Me/gender identity

The Short Version

My gender identity is female. I much prefer to be addressed and thought of as female, though I understand this may be difficult for some people (especially those who have known me for longer) and will take time to get used to.

The (Slightly) Longer Version

Within the limitations of the socially-assumed gender binary, my identity is female. I have always felt that I was or "should have been" female, but suppressed this belief because I thought it was logically impossible and probably mentally unhealthy and/or perverted or something. (It was still the 1900s; we had some weird attitudes back then.)

Complicating this is the fact that my gender expression is much more neutral, consisting of a mix of both conventionally-feminine and conventionally-masculine traits – which is part of why I say my gender identity is more precisely described as "tomboy".

I also prefer to think of myself as a "girl" or "transgirl" (which is also apparently not a majority position), though I definitely feel more comfortable with "[trans]woman" than with "man" or "boy". Male identifiers have always made me cringe internally; until The Great Regenderation of 2000, I had a strong tendency to refer to myself with neutral pronouns.

Outside Reading

• 2017-07-02 What does it mean to know you're a certain gender?: lots of good answers from a variety of positions