“It’s like crossing into the looking glass in Wonderland. You go in there and you feel, you feel 100% right of being gay.” - Paris is burning
As we are emerging into a world where gender identity and boundaries are being broken, how would you define masculinity and femininity? I think that particularly now, the lines between masculinity and femininity are becoming more and more blurred, as people are blending the two, I believe that they are simply however an individual wants to define it, I do not believe that these concepts can be defined by an aesthetic or a behaviour, I see masculinity and femininity as confidence in an individual, a man who is comfortable enough to wear skirts and dresses is still masculine, and a woman who wears short hair and likes traditionally masculine things is still feminine. I think that masculinity and femininity should be defined by the individual and not how society wants to define them.
What does gender identity mean to you? As a nonbinary person, gender identity is a complex thing to me. Gender feels like a very fluid thing that is constantly changing day to day, and is very personal and indescribable. As a lesbian, It feels like a lot of femininity is centred around attraction to men, whether that be performative or otherwise, so I have felt a disconnect from femininity and masculinity alike. I feel like gender cannot be restricted to just aesthetic values or behaviours and it is up to the individual to define how they see it.