I’ve recently begun going through a bit of a personal renaissance regarding my gender, and I realized my numbers-focused brain needs something to quantify gender identity, both for myself and so I can better understand others. I also just don’t like socially-constructed labels, at least for myself.
So, using the Kinsey Scale of Sexuality as inspiration, and with input from good friends, I made up my own Gender Identity Scale.
- Three axes: X, Y, and Z
- X: Man (not necessarily masculinity), 0 to 6
- Y: Woman (not necessarily femininity), 0 to 6
- Z: Fluidity, 0 to 2
- X and Y axes’ numbers go from
0 - not part of my identityto6 - strongly identify as - Z axis’s numbers go from
0 - non-fluidto2 - always changing
Example: The average cis-man is 6,0,0, the average cis-woman is 0,6,0, and a “balanced” nonbinary person might be 3,3,1, or 0,0,0, or 6,6,2…
Personally, I think I’m about a 3,2,1 - I don’t have a strong connection to either base gender, but being biologically male, I do identify a bit more as a man. I also feel that I’m somewhat gender-fluid, but not entirely so. I honestly don’t fully understand gender fluidity yet, so the Z-axis may require some tweaking.
Does this make sense? Can you use this to accurately quantify your own gender identity? I wanna know!
NB genderfluid checking in here.
Find it interesting that you say that as biologically male you identify more as a man.
Though I do fall that way on occasion, when I lean away from a neutral they position I tend to lean towards she/her more often than not despite being born male.
Honestly, I’m still figuring myself out. I’ve identified as 100% man most of my life, and it’s only very recently that I’ve started to understand myself well enough to question that.
In the few days since i posted this, my transformation into the person I want to be/truly am has continued. If I were to use this inherently flawed scale now, I’d be more of 1-0-0. I can’t deny that the testosterone in my body exceeds the estrogen, and I really like having a beard and a penis, so I’m undoubtedly physically male. That’s the only real tie I have to gender; otherwise, I’m now certain that I’m nonbinary.
Right now, because I’m trying to bolster my femininity to achieve more of a balance that reflects how I feel about myself, I very much prefer she/they. But once I’m fully who I want to be, I think I’ll be comfortable with any pronoun.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. The more I learn about others who’ve shrugged off societal preconceptions of gender, the closer I get to understanding myself and my relationship therewith.