Saturday, December 6, 2014

My Gender Identity: I Am A F**king Lady




When I was trying to figure out a unique term for my gender identity, I couldn’t think of anything outside of the box beside, a straight cis-woman. It wasn’t until I was on the phone with my mother that a light bulb turned on. What was the trigger? It was the use of the word (and my favorite one) “fuck” when talking to my mom and her response of “Krista Noelle, you’re a lady, don’t curse”. Does my own mother not know me? How many times does she have to put the effort in of telling me to “act like a lady” or “ladies don’t curse”? Cursing is my go-to past-time; it is a part of my everyday life; an f-bomb is usually dropped before the majority of my words when in a casual setting. However, this also leads into the problems of people judging me besides my own mother.  So with this, I looked at all the things that went against me being a “lady”:
                -I curse; A LOT
                -I take pride in the fact that I can spit a distance
                -I will go a few days without showering (I will ALWAYS wash my face and spray dry shampoo in my hair before getting ready though)
                -I don’t mind getting dirty
                -I will wrestle you if provoked (mostly while drinking)
                -I hate backing down
                -I hate to cry
                -I will not let anyone see me cry
                -I hate to look weak or vulnerable
                -I know more about cars than most women
                -I don’t mind getting muddy and dirty
                -I’m the one who does the “men’s” work around my house
                -I want to be physically strong; I lift weights and focus on upper body when at the gym
                -I love video games; not the crap video games but the good ones
                -I love horror and gore films
                -I’ll go a few weeks without shaving my legs because it takes to damn long
                -I have my father’s gross-ass feet…(apologies for the word ass, but you need to understand the horror of that man’s feet. It hurts to admit this flaw of mine.)
                -I don’t get my nails done or understand the photos of a fresh paint job
                - I can be hard and not nurturing
                -I don’t believe things should be sugar coated if the toughness is deserved
                -I believe there is a time to be nice and a time to be stern
                -I can be very blunt
                -I can be intimidating
                -It’s hard for me to not have my way


The list is long and if I put more time thinking about it, I know it would just continue growing. But while the list is long, it doesn’t take away from all the things that do make me a lady. I love makeup; my wings have been perfected to being so pointy they could leap off my eyes and stab a person and my eyebrows show no mercy when I raise them. I love shoes; my mom and I will spend hours just window shopping shoes. I love a good blazer with a dark pair of jeans almost as Liz Lemon does on 30Rock. I love my hair; it kills me that my ends are so split but I refuse to get my hair cut here like the brat I can sometimes be. I love Sephora and Bath and Body Works. I love detail; I can decorate the sh*t out of a room; holidays are even better.

The point of all of this is that the list can go on and on if I allow it to. So when it comes down to it, I have both feminine and masculine traits no matter how my role is supposed to be played; gender can’t be divided into two boxes.  So when re-thinking of a term that fits my gender identity and looking over Kate Bornstein’s list of sex-positive and all-gender words, my best attempt to name it would be a

Cis-woman, androfemme badass glamazon.

I am androfemme because of all the reasons mentioned above. I know I have both masculine and feminine traits to me. I obviously act on my feminine traits more and play the role, but I do break that role every day through small masculine actions. I am “badass” because that word is associated with masculinity. There is also not a day that I don’t think to myself, “girl, you’re such a badass", and kick then kick the day’s butt. And lastly, I’m a glamazon because I love the glam and high femininity of myself. If my life in the Public Relations world doesn’t pan out, I tell myself to go into cosmetology because I am damn good with makeup. I am a blend of glam and grunge; pretty and hard; sassy and douchey.   


^^^ this link explains my life in a nutshell.^^^

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