Quote:
Originally Posted by BullDog
I think I am most consciously aware of being female and woman in terms of women's issues, feminism, etc.- more from a political standpoint, since I feel my gender is butch. So unequal pay, sexism, etc.- those are my issues too.
|
I totally feel like this. I see myself as a woman and female and as someone who stands in solidarity with other women.
Half the world's population is at the mercy of the geographical birth lottery to determine what type of inequality they will experience in life, whether they will be subjected to being owned, tortured at the whim of men, forced to marry while still a child, not allowed an education or simply do more work for less money while the control of their bodies is being legislated away from them. What happens to all women diminishes me as a woman and as a human being. I must push against this always.
I am a woman in the biological sense for certain, but even more in the political sense and the personal will forever be the political in my eyes. So regardless of my female masculinity or my masculine look, I will always be standing on the female side of the male/female equation. Because of this I am ever and always aware that I am a woman and that all the things that happen to women could easily happen to me, as the old mantra of feminism taught me, we can all be battered and raped. So the understanding that I am a woman is always in the forefront of my mind.
That being said I am also aware that I am not your average woman. I don't do woman/female like society expects. I am a butch, a masculine female and that is all I can be, to be anything else would be a lie. And I'm happy with that. So in that sense I don't think of myself as being a women or as female.
I get that sounds contradictory but I am happy enough living a contradiction. I have no trouble holding two opposing ideas. So while I never think about myself as being a woman, I never forget that I am a woman and damn proud of it.
When I shop for clothes or personal care items, or really anything at all, I have the whole store to choose from, I have everything to choose from. I am not limited by anything but my taste. I buy men's clothes and I buy women's clothes. I buy what I like regardless of what department it is placed in. I guess more than not thinking about whether I am a woman or not, I just don't think about the sex/gender of inanimate objects. I buy what I want.