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My Philosophy of Gender I feel that androgyny, and gender in general, is a state of mind. Physically, one's body is however it is, but one's gender depends entirely on one's mind. One can have a certain body and a certain way of acting and interacting with the world, and yet depending on how one's mind perceives itself in relation to the world, one may identify gender-wise as a woman or man or androgyne, or something else. I think one's sense of gender is mainly based on how one perceives oneself to fit in or not fit in with groups of people. In other words, as one grows up, one's mind forms a general idea of what "women" are like, and what "men" are like (and possibly what other genders are like). These ideas are entirely subjective, and vary from person to person. However, based on those general ideas, one either feels that one fits in to one or more of those groups, or that one doesn't, and this is where a person's sense of gender develops. For many people, this process may be entirely subconscious, and they may feel that they fit in with their assigned gender and never question it. Androgynes and other transgendered people however, come to feel that they don't fit neatly into a "man" or "woman" gender, or not into the gender that was assigned to them at birth based on their physical characteristics. This is entirely subjective... two people may be very similar physically, and in personality and traits, but based on how their minds perceive womanhood versus manhood versus themself, their genders may differ. I've been thinking lately, is it wrong for someone else to think of me as a gender other than the gender with which I identify? If other people perceive me as a woman and continue to think of me as such, even after I tell them I am androgyne, is that wrong? I am thinking, as long as they don't try to deny my right to identify as whatever I identify as, or to limit my freedom of expression and my freedom of action based on their own gender ideas, it is not really wrong of them to think of me as a different gender. It is not wrong, because gender perception is based in the mind, whether it be someone perceiving their own gender, or someone perceiving someone else's gender. It may be helpful to let other people know what gender you identify as, in order to give them more insight about you, but you cannot force the other person's mind to start perceiving you in the same way as you yourself do. |