Nom Internets

ununpentium:

148km:

Okay, well first off, let’s think of your working definition this way: it basically says that the identities of trans* people aren’t valid unless they experience dysphoria and/or eventually transition to a binary sex. Which is crap, because plenty of trans* people (including those with binary identities) don’t plan on transitioning. I can’t really speak for binary folks because that’s totally not my experience of gender, but many have said that even in a world where all genders were on equal societal footing and they weren’t arbitrarily assigned a gender at birth, they would still have an innate sense of their gender. (Feminism as a mainstream movement has not historically been super trans*-friendly, so, just something to keep in mind…)

But for me, gender isn’t that way. My identity is difficult for me to define, which is why I use a bigger umbrella term (“genderqueer”). When I examine my gender, I don’t feel any innate sense of maleness or femaleness. I’m still trying to decide if what remains is nothing or something else entirely.

Also, let me make it absolutely clear to you that although dysphoria is not a requirement for trans*ness (some people do not get dysphoric), non-binary people absolutely can and do feel dysphoria. And if it’s all the same to you, I’m not going to go into that because talking about my dysphoria unsurprisingly makes me feel dysphoric.

To be frank, I identify this way because I feel this way. Because I discovered that a non-binary identity was an option and I decided that it was the best fit for me. People keep asking me what it feels like to “have no gender” but I can’t explain it to them well because I don’t have any basis for comparison because this is how I’ve always felt. My gender is nebulous and nonspecific and vast and I’m okay with that.

Reblogging because that’s a fantastic answer.