Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2012-05-22 09:13 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2012-05-22 09:13 pm
Entry tags:
More gender in forms
I've seen a phrase going around in the context of filling out forms, where the desired answer is, "When the doctor said, 'It's a $GENDER!', what was that?" One of the possible phrasings, which I have absolutely no problem with when claimed by any individual person as their preferred phrasing of the concept, is "coercively assigned ___ at birth".
I do, however, have a problem with applying that phrasing to myself. In most cases this would not be an issue. Where it would be an issue is if this phrasing appeared, non-optionally, on a form that I was expected to fill out. It would be more likely to appear on a form for a society of people who are trans* or non-binary-gender identified, and I am a person who would entirely possibly join a society like that.
I identify as non-binary-gendered, specifically genderqueer, genderfluid, geek, lunatic, practical-femme, and more occasionally azure, cleric, and dude.
I am lucky enough to have not been subject to ill-advised medical intervention to my genitals at birth. I continued to be lucky enough to not be subject to binary gendered expectations until my first exposure to public school; home was almost always a refuge from all of that variety of bullshit. My parents supported me equally in my ambitions to cover myself in mud from head to toe in the safe vicinity of heavy equipment and wear purple velvet princess clothes (though absolutely not at the same time). (They did draw the line at Barbies for a while, as they felt those promoted harmful stereotypes, but it was not done in a fashion where I felt that I wasn't being allowed to be a *girl* right then, just that I didn't get the specific toy that I wanted.)
As such, while I may have been assigned and raised as female, my infant and childhood experiences are so very far from involving gendered coercion that I cannot countenance applying that label to myself, no matter how well-intended the form that asks this of me.
Since I am the privileged party here, it is possibly more important for people whose infant and childhood experiences were coercive to be able to make that status known, than it is for me to be comfortable filling out forms. It's still something that would cause me non-trivial distress if I had to pick it on a form, in no small part because it would be inaccurate.
As parents who are more accepting of children who are trans*/non-binary-identified grow more common, I hope to see that birth/childhood coercive gendering becoming more rare.
I do, however, have a problem with applying that phrasing to myself. In most cases this would not be an issue. Where it would be an issue is if this phrasing appeared, non-optionally, on a form that I was expected to fill out. It would be more likely to appear on a form for a society of people who are trans* or non-binary-gender identified, and I am a person who would entirely possibly join a society like that.
I identify as non-binary-gendered, specifically genderqueer, genderfluid, geek, lunatic, practical-femme, and more occasionally azure, cleric, and dude.
I am lucky enough to have not been subject to ill-advised medical intervention to my genitals at birth. I continued to be lucky enough to not be subject to binary gendered expectations until my first exposure to public school; home was almost always a refuge from all of that variety of bullshit. My parents supported me equally in my ambitions to cover myself in mud from head to toe in the safe vicinity of heavy equipment and wear purple velvet princess clothes (though absolutely not at the same time). (They did draw the line at Barbies for a while, as they felt those promoted harmful stereotypes, but it was not done in a fashion where I felt that I wasn't being allowed to be a *girl* right then, just that I didn't get the specific toy that I wanted.)
As such, while I may have been assigned and raised as female, my infant and childhood experiences are so very far from involving gendered coercion that I cannot countenance applying that label to myself, no matter how well-intended the form that asks this of me.
Since I am the privileged party here, it is possibly more important for people whose infant and childhood experiences were coercive to be able to make that status known, than it is for me to be comfortable filling out forms. It's still something that would cause me non-trivial distress if I had to pick it on a form, in no small part because it would be inaccurate.
As parents who are more accepting of children who are trans*/non-binary-identified grow more common, I hope to see that birth/childhood coercive gendering becoming more rare.
no subject
Further tangent on that - without meaning to hijack thread, this post will probably be read/commented by a population with knowledge and/or opinions on the subject. We have cis-gendered, mis-gendered, and dis-gendered. I don't know if there's *-gendered identifier for folk like Hubby.