nothingbutsurrender: I think the first time I...

12th December 2011

Photo reblogged from Nothing But Surrender with 1,959 notes

nothingbutsurrender:

I think the first time I heard this said, it came from Sparkles the Party Cat :). Has amused me ever since

The way I first visualised this, before I even knew the phrase “Gender Binary”, and before I’d even really talked to more than one or two people, was like a kite shape. It’s not actually a kite because they’re two dimensional, and in my mind this is three dimensions, but it’s easier to describe as a kite.
To take arbitrary points, there are four of them in my mind.
On the left, there is female, on the right there is male. At the bottom is both, and at the top is neither. I liked this, because you can draw a point, or a line, or scribe out a shape to show where you feel like, where you fit.
Later on, I decided that it would be better if this was actually a pyramid shape, so that you have a triangle with female, male, both on the points. Above that it leads to another point labelled neither. This forms a pyramid so you can more accurately or easily describe yourself, and label the top point to whatever suits you.
I’m still not sure, even over a decade later, that neither is the right word. I’ve not really had a chance to expound this as a theory and explore it. I guess it will do as a place-holder for now.
Personally, I see myself as somewhere around 1/5 of the way from the female side towards male, and a little way, about the same, towards both. It’s a happy place for myself, and I present as binary female because it feels comfortable. The rest of it gets their little cues that almost everyone who meets me will likely never notice, but I know are there.
The male parts of me do not detract or offset any of the female parts, hence the slightly offset position. I’m also 100% certain that someone who asserts I’m anything less than female will meet the full force of my ire. Hence why I’ve largely kept this to myself - a lot of the cisgendered world feel it necessary to police our expression and everything. Sometimes it’s safer to say nothing.

I think the first time I heard this said, it came from Sparkles the Party Cat :). Has amused me ever since

The way I first visualised this, before I even knew the phrase “Gender Binary”, and before I’d even really talked to more than one or two people, was like a kite shape. It’s not actually a kite because they’re two dimensional, and in my mind this is three dimensions, but it’s easier to describe as a kite.

To take arbitrary points, there are four of them in my mind.

On the left, there is female, on the right there is male. At the bottom is both, and at the top is neither. I liked this, because you can draw a point, or a line, or scribe out a shape to show where you feel like, where you fit.

Later on, I decided that it would be better if this was actually a pyramid shape, so that you have a triangle with female, male, both on the points. Above that it leads to another point labelled neither. This forms a pyramid so you can more accurately or easily describe yourself, and label the top point to whatever suits you.

I’m still not sure, even over a decade later, that neither is the right word. I’ve not really had a chance to expound this as a theory and explore it. I guess it will do as a place-holder for now.

Personally, I see myself as somewhere around 1/5 of the way from the female side towards male, and a little way, about the same, towards both. It’s a happy place for myself, and I present as binary female because it feels comfortable. The rest of it gets their little cues that almost everyone who meets me will likely never notice, but I know are there.

The male parts of me do not detract or offset any of the female parts, hence the slightly offset position. I’m also 100% certain that someone who asserts I’m anything less than female will meet the full force of my ire. Hence why I’ve largely kept this to myself - a lot of the cisgendered world feel it necessary to police our expression and everything. Sometimes it’s safer to say nothing.

Tagged: gender theory

Source: domesticterrorism

The girl in the mirror