To ask if you have personally ever doubted the sex you were born into

[Chantelli]

Just that
Yabu - of course my gender and sex have always been aligned
Yanbu - I've often felt as though I do not identify with my biological sex assigned at birth

I am a woman. I have XX chromosomes. I have a female body. There is no such thing as being born in the wrong body.

Gender is a social construct. I conform to some elements of that construct and not to others.

Gender dysphoria is a mental illness from which I have never suffered

My husband always says I’m a man in a woman’s body! I don’t understand the women in my life very well (to be fair I find I have to watch ‘normal people’ and mimick in most social situations!) It is quite isolating as though I have many female friends, I can never be myself with them.

I get on much better with men (more in common like films and humour) but I make quite an effort with my appearance (to fit in) and I’m not stupid enough to spend time with them alone outside work because people would talk (and their wives and my husband wouldn’t be happy!)

I like being a woman, I wouldn’t like to be man but I do think men have the best deal in life, so maybe I should transition!

This is such an interesting thread. It seems like more of MN is gender critical than just the Feminism posters. We get accused of transphobia all the time over there. Hopefully this thread will show that a lot of people see the idiocy of gender ideology, and will offer us some support when the TRAs pile on.

What an utterly pointless thread which is just being used as a platform to decry the trans community.Who gives a shit re how many MNers have doubted their sex.

I never doubted my sex because, well, my sex was obvious and I hadn't been told that it could be wrong (thankfully). I did have huge issues with gender though, and I hated my female body for a long time.

Amusingly though, my sex was recorded wrong (not by the midwife etc. just a clerical error somewhere) so I have had to get my sex marker changed. I had a moment of disappointment when I found out about the mistake as I had wanted to be a boy so badly as a child but puberty fixed that for me.

I've never doubted my biological sex. I was born with a female body, and have always been entirely comfortable in it, and have enjoyed having it.
Sexuality-wise, I'm entirely straight. Never had any sexual interest in another woman.

Gender however... I'm a lot more fluid. I go through phases of being really feminine in appearance, and other times of being quite masculine - like, I'll wear mens clothes and everything. When I'm in my masc phases, I feel really strong, powerful and sexy. And when I'm in a more traditional "fem" look, I just feel normal, "like I'm meant to look". The masc look is only maybe 3 or 4 weeks a year.

Very early on I was aware that the fact that I’m female put limits on what I am expected to do, how seriously I am taken and the fact that I will be viewed as a sexual object. I resent this and always have. I was also in the closet for years because coming out as a lesbian was too dangerous and would mean I got extra bullying on top of all the bullying I already suffered.

There is a a time where I would have liked to have been born male, but only because of the above. I never had a problem with the physical fact of my being female. I always viewed the limitations and vulnerabilities placed on me because of my sex as unfair, rather than a problem on my side. So in answer to the question I think you’re asking OP, yes, I have had serious issues around the sex I was born, but only because I have always been painfully aware of the disadvantages society confers on me because of my sex.

I was not assigned anything at birth BTW. My sex was observed and recorded. I could have been assigned male but my body would not reflect that.

My gender matches my sex.

I have a few friends for who this is not the case, and a number of friends and acquaintances who have at times questioned it.

I would be extremely surprised, given the prevailing attitude to sex and gender on MN, if many people were prepared to post here to say that their gender did not match their sex. It's an odd choice of place to ask this question.

My sex was observed & recorded at birth as female. It wasn’t assigned to me by a sorting hat!

I don’t have a gender identity but I am subject to a load of gender stereotypes pushed onto me because I’m female

I’m baffled that after what I thought was progress we seemed to have regressed to woman = sparkly things, make up, long hair, dresses & feeling tearful, man = short hair, trousers, no emotions allowed. How the hell has this happened?

I have hated being a woman many times over but I never felt, or wished to be male.

I can't vote because your options don't make sense. And sex is observed, not assigned. Sex is only assigned when a newborn's sex isn't immediately apparent, something that no longer occurs in the developed world.

I am a woman, and adult human female.

I feel like me.

That is all that I can say on the matter. Gender is a collection of lazy stereotypes that are typically unhelpful to women, or a costume that some men feel they can put on at will.

I am a woman.

I "feel" like I have a soul that is something entirely separate from my body but that is likely to be an idea I absorbed at a young age from hearing and reading about religion.

I find gender stereotypes a bit lame but that's probably because I grew to adulthood in the eighties and it felt we had been mostly liberated from them if we wanted to be.

How could I doubt my sex? My mind wasn’t put into a body at random - my brain, mind, body all grew at the same rate and are different parts that make a whole.

As far as ‘feeling’ like a woman - well yes, I do. My body is shaped like a woman. I ovulate. I menstruate. I have carried a child through pregnancy. I have given birth. I don’t have the first clue what it would feel like to be a man as I don’t have lived experience of being a man.

When people describe how it feels to be the opposite sex, it’s always a conversation of gender stereotypes or sexual preferences - neither of those having a baring on biological sex.

I don't feel like I have a gender identity.

My body and life experiences tell me I'm a woman, but in my head I'm just me.

I was never expected to be a girly girl by my parents and was allowed to have what would have been considered to be 'boys' toys. I was never into pink, much preferred blue. I was bewildered when my peers started telling me I shouldn't like certain things because they were for boys. By the time I was 15/16 I had more in common with the boys my age than the girls, which didn't help my popularity at all.

I suspect that if I was a teenager now, with the problems I had then (I had been sexually abused, was bullied a lot at school, struggling with my sexuality in a very homophobic environment) and access to social media I could well have identified as trans. Non-binary maybe more likely than trans man as I don't feel like I have a gender identity.

Thank you so many interesting views... I am considering asking for my pronoun to be changed to 'they' and this has helped develop my thinking.

@Ta11aght I genuinely do not understand what you mean by this and ask that you expand or elaborate so that I do?

what an utterly pointless thread which is just being used as a platform to decry the trans community.Who gives a shit re how many MNers have doubted their sex

Iwould be extremely surprised, given the prevailing attitude to sex and gender on MN, if many people were prepared to post here to say that their gender did not match their sex. It's an odd choice of place to ask this question.
@Iwalkinmyclothing it is interesting that 10 percent of approx 1000 respondents have responded in they way though isn't it

@StillMedusa

FirelighterGirl just get out there and be YOU. Not all lesbians are androgynous or masculine looking... my DD1 is a willowy very feminine looking lesbian (looks like a bellet dancer tbh!) and actually found it quite frustrating when she first came out, as no one believed her (and was forever being hassled by men who thought she was joking when she said she wasn't interested!) Now happily married to a beautiful woman...

Thanks for posting this. Stories like your daughters gives me hope that it is possible to find that happiness some where.

But what is a gender OP? What would 'having a female gender' consist of?

No. I am a human female.

I don't wear make up, am not a fan of pink and sparkly, and don't collect bags and shoes.

But since those and more being nothing more than gender stereotypes, they don't in any way change the fact of my biology.

gender stereotypes are creating this ridiculous situation where someone can more easily believe that they aren't their biological reality than that you can be male and also like pink, heels and long hair.

Things would be much better if we chucked these gender stereotypes in the bin and just liked what we liked and lived how suited us.

I am considering asking for my pronoun to be changed to 'they' and this has helped develop my thinking.

Why? What would that change? It wouldn't make you less of a woman. It wouldn't suddenly erase the stereotypes or expectations. It won't give you a raise, or a better wage. Because you'd still be a woman and everything that comes with that.

You can identify as a cat and call yourself Mister Fluffykins if you want, but people won't suddenly see you as one, invite you in their homes,feed you or rub your belly.

Not doubted the sex I was 'born into', but I did question my taxonomic order for a while when I was little and believed I was really a dolphin.

My body has all the parts to carry a baby, but I'm not sure how someone can feel female or like a woman, or feel male, or like a man.

What even is gender?

I'm a female, I have a female body, I love girl stuff and dresses and bags and chick flicks. I love being female.

The phrasing of your question is inherently biased, OP - the answers you've outlined are insufficient to capture the reality of women's experience. I'm commenting before reading but I'll bet there are plenty of answers that are roughly in line with mine:

I was never in any doubt about my biological sex; it's observable. I've been railing against what that means in terms of my lived experience for a long time.

Where I have hated my sex, it's not because of my sex itself but because I have been abused, exploited, overlooked, and cast aside because of it. Where I have wished not to be female this is because in my experience to be female is to be blamed and punished for what has been done to me as a result of my sex. I do not wish to be what our society says a woman is.

But I learned the difference between sex and gender a long time ago. The phrasing of OP's question leaves no room for my appreciation of that distinction. So I cannot vote.