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So, today, I came out at work. Again.
We were talking about the pony involved in the lesson, and the sidewalker mentioned that she was still learning all of the horses' names, fields, and sexes, though the sidewalker used the word "gender." I responded with something like, "Genders are overrated; that's why I don't have one." Then it was just quiet for a bit, since there wasn't anything I needed to say to any member of the team, and I didn't want to do the whole "Let me cover for this weird moment" thing. The rider laughed, though she was laughing before I said this and was having a good day, plus her mother says she (the rider, that is) really loves me. Both the leader and the sidewalker are under the age of 18 (maybe even under the age of 15; I'm bad with ages), so maybe they didn't really know what to say to that, or that it was even an option.
Granted, in our society, gender is massively binaried. The expectations on a woman are much more exact, and anyone who doesn't fit those are assumed to be male. I encountered this before, when I had short hair, wore baggier clothes that hid my figure and didn't do much to suggest I knew much about fashion, and didn't place much care into my appearance overall. Now that I have a magnificent beard and a deeper voice, I'm even more defaulted to male. I also don't always speak up, as it takes a certain amount of energy that I don't always want to invest. (Side note here: When "Wonder Woman" had women-only showings, I believe the best way to enforce that would have been to just address every member of the audience using feminine terms. Any dude trying to make a point about "Sticking It To The Man" would have outed himself immediately, any translady in attendance would have received a boost in confidence, and agender folks such as myself would have chosen a different showing out of respect for what the theater was trying to accomplish.)
Ah, well, such is life when I defy social conventions.
We were talking about the pony involved in the lesson, and the sidewalker mentioned that she was still learning all of the horses' names, fields, and sexes, though the sidewalker used the word "gender." I responded with something like, "Genders are overrated; that's why I don't have one." Then it was just quiet for a bit, since there wasn't anything I needed to say to any member of the team, and I didn't want to do the whole "Let me cover for this weird moment" thing. The rider laughed, though she was laughing before I said this and was having a good day, plus her mother says she (the rider, that is) really loves me. Both the leader and the sidewalker are under the age of 18 (maybe even under the age of 15; I'm bad with ages), so maybe they didn't really know what to say to that, or that it was even an option.
Granted, in our society, gender is massively binaried. The expectations on a woman are much more exact, and anyone who doesn't fit those are assumed to be male. I encountered this before, when I had short hair, wore baggier clothes that hid my figure and didn't do much to suggest I knew much about fashion, and didn't place much care into my appearance overall. Now that I have a magnificent beard and a deeper voice, I'm even more defaulted to male. I also don't always speak up, as it takes a certain amount of energy that I don't always want to invest. (Side note here: When "Wonder Woman" had women-only showings, I believe the best way to enforce that would have been to just address every member of the audience using feminine terms. Any dude trying to make a point about "Sticking It To The Man" would have outed himself immediately, any translady in attendance would have received a boost in confidence, and agender folks such as myself would have chosen a different showing out of respect for what the theater was trying to accomplish.)
Ah, well, such is life when I defy social conventions.
