Kate Bornstein, gender destroyer extraordinaire, has posted a series of questions to her blog while she updates "My Gender Workbook." here's my answer to the first one.
What's your gender?
femme.
more specifically: genderqueer femme dyke.
'dyke' for me feels like a gender more than a sexual orientation. if you want my sexual orientation, i could give it to you, but my interpretation of 'dyke' has to do with the gendered appearance of a specific sort of lesbians. kind of androgynous, but still obviously feminine.
'genderqueer': i like to swing back and forth on the gender pendulum. sometimes i even visit the ends of the spectrum, just for kicks. most of the time, i sway somewhere near the middle. my masculine end comes out as a misogynistic, homophobic drag king who's a closet gay. my feminine end appears in a little black dress and pearls. but if i look like a 12-year-old boy all the time, i don't think i'll be that upset about it.
'femme' is the way i perform myself for an audience of others. femme is in my interactions & my affectations. i'll be the first to admit i do not perform it with the flawless grace of high femmes--the other parts of my gender intervene.
