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Do you ever question your masculinity, or femininity?

Started by Elijah3291, June 05, 2010, 11:15:38 PM

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Elijah3291

For example.. I have perfume that I really like.. I sometimes wear it, and I like to spray it in my room.. BUT I also like axe and old spice and I have cologne.. and I would probably spray old spice rather then perfume if I had some..

what about you?
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Elijah3291

I think old rugged boots look really cute and sexy on girls..

and.. I suppose violent video games.. are targeted towards guy, but its not crazy for a girl to like it too.
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confused

i question everything about myself
i never find the answer though :-\
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kyril

Yes. But I'm getting better about it since coming out. Basically, I seem to have internalized a fair amount of the gender restrictions and homophobic messages directed at both men and women.

I was always ashamed of things that made me look feminine - even in full-on girl mode I would hide things like my love for boy bands, pop music, and chick flicks. I overcompensated for my feminine side really really hard - played sports even though I sucked at them, was a firefighter, joined the military, tried to out-macho all the straight guys I worked with. I destroyed my back, my knees, the skin on my hands.

On the other hand, I was afraid of seeming too masculine for fear of being perceived as a lesbian. So I didn't cut my hair short, I wore women's clothing most of the time when I wasn't working, I learned to dance like a girl, curled my hair, did makeup to go out. All the stuff I hated.

So essentially I constructed this whole completely fake person that rejected both the feminine things I like and the male/masculine aspects of me. She was even more full of gender-nonconformity and contradictions than the real me, and she wasn't even real! I was always worried about seeming too girly/gay. One of the first things my now-husband noticed about me was (in his words) that I "seem like I'm trying so hard not to be a girl that I avoid things I like just because girls like them." And this was when I was in girl-mode. I was wearing makeup, high-heeled boots, stretch jeans, and a cleavage-baring push-up halter top at the time. It sounded completely ridiculous when he said it...but he was right, that's exactly what I'd been doing all my life.

But I didn't know any other way to be, so I kept up the facade the whole time I was in the closet. Since coming out I've been slowly deconstructing it. The fake-femme stuff was easy to ditch - cut my hair, stop wearing all the clothes I hate. But the fake-macho stuff is harder to get rid of because it's like a reflexive defense mechanism. I'd always hidden my effeminate tastes. The only girly stuff I ever let anyone see me doing was the fake stuff I hated. The real effeminate side of me - the glitter drag, the Justin Timberlake, the fashion mags - I'd always hidden that from everybody, even my parents, ever since I was a little kid and began to understand boys' gender role expectations. Only sissies, gays, and girls liked that stuff. And I didn't want to be any of those things.

Now I'm an adult, I'm gay, I'm out (as gay anyway, to anyone who sees me as male), I'm proud...but when I'm watching Glee and my husband comes in the room, I still have to restrain myself from guiltily changing the channel before he sees what I'm watching. And I'm still deeply ashamed of ordering fruity cocktails at the bar when everyone else is having beer. And I still have a very conflicted relationship with the colour pink.


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justmeinoz

All the time, but then I question everything else too.  I just don't like  to claim that I have any definitive answers for anybody else, just temporary answers for me, now.
"Don't ask me, it was on fire when I lay down on it"
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Jeatyn

Like Kyril, I used to hide my feminine stuff. It felt like a dirty little secret, if anyone every caught me painting my nails or anything like that I'd be MORTIFIED, even in girl mode - when I was all skirts and perfect hair and cleavage. Anyone dared question my masculinity or call me girly they were gonna get punched :P

Now I don't give a crap, my room is decked out in hello kitty and I have high school musical posters on the walls. It's such a weird switch. I looked girly as hell but I had a typical chauvinistic dude personality. Now I look butch as I can get yet my interests seem girlier than ever.

Now my attitude is "I'm here, I'm queer, get used to it" :D
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cynthialee

Yes.
I own and shoot guns, my favorite posetion is an obsidian dagger, I love love love violent action movies. I like confrontation and have a hard time keeping myself from escalating issues and starting arguments with people I don't like.
Yes I have had my doubts.
When I look at my step mom I come off like a wimp and she is definatly cis. So I just try and remember that other gals like these things too and it is ok to be a tad butch.
Doing my best to get past all those doubts and just be me.
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.
Sun Tsu 'The art of War'
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Zack

Yes, because I love chick flicks, I'm a huge wimp & not confrontational at all.

But I also love superbikes, UFC, video games, rugby & technology. So it sort of balances/overrules the girlishness out.
"Politics is the art of controlling your environment."

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Erik

all the time. Not so much fashion wise. I love baggy pants, boxers, all the what not. But sometimes I find myself giggling like the girlygirls i make fun of in class, and I love bright colors and bubbly designs, or, rarely, I see a cute pair of shoes and hear myself shrieking. then i wonder what's wrong with me again

Does there have to be gender types? Cant we start over and everyone just be some hybrid mascafemin gender? gawd it'd make everything so much easier... :)
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."  ~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
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Emerald

"Do you ever question your masculinity, or femininity?"

Never.  I'm neither masculine nor feminine.
I occasionally ponder about my gender neutrality though. :icon_mrhappy:

-Emerald  :icon_mrgreen:
Androgyne.
I am not Trans-masculine, I am not Trans-feminine.
I am not Bigender, Neutrois or Genderqueer.
I am neither Cisgender nor Transgender.
I am of the 'gender' which existed before the creation of the binary genders.
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aydan_boy

Hell ya.
I've quit wearing eyeliner, for the sake of passing, but i love it. I also love hot pink, chick flicks, boys, and putting make-up on people.

But then again, i also want beard stubble, watch B-rated horror movies for the sake of the gore, women, and love to watch NASCAR events.

I'm staying away from the femme stuff right now though, can't afford to give my mum any reason to suspect that me being trans is just another phase.
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King Malachite

At times yes.  I'm terrified of spiders and I am always thinking about Sailor Moon so that threw me off had me question my masculinity but on the flip side I play video games, like to watch MMA on tv, listen to hard rock music and all the other stuff.  I could be listening to Black Label Society while thinking about Sailor Moon lol.  I guess it just makes me unique.
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http://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,135882.0.html


"Sometimes you have to go through outer hell to get to inner heaven."

"Anomalies can make the best revolutionaries."
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