Gender Fuckery

artoftransliness:

Being trans* has a tendency to make one aware of all the gendered terms out there. “Boyfriend”, “Girlfriend”, “Brother”, “Sister”, “Aunt”, and “Uncle” leave little room for ambiguity, which can be frustrating for non binary identified individuals (and even, sometimes, for binary identified trans* people as well). For those of you who are uncomfortable with people using gendered terms for you or for those of you with a close friend/family member/whatever who is uncomfortable with gendered terms, here are some options, some already mainstream, some invented.

*Instead of brother or sister, you could use “sibling” or “sib” 

*For niece or nephew, “nibling” or “nephling” (both are used as a gender neutral term for a niece or nephew on urban dictionary) or “sibkid”. 

*Instead of aunt or uncle, have your nibling come up with a nickname for you (for example, my niece calls me “T”, which was once short for “auntie” but now is perfectly gender neutral) or just invent something like “untiee” (a combination of “uncle” and “auntie”). 

*Boyfriend or girlfriend can easily be replaced by “partner”, “significant other”, “SO”, “lover”, or “sweetheart”. 

*Similarly, husband and wife can be replaced by the above words (particularly “partner”) as well as “spouse” 

*For mom and dad there’s always “parent” or “parental unit” (as well as endless possibilities for made-up names, which we absolutely encourage)

(via fuckingickyricky)

uglybuthonest:

fierce-n-pierced:

I was getting really frustrated with it constantly saying “her” even though I didn’t have my gender shown in my profile, and this video showed me how to change it. :]

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=549384115767

signal boost

Hopefully this version will work for anyone who’s asked me recently.

(via justoneboi)

adravet:

I want you to lie for me. If you’re a woman, say “I am a man.” If you’re a man, say “I am a woman.” Say it out loud. Say it to your reflection. Do you feel that little disconnect there, where the sentiment you’re articulating doesn’t match up with the reality you experience? You know you’re lying. Even if someone else comes up and says “Hey! That’s right! That’s definitely what you are,” you will still know you’re lying.

I can’t speak for everyone, but that’s what happens to me when I try to place myself as either male or female. I could stand up and say “I am a man,” and know, to my bones, that I was lying. Just as I’d be lying if I said “I am a woman.”

It’s not a matter of thinking, “I can’t be a man/woman if I want to do or like these things.” I know that as a woman, I could still have a career, join the military, roughhouse, be athletic, be great at science – all those stereotypically male things. I know that as a man, I could still stay at home, raise kids, bake, knit, show my emotions easily and often – all those stereotypically female things. My gender identity is not about what I want to do, it’s about who I am.

This is not a new idea. Cultures across the globe have acknowledged more than two genders, from the Middle Kingdom of Egypt to the Lakota of North America, from Mayan civilization to the Siberian Chuckhi. References to persons neither male nor female date back to some of humanity’s most ancient written records, such as the Sumerian creation myth, and survive in seminal religious texts such as the Ramayana and the Halakha.

If you want to learn more, the citation list on Wikipedia’s article on “Third gender” has links and references to scholarly articles, books, studies, and excerpts which might help you get an idea of the nature and history of various non-binary identities. Or you can look at more contemporary accounts, such as Neutrois.com, or the discussion on AVEN’s site on “What it feels like to be trans, genderqueer or genderless”. Remember that no single narrative will be able to represent all people, and different nonbinary people may have different preferred terms, explanations, and experiences.

(via justoneboi)