What Am I Now? 58 Ways to Define Gender – Thanks Facebook

In our politically correct world we now have 58 choices for gender identification. FIFTY-EIGHT! When I was growing up in the post Baby Boom, Pre – Gen X era (1962 was a cusp year) we had two choices male or female.

Transgender has been making a run for the title of most gender labels since Chaz, RuPaul’s Drag Race (of which I am a HUGE fan), and now Caitlin. But wait Chaz and Caitlin didn’t go through the surgery to complete their gender reassignment and RuPaul only had 2 transgender contestants – so do they really count? There are only 37 recognized breeds of cats according to the CFA, yet Facebook has dedicated 58 gender titles. Has the world gone transmad?

Let’s go through them shall we? The list is provided by ABC News:

• Agender – Without gender. Now how can one be without gender? Are you unable to pro-create? Does that make you a hybrid?
• Androgyne – This one I know – neither male nor female. It was cool to dress this way in the Punk Era of the Violent Femmes. Loved that band. “When I’m out walking I strut my stuff and I’m so strung out…” Great lyrics, hmmm it was about drugs…bad lyrics.
• Androgynous – So if one is an androgyne then they act androgynous? Is that right?
• Bigender – Two genders either male/male, female/female, male/female or others. OTHERS? What does that mean? Let’s read on and find out.
• Cis – Cis same as Cisgender see below if you haven’t given up.
• Cisgender - one not having an identity issue. When born if you are a female (see Cis Female) you are a female. What was wrong with saying female? To save time put the C.I.S. in front of each of the following and you have your answer unless you are dis (insert gender item) then you are the opposite. Making sense?
• Cis Female
• Cis Male
• Cis Man
• Cis Woman
• Cisgender Female- Now what is the difference between a Cis Female and a Cisgender Female? Oh, NOTHING! So why the need to add these new titles if they all mean you are what you are born and you accept it. I wanted to be Cindy Brady. I guess that makes me a malcontent Cisgender Female identity in crisis!
• Cisgender Male
• Cisgender Man
• Cisgender Woman
• Female to Male – Female to Male or the acronym FTM (see below because it is a separate title) is gender female identifying to male. Yeah a tom boy!
• FTM
• Gender Fluid – Gender Fluids get to fluctuate between feeling male and/or female on a daily, hourly basis. Really? How much more ridiculous is this going to get?
• Gender Nonconforming – “I don’t like dresses and dolls so I’m a Gender Nonconformist.” I think you are a brat in the middle of a temper tantrum.
• Gender Questioning – What we are all doing during this little blog
• Gender Variant – See Transgender. Okay why add this one – oh it is a bit more “narrow in connotation” or a bit more confusing.
• Genderqueer –Per Urban Dictionary: A person who does not subscribe to conventional gender distinctions but identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders. And I thought we couldn’t say the Q word. When did that change?
• Intersex – Finally a scientific definition of gender. One who is a variation in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads and genitals. This one I can buy.
• Male to Female – See Female to Male – same thing
• MTF- same as above. Really??? WTF?
• Neither – I am guessing the person is not related to a sexual class. Why is it in this list then?
• Neutrois – part of the rainbow umbrella of Genderqueer. I feel dirty just writing that down.
• Non-binary – Oh goodie…another umbrella of hyperbole and superfluous definitions that really means “I don’t know who or what I am and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
• Other – Let me take a stab at this one. “I want to be the other one.”
• Pangender – No, not a gender twisted fawn from the mind of Shakespeare but someone who identifies with all of these looney toon labels.
• Trans – For brevity all the definitions below contain the prefix Trans. Trans means another umbrella for those that don’t identify with the gender they were born. I see duplicates here with little * in between. Couldn’t find a gender related answer to the *. Maybe it is inserted as a sign of genitalia.
• Trans*
• Trans Female
• Trans* Female
• Trans Male
• Trans* Male
• Trans Man
• Trans* Man
• Trans Person
• Trans* Person
• Trans Woman
• Trans* Woman
• Transfeminine
• Transgender
• Transgender Female
• Transgender Male
• Transgender Man
• Transgender Person
• Transgender Woman
• Transmasculine
• Transsexual
• Transsexual Female
• Transsexual Male
• Transsexual Man
• Transsexual Person
• Transsexual Woman
• Two-Spirit – At last a non-trans. Two-Spirits are just that. They behold the spirit of the masculine and the feminine and have created their own specific name so as not to be left out.     
  Remember when labels were BAD. Remember when we said we were all HUMAN. I guess not. Label rendering may help one identify itself from the pack but also removes itself as well. Labels such as these, many of which mean the same thing, simply pull us further away from each other. If you need a label try your name. That identifies you.