Clarification: phenomenology
I don’t think my earlier vlog or post was as clear as it could be. While I am very appreciative of the responses so far, which describe whether you can or cannot talk about gender in terms of culture, or how you understand it… I was hoping to get some specific narratives.
For example: if you understand yourself as being gendered in a certain way (don’t even name it, if you don’t want to), what is that like? Perhaps you become aware of your body’s “in-betweenness” when you walk into a department store, since you don’t fit into either section, men’s or women’s. Maybe you don’t think of being gendered until those times, and your perception of yourself is merely as a “being”, or “person.” Or maybe you are always conscious of your gender because it is intimately connected to your body, and your sense of self is always of male or female because of that awareness.
I realize these are some personal questions, so I shouldn’t really expect an outpouring of responses. Too, I think it’s something that most people–unless they happen to be in between or in some kind of conflict with “norms”–aren’t thinking about. Anyway, I will be posting more about it later. I’ll talk some about my experiences and some theories I’ve run up against. (If you have more comments, please put them back at the original post. Thanks!)