I was reading over some texts my parents sent each other that my mom showed me, and got really excited because I thought they'd actually been using the right pronouns. As soon as that happened, I saw that they were all female and my brain had just automatically converted them to male. Weird, especially since I still live my school life in that dreaded girl costume and hardly anyone knows any better on the matter.
Have any of you guys had a similar experience? If so, descriptions are welcome.
I do this frequently and in both directions. Some people who only know me online don't really get it that I'm male and use male pronouns now. If they slip up just once in awhile I notice, but if they misgender me consistently I tend to read it as if they didn't. Weirdly I sometimes have my head flip it around the other way (mostly with ppl irl), but I think that comes from a lifetime of hearing female pronouns and will probably happen less with time.
A different one, but one where I think my brain was saying "I'm male" even if my body doesn't.
I was at a workshop (I'm not out at work) and was going to the use the bathroom. I walked right into the men's room (good no one was in as I don't pass). I walked out and laughed very hard. A couple women saw me and laughed too. I am sure we were not at all laughing about the same thing. I think I just saw "men" and thought, well I'm male .
Another thing, my given name is very close. I thought maybe this was a disadvantage. But now I find if they use this name I sometimes hear "Jay". Your mind has a tremendous ability to fill in gaps and so on.
--Jay
Back in middle school my brother and I were riding bikes and he got hit by a car. He was crossing the street and this lady was stopped at the stop sign, but let up off the gas for some reason as he crossed in front of her. Nobody was hurt, but she called the police so they could assess everything and make sure all was well. While we were waiting for them to show up she turned to me: "And who are you?" "I'm his brother," I answered. I didn't realize what I'd said until she was staring at me like I'd grown two heads. I then "corrected myself" and laughs were had... like Jay said above, for different reasons. I had a habit of doing stuff like this. Another example that springs to mind is when I told a friend I was the "king" of something and she said "Umm, you mean queen right?" "Oh... yeah..." So I started using gender-neutral terms like "person" to describe myself (and other people too--I always hated when people used gendered terms for me, so it felt natural not to use them for others). I really need to stop doing that now, it sounds weird.