Labels

[BatterUpBaby]

While I have utmost respect for anyone's identity, whether it be Butch, Femme, Trans, or otherwise, personally I have not much use for a label.

It does become interesting at times as I often ask my friends, "what am I?" and most laugh. Maybe someone should come up with a non-specific gender/identity word to help describe us fellow out-of-box types.

I know I am non-heterosexual. Isn't that enough?

[D-Money]

Originally Posted by BatterUpBaby

While I have utmost respect for anyone's identity, whether it be Butch, Femme, Trans, or otherwise, personally I have not much use for a label.

i'm with you an this!

i couldn't say with any certainty that i am anything when it comes to gender/sexuality/orientation.

i *could be* damn near anything at any given time ... i like it that way

[Words]

[QUOTE=BatterUpBaby;2430]While I have utmost respect for anyone's identity, whether it be Butch, Femme, Trans, or otherwise, personally I have not much use for a label.

It does become interesting at times as I often ask my friends, "what am I?" and most laugh. Maybe someone should come up with a non-specific gender/identity word to help describe us fellow out-of-box types.

I know I am non-heterosexual. Isn't that enough?[/QUOTE]


If it's 'enough' for you, then yes, it's enough.

For me, it wouldn't be enough because I am way more than 'just' non-heterosexual. I earned my queer/femme stripes honestly and I'm proud to wear them on my sleeve.

Words

[BatterUpBaby]

I just don't feel the need to wave the flag of my identity, whatever that is.

My point was not to say who earns or deserves whatever label they feel most comfortable with, but rather to find a good word to describe like-minded people as myself.

[D-Money]

Originally Posted by BatterUpBaby

I just don't feel the need to wave the flag of my identity, whatever that is.

My point was not to say who earns or deserves whatever label they feel most comfortable with, but rather to find a good word to describe like-minded people as myself.

and i don't care so much if there is an acceptable word or phrase for such like-minded individuals ... what i am hoping for is a sense of acceptance for us/them. to be able to mix and mingle with label-loving folk without an ever-present sense of our "otherness"

many times, i have found that my refusal to give people an easy way to classify me make them uncomfortable. i get that. but i'm not going wear a label that doesn't fit just for someone else's comfort

[Just_G]

I don't have to wave a flag....I am obviously Butch at first glance and happen to have it tattooed on my body.

I came up with my own "label"...don't care if anyone likes it or not. I am me, and that is just how I want to be. My andro friends around here don't get it, they never will. Some of you might not get it....that's cool.

So, to label or not to label....it is your choice...
Peace

[Mitmo01]

Im a fairweather label user, and what I mean by that is it seems to me that categories are important for a lot of people, me not so much.

I feel personally that I am a Butch but I am also so many other things that to categorize myself seems limiting sometimes.

Sometime i really want to spit on labels and other times i claim them, what i do know is that life is mercurial and dynamic and im not a static person by any means.

[D-Money]

Originally Posted by Just_G

I don't have to wave a flag....I am obviously Butch at first glance

for you, Gin, this is truer than true! always has been

but it doesn't always work that way for all people ... people look at me in my feminine trappings, they may know that i am with a butch, and assume i am femme.

and they would be wrong.

i hear "of course you're femme! just look at you!"

grr ...

if i must be labeled, i already have one built in: donna

[Words]

Originally Posted by D-Money

and i don't care so much if there is an acceptable word or phrase for such like-minded individuals ... what i am hoping for is a sense of acceptance for us/them. to be able to mix and mingle with label-loving folk without an ever-present sense of our "otherness"many times, i have found that my refusal to give people an easy way to classify me make them uncomfortable. i get that. but i'm not going wear a label that doesn't fit just for someone else's comfort

And I don't blame you. I wouldn't either.

It's really no one's business but yours how you ID and if you feel that you're being pressured/discriminated against here because you refuse to ID one way or another, then I'm sure that the Admin would want to hear about it.

Words

[D-Money]

Originally Posted by Words

And I don't blame you. I wouldn't either.

It's really no one's business but yours how you ID and if you feel that you're being pressured/discriminated against here because you refuse to ID one way or another, then I'm sure that the Admin would want to hear about it.

Words

no no, nothing like that has happened ... although i do have some concern and an eye for the future. i toyed with the idea of starting a thread similar to this for days ... i'm not gonna lie, i'm a little gun shy to initiate any heavy gender discussions. i'm glad BatterUpBaby did it

[Words]

Originally Posted by BatterUpBaby

I just don't feel the need to wave the flag of my identity, whatever that is.

My point was not to say who earns or deserves whatever label they feel most comfortable with, but rather to find a good word to describe like-minded people as myself.

I understood what you were saying. But you asked a question, and I answered.

If you feel that 'non-heterosexual' is enough for you, then that's great - why not use that label (because it is a label) when describing yourself?

Words

[MainelyButch]

I admit I use the label Butch for myself and I am fine with the labels/descriptors that people use for themselves. What would we call the butch-femme community be without the labels "butch" and "femme"? Now stereotyping is a totally different thing...but, I believe, that without some sort of identifier, descriptor, or label (whatever one wants to refer to it as) we would have a difficult time in conversation and in identifying one another.

Also, we call them "labels" but they are so much more sometimes. As someone else said "descriptors", or identifiers...it's like the word "label" has gotten a bad rap because we tend to associate it with stereotypes. Everyone is different, sot he stereotypes don't work across the board, but the "labels" can be much more versatile, in my opinion.

Good topic by the way!!!

[Soon]

Originally Posted by BatterUpBaby

<snip>

....

It does become interesting at times as I often ask my friends, "what am I?" and most laugh. Maybe someone should come up with a non-specific gender/identity word to help describe us fellow out-of-box types.

First Person in the World to be Declared Officially Genderless

Norrie May-Welby is recognized as gender-neutral by Australian authorities, making history in the process.

Happy to live life as neither a man nor a woman, Norrie May-Welby, a sex and gender diverse activist in Sydney, dedicated a lot of time fighting for equal rights. Now, in a groundbreaking move, Australia has made history by acknowledging that May-Welby is indeed gender-free, issuing legal documentation, stating so.

Born as a man, May-Welby was raised in Scotland before emigrating to Australia as a child. Undergoing a sex change operation at the age of 28, he became a woman but was still desperately unhappy so she decided to stop her hormone treatments and live a genderless existence. "I haven't taken hormones for about 20 years, preferring my body and brain to be as they are naturally," it states on the 48-year-old's website.

While the British expat was content, zie (the new legally correct gender-neutral pronoun) had no legal documentation to reference when queried about the issue of sexuality, reports the Times of Malta. With a passport, stating 'female' yet having undergone a sex change operation to become a man, this was naturally confusing, not to mention embarrassing. So having applied to the New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Sydney asking for a 'Sex Not Specified' Recognition Certificate (similar to a birth certificate) finally May-Welby received the paperwork zie had been lobbying for, and the acceptance that went with it.

A spokesman for the UK's Gender Trust said they were fully in support of the decision by the Sydney authorities and hoped that others around the world would follow suit. "Many people like the idea of being genderless," they said, according to Britain's the Telegraph. While May-Welby is still coming to terms with the new found fame, zie remains hopeful of the future ahead for genderless people around the world: "It surprised me to be told I am the first to get such documentation, zie said, adding, "but I know I won't be the last."

[zannadyke]

...my next tattoo: a clothing label with the word DYKE on it. There! I have labeled myself one of the most vague things in the world!



I have also labeled myself "The Zan" in the past.

[lisa93]

Labels are completely a preference thing