The other day I received some stickers from an animal rights organisation called SPANA. They contain my name and address and are to be used on the back of envelopes. I’m not sure how SPANA got my details, but I am over the moon because they have used the gender-neutral title “Mx” on the sticker. I would really like more people to address me using gender neutral titles and pronouns. I’d like to be seen as a person first, not put into a box and all the expectations that come with that. I find gender to be an oppressive construct, especially the different rules for men and women (e.g. women should shave but men don’t have to). I’m not throwing away womanhood altogether, but I only partially identify as a girl. I am going by both “she” and “they” pronouns at the moment. I have even discovered a word for how I feel, and that is “demigirl”. People are going to call me a “young lady” etc. as I don’t look “in the middle”, and I’m not going to give up what I like just so I look more “in the middle”. But for those who know me, it would make my heart sing if you could refer to me in a gender-neutral way for a change.
December 8, 2021 at 11:19 am
A lot to identify with here. I used to get fists in my face because people didn’t think I looked “black” enough. Then my mom would scream a bunch of white supremacist nonsense at me when I got home from school because she thought I was getting into fights to deliberately drive her crazy, and she was black. Sometimes I wish people would stop making assumptions about me. When people jump to unscientific conclusions about people nothing good happens.
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December 8, 2021 at 11:24 am
Wow. Not looking “black” enough? :S I’ve heard of issues not looking “white” enough but never “black”. I didn’t know your mum was black
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December 8, 2021 at 3:08 pm
Yeah, when racist white kids don’t like the fact that you are black but look too much like them they get angry and violent. When you mom is insecure about her own race and she screams about how black she isn’t and how black you’re not in spite of the obvious fact that both of us were black, and she’s willing to get violent to shove that down you’re throat… And then there are the darker skinned black kids that pick on you because they think being lightskinned makes you weak… Yeah growing up in the ghetto is a pain in the ass.
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