'Who We Are' is also about who we are not. Qualifier is that it is more than saying 'I'm just me'.
Sevan put it as we can identify ourselves from the inside or from the outside.
Who we are is an ongoing proccess for all of us.

After being here, this forum, for a year and a half, I still am no closer to defining myself than I was before.
Because it is ongoing. It is for everyone. All humans. Even the ones who may have doubts about being human.
We have a qualifier. We are Androgyne. Whether it feels like being a gender outlaw or not, we have a base to work from.
Your post is valid as far as I'm concerned, I think others would agree.
I think the people signed in as guest would agree. I hope it gets some of them to join.

Ativan

Quote from: Julian on September 15, 2011, 11:47:40 AM
I also tried to think of how to articulate myself without saying I'm "just me," but fell short. It seems like I can only identify myself by saying what I'm not.

I'm not sure if this belongs in this thread anymore. I'm sorry. And I'm also frustrated now.

so you're a structuralist? defining things by what they are not is also a way to do it. only reason we can know what blue is, is that it's none of the other colors
i'm sure your post belongs here. androgyne in this forum can be pretty much anything that isn't strictly male or female
btw, you changed your avatar. cool

i too some times doubt my own humanity. i display extreme werewolf-ish behavior at times, but that may just be because i was bitten by one as a child. i even have a scar (actually it's just a birthmark, but this is what i told my little sister years ago). but the most worrying thing is the extreme sensitivity to sunlight that runs in my family, add to that my big brother's excellent fangs and my own occasional thirst for blood, and it's easy to get to the conclusion that i'm probably a vampire

or maybe there happened a soul switch when i was still a fetus, and i should actually have been born on a planet where all people are natural hermaphrodites. wonder what happened to the poor soul i switched with then

I can relate to the "I'm not femme or butch." People often don't know where to place me. Some people upon seeing me place me as maybe like a soft butch lesbian, but when I speak it's a totally different story and they don't know what to do. It's funny most times. Also, as a female I appear queer, and post-transition I am likely to seem like the most homosexual man alive. I don't mind if people are confused by me. To me, it reinforces that there is a reason they can't place me, and that binary thinking is by and large flawed and unable to encompass all ways of being.

Quote from: Caseyy on September 15, 2011, 01:58:20 PM
post-transition I am likely to seem like the most homosexual man alive.

I thought this too. But turns out, I come off as your average straight guy. (And that's with highlighting my hair  ) I thought I'd have all these effeminate mannerisms and expressions emanating from me simply from living female. Turns out I don't.
Course, your experience may be different.

It absolutely belongs in this thread, I'm sorry I frustrated you. Pinning down just what gender is...is entirely frustrating.

Being without gender still means you fit right here. You don't have to be "androgyn identified" to be in this section of the forums. Anyone who fits outside of the traditional *male or female* binary...belongs here. (wish this area was better/differently labeled but...that's a fight I've fought...and lost. So...whatever.)

None/Un Binary Talk?

I'm to used to Androgyn Talk, but yeah, ungendered people absolutely belong here, they already make up a share of who is here!

Ativan

I was contemplating labels earlier today and just how much one's self-understanding is influenced by the available information and communities out there.

If nobody ever pointed out that gender is not necessarily binary, I would probably still have the view I held in childhood, which was remarkably similar to the "two-spirit" thing -- if gender is binary then I'm 1 and 0 simultaneously.  Sometimes I kind of do feel that way, actually, but kind of not.  Maybe I should look into that and see what experiences self-identified two-spirit people have, compared to self-identified androgynes.

Quote from: Forum Admin on September 15, 2011, 02:25:28 PM
I thought this too. But turns out, I come off as your average straight guy. (And that's with highlighting my hair  ) I thought I'd have all these effeminate mannerisms and expressions emanating from me simply from living female. Turns out I don't.
Course, your experience may be different.

Interesting that others have thought this. Either way, I'll be happy.