In my opinion the genderbread handout is a good place to start learning about the nuances of gender and gender expression for people who are completely new to it, however I do think itâs limited in showing the full range of gender. While it does show how sex â presentation â identity, I think that measuring things strictly by how âfeminineâ or âmasculineâ they are and thinking all gender experiences have to fit somewhere on that spectrum reinforces the idea of a gender binary. I know that the way I present often makes people view me as a woman, because lots of physical traits I have are associated with femininity. The way I dress, while not the most feminine, still would count as feminine to most people. But those things donât make me feel any real connection to the feminine side of the spectrum. Likewise, the fact that I prefer wearing cologne over perfume and prefer pants over skirts doesnât make me feel any real connection to the masculine side of the spectrum. I also donât feel a simple on/off switch is accurate either, as while I donât feel a connection to masculinity or femininity, the associations other people draw between me and those binaries still exist. Attraction has been easy enough for me to describe, I identify as bisexual (some people have told me they think the pansexual label would fit me better, but I prefer to use this one) and find that I am especially attracted to other gender nonconforming people. I honestly donât know how Iâd identify if I was attracted strictly to one gender, as I do not view my attraction to either gender as being âstraightâ or âgayâ, rather I view my attraction as something inherently queer, no matter the gender of who Iâm attracted to.
