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The other day I was chatting with a friend of mine-let's call her Beth-who self-identifies as a woman. She brought this fact up and asked me whether this was a problem. Beth said, "I know that I'm enforcing the gender binary," but she really feels that identifying as a woman and being identified as such has profoundly affected her life.

I suddenly wondered whether men had a similar attachment to their gender identity or whether this was more of an issue for women. Being part of a "minority" that is actually in the majority is such an odd, but hardly anomalous, situation (e.g. the poor are much more numerous than the rich).

Beth is conflicted because she feels for me and understands how constricting I personally find the categories of woman and man. At the same time, she believes that it's a part of who she is. She has sometimes enjoyed being identified as such and at times loathed it but it has been something she has had to live with regardless.