As if life wasn't confusing enough, I decided to look up the "accepted"
definitions that go along with who and what I identify with. What was fairly
simple just got really screwy. I have the entire text below, but have combined
parts from all that seem to fit and describe me very well:
Nearly every human society throughout history has distinguished between male and
female gender by the style, colour, or type of clothing they wear and has had a
set of norms, views, guidelines, or even laws defining what type of clothing is
appropriate for each gender.
Cross-dressing is a behaviour which runs significantly counter to those norms
and therefore can be seen as a type of transgender behaviour. An androgyne is a
person who does not fit cleanly into the typical masculine and feminine gender
roles of their society. Gender bender is an informal term used to refer to a
person who actively transgresses, or "bends," expected gender roles.
Many androgynes identify as being mentally "between" male and female. They may
experience mental swings between genders, sometimes referred to as being gender
fluid. Intergender is also a word that androgynes can use to describe being
between or beyond genders. Gender bending is a form of social activism in
response to assumptions or over-generalisations about genders.
Gender benders may self-identify as transgender, feeling that the gender
assigned to them at their birth is an inaccurate or incomplete description of
themselves; a person who cross-dresses does not always identify as having a
gender different from that assigned at birth. Transgender is the state of one's
"gender identity" (self-identification as male, female, both or neither) not
[necessarily] matching one's "assigned gender". A transgender individual may
have characteristics that are normally associated with a particular gender,
identify elsewhere on the traditional gender continuum, or exist outside of it
as "third gender".
Now, if you know me, I'd say that the above pretty accurately describes me. I am
all of the above and more.
And my sources, all from wikipedia:
Androgyne:
An androgyne is a person who does not fit cleanly into the typical masculine and
feminine gender roles of their society. Many androgynes identify as being
mentally "between" male and female, or as entirely genderless. The former may
also use the term ambigender, the latter non-gendered or agender. They may
experience mental swings between genders, sometimes referred to as being
bigender or gender fluid.
Intergender is also a word that androgynes can use to describe being between or
beyond genders. Androgyne used to be primarily used as a synonym for
hermaphrodite (a term since replaced by the word intersex), but this usage has
fallen out of favor.
Androgynes sometimes refer to themselves using gender-neutral pronouns or the
singular they.[citation needed] A few even take steps toward transitioning from
their birth sex into a physically androgynous form.
Gender Bender:
Gender bender is an informal term used to refer to a person who actively
transgresses, or "bends," expected gender roles. Boy George was called a "gender
bender" because of him wearing make-up and feminine clothes. Gender bending is a
form of social activism in response to assumptions or over-generalisations about
genders. Some gender benders identify with the gender assigned them at birth,
but challenge the norms of that gender through androgynous behavior and atypical
gender roles. Gender benders may self-identify as transgender or genderqueer,
feeling that the gender assigned to them at their birth is an inaccurate or
incomplete description of themselves; some are transsexual and desire to change
their physical sex through hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery, while
others were born intersexual. Others may identify as Two-Spirit or members of a
third gender.
Cross Dresser:
Nearly every human society throughout history has distinguished between male and
female gender by the style, colour, or type of clothing they wear and has had a
set of norms, views, guidelines, or even laws defining what type of clothing is
appropriate for each gender. Cross-dressing is a behaviour which runs
significantly counter to those norms and therefore can be seen as a type of
transgender behaviour. It does not, however, necessarily indicate transgender
identity; a person who cross-dresses does not always identify as having a gender
different from that assigned at birth.
Transgender:
from trans (Latin) and gender (English) ) is a general term applied to a
variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies that diverge
from the normative gender role (woman or man) commonly, but not always, assigned
at birth, as well as the role traditionally held by society.
Transgender is the state of one's "gender identity" (self-identification as
male, female, both or neither) not matching one's "assigned gender"
(identification by others as male or female based on physical/genetic sex).
Transgender does not imply any specific form of sexual orientation — transgender
people may identify as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual or asexual.
A transgender individual may have characteristics that are normally associated
with a particular gender, identify elsewhere on the traditional gender
continuum, or exist outside of it as "other," "agender," "intergender," or
"third gender". Transgender people may also identify as bigender, or along
several places on either the traditional transgender continuum, or the more
encompassing continuums which have been developed in response to the
significantly more detailed studies done in recent years.[1]
