What does it even mean when you feel like a woman or male or the likes?

I guess it's just if you feel you fit the stereotypes. There are stereotypes for a reason: people with female hormones are more likely to fit that definition, and vice versa.
If you like football, logging, and the like, you're more likely to identify as a guy.
If you like romantic comedies, shopping, and the like, you're more likely to identify as a woman.
Of course there are exceptions.

 

Uh... no. Stereotypes have nothing to do with gender identification. At the most basic level it's about what kind of life lets you be happiest in your skin and what keeps you unhappy (dysphoria.)

Easily... why does anyone have to prove themselves at all? Any 'established' standard for a 'real' gender identity is just going to have the same issues as the old standards of care, namely being completely arbitrary, stereotyped criteria that encourage gatekeeping and attacks on the people who don't measure up.

I feel like you've asked this question a bunch of times before. :eusa_doh: I think we shouldn't worry about other people's identites so much and just accept their self identification. The right to autonomy is really important.

Michel Foucault - "From the idea that the self is not given to us, I think there is only one practical consequence: we have to create ourselves as a work of art."

 

Theodora put it well- honestly, I think you just know at some level what gender you fit under. Takes pondering, questioning in some cases to break past socialization but gender identity is integeral to your persona.

Take me. I'm happiest when I'm percieved as male, able to express myself as a man. What I like and what stereotypes I conform to matter little- gender roles are social constructs. In fact, I'm far from a masculine man- going by Krilkey's example I'd be a "woman". But I'm not a woman- spent far too long trying to pretend I was but I was a Windows 7 in a first gen Mac.

 

Yeah, stereotypes have nothing to do with how I percieve my gender as well. For the longest time I've felt like something was wrong, but it wasn't until more recently that I realised what it was. Why I'm uncomfortable in the ways that I am. I can bake all the cookies and wear all the frilly-ass aprons I want, I still won't feel like a woman. I can't try to measure up to other women anymore because the more I try, the more I feel like a drag queen. I'm just wired differently, and I don't think that that's bad.

 

Yeah. That was, honestly, how I figured out my gender. Could wear all the dresses, make-up I wanted but it didn't make me feel like a woman, just like I was faking it, like I was a drag queen. Blamed it on low self-esteem, internalized misogyny until I figured myself out.

 

Reptillian, if you knew someone with gender issues, THIS would be one of them most obvious things. I once asked my best friend to imagine me in a tight dress and heels and she burst out laughing at the mental image. Here I should mention she is a cishet. It's just a feeling. Some things just feel wrong.

 

I feel that same. I can't stand the look of myself with makeup on. It feels...Wrong. I'm told that I look great with it on, but I can't see it.

 

No offense dude, but I have read a lot of your posts and you make everything subjective to the point where no discussion can be had. The "why" doesn't really matter in the end, all that matters is how you feel. As for your penis statement, what is a hermaphrodite then? Inevitably this discussion gets down to "I am just a guy because I have XY" in which case you just defined your whole identity by a characteristic that you wouldn't even know existed if you hadn't read it in a science book. See how subjective feelings about gender can be? Its more effective to just go on feel until the prejudice isn't at such a high level that it distorts any kind of scientific and philosophical conclusion.