Quote from: Keira on June 23, 2008, 03:13:30 PM
I don't want to sound to dense, but is
it even possible to have no gender (Neutrois).
I can understand not identifying as either gender
(and society's expectations of each), but society
will place you in one or the other regardless of
what is desired. Society doesn't have a category
for such identification yet and maybe making
it impossible for it to classify oneself is the
only hope in this case, though this is a
thin line that few can pull off!
In a sense its even worse
than being a TS since there's nothing that
can be done about it except acceptance
of society's need to gender everybody.
Isn't one of the common factors that all trans people have that our identities are not dictated by what other people see? Binary TSs may transition to a state where they're read in line with their identified gender on a regular basis, but at some point they identified in a way contradictory to how those around them percieved them.
Our identities are certainly not dictated by what social roles are assigned to us or even what social roles exist. I am what I am, other people's assumptions about gender can't ever change that.
I do not identity as male and do not wish to be male bodied, I do not identify as female and do not wish to be female bodied. Male pronouns and female pronouns feel equally inappropriate to me, Nothing and nobody can take that identification away from me.
You're right though, we have to accept that we will be misgendered on a regular basis and have an even harder time than non-stealth binary TSs in persuading people that our gender identities are valid. However the body dysphoria aspect is certainly treatable, given enlightened medical professionals.
On a different note, I do feel as if I have a gender, just a gender defined by the lack of something that the vast majority of other people have. I am therefore null-gendered or more broadly a 'third gender'. I don't tend to use the agender or non-gendered terms to refer to myself, but can see why others do.
Identity is a complex business with many subtleties, I don't think I've met two people who frame their gender identity in exactly the same way. What terms we identify AS or what terms or movements we identify WITH is a very personal thing.