Gender?

Question

To begin: I'm cis so if I cause any offense with this post, please let me know so I can reword it! I've been thinking about gender and its fluidity for a while now and I was curious to others' opinion on it.

I understand sex and gender are different in that sex is your physical attributes and gender can differ from that. But does gender align itself with stereotypes? Otherwise how else would one feel more feminine or masculine? How would one know what is to feel like a woman if there were no gender roles/stereotypes in place?

For trans people: how is being trans different that being a girl who feels more masculine or vice versa?

Answer

Gender is a concept, these questions honestly fall pretty flat because they cannot be properly answered. An individual can only answer how it is relevant to them, but not others. How do we know what our gender is? Well how do you? I'm sure you know cis people who don't base their gender on stereotypes, I'm sure you know those that do. Same with trans people. Gender is a load of messy bs honestly 😂 so  there's no right answer to this. If YOUR gender is related to sex, that's cool. If YOUR gender is based on stereotypes, that's cool. If it's neither? Great. But the same thing doesn't apply to everyone, it's completely individual. 
Gender isn't real so.

Answer

I have 0 information on this as I believe myself to only be an ally to the LGBT+ community. I would just like to say, to all minorities (not just LGBT+), I am so sorry for your struggle. I see all of this stuff happening to minorities and my heart just hurts. I would love to help in any way that I can and I just want you to know that most people here on Glow definitely support you guys and we love you all.

Answer

Gender is a social construct - so, you're correct, in that if there were no stereotypes/gender roles, then the idea of masculine/feminine attributes would not influence how one thinks about their gender. HOWEVER, there are gender roles and their fairly ingrained in our society and psyche - so they DO affect how we see ourselves and each other. Now, that's not to say that a girl who feels like she is more "masculine" than other girls is therefore a transman or automatically identifies as genderqueer. You can be a woman with super masculine traits and behaviours and still be a woman. Without social constructs, gender doesn't exist, there is only the biological function of one's genitals. However, I think even in that hypothetical world, trans people would still exist, because being transgender goes a level beyond behaviour - there's a fundamental understanding of self that comes into play, there's disphoria to consider, etc. And I'm not at all qualified to speak on those experiences.

Answer

I once saw a post of someone saying "gender has to do with how masculine or feminine you are and that's it". 
I'm a female and I'm pretty masculine with my thoughts and hobbies. I'm by no means a male. So I really don't get that part either. 
Sorry if it offends anyone, I just also want to know.

Answer

For me, I know that I'm a man because my body has always felt so wrong. As soon as I hit puberty, I got incredibly anxious and depressed. It's gotten a little easier since I accepted it for what it was; if I can remind myself that my anxiety is stemming from my gender dysphoria, I can manage to not get quite so hopelessly depressed. I've always known though (I first remember trying to tell someone when I was 3), so it's not even completely that. I know it's not a very satisfactory answer, but I always just felt like a boy. It isn't as though I've ever been particularly masculine or stoic or anything (at least for a guy, I'm definitely fairly emotionally reserved compared to the majority of women I know), it's just always been the way I've felt.

Answer

Gender can align with stereotypes, or it could not. Gender is up to each individual to define. The hypothetical woman in your example might have hobbies that are "masculine", but she still identifies with a woman. I myself like beer and old fashioneds (hate fruity drinks and not much of a sweet tooth), but I still consider myself to be a woman. I cut the grass and put together a pressure washer the other day but those actions don't mean I'm not a woman. 
My point is that gender goes way beyond our hobbies and interests.

Answer

Very interesting question (I currently identify as genderfluid, so I'll explain my experience-it may not be even close to how others experience it!)
For me, some days ido feel more "feminine" and others more "masculine", (currently I'm kind of feeling neither masculine nor feminine). To me, my feelings have less to do with how I act, and more of physically how I feel-some days I would prefer to have my chest be more flat, as a biological male would usually have.
Honestly, on some of my most "masculine" days I wear a lot of makeup-I don't usually try to look more masculine in that sense.
So for me, it has less to do with attitude or basic appearance stereotypes and more to do with feeling like I have a boy body, or feeling like I experience the world with a brain that doesn't feel as feminine.
Now, sometimes I do have the basic stereotypes come in to play; I believe that has more to do with the cultural view of gender. From the moment we are born, we are taught what a man and woman are and told which one we should be based on our sex. In cultures like Sweden (I think... I can't remember if it's Sweden or Switzerland), they use a gender neutral term for children, and as they grow up they are able to choose which gender they identify with most. The cultural gender stereotypes in the US give us two ways that people experience the world, and for many people, it ends up being accurate to how they identify. But some people grow up not exactly fitting in to one of those "molds." It can be a complete crossover (male to female or female to male), or it could be a mix of both genders(genderfluid, gender queer, bigender, trigender, etc.), and to some people gender does not matter to them in how they experience the world(gender neutral or agender). But these people just don't fit in to strictly male or female when it comes to their sex and/or gender.
And we as humans feel a need to label how the world is experienced, which is completely natural. Which is why many people refer to other genders that are fluid as having aspects of "masculine" and "feminine" identities.
(Again, this is just my experience and my views, it is most definitely different for so many other queer people!!) I hope I explained that well, if you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask!!

Answer

Also heres a breakdown of all different forms of identity, sexuality and expression-hope this explains some of the differences between trans and feeling more masculine but still being a female!

Answer

I agree with what Caroline says, but I’d like to add through history what it meant be masculine and feminine has also changed. The way it is today isn’t the way it always has been in different eras and different cultures. Some had virtually no difference in gender roles whilst others had feminine roles seen as most valuable in that time. For some transgender people they do also feel as though their sex isn’t correct from birth. So it is a lot more complex than I think many understand. I also don’t fully understand because I’m a cis female.

Answer

I find it hard to explain but I consider myself female, was born with female sex organs and appear fairly feminine, more so if I bother to wear makeup, however I've never felt particularly feminine inside and have always felt slightly different to what I imagine most cis women feel like, but I don't think people really talk about what it is to 'feel' like a girl or a woman. Confused but happy with myself. I could tie myself in knots with this subject.

Gender?

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