I am a woman. I was born and continue to identify as female. I use she/her pronouns.
This may come as no surprise to you. My name is a traditionally female name, and my profile picture portrays a feminine person. But that is not what makes me a woman.
But if I had not identified myself, would you recognize my gender through my writing?
Some would say yes, because I’m disorganized and rambley and over emotional. Maybe I’m female because I post angry rants about sexual assault. Maybe I’m female because I’m open about my depression, or because I’m poetic, or because I never seem to know what I’m saying.
But I wonder—how does that make me a woman?
I think men and women can embrace their unique attributes while realizing that they are equal in skills, emotions, and abilities.
Gender, in my opinion, is far more of a social construct than a biological absolute. I think the things that make me recognizably female are my sensitivity, my resilience, and my honesty—but I also recognize that men can also be all of those things. As much as I try to be unbiased and not stereotype, I fall to the same conventions as the rest.
Ultimately, I’ve learned through reading and writing that my ability or techniques are not what make me me. I’m unique because I’m Hannah. And maybe you think my writing is obviously from a woman, but I think my writing is most obviously from a fighter. (Fighters are genderless. Maybe we should throw away gender altogether and start identifying as fighters.)
