Difference between androgyne *Identity* and androgynous *expression*

[Lizard]

Anyone who has ever bothered to get to know me, or paid any attention, would know that my personality/spirit always been androgynous to masculine. But, I dressed female exclusively for many reasons, work, family, expectations, social pressure... and pressure is the right word for me. Since I've started dressing more to the way I feel, androgynous to masculine, and those who know me aren't surprised in the least. Really, this has been hardest on the people who thought they knew me, but never paid attention.



That's my 2 cents from this corner of the world.

L~

[Rin-likes-rain]

It took me a while to understand the difference between androgynous and androgyne. Like, I used to identify as a transmasculine genderqueer. But I have always had an androgynous style. Being transgender, I felt like there was just so much pressure on me to be masculine or nobody would take me seriously. Like, the only people I'm closeted to is most of my family, and I'm involved in church. I was afraid that if I came to church looking feminine, they'd see that as me not being a guy. So that was a really emotionally trying time for me. Non-binary never really fit for me per say because I do identify strongly as transgender, even though I relate strongly to the feminine energy. But for the most part, thinking back on it, I would often forget I even had a gender until someone used her/she pronouns, which really bugged me. Now I don't mind as long as the person knows that I'm not just a she. My boyfriend still calls me his girlfriend and uses feminine words when referring to me. But he asked me if I was okay with him doing that. Which I totally am. I love being a girl when I'm with him; for him and him only. But then I discovered Androgyny as a gender. I thought that wasn't me either because I'm not really in-between but more towards one and nothing I learned more about it and finally it clicked. I'm androgyne.

[jamie-lee]

I think all of us come through a stage of conflating expression with identity. Identity, is something you know at your core. I might not be very clear in here, but I know that it's my gender identity and not expression at work when I say I am a tomboy and nobody believes me, because I don't do sports, use nail polish, and I'm quite girly in general. It's about some deeper truth about me, it's about the whole image, not the pixels that create it.

[justine77]

Hi, I can relate to Satinjoy on this. I call myself androgyne but to me it's just a label. I consider myself male and female at the same time, I can flow very easily from one to the other depending on the circumstances. I was castrated when I was 23 (after an accident) and it took me a while to adapt to it but thinking about it now it didn't particularly change how I am. Nowadays (at 25)  I look more feminine and can pass as a girl if I want to. I consider myself on the feminine side of androgyne, if I think about it at all. My appearance is natural blonde, slim, delicate features, no facial hair and a husky voice. Without clothes I sometimes come across as a bit of a surprise, good muscle definition (as in athletic), very little body hair and no pubic hair at all. I have a functional penis but obviously no balls. So physically I have both male and female characteristics. Inside I am the same, both male and female. I can express either one depending on what I feel like or switch between the two at the drop of a hat. I'm perfectly comfortable how I am and have no plans for SRS, though I tempted to became more feminine.    Justine x