MinaMeow

This was my response to Thursday’s Child’s recent blog post about Gender and the various terms. (To view the original blog post, please check here: http://www.sexnshoes.com/2009/03/labels-ignorance-and-sexuality/

I’m of the opinion that there isn’t anything more offensive than ignorance, so I always encourage people to ask. If you ask someone politely what a label they use means for THEM, you are allowing them to give them THEIR meaning. Mind you, their is a lot of ambiguity amongst people about what all this means! ;)

Okay, I’ll try to offer MY particular meanings and such:

Gay/Lesbian – Someone who is attracted to people of the same sex

Gay men and lesbians can run the gamut on expression and dress; oftentimes they will use identifying labels to denote the level of femininity and/or masculinity they identify with. It’s all a matter of gender socialization and expression, IMO, but that’s where butch, dyke, femme, AGG, boi come from. Oh, but there are also transguys (FtM) that may identify as boi/boy… 

Oh, and while I’m thinking of transgender: being trans has NOTHING to do with sexual orientation. That being said, a FtM transguy could still like men as a guy. He may consider himself a gay man. Their orientation has nothing to do with their gender identity being changed. Follow me so far?

Okay, then there’s pansexual and queer. These can sometimes be interchanged, but it depends on the person’s personal interpretation (from what I have noticed.) Pansexual basically means attracted to people regardless of their sex, gender expression, and sexual orientation. Thus, it allows for anything and everything. I think Queer is a little more liberal about allowing for variances in gender itself (i.e. seeing that there is more than just male and female settings), but that is MY personal interpretation.

Personally, I don’t use the term bisexual anymore. While most people understand that a helluva lot better than if I say I’m Queer, the fact is that bisexual insinuates that there are ONLY 2 genders. I, personally, consider myself GenderQueer. I allow for a more fluid expression of gender. While I’m mostly a girly-girl, I occasionlly like to fuck with gender. I also appreciate others that genderbend. Whether it’s camp, drag, or trans, or just wearing jeans and foregoing the makeup and the fuss, it’s all aspects of fucking with gender… and allowing the self to express as it wants to be instead of what we OUGHT to be.