A Matter of Semantics: The Difference Between “Identifying as” and “Identifying

[Butterfly]

A Matter of Semantics: The Difference Between "Identifying as" and "Identifying with"
Women Born Transsexual
09 September, 2010
By Suzan


http://womenborntranssexual.com/2010/09/09/a-matter-of-semantics-the-difference-between-identifying-as-and-identifying-with/



This post grew out of something I read in Sherry Wolf's book, Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation .

This book had been on my must read list for a while. I was familiar with Ms. Wolf's writing from her columns at Socialistworker.org.

Yesterday, on Facebook, Ethan St Pierre asked if people identified as male, female or transgender.

I'm an old fashioned lefty.  I'm not something because I identify as that thing.  Claiming to identify as without being seems to me to be an odd construct that doesn't fall much in line with my existentialist line of thinking.

I am not a woman because I identify as a woman. I am a woman even though I was assigned male at birth because of having been born with something that the best term for still seems to be "transsexualism".  I had sex reassignment surgery that made me female.