This is where it gets murky for me and I don’t understand it at all. If someone is born male but identifies as female, but doesn’t adopt feminine social norms… Then how is that identifying as female?
The idea is that gender identity is something you’re born with but gender expression is a choice. Consider three examples:
A trans person in a community that doesn’t accept them may decide to dress and act in accordance with their biological sex even though (secretly, on the inside) they have a different gender identity.
Tomboys. Born as a biological female, identifies as a woman, but she expresses her gender in a way that people usually think of as being masculine.
Drag/Crossdressing. You can be born as a man, identify as a man, but enjoy wearing woman’s clothes (as part of a performance on stage or just because you like it).
Just like sex and gender are separable, gender identity and gender expression are separable.
I don’t know any person like this so this is just my imagination guessing:
Could be that you were born with male phenotype and raised that way. But you discovered that your feelings are really more aligned with the feminine realm.
But since you look male you don’t want to appear strange for others, so you keep the way you have been looking all your life, how you are used to dress and behave, and just identify as female. Might make you feel better and more aligned with your inner self.
This is where it gets murky for me and I don’t understand it at all. If someone is born male but identifies as female, but doesn’t adopt feminine social norms… Then how is that identifying as female?
The idea is that gender identity is something you’re born with but gender expression is a choice. Consider three examples:
Just like sex and gender are separable, gender identity and gender expression are separable.
I don’t know any person like this so this is just my imagination guessing:
Could be that you were born with male phenotype and raised that way. But you discovered that your feelings are really more aligned with the feminine realm.
But since you look male you don’t want to appear strange for others, so you keep the way you have been looking all your life, how you are used to dress and behave, and just identify as female. Might make you feel better and more aligned with your inner self.