Gender of the fans

[tardar-sauce]

But your current one is so cute!

I don't use forums very often so with me it's mostly username + writing style. My judgement of usernames seems off, I think. I thought Chino sounded female, HeavenlyArcher sounded male, and Moonlandian sounded male too. I also generally assume someone is male unless they sound obviously feminine or have usernames I find feminine.

As demonstrated here (and in some other places) I am pretty gender blind on the internet too.

(I'm curious which gender my name sounds like to people now)

[themoonlandian]

Chino I love your avatar as is!!

And tardar, I find yours either-or, but I've been assuming that you are female.

[weazulgrl]

I'm physically female, but I identify more as gender fluid.

it throws people off sometimes so I started to use something gender indicative in my usernames after I found out in one chat group I was in multiple people independently came to the conclusion I was a bisexual male and their reactions when someone pointed out my physical gender. I really don't mind what gender people think I am, but I know some dislike confusing genders. (and ironically I still get mistaken for a guy on Gaia Online on occasion, despite having a female avi and calling myself a fangirl of two characters and an obscure anime series in my sig; but to be fair my username there isn't really gender indicative and my avis don't always look obviously female - but still, the fangirl thing should tip them off.)

I think the last time I took an intentionally gender neutral username was for an anime convention forum where I was worried someone I wanted to avoid may find me, as they live/lived closer to it than me (I'm not sure where they live now, but back when I was still friends with them they lived less than minutes away from it whereas I live 24 minutes away).

but if anyone wonders where the Weazul part of my name comes from, it's actually an offline nickname as well. I started going by Weasel on some IRC channels after I found out my totem guide is weasel (yeah, I'm a bit new agey) and a friend of mine started spelling it Weazul since she didn't think something as "normal" as Weasel fit me. that friend was also going to a college in my town at that time so she was an offline friend as well and thanks to her even some of my family calls me that.

[NeeNee]

I always use gender neutral usernames on purpose. My personality doesn't really fit with either gender anyway, and it amuses me when people are mistaken.

(Though I must say that I never got the point of all these new labels like gender fluid/trigender/pansexual/etc. Why would you need to label yourself differently just because you don't act like a typical girl all the time? Society should just get over their stupid stereotypes.)

[MetallicArcher]

This is the first time I meet someone who openly identifies as gender fluid.

NeeNee, from my understanding (and I will leave it clear, I'm not an expert on the subject of sexuality) gender fluid has nothing to do with personality.

You see, your physical gender (the one you are born with: female, male, intersexual) and your psychological gender (the one you identify with, the one your brain says you are) are two different things.

A cisgender person is a person who identifies with its physical gender.

A transexual person identifies with the opposite gender.

A gender fluid feels like either.

[NeeNee]

^ You mean, sex (physical) and gender (mentally) are not the same thing. I know that (though I disagree that gender has nothing to do with personality, since gender traits are a part of your personality).

What I don't get is the difference between genderqueer, bigender, trigender, pangender, nongendered, genderless, agender, neutrois, genderfluid, third gender, etc. Like, what? What the hell is the point of so many labels? And most of them are just "I was born as X, but I don't really act like it", which I think is stupid, because it implies that there is a typical way each gender should behave and that everyone who doesn't fit the stereotype isn't a real boy/girl.

I know there are certain cases where people legitimately feel like they have been born with the wrong body, and in that case, I can understand wanting a change. But when someone says "I'm female, but I identify as gender fluid", what I hear is "I'm a girl, but I don't act like it all of the time", and what I think is "So what? Not liking girly things (or whatever) doesn't make you any less of a girl. Every girl is different. Why would you even need to invent a special gender for that?" I hope I don't offend anyone with his, but it's just how I feel about the extensive pigeonholing that seems to be going on in the gender community these days.

[weazulgrl]

well, saying I'm female identifies my physical gender, which I really don't mind being physically generally speaking. but saying I'm gender fluid has to do with how I think and feel my gender as on a psychological level.

the gender fluid part identifies my thought patters in relation to typical gender mindsets. usually my mind works somewhere between the female norm and the male norm with a bit of a bias toward the male side, sometimes to the point I can't properly intuit typical female mindsets properly and have to actually take effort to think about them. sometimes my mindset swings far enough into the male that I really don't feel female at all, enough so that I don't sit completely well in my own body sometimes and can definitely understand how someone who is trans feels when they say their physical gender doesn't feel right to them.

someone who is female and simply is sportsy, tomboyish, or whatever still identifies fully female, they don't really ever feel their physical gender isn't appropriate to the gender they feel they are. I've got a female cousin who was really in to sports when she was younger and focused on sports most typically considered boy sports (especially back in the day when she was in school, she's older than me and my older brother), she hunts and is a great shot with a rifle and bow, she's even gone bear hunting in Canada multiple times. she still clearly feels female and identifies fully as female.

on the other hand, I'd actually seem more typically female than her in my interest and inclinations but I don't feel more female. I usually feel a mix of male and female, typically slightly more male, but sometimes feel more one or more the other to the point that while it's tipped that way I actually identify as that gender.

altho I do have to admit that sometimes labeling of gender identity could be simplified a bit. some people do try to be extremely specific, sometimes arguably overly so, when it comes to subtypes of the genderqueer label. but then some people like being as specific as possible while some people prefer to think more in generalities.

[Wikkelsoee]

Continuing from the other thread:

Whoa, only one boy? That can't be right!

Anyway, we already have a topic like this, so locking. Please continue in the other thread.

We have at least 3 boys: Blightstrider, Chino and Andoing.

[Isis-Lied]

I think it's obvious, but I'm female if my username wasn't an indicator and I use a lot of emoticons, which I think adds to the obviousness of my gender

[Calvaria]

Four actually, I'm a boy too~

[NeeNee]

A boy! A rare species!

Of our former three boys, two don't come online anymore, so it looks like it's just you and Chino now. I really wonder why we have so few male member... It's not like the atmosphere is overly feminine or anything like that.

[themoonlandian]

^BreakingChains49 comes on a fair bit - he's male xD

[Calvaria]

We're not that rare, I think boys are just less likely to engage in fandom a lot. I have another friend who likes AoEku and he's a boy.
Guess I'm used to it!

[NeeNee]

Nah, most other forums I'm on have about equal parts boys and girls. But here it's all girls for some reason.

Not that you'd notice - we didn't even know uptil we started comparing genders here.

[Calvaria]

I think it depends on the subject/fandom, there are a lot of forums where I get excited if there's another guy around!