This is a tidy bit of genius.
Thanks, I have thieved that for future use.
I go through phases where I donāt feel much need to express my gender. I always know Iām not really āa manā in some ways but not a woman either, that duality is an aspect of it, and I have some aspects of dysphoria but not others (my organs are acceptable but Iād like to be smaller in build, have more feminine or at least less masculine features, and not all this body hair). But a lot of the time, I just feel like genderās kind of irrelevant to most things.
Iām also in the 85%+ of nonbinary folks (according to a poll I saw while I was reading some stuff last night), who just does not want to explain themselves to a society that still doesnāt really believe nonbinary is a thing. Some of my experiments with expression in the past left me feeling really uncomfortable and self-conscious.
Lately Iāve been cycling back to wanting to express it. I think part of this is spite and resistance to the MAGA/Project 2025/general transphobia shit lately. Part of it is also due to getting back to my (oversimplifying here) pagan stuff, which always makes me feel more fluid. (There are a lot of different traditions around the world of shamans/magicians being outside their birth-assigned gender and I sympathize with that pretty hard.)
Several years ago I used to paint my toenails. Mostly mermaid colors ā silver, blue, green, purple. (Red never seemed right, nor black.) I usually wear socks and shoes in public anyway (except in summer rarely, and also at the time I was in a taiko group and we practiced barefoot). I stopped due to some damage to one of the toenails, and just never got back in. But I feel like itās time to restart. (The Drās Remedy brand, though it is lacking in a lot of the colors and fun chrome/glitter stuff that I like from other brands, is supposed to be more healthy if you have issues with psoriasis, fungal nail, diabetes, other damage etc. so Iāll start there.)
Will I be bold enough to also do my fingernails? Ehā¦ I know this is not just a gender expression thing, thereās also emo/goth/other people identifying as men claiming it. I donāt know if I can rock that or not though. Weāll see.
Also grabbed myself some enby pride jewelry on Etsy. A black ceramic ring with fluorescent opals, a pin, a sort of subtle pendant.
I may lean more into floral and colorful print shirts (I do wear a couple of subtle ones) for days that I go to work. Maybe look for a hoodie thatās not just the plain dark green that I have now. Small steps!
I can relate to this. I mentioned in a previous post here, were I younger Iām sure I would see myself as non-binary. The me now doesnāt care about labels and gender but my self-expression and identity is male because at this point itās quite ingrained. Iād say itās more cultural than anything, same how I consider myself Catholic by culture even though Iām agnostic because so much of Latin culture is derived from Catholicism.
I do hope that you can get to a point where you can express yourself more freely. Paint those nails! Iām sure itāll look great on you, donāt worry about male goths and such.
