Gender slippage

Thoughts crafted through being alive under patriarchy, Aretha Franklin, and psychoanalytic gender theory

A year or so ago, I slipped ‘they/she’ into my Instagram bio. An almost silent, millennial (non-)coming out.

To my recollection, I have been thinking about gender since I first noted what my child-mind interpreted as the rewards of being a very, particularly feminine little girl, which I did not feel I was. Girly-cute traits seemed to come easily to other girl children, but not to me; I tried my very best to be girly-cute - because I felt sure this was what others wanted from me, although it felt somehow dishonest.