Eeeeentereseting…

The AltFridayFive.

1. What gender do you consider yourself?
Female.
2. Is this the gender you were assigned at birth?
Yep.
3. Do you like being your current gender? Why or why not?
I don’t really have an opinion one way or the other. I mean, PMS and menses suck, but having random erections and a constantly-diminishing ability to perform sexually sucks too.
4. If you could change one thing about how society perceives/constructs your gender, what would it be? (don’t go nuts here, I know the response to this could make for several doctoral theses)
Hm… I’m not sure. I like that there’s more feminism going around these days, definitely, but I get frustrated by the way that men are pressured by society too. Actually, what am I saying, I know EXACTLY what I would change: this idea that every woman has to get married and have babies. Give me a break, people! Not all women are Mothers. Some are Amazons, okay?
5. Everyone gets their ideas of what it means to be “a man” or “a woman” (or “a boi” or whatever) from somewhere (parents, movies, magazines, books). What was the single biggest influence on your gender identity?
This is an interesting question… I don’t really HAVE a gender identity. The women in my family are all very strong and I was raised very firmly to believe that women and men are not different. I frankly see more difference among women than between women and men (the same way there’s usually more variation within a race than between that race and other races). To me, gender is just another fact about a person, like the color of eyes or hair or the kind of person he or she is attracted to or what food he or she hates. I don’t really think of myself as “a woman,” I think of myself as “Ealasaid.” I do use makeup, wear my hair long, and wear the occasional skirt, but I don’t think of myself as “a girl.” I joke about how girly I’m getting these days, but really, that’s me having the confidence to try things that make me look good even if they make me a little nervous. Many of the women in my family are the same – their gender/sex is just a fact about them, not Who They Are. My mom, for example, almost never wears dresses (as a form of protest against the fact that men aren’t allowed to wear dresses in most social settings). I’m the same about my sexual orientation. I don’t think of myself as “straight,” I think of myself as “Ealasaid.”
Weird, eh?