To women: are there ever moments where you feel distinctly masculine? To men: are there ever moments where you feel distinctly feminine?
Yup. I'm cisgender female. I questioned my gender a lot growing up. I was always one of the boys, rough and timble, into sports and video games and mostly boys toys. I still have a lot of traditionally male interests and like to bend gender rules. But I'm ultimately cis bc I am happy in my female body. I also have a lot of traditional female pursuits and ways of dealing with emotions, etc. I'm a mixed bag.
Absolutely. I'm happy in my female body, but my body language is rather masculine. I don't look masculine, but I have a confident walk, square shoulders, usually sit with my legs apart, etc. I'd also say it has a lot to do with who I'm with. If I'm with a lot of very feminine female friends of mine, I tend to feel much more masculine than if I'm hanging out with a bunch of my guy friends. But when I'm by myself, it's a fluid mix.
Yep, totally. Cis female here, but growing up I played with Legos and Pokemon and such, and I still prefer games like Assassin's Creed, Arkham Asylum, Borderlands 2, the list goes on. I also prefer old action movies to typical rom-com fare. Since it's Halloween, I'll use costumes as an example: I sometimes go as male characters (Darth Vader, V) and have a ball
No. But I did enjoy a few male-centric things such as tv shows and movies aimed at boys and playing with Legos and Hot Wheels. That's about it.
When I was younger, I acted a lot more feminine. I didn't do anything necessarily feminine, like wear makeup or whatever, but I just acted so. As I grew up, I started to act more masculine. I'm honestly perfectly happy with being a male. I do still have a lot of stereotypical feminine qualities, like being interested in home economics, being a lot more sensitive than other guys, and having an aversion to sports, but I don't ever feel female.
To women: are there ever moments where you feel distinctly masculine? Yes, a majority of the time. I have always been that way. I just don't have any real reason to identify as trans. I am comfortable with having a female body most of the time.
Yeah, I've always been pretty tomboyish. In my early teens I sort of fought against it to fit in and I was self concious about what I was wearing and how I was sitting and such the whole time but now I've moved to a girls school where no-one is trying to impress any guys and no-one really cares about that stuff I've been able to let all that masculine energy out a bit and have become much more confident. Showing my tomboyishness really makes me confident. I'm also into all of the boyish type of stuff like I play violent video games and I play electric guitar and I love fighting (... I really wanna take up a martial art because I'm too old for playfighting now ) and for example, when me and my mum went to a market when we were in tenereife last week, I was looking at this guy's stall that had old guns and swords while she kept looking at jewelry. Oh and I like sports I'm just bad at them. But I'm cis because I don't have a problem with my body. I have to say when I was a little kid I really used to trick myself into thinking I was a boy (and tell all the boys at school that I was a boy) and then when I looked in the mirror I would be like "WTF", which is probably something trans people can relate to but I really don't have any such feelings now because I sort of went through a process between 9-11 of realising the feminine side of myself. I also like all sorts of feminine stuff like watching desperate housewives, and real housewives, and arty stuff and dancing and singing, and wearing makeup.... yeah not as much stuff but you get it. And I sometimes get all squeaky and jumpy when I get extremely excited (and a bit screechy when angry) that's pretty girly. Anyway, in direct answer to your question: YES.
Yes, I have. I'm a cis female and I guess I'd say I'm more of a tomboy. When I was really little, I always played with all the boys and played with toy cars and hated anything girly. Now I actually do have several girl friends but still get along well with guys, and I'm certainly not girly and often like to dress more guyish (and even act/talk like a guy sometimes). I also think that if I was in a relationship, I'd like to be the more "dominant/masculine" one if that makes sense: like the one that puts my arm around the other person and protects them. I wouldn't say these things make me less female personally because I'm okay with being a female (I don't have body dysphoria). I guess I'm just a tomboy. It's like I don't like thinking about being a girl in the stereotypical girly-girl sense, but I like being a girl too, just in my own way.
What do you mean? I'm not trying to be difficult; it's just that I don't know what it means to feel like a boy or a girl or whatever. I only know what it's like to be me.
This thread has nagged at my mind since I replied before. I felt that I reacted defensively and didn't give you a proper answer. I have wondered exactly what it means to feel male or female for a long time now, but at the moment I'm lying awake at four in the morning, unable to sleep because I feel distinctly like the opposite sex. So yes, it does happen, and in hindsight it's not the first time.
Oh, omg totally. I questioned for a while, because once I started dressing masculine I worried that my body looked totally ridiculous and incongruous, and that gave me dysphoria until I got over my culturally constructed ideas of what looks good/acceptable on my AFAB body. I feel like I can relate to everyone to some extent: if I construct my narrative one way, I was a tomboy growing up who then femmed it up to fit in after puberty hit, or that I was a boy growing up who overcompensated for his gender by working really hard to fit in with his female peers. We all contain multitudes. But no, I was a tomboy. Puberty sucks, period, especially going from a skinny middle schooler to a curvy high schooler. It never meant I was uncomfortable being seen as a girl; just that I had self-esteem issues outside of gender. And yeah, in adulthood, I've felt distinctly masculine at times, but not like, distinctly male. Took me a while to pick up on the difference. I've felt ashamed of my femaleness sometimes, as our lovely society has taught me well to do... I had to work through that to see that I am cisgendered. Not everything is about gender, whether or not you're cisgender. But if you're trans*, I imagine that more things are about gender.
