I don't have a gender because I refuse to believe in gender woo. But I'm not gender non conforming. What am I?

[Metabigot]

Genderfree? I'm not agender or non binary as that implies believing in gender.

In times of old I would have described myself as a Woman, but as non biological women/ transwomen are now women I no longer want to use that word

Trans have spoilt the sex based meaning ot once had.

Doesn't matter what women think, it matters which definitions of the word are used in lawmaking.

Good plan!

I too "identify" as gender-free. Pronouns are literal violence! 😂

You're a woman.

I don’t think any are useful either, I was just curious what OP thought.
However, rejecting stereotypes doesn’t make me any less a woman, and I’m happy to ‘label’ myself as such. I think OP and I mostly agree, apart from the labelling aspect.

I agree. I think it is odd to deny gender and gender based stereotypes exist. Make-up and high heels and dresses are stereotyped gendered dress of women. I am a woman who does not use either but these are gender based. Men can use them but this is considered gender non conforming in our society. And if a man dresses up exactly like a woman and gets cat called by a construction worker as he walks down the street, that is a gender based behaviour, not sex as the man is presenting as a woman.

Sterotypes are different but exist in most cultures - the norms and behaviours are different by gender.

Violence against women doesn't require a physical assessment of genitals. It is based on a stereotyped gendered appearance.

"Violence against women doesn't require a physical assessment of genitals. It is based on a stereotyped gendered appearance."

But that is still very largely sex-based - a woman would typically be perceived as someone who dresses stereotypically female AND physically looks female, and humans are very good at picking up sex clues. A man would be less likely to commit violence against someone who is nearer their physical size and more likely to successfully fight back.

Something seemed to happen a few years ago when gender became simply a shortcut to meaning gender stereotypes.

Always used it as a polite synonym for sex. For example Sex and Gender Studies at Uni is far clearer than calling a course Sex Studies.

I don't understand how anyone can be gender-free, even and especially if they are gender critical, if you are a human living in society, then anything you know about yourself as a woman is gendered knowledge, no? In one way or another? I mean sex refers to a biological condition but even the most critically attuned don't have access to an understanding of sex that isn't gendered, right? Have I misunderstood what you are saying there?

It's more accurate to say that gender doesn't exist without sex. What do you think it is, if not a framework of stereotypes relating to one or other of the two sexes?

With those stereotypes entirely variable as to which stereotypes are currently associated with which sex, depending on time, place and culture.

Hence the belief that anyone can wear, like, and do anything without it having the faintest impact on the sex that they are. They just are someone of that biological sex who happens to do/like/be whatever.

Well not belief. Fact. It doesn't matter what appearance you take on or what actions you perform: your biological sex doesn't change.

You remain someone of that sex, just someone who is doing whatever while being of that sex.

Best way to describe it is that I feel gender as an external influence on me.

Think of it like any other culture. As a British person I know that my personality and values have been shaped by growing up British. They are very much a part of me now, but I don’t assume that means it's something innate to me from birth. My Britishness is a product of my environment and I am aware that others who grow up in different cultures would gain different norms and values.

For me to be gender critical and agender doesn't mean I don’t experience gender, but that I consider it to be a social bias that at best limits me (and everyone else) unnecessarily, and at worst which normalises genderised abuse, and therefore something I actively challenge in myself and in society. I may not know what an ungendered woman (female person) could be but I think it's worth society trying to achieve that, just as it was worth society achieving what an atheist person could be when at one point the idea that one could live without religion was inconceivable.

So, while I can recognise the impact of gender in my life and on my personality, and indeed can even point to pivotal experiences where I have been socially "trained" in what is and isn't acceptable for a person of my sex, I certainly don't experience this innate gender identity that trans- and cis- identifying people describe themselves as having, as an intrinsic aspect of their character which exists independently of the body they actually live in and therefore of any genderised experiences laid upon that body by society.

Furthermore, given that my understanding and experience of womanhood is of gender being a cumulative disadvantage that accrues to female people through external bias and internal socialisation, the idea that a male person who has suffered none of that just transitions into womanhood based on an entirely external understanding of how it is to live as a woman and has an equal claim on the supports that exist to help woman navigate those disadvantages is just nonsensical.

You are a woman, an adult female human. Gender woo is a load of nonsense. Woman means what if always meant to 98% of the population (does not include Keir Starmer, who needs it explaining in words of one syllable). Keep calling yourself a woman - it is part of the fight against genderwoo.

Apogender
There's even a flag

A good explanation that chimes with me!

My sex is male. My gender is mostly fairly masculine, I think, but perhaps it would be better to ask other people who know me as they may see me as quite feminine in some respects. My gender identity? I haven’t a clue, as it’s a concept I don’t really understand. My sympathies are with ’trans’ people as they seem to be on a difficult and confusing path, and with feminists as they are being discriminated against by people who claim that TWAW without any evidence. While I don’t agree with everything every feminist has said, I am generally sympathetic to feminist thinking, which has certainly influenced me (looking back, I used to think that a woman’s place was different from a man’s place, in terms of leadership, and I no longer do).

"Violence against women doesn't require a physical assessment of genitals. It is based on a stereotyped gendered appearance."

It is based on sex, and the reality of sexed physical differences - not stereotypes. I've been catcalled when wearing so many layers of fully unisex winter clothing that I'm barely distinguishable from a weeble. Men still know.

To the vast majority of the population woman means the same as it ever did - an adult human female. Don’t do what the political and celebrity elites do and confuse twitter and the BBC with ‘most people’.

^^

This.

The awful situation of that poor TM raped in the back of a taxi, who sobbed repeatedly to their rapist 'but I'm a man'. Their stereotypically gendered presentation made no difference at all: it was the female biology that they were in possession of that the rapist knew was there and felt entitled to use. I'm afraid outer presentation makes very little difference.

In my life, I've been mistaken for a man a handful of times. Even in the most "mannish" attire, most people can tell my sex. Your hypothetical bloke dressed as a woman is more likely to face homophobic or transphobic abuse than cat calling, because he will be recognised as male. Even if he is cat-called, it's because the construction worker mistook him for a member of the female sex, not because the worker thought "that person is a feminine-presenting male, better deploy the cat calls and not the homophobia".

OP back to update. I agree with the posters on this thread, let's not give away the word woman.

I have decided I am first and foremost a person who refuses to be stereotyped.

I am also an adult human female AKA woman. But really I'm just an individual with a female reproductive system like 51% of the population.

I can be called woman, female, whatever when it's relevant to my biology otherwise I don't really care what I'm called as I don't feel the need to push my identity on other people and nor should anyone else!

You are a real woman! So am I. Do not play their game with 'gender free' nonsense. It is bad enough that common sense in women's rights now has to be called being 'gender critical'

You are right. Walked past a prostate cancer ad this evening referring to 'men'. No prostate havers there.

So on a pure anti sexism basis if nothing else, I shall be a woman.

I reject every attempt to list a gender, this has happened mainly at medical appointments (bizarrely!) when completing an initial questionnaire. I cross out if 'Gender' is listed and replace with 'Sex' before stating 'Woman'

The misuse of 'gender' is tiresome.

Today I spotted a new advert for Nurofen on mainstream tv - it states that 1 out of 2 women feel their health is taken less seriously due to their gender. Err, no...

I’m just me. I don’t think of myself as a gender from day to day- just me, getting on with my life.

I am a woman, but I’m too busy to obsess over it (which, I suspect is the issue with a lot of people now- not enough practical stuff to do).

I don’t need a daily title other than my name.

But I am a woman.

Does that make sense? (It does in my head 😂).