use bigender and genderfluid.

[suzifrommd]

Thanks for finding this Jay Jay.

1) Do you use any other terms to define or explain your gender?

I like "mix-gendered", though I don't think it's really a word. I might have made it up, but I think it's much more self explanatory than androgyne.

Bigender is ok, but not in writing because it looks like it should be pronounced big-ender, and my end is not big, thankyouverymuch.

I also like the Native American term "two-spirit", but most people are not familiar with that tradition.

[Taka]

day 1
Do you use any other terms to define or explain your gender?

i don't usually try to define or explain my gender to people. right now somewhere between genderfluid and bigender seems best, but i called myself androgyne too on here.
on anime/manga related forums i've used the term "futa", for those of you who know what that would be

[Shana A]

1) Do you use any other terms to define or explain your gender?

At various times I have used these terms: M2F2?, androgyne, transgender, third gender, gender variant, non-binary, Two Spirit (I like the term, however don't feel comfortable using it as I'm not Native American), none of the above, etc. (I know I'm forgetting a few...)

Z

[Your Humble Savant]

Cool activity; thanks for posting Jay Jay 

1) Do you use any other terms to define or explain your gender?

Other than "genderqueer", you mean? Usually I go with "genderfluid", as I often find myself flowing between typically "male" and "female" presentations (dressing, acting, etc). Or, I'll just say that it is what it is, cause that's more accurate.

[eli77]

1) Do you use any other terms to define or explain your gender?

I don't like using any. If I have to on forms and stuff I put female (like I do on this site as path of least resistance, and to avoid questions). Technically I suppose I could call myself agender, but it seems weird to label an absence.

Edit: Thought about this more - I do use trans, non-binary, queer and tomboy in various contexts to define myself as needed.

[aleon515]

Hey, cool and perhaps a bit scary. Glad people "bit". I am "journaling" on this, so last night I actually wrote about it. I'll just put a bit of what I wrote.

Haven't really found a term I really like more than another. Here are some I have used or thought of: gender non-comforming, non-binary, two-spirited, trans* (meaning somewhere on the spectrum of transgender), etc.

--Jay Jay

[Julian]

I've seen this floating around on Tumblr, but I don't really post much personal stuff on my Tumblr and I don't ID as genderqueer, so I haven't done it. It'll be interesting to compare answers with other people here, though.

1) Do you use any other terms to define or explain your gender?

I don't identify as genderqueer, so I have to look for other terms. One I've settled on that I like is neutrois. It's kind of the gender of not having a gender. Similar to agender and genderless, but also not somehow. I also like non-binary rather than androgyn(e) and genderqueer, because it seems to me that it implies 'neither' rather than 'both'.

[Your Humble Savant]

2) How did you grow up with your gender?

-shrug- I dunno. It was just another part of me, no big deal. Seems to me I've always been a tomboy; didn't even know what genderqueer was/that it existed until college. Then I started using "genderfluid" as well. It developed/deepened as all other facets of my personality did.

[aleon515]

2) How did you grow up with your gender?

From my journal:
I was a tomboy when I was a kid. I tended to play with boys and prefer boys toys and boys activities. Though unfortunately on my account, I was a very weak tomboy and not very skilled in all the physical activity. It was not the age of geeks and nerds yet, so that was unfortunate for me. I would have fit right into all that (and later did-- as I was an early adopter on the internet, computers, etc.)

I already talked (here) about deciding I was a boy and being quite insistent on this, and talked about how my mom was fairly sympathetic.

As a teen I continued with some of these issues. I was very uncomfortable with my body as a teenager, developing secondary female traits and so forth. I think this is when I had the feelings of dislike/ totally not fitting my image in a mirror. I started dressing in an androgynous way at that time. My mom seemed less sympathetic at this point, and told me constantly that I needed to "dress like a young lady", etc. These things made my skin crawl though I didn't understand then why.

--Jay Jay

[Jamie D]

Day 2

2) How did you grow up with your gender?

GenderS - awkwardly, to say the least.

[suzifrommd]

2) How did you grow up with your gender?

At the time, I never realized anything was up. It's only looking back that I notice things. I never realized there was a difference between the way boys and girls (or men and women) were supposed to act until well into my 20s. Might not mean anything, though, I was clueless about an awful lot of social stuff.

[eli77]

2) How did you grow up with your gender?

I have complicated feelings about these kinds of questions. Memory is a shifty bitch, and I'm never sure what I've imposed on my childhood versus what was actually happening at the time.

I think I did mostly okay till I was about 11 or so. I have really progressive ex-hippy parents who let me do pretty much whatever. I didn't really have a concept of gendered activities or behaviour or presentation at that point. Though I was a bit of a tomboy so that helped somewhat. My parents did spend a lot of time correcting pronouns and stuff 'cause people tended to assume I was a girl. And apparently I wasn't supposed to be.

Puberty was just bad. That's when the dysphoria started. And when it started to not be okay to be on the wrong side of gender norms.

[Edge]

2) How did you grow up with your gender?
I didn't really notice a difference when I was kid. I had some problems when I was ten because I was friends with a boy and the other girls interrogated me about the nature of our relationship, but that's because they were dumb and not because of anything to do with me. When I was first entering puberty, I thought I was going to turn out be at least part boy even though I knew I was a girl. Then other stuff unrelated to gender happened.

[Jamie D]

Day 3

3) What's your favorite ways of upsetting gender roles / genderbending / gender>-bleeped-<ing?

Sexual cross-role-playing.

[Edge]

3) What's your favourite ways of upsetting gender roles/genderbending/gender>-bleeped-<ing?
None. Why the heck would I let something that doesn't exist in my reality (and is complete nonsense) have anything I do whether it's to "upset" it (which really just enforces it) or not?

[suzifrommd]

3) What's your favorite ways of upsetting gender roles / genderbending / genderf***ing?

Don't know that I have favorites. I wish I were doing more of it than I do. I'm new to all this genderqueer stuff.

I've tried to grow my fingernails out on one hand. Not going well. A week in and one's cracked already.

I'm toying with the idea of buying some type of feminine jewelry, maybe a pendant, to wear in public. (Yeah, I know I posted something like that over a month ago. I'm still toying, okay. It takes me longer, 'cause I'm only a woman some of the time.)

Don't know if I'd have the cojones actually to go through with it.

[Constance]

3) What's your favorite ways of upsetting gender roles / genderbending / genderf***ing?

I identify as a woman who is a father and an ex-husband. I also love that my adult kids call me "dad" in public.

I should also add that I identify as a male-bodied woman. I don't know if this counts as queering gender so much as it is just a description of my transition progress thus far.