Choosing the right words to describe your gender identity can feel tricky. For transgender and non-binary people, finding a label that fits is personal and important.
Using respectful language matters. Outdated or offensive terms can hurt, so it’s okay to set boundaries about how others address you.
At the same time, you are more than a label. What matters most is how you choose to define yourself, no matter where you are on the gender spectrum.
Do you have a label that feels right – like crossdresser, transgender woman, non-binary, or something else?
I’d love to hear your thoughts, so let’s continue the conversation in the comments below!
Love,
Lucille
Woman, lady, girl, me
I dont need to label my self to no one. Im
Not a package!! Im a woman on my own eye. So it shall be on every one else’s.
I don’t mind labels, within limits. Obviously there are issues with excess baggage and oversimplification (funny how you can get both sometimes, when one would think they’d be mutually exclusive) but they do have their uses as shorthand descriptors.
As for how I’d label myself in this context, I’m fine with any of: transgender woman, transwoman, transfeminine, t-girl (when I’m in a more youthful spirit), or just woman (or girl, again when I’m feeling more youthful.)
Not lady, though. Lady has… well, baggage. Implications of ‘proper behavior’ and social status that just don’t fit me.
Years ago I spent a lot of time in library’s and other books to find out why I liked girl things? Nearly all info was negative. One book did say if your spouse agreed with crossing, it could be good.
With me it is all at home and have had some girlfriends who enjoyed being with me.
Now alone and still enjoy nice clothes and enjoy filling out a bra which is improving with your help. Now have a order that is stuck in Germany??
So guess I am a minne crossdreser but always have some female clothes on. dj
I am pre op transsexual. I suppose i was classed as transvestite but dressing is not sexual for me it is who i am
Woman first and always, (mtf) trans* if relevant. With further clarification if relevant.
Labels are reasonable if wanting to explain things succinctly, as long as I can be reasonably sure that whomever I’m speaking to will make mostly accurate assumptions about their meaning.
I’d rather just be labeled -me-. Or that people don’t make many assumptions based off a label other than the most basic meaning.
But since people inevitably do (even at labels like woman/man), I’m not a fan.
If I happen to fit into a category exactly I’ll wear that with pride, but I refuse to squeeze into a box I don’t entirely fit in. I’ll either expand the box (in your mind) until it does fit me or won’t go near it.
I guess I’m just a crossdresser since I wear clothing opposite of my gender as defined by society. But I do like to keep my self as femme as I can and still function in the real world as male and or female. I am just myself either way.
Hi–
Like many of the other responders, I don’t like labels.
If I’m meeting someone for the first time, my ‘label’ is my name. If it’s someone I’m ‘coming out to’, then I tell him/her I’m a transsexual (although I used to say I’m a transgender woman).
–Mandy