Gender, Sexism, and Why You Can Be Who/Whatever You Want!

Before reading, get the idea that your opinion is law out of your head. Open you mind, please. I'm going to list a series of facts.

1. Gender and sex are not the same thing. Sex is biological, gender is social/personal.

This means that, while I may have a penis, if I feel so inclined to identify as a tree, I can! Gender is a social construct, so I can make up whatever gender I damn well please. Who cares if I'm not actually a tree? Of course I'm not. I'm not saying my sex is a tree, I'm saying my gender is. I am so tired of seeing posts on social media about how "tumblrfags need to stop saying they're trees!" While I'm not transgender, I advocate for the rights of anyone and everyone to do what they feel they must. If someone feels so emotionally attached to trees that they want to identify as one, let them. Does it affect you? No, so quit complaining.

Note: This is a fairly dramatic example. "Otherkin" are very hard to find when it comes to the trans* community and most of the ones you will find on social media are trolls. While I don't personally agree with otherkin, I do support an individual's right to identify however they please.

2. The gender binary has not always been a thing.

Another pet peeve of mine is seeing people press the gender binary ("Boy or girl! Pick one!") like it's always been around. No, it hasn't (and while we're discussing this, let's get this out of the way: Tumblr did not create the idea of being transgender). The gender binary, as far as I know, hasn't always been around. Native Americans had an idea that a person could have "two spirits," which means that they essentially had two genders in their head (but the term is recognized as an umbrella term for trans* people in indigenous communities now). There are probably many more examples that go way back before the Natives, but I am unaware of any. Bottom line: The gender binary is a new idea. It is not an absolute truth.

3. You do not decide what other people can and cannot identify as.

Let me repeat myself: YOU. DO NOT. DECIDE. WHAT OTHER PEOPLE. CAN AND CANNOT. IDENTIFY AS. I cannot fucking stress this enough. You have certain convictions about being trans? Okay. You think that a person can only be who they're born as? Cool. You can believe those things, just don't push your beliefs on other people, especially on people who are trans. Just don't do it. Don't even try. It all goes back to "Does it affect you?"

And no, seeing it and hearing about it does not have a large-scale effect on your personal well being.

4. Boys and girls can dress and act however the hell they damn well please!

I've been seeing a bunch of these pictures going around social media, usually of a boy wearing makeup/feminine clothing and captioned "What would you do if this were your son?" and it annoys me beyond belief. I am 16. I do drag. I wear make up, dresses, heels, corsets, and wigs. Does that make me a girl? No. Should my father punish me for expressing myself and having fun? Absolutely not. Even if I wore makeup or anything else outside of drag, he shouldn't punish me. No one should. Wearing traditionally feminine garb and doing traditionally feminine things does NOT make me any less of a man, and it most certainly shouldn't call for punishment from either of my parents. Your son wants to use makeup? Awesome! Let him! It's the same exact thing as letting him wear the clothes he wants.

Same goes for girls. Wanna wear "boy clothes?" Go ahead. More power to you.

Okay, this is long and rambley and really getting off topic, but the point is:

Be your fucking self and let other people do the same. I am out.

(Meanwhile, y'all should check out my new story The Secret of Prior Path.)