Interesting article on gender and some thoughts

[selenay]

Read this article this morning thanks to the lovely Fahre and I've been happy-flailing and thinky ever since.

It's not often that a mainstream news site does a thing on gender, gender expression, and related stuff that's actually *good*.

I was particularly delighted to see the discussion of the separation between sex (biology) and gender and how that relates to the idea of gender being on a spectrum. The idea that everyone is either 100% female or 100% male just...doesn't really resonate with me. Or at least, I know too many people who don't fit into that binary system for it to be the right way to think of gender.

Gender as a spectrum with some people right at either end but a lot of people somewhere along the scale? That makes far more sense to me.

The article also touches on the idea of orientation being on a spectrum (Kinsey scale anyone?) which is something that I've been struggling through for years.

As a teen, I thought I was bisexual. Except all the stuff I was reading said "bisexuals are just confused, you're gay or you're straight" and I got all confused.

From my early twenties on, I classed myself as definitely 100% lesbian. Except that doesn't quite fit either.

Now that I'm into my thirties and giving fewer fucks about what other people think of me, I think "bisexual but maybe 80% of my crushes/loves/relationships are women" probably fits best. So, on the girl preferring side of bi but not far enough towards exclusive girl love to be 100% lesbian. Mostly lesbian? Partially bi? Not really easily labelled at all?

As for gender, I'd classify myself as mostly female. Mostly. That works.

This entry was originally posted at http://selenay.dreamwidth.org/484119.html. There are currently babbles on the entry on Dreamwidth

Comments

[paranoidangel]

The trouble with gender in society is that it's acceptable for girls to be tom boys and/or play with boys toys, but not the other way round.

[selenay]

That definitely makes it a lot more confusing *sigh*

[tawg.livejournal.com]

I'm currently trying to explain to people that, actually, there isn't a sex binary either. A lot of the scientists I work with have the "yes, but, biologically you're one or the other" point of view... but there are a lot of exceptions out there all through the animal kingdom, and we don't know how prevalent things like XXY or XO genotypes are within humans because it's not like every single person gets tested for these things, and people with mixed-sex phenotypes are so often surgically reconstructed to fit one blueprint or another. Binaries: way less relevant than people think.