When it comes to expressing your gender identity, navigating labels can be tricky. For those identifying as transgender or non-binary, finding the right words is essential.
Obviously, it’s important for people to use language that respects and reflects your identity. Outdated or offensive terms can be hurtful.
However, it’s important to remember that you’re more than just a label!
Ultimately, what matters most is how you personally want to be addressed, regardless of where you fall on the gender spectrum.
So, let’s talk about it!
Do you have a particular term or label that resonates with you – such as crossdresser, transgender woman, non-binary person, or something else?
I’m eager to hear your thoughts, so let’s continue the conversation in the comments below!
Love,
Lucille
Labels are a fact of life. We label others, and cannot expect others to not label us. I personally know I’m being labeled each and every day I live. I do not concentrate on that. Those who understand, need no explanation, those who do not understand — never will! Labels are not my focus, I focus on: It is how I see myself in this world, not how others see me.
Sincerely,
Nicole
Ps; I have lived, and worked full time as female (Nicole) for the past 11 years.
My girlfriend just read my comment and asked why I hadn’t pointed out how my mind and body and soul are the driving forces of where I think I am at any one time of this labeling question.
She knows that I love women, and that I love being a woman. But she also knows that I love being a man and everything there is about being a man. She also knows that I am not driven by the clothing I wear as to which mode and where on the continuum or amorphous mass of humanity I am at anyone time, as she has seen me slip in and out of male mode into female mode and vice versa and points in between.
She also knows that if I could magically wave the wand or use science or something else to transform my body back and forth between being a completely genetic male to being a completely genetic female or being completely both at the same time, that I would do so. How do you label or categorize that? Androgyny? I’d love to be able to do that, but I would not want to miss out on the points that are in between the two extremes or melding of both.
She knows all of that about me and accepts all that I am without criticism, and THAT is what we all need!
Damn the labels! Full speed ahead with life!
I am a transsexual woman, but I hate the fact that I get branded the same as a homosexual and get called some realy bad names.I am a person with the same feelings as any woman, but if I must be labeled then call me transxual woman.
Amber.
Like a few have mentioned, I also believe Everyone has both male and female tendencies of one aspect or another. Unfortunately, society in the U.S. in general has a problem with a male showing a feminine side.
I am a 58 yo man that has budding breasts. I have wanted my own since I was about 12. I will always be and identify myself as a man, but have and enjoy my feminine breasts.
As for a label, maybe MAB — Man with Breasts or Male with Boobs.
As I have said, everyone of us girls have our own feminine side to our own extent.
Thank you Lucille for your help and all you girls for your comments.
Dave
Myself i’m not or do I lable anyone.After years of walking talking and acting like a woman I have become woman.Now after years I am in new state with new friends and co workers not once have I ever been labled.By the dates I go out on and the flirting in the office with male co workers not one person would ever think that I was male at one time.I do have to be carefull sometimes when it comes to sports.I got carried away when watching W.W.E. Wrestling with co workers at his house when he had a wrestling night on the TV that one person did say to me,I bet when you were growing up you were abit of a tom boy.I laughed it off and that was the only time someone did say something but I held my own as a woman.
You are very beautiful!!!!!
Labels don’t bother me. I am what I am and that’s a transvestite Pippa
Labels don’t work for me. I am who I am. Labeling seems to be a requirement of those who can’t get past the fact that there are more kinds of people than just those of the binary of genders, the opposites of one another for the purposes of procreation.
I am a genetic male who is 100% male when in guy mode and 50% to 100% female when in girl mode, and that is all an artifact of where my mind is and how I am feeling about myself at a particular moment in time. I have never struggled with whom or what I am. That has always been someone else’s problem.
I feel fortunate that I have not had the gender identification problems that my transgendered friends have experienced and continue to experience. I feel they do that because of society’s imposition of gender roles on people, where our society only wants to see men and women, but has generally accepted that there are men who love women, men who love men, women who love men, women who love women and men and women who love both men and women.
Even THOSE categories of people have problems trying to figure out what a transgendered person is. Because even those people, straight, gay, lesbian and bi-sexual don’t understand what it means to be transgendered. So, it’s natural for transgendered people to wonder about themselves when they do not fit into other people’s preconceived notions of what it means to be male or female.
I have been asked by adults, as well as by children, yes, children, if I am “transgendered”. Sometimes I answer, “I don’t know. What do you think? What does that mean to you?” I then simply listen to what they have to say. If their perceptions are something I can tell they understand, I’m generally accepting of that.
That being said, my children perceive me as a crossdresser, a man in women’s clothing, and they know that I love to wear women’s clothing because it makes me feel great about myself. My friends who describe themselves as transgendered, transexuals, trannies, transwomen, shemales or T-girls mostly see me as a T-girl. They all know that I have absolutely no interest in men or genetic males as sexual partners. They’ve all seen me “hustling” genetic women when dressed or presenting as a female. Maybe that makes me a lesbian when I’m in girl mode.
My lesbian friends for the most part see me as a guy in a dress, but some are accepting of what they see as my transgendered nature–they also see me as “straight”. My gay friends haven’t figured me out, mainly because I usually don’t let them into my psyche too deeply, but they also see me as “straight”.
The bottom line is nobody should ever allow themselves to be boxed in by a category or label with which they do not agree. I am what I am and I am I. Otherwise, I’ve never really thought about it. I am all of that and none of that. There is an amorphous mass of people, some of whom can be placed on a continuum and be labeled, whereas others are outside of that continuum and are constantly shifting in nature.
If you are someone born a genetic male who feels you are a woman born in the wrong body, then that is exactly what you are. Nobody has any right to criticize you for your sexuality or your human nature. May we all find the serenity and peace of mind and body where we will be judged by the content of our minds and not our sexuality or any other thing that makes up our humanity.
Hi Lucille.
I prefer to use GEM…..Gender Enhanced Male. Since I can not be the woman I know myself to be, this is the next best description I can come up with.