Labels

[Words]

Originally Posted by D-Money

okay, back to serious ...

for years, claiming 'femme' was very much a part of who i thought i was.

on other butch/femme sites (i don't feel the need to specify) i was that bitch who grilled non-label-lovers who came to the site claiming they didn't label themselves. "this site is for butches and femmes! if you don't identify, wtf are you doing here?! go find your own site, you ... you LESBIAN!" i didn't even realize my own need at the time to label them ... or even that i was doing it.

i was so wrapped up in how important my own label was to me that i didn't even listen to where they might have been coming from- i was blind to everything but what i perceived to be an attack on my own labeling of myself.

in light of the course of my own journey in recent years, i can see myself on the other side of that controversy. i probably deserve it ... (i really was a bitch)

I agree that in many cases, it's for our own benefit that we want/expect others to ID one way or another. I have to say though that one of the reasons I prefer to know how someone IDs is that I don't want to offend them by referring to them in a way that makes them uncomfortable and I would imagine that that's fairly common. So, in a way, it can be a no win situation. Ask them how they ID and make them feel pressured into IDing one way or another, or not ask them, and possibly insult them by assuming?

Make sense?

[D-Money]

Originally Posted by Words

I agree that in many cases, it's for our own benefit that we want/expect others to ID one way or another. I have to say though that one of the reasons I prefer to know how someone IDs is that I don't want to offend them by referring to them in a way that makes them uncomfortable and I would imagine that that's fairly common. So, in a way, it can be a no win situation. Ask them how they ID and make them feel pressured into IDing one way or another, or not ask them, and possibly insult them by assuming?

Make sense?

yes, it does make sense ... i can see what that might look like.

but i do think that the discomfort that may be caused by asking is likely to be less than the discomfort caused by labeling without asking.

[little man]

Originally Posted by Words

I agree that in many cases, it's for our own benefit that we want/expect others to ID one way or another. I have to say though that one of the reasons I prefer to know how someone IDs is that I don't want to offend them by referring to them in a way that makes them uncomfortable and I would imagine that that's fairly common. So, in a way, it can be a no win situation. Ask them how they ID and make them feel pressured into IDing one way or another, or not ask them, and possibly insult them by assuming?

Make sense?

perhaps best to ask for pronoun preference?

[D-Money]

Originally Posted by little man

perhaps best to ask for pronoun preference?

ah, but there are SOOOO many other gender/orientation/sexuality/identity assumptions that are made besides that!

[little man]

Originally Posted by D-Money

ah, but there are SOOOO many other gender/orientation/sexuality/identity assumptions that are made besides that!

i try always to spell and pronounce someone's name correctly. i try to use proper pronouns. after that, i don't much care. i'm not going to refer to someone's other stuff unless i know them well. i guess i really don't care about all that too much....in so far as speaking with someone goes. if a friendship develops, then there will be opportunity for those conversations to be had.

[Andrew, Jr.]

I don't care for labels. Never have. The brain is the most important sex organ, not what is in my pants if you ask me.

Andrew

[Jet]

I like my label and I like using it to describe myself: Transgendered (and pre-T FTM.) For me, my label provides a sense of order, clarity and a solid identification of what I am. It also signals boundries of what I will and will not tolerate within my own community; discrimination being the first.