"What do you identify as"

[User09678]

I hope this is allowed as it was inspired by another thread. Asking people what they "identify as" (in this case class) has always made me curious because it seems so often to me that if someone is having to identify as something, then it's because they're often not that thing. Identifying as having a good sense of humour, lol. Let us be the judge of that. But my point is that you can't pick and choose identities, they're really ascribed by wider society and circumstance and reality. Am I being unreasonable? Probably

I don't identify as anything. I hate all this woke gender shit.

I was born in a classless society (Eastern Europe), so I never saw myself as part of any class. But when I moved to the UK, society started pushing the idea of a class system onto me. I still see myself as classless, though.

That doesn't even make sense. You either are it are not English. It's not something you can identify into or out of.
Pretty much like most things.

If you have to tell people what you are then you probably aren't.

The most ridiculous thing I've seen as 'identify as' recently was an internship application for the Civil Service. The date for application has now closed.

They are doing a scheme specifically for people who 'identify as autistic'.

Now this really pisses me off. My DC are diagnosed autistic and have many real challenges (and strengths) around their diagnosis.

The fact that this opportunity is offered on an 'identify as' basis completely misses the point. So many people identify as ND these days, so many say 'aren't we all a little bit autistic'.

Grrrr.

A carthorse. Boxer from Animal Farm, if we're being specific.

I am a woman

If you have to identify as something, it means you are not that thing. Identifying is pretending.

You say that, but I have about half a dozen professional "identities" depending on how you look at my job, qualifications and experience. That's the only way in which I identify as something though.

Currently knackered as I have a cold they kept me up all night coughing, I'm also going to be identifying as a martyr as I've just agreed to do a non urgent trip with dh on the motorbike because he looked sad when I said i wasn't feeling good, should have said no! Off to squeeze into my motorcycle jeans for the first time in months, wish me luck

It's really simple. I identify as precisely who I am which as well as being a middle aged white woman of largely European rather than British heritage is:

A wife, mother and MIL who is a bit vain, a bit selfish and who likes going to work.

YANBU at all. I don't identify as a woman - I am one. I don't identify as British - I am. Much in the same way as I don't identify as 5'6", I just am. Nobody ascribed those 'identities' to me, and I didn't ascribe them to myself. They are just factual. You could argue that I could choose to identify as British or English, but that's meaningless really. I factually am both. What would picking one to 'identify' as achieve? It wouldn't change anything.

The thing, does it actually change anything at all

"How do you identify ?"

"As your boss. Now - you're fired. Close the door on your way out"

I suspect not.

Of course it shouldn't, but this exactly is the issue with men identifying as women. They think that should give them access to women's spaces and services.

Well, I'm always referring to myself as an ex hairy assed builder.

We used, as a society to not be keen on egoism. We favoured a sense of community. Now the ego is given centre stage and it loves to dress itself up and be adorned, and ants you to take it seriously and pretend it’s very worth taking seriously. It adorns itself with identity.
previously, we valued character, which isn’t self ascribed.

Yes, identify as implies you are not.

However, I have a disability that is life long. Recently diagnosed. I didn't identify as disabled as I didn't know about it. (Was just a person that was a bit crap at life, who didn't get a lot done) I was still disabled.

I do think it is a shit way of phrasing things.

' Identifying as ' only works for concepts that can't be proven .

For example, as a teen , I identified as a goth . However, older teen goths decided I wasn't a goth, as if I needed their permission or approval. But my self- identifying means that I can factually say as a teen , I was a goth.

Now I identify as an old soul . Some people identify as young at heart. I don't. I'm in my early forties so whether I'm young or old is relative to the age of others. ----

Well no, we are uk citizens and that is different than seeing yourself, or identifying yourself as English. There's a level of shared history. I'm nearly 60, as a first and second generation immigrant, my experiences/food eaten etc growing up wasn't the same as a lot of my age group in the average small 'up north' pub. I spent school holidays visiting family, including in SA, so again, my growingup experiencs were different. A lot of my friends, from Nigeria, but who now have duel nationality, call themselves Nigerian-British. My DH's family moved to Liverpool from rural Ireland and retained their religion and culture.

My best friend has Jamaican parents but was brought up in London. She calls herself Jamaican.
Her husband is white / English.
When asked about their ethnicity at school their kids would say they are Jamaican.

I had Irish Grandparents on one side. And get told I look very Irish.
It winds my Irish friend up if I claim to be anything other than English.

My feeling in this case is it's really not up to anyone else to tell people "where they are from" or who their people are.

However you can't help how that might make others feel about it.

Equally I would defend your right to wear a dress if you were a man, but it wouldn't make me see you as a biological woman.

I would however recognise that my telling you this could be upsetting for you and I wouldn't seek to do that. Unless you were trying to impinge on my rights as a woman.

LOVE him 💚

My best friend has Jamaican parents but was brought up in London. She calls herself Jamaican.

I used to know a Jamaican family - they were white as the driven snow. You'd never have known until they opened their mouths. When they had the most Jamaican accent I have ever heard.

By the same token, has anyone ever heard Don Letts speak ?

If you have XY chromosomes, you are male, whether you identify as female or not.

Tall, sexy, muscular, rich. I am none of these things 🤣

Fake it till you make it?! 😂