[weatherboi]

Originally Posted by Nat

identity: a way to avoid having to become an authentic person

Do you feel the identity or identities you carry are barriers to authenticity or do you think of them as means of expressing your authenticity?it is a means of expressing how i feel inside. transgendered verbiage is not recognized or understood widely through out this country. that is the barrier. how the world reads me usually comes from a space where they have no knowledge of an identity that is authentic to me.

Or, to put it another way, what do you feel the relationship is between identity and authenticity? *
i think that relationship is relative to each person. for example, a queer person in closet at work or a queer person not out to their family. i don't think this set of circumstances makes a person inauthentic.

Do you feel like identity unites or divides or both or neither?
i have seen it do both. for myself, my identity unifies me, even when the rest of the world reads me as something i am not. i have also seen it divide and create much tension with people i know and love but that is on them.

What does identity offer you?
a safe space in my own mind so i don't get disconnected from my physical self.
What does it take from you?
for a second, i think it takes away opportunity to know certain people but then i think...their loss!!!

Do you see your identity as flexible?
not really flexible...sometimes i am fluid because i can be a swishy kinda guy.

Have you felt pressure to identify?
no...my identity is a very personal part of me that isn't formed through pressure but is formed from a need to align myself with what i see in the mirror and in my mind.
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I don't really feel a division within myself over my identity and my authenticity. I feel divided outwardly when people judge me for decisions I make regarding my identity, so I am guarded in the company I keep.

Sooo does identity and authenticity conflict??
It could happen if i was to allow myself to recognize identities and labels as a hierarchy/value system but i don't. I try to do my best to be a person of my word and this provides me personal authenticity. When I am not of my word I don't feel authentic. I try not to place a value system on authenticity because we all have circumstances that are different and special so my hope is people provide me with a benefit of the doubt I try and provide them with.