" I often feel like the current model of gender (identity and expression)
is far too inadequate to account for the lived realities of many gender
nonconforming folks, particularly feminine boys.
Queer theory advanced a model of sociological gender performativity. That
worked well for the past 30 years, thanks to Judith Butler, Ricki Wilchins,
Leslie Feinberg, Holly Boswell, Kate Bornstein, and many other influential
trans-feminists and transgender trailblazers.
That was fine, back when gender variance was still a very esoteric subject
of study. We've now come a long way to better understanding that gender
diversity is not so easily captured by the limited language of only gender
identity and gender expression. I'd argue these two parameters alone barely
scratch the surface of how cissexism itself is enacted by society. And it
certainly doesn't account for the difficult process of coming out of the
closet and embracing one's true self.
Consider the simplest example of a femboy that has to repress his feminine
nature due to the overwhelming stigma and shame within his family or at his
school, resulting in years of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and
insecurity. Neither "identity" nor "expression" provides the necessary
vocabulary to communicate that person's unique gender journey.
He's certainly not expressing his true self at all. If anything he's
engaging in a conscious act of repression, given the overbearing weight of
societal expectations dominating over his free will. And then there's his
thoughts and feelings, which are inherently feminine albeit not visibly
apparent. For transgender people, that state-of-mind could be readily
described as a misalignment of gender identity. But that doesn't always work
for gender nonconforming people, particularly if they do not conceptualize
themselves as having a discrete "gender identity".
This is where gender conception comes into play:
gender conception (n) - the way in which a person looks, acts,
thinks, or feels with respect to gender norms and ideals including
appearance, behavior, mannerisms, speech patterns, emotions, interests,
ambitions, pronouns, honourifics, forename, and subjective
self-concept.
While gender expression and gender identity have proven useful for
discussing the experiences of transgender and nonbinary people, gender
conception affords a new paradigm by which gender nonconforming people can
better communicate their own unique experiences.
***
Reply to question clarifying point:
Thanks for asking. Gender conception covers how a person looks, acts,
thinks, or feels with respect to gender norms and ideals. It is therefore a
spectrum of gender nonconformity that is distinct from gender identity,
which is an internal sense of being a specific gender. It only has a slight
overlap with gender expression in terms of appearance, behavior, mannerisms,
and speech patterns. However, gender expression doesn't account for
pronouns, honourifics, and forename (which are aspects of gender
attribution) nor feelings, emotions, interests, and ambitions.
For example, I consider my sex to be male. However, I have a limp wrist, I
have a lisp, and I speak with girly intonations. I tend to have a very
sweet, sensitive, and bubbly personality. This would make my gender
conception non-normative.
Question from user Ptowza_Potato
"How is that different than gender expression?"
Reply:
Feelings and thoughts and interests and ambitions are not gender
expression. As a boy growing up, I always liked watching fantasy movies
about princesses and unicorns, and they made me cry with happiness. I
daydreamed about one day living in a fairytale wonderland where I could be a
pretty princess and have my own unicorn. That is an example of a feminine
gender conception, rather than gender expression."
*******
The quest of trying to find a model of gender that works for those of us
who don't fit into a binary male or female set of boxes, who may experience
gender fluidity and have gender variance has taken time as for
understandable reasons much of the discussion started within the
transsexual and crossdressing community for whom Gender Identity and
Gender Expression were the prisms, it has been obvious does not work for
feminine boys like myself.
User rkrause at the subreddit feminine boys posted the above on December 15
and that is the clearest concept of gender which is why it is reproduced as
is.
Direct link: https://www.reddit.com/r/feminineboys/comments/rh43lu/gender_conception_is_long_overdue/