I'm a ciswoman (I want to get that out first, so you can evaluate whatever I say in light of it). What concerns me is the idea that "not fitting into society's limited roles for women" means that one is necessarily gender-fluid or non-gendered. I am not denying that there are such people. I just worry that gender fluidity or neutrality is starting to be seen as the solution to the problem that society places unfair and harmful limits on both men and women, when that is properly society's problem.
I'm a woman. I know I got it easy in most respects because I identify happily with my birth gender. But I also have certain traits that are considered "not very feminine" by my culture's standards, and I lack other traits that are supposed to be hallmarks of femininity. I refuse to accept that this makes me any less a woman. Rather, I think it means that the notion of "woman" that society is working with is too narrow. (Men have it even worse. A certain amount of tomboyishness is permitted as "cute" in women, but so-called femininity is nearly always seen as a weakness in men.)
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Date: 2014-06-23 05:58 pm (UTC)I'm a woman. I know I got it easy in most respects because I identify happily with my birth gender. But I also have certain traits that are considered "not very feminine" by my culture's standards, and I lack other traits that are supposed to be hallmarks of femininity. I refuse to accept that this makes me any less a woman. Rather, I think it means that the notion of "woman" that society is working with is too narrow. (Men have it even worse. A certain amount of tomboyishness is permitted as "cute" in women, but so-called femininity is nearly always seen as a weakness in men.)