Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Wow, I'm having a lot more trouble filling out this survey (on atypically-gendered people and/or people with atypical gender-expression) than I thought I would. A lot of my answers are starting out with "It depends..." (on the conversational context, on which week you ask me, etc.). I've given up on answering it in one sitting, and hope forbiddenpink's eyes don't glaze over from the length of my response when I do finish it.

On the "what is a man? / what is a woman?" questions, I am reminded yet again that I don't define man and woman in contrast to each other; rather, I think of "man" in contrast to "boy", and "woman" in contrast to "girl". I first noticed this at a "What is a man?" discussion group at the one Starwood festival that I've been to (many years ago), where I realized that I was coming up with a lot of the same answers for the questions, "What makes a man a man?" and "What makes a woman a woman?".

As my .signature file has said for a long time:

"Being a _man_ means knowing that one has a choice not to act like a 'man'."

(which came from that Starwood discussion/workshop -- I think I said it, but I'm not absolutely sure that it wasn't someone next to me).

I have to wonder whether questions 12-17 and 22 look easier to conventionally-gendered people.