How Do You Identify? (Who Are You? II)

[Quail]

I think the poll on the other thread (http://www.revleft.com/vb/youi-t170588/index.html) is a little bit of a mess and it's getting quite long, so perhaps it's time for a new one. Tick everything that applies to you on the poll :)

Edit: If I've made any glaring omissions in the poll, please let me know.

[Crux]

I'm quite boring, yet quite a mess I tells ya. Never straight but always a dude. Although quite frequently mistaken for a woman, even now. What are you trying to tell me, world?

[Nemo]

I'm soooooo queer.

[Slavic]

Identify as a cis male.

Sexually interested in feminine features, have dated men and women, predominately women. I do not know how to identify my sexual interest so I always just say im attracted to feminine forms.

[RedKobra]

Male. Bi. Straight relationship (Married). Being Bi does not mean you find all men or all women attractive any more than than for straight or gay people but you'd be surprised how often people think it. There's still a lot of binary prejudice where if you're not one or the other than you're either "confused" or an insufferable sexual maniac. I find some men attractive and some women, gay sex with some men is appealing, straight sex with some women is appealing.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

still trying to figure myself out after a revelation of sorts but i'm not a cis het man. I don't think I ever was really because I spent so so much time questioning myself even when I identified that way, even long before I really knew I could identify any other way.

I'm most certain that i'm attracted to a lot of different people and features and stuff so I would say I was poly/pan-sexual or whatever and that makes sense to me for now but as for my gender identity and all that - maybe best expressed as a loud UGH FUCK for now. I know I don't identify strongly with masculinity or femininity particularly. I dunno.

[Sentinel]

Gay, male but with genderqueer and gender-non-conforming tendencies, so I picked those options. Oh and queer too.

[The Feral Underclass]

Cisgendered male, gay and queer.

[Celtic_0ne]

Pansexual and Pangender male

[Rosa Partizan]

what does gender-nonconforming in that context mean? I mean, nobody's TOTALLY 100% conforming to gender stereotypes.

As for myself, I'm a heterosexual cis female. Yawn, I know.

[Culicarius]

Gender fluid pansexual. Generally I identify as agender for the most part with bouts of female occasionally. And 99% of cismen don't interest me. Femininity and androgynous features are what attract me physically.

[Sentinel]

what does gender-nonconforming in that context mean? I mean, nobody's TOTALLY 100% conforming to gender stereotypes.

As for myself, I'm a heterosexual cis female. Yawn, I know.

Well what I mean by it is that I wear makeup and feminine clothes on a daily basis while identifying as a man ie not being transgender.

And nope, I'm not doing it with the purpose of being seen as more cool or exciting or whatever, but because it feels right for me, makes me feel attractive etc.

[Fourth Internationalist]

I voted male and gay. :)

Edit: In a previous poll which asked about sexual orientation, I voted bisexual. I used to try to tell myself that I was bisexual: I didn't want to be only into other guys, I didn't want to be that different. Even as a self-described communist, I did not want to be seen as "gay" by either myself or others. I had even at certain points told myself that I knew I was gay and that I couldn't be attracted to women, but I ignored that. I told myself and certain people I was bisexual and even briefly went out with two girls but only one guy at different points during that entire time. I look back and I do not understand why I couldn't even fully admit to myself about being gay, even as a communist who should have known that there was nothing wrong with being gay and not bisexual.

[Redistribute the Rep]

Didn't realize there were so few females compared to men:confused:

[Luís Henrique]

what does gender-nonconforming in that context mean? I mean, nobody's TOTALLY 100% conforming to gender stereotypes.

As for myself, I'm a heterosexual cis female. Yawn, I know.

Next thing you are going to say you are vanilla...

But I like the way you yawn.

Luís Henrique

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Less trans that I expected.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

incidentally, more trans than I expected

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

Trans woman, bisexual/pansexual, queer.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Male. Cisgender. Pansexual.

[Lanfear]

Male straight closeted crossdresser

[Comrade Jacob]

Pansexual Male.

[BIXX]

I'm a homo sapia plebius maximus.

[Sea]

Other. I am about 80% water.

[Ele'ill]

non-binary, witch, queer, trans, magical, femme-masculine, fluid, and murderous

[Sea]

non-binary, witch, queer, trans, magical, femme-masculine, fluid, and murderousSolidarity. I am about 80% fluid.

[Sinister Intents]

Lesbian transwoman, rather masculine in my clothing choices though, I wear almost all black and band stuff

[consuming negativity]

i fucked this poll up so bad when i took it whenever it was made.

i picked non-gender-conforming and heterosexual.

forgot to pick "male" (although i don't really identify as it, i am regularly forced to identify as it and so it's become a lot less weird for me to refer to myself as a man/male/etc.)

no longer see myself as completely heterosexual (although i have no desire to date men and don't think i'd enjoy it at all, some of them are fucking hot. although i'm not sure if recognizing that attraction is really a non-heterosexual thing so much as just being a normal human being, but it's always been there, really.)

have gotten more and more openly non-gender-conforming in my clothing choices and have simultaneously gained an appreciation for days where i dress less feminine and more stereotypically masculine, but it's pretty back and forth depending on my mood and sometimes i mix and match. although i've found that good skinny jeans from the men's department i like better than women's jeans 'cause i do enjoy having the extra crotch space.

[Atsumari]

Bisexual and transgender. I would not call myself a "woman" or "transwoman" since I do not know if I well dress like a prettyboy, go full out, or even detransition.

[RedWorker]

Homo sapiens.

[Lily Briscoe]

I've been attracted to people of both sexes at different points in my life, but they've always been fundamentally different kinds of attraction/levels of intensity... I don't think I was ever actually 'in the closet' though; I just managed to genuinely not recognize my same-sex attractions for what they were until I was in my twenties. On the other hand, I think there must have been some kind of unconscious repression going on, and it doesn't seem far-fetched to me that, if I lived in a different social/political climate, I could have gone my whole life like that, kind of compartmentalizing my relationships into really intense platonic-romances-as-friendships and really meaningless (straight) sexual relationships, without ever consciously realizing what the problem was. I'm sure there must be tons of people who do exactly that, which sucks.

Anyway, the whole concept of some kind of innate 'identity' based on the sex of the people you're attracted to feels like such a bullshit imposition to me. So for that reason, I was trying really hard to avoid labels/'identifying' at all. I've pretty much given up on that though, because a) I don't have the energy to justify myself/explain the nuances of my sexuality to every random asshole who thinks it's their business, and b) 'gay' is actually an accurate description of the way my sexual attractions have developed anyway, so. Kinda feel like a coward every time I say it, though.

This concludes my life story.

[Quail]

I've been attracted to people of both sexes at different points in my life, but they've always been fundamentally different kinds of attraction/levels of intensity... I don't think I was ever actually 'in the closet' though; I just managed to genuinely not recognize my same-sex attractions for what they were until I was in my twenties. On the other hand, I think there must have been some kind of unconscious repression going on, and it doesn't seem far-fetched to me that, if I lived in a different social/political climate, I could have gone my whole life like that, kind of compartmentalizing my relationships into really intense platonic-romances-as-friendships and really meaningless (straight) sexual relationships, without ever consciously realizing what the problem was. I'm sure there must be tons of people who do exactly that, which sucks.

It's interesting you say that, because I remember my first crush on a girl, but I didn't realise that was what it was at the time. Like I hadn't even considered that the reason I blushed and my heart went all funny whenever I saw this girl was because I had a crush on her, I only realised a few years later when I started getting with girls that I wasn't straight. We're very much conditioned to "expect" to be heterosexual. Nobody around me when I was growing up entertained the idea that I might be queer, or at least if they did they didn't say anything. So I think a lot of people end up in the situation where they try really hard to be straight and don't realise that they're not until they're in their late teens, twenties, or even older.

I think also sexuality is more fluid than people give it credit for. I almost feel bad for saying this because it seems to play into negative stereotypes, but I used to be bisexual and now I'm really not. I can't say that I'll never fall in love with a man again, but I'm not interested in men at all at the moment. I think a lot of the time, we're pushed into identifying as one thing or another, and being too attached to that identity actually limits people.

[Jessup]

I'm extremely genderfluid and pansexual, demi-romantic. I generally wear gender neutral clothes, but I go back between dresses and ripped denim. Haha

[Ro Laren]

Female, queer.

Although if I'm honest with myself I'm pretty hung up about my gender and don't know wtf is going on there.

[John Nada]

Damn it, fucked up and forgot to mark cisgender!:mad:

Heterosexual cisgender male aka privileged oppressor.:o

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

transgender woman maybe kinda fluid with my identity i don't know. only really interested in other women though

[primetime]

assigned female, but i'm in the closet about being agender. im openly pansexual though :)

[Comrade Alex]

Straight since kindergarten, and I identify as a dude.
I got no problem with people who identify differently.

[Lily Briscoe]

I thought this was kind of interesting:



(4) The development of “identity” and alienation. John D’Emilio runs with this concept of the contradictory development of the nuclear family, arguing that “gay identity” (and we can infer “female identity”) as a category developed through this contradictory movement of the nuclear family. He argues for a distinction between gay behavior and gay identity, stating,

“There was, quite simply, no ‘social space’ in the colonial system of production that allowed men and women to be gay. Survival was structured around participation in the nuclear family. There were certain homosexual acts — sodomy among men, ‘lewdness’ among women — in which individuals engaged, but family was so pervasive that colonial society lacked even the category of homosexual or lesbian to describe a person … By the second half of the nineteenth century, this situation was noticeably changing as the capitalist system of free labor took hold. Only when individuals began to make their living through wage labor, instead of parts of an interdependent family unit, was it possible for homosexual desire to coalesce into a personal identity — an identity based on the ability to remain outside the heterosexual family and to construct a personal life based on the attraction to one’s own sex” (“Capitalism and the Gay Identity,” 104-105).
D’Emilio’s understanding of “identity” is key for understanding identity politics and intersectionality theory; however, I would slightly change his framework. In distinguishing between “behavior,” and “identity,” D’Emilio is touching on what could be broadened out to the Marxist categories, “labor” and “alienation.” I digress in order to fill out this idea.

For Marx, labor is an abstract category that defines human history. In his early texts, Marx refers to labor as self- or life-activity. In “Estranged Labour,” Marx writes,

“For in the first place labour, life-activity, productive life itself, appears to man merely as a means of satisfying a need — the need to maintain the physical existence. Yet the productive life is the life of the species. It is life-engendering life. The whole character of a species — its species character — is contained in the character of its life activity; and free conscious activity is man’s species character. Life itself appears only as a means to life” (76).
Life-activity, or labor, is an abstraction that transcends a specific form, or a specific mode of production (capitalism, feudalism, tribalism, etc.). However, labor can only be understood within the context of these forms; it is through these forms, the social organization of our labor, that humans engage in the ever-expanding process of satisfying our needs, introducing new needs, and developing new ways of fulfilling our needs. Labor encompasses everything from our jobs under capitalism to tilling the land under feudalism, to creating art and poetry, to having sex and raising children. Through labor and its many expressions, or forms, we engage with the world around us, changing the world and changing ourselves in the process.

Under capitalism, there is a separation between our labor and our conscious will. When Marx says “Life itself appears only as a means to life,” he is pointing toward this contradiction. As noted above, under capitalism, labor is divorced from the means of production so we must work for those who own the means of production. We engage in the same form of labor all day every day, and we receive a wage for this activity in order to exchange to meet our needs. We produce value in order to exchange for the use-values we need to survive. So what appears under capitalism as a mere means to satisfy our needs (work), is in essence the activity of life itself (labor). Because of this schism between our labor and our conscious will, our labor under capitalism is alienated, meaning it is not used for our own enrichment, instead, we give it away to the capitalist. Our multi-sided labor becomes one-sided; our labor is reduced to work. In “The German Ideology,” Marx writes, “as soon as the distribution of labour comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood” (53). We are not fully enriched human beings, engaging in all forms of labor we wish to engage in, we are relegated into one form of labor in order to exchange to meet our needs. We are call center workers, hair stylists, nurses, teachers, etc. This one-sidedness, as the precondition for meeting our needs, is unique to the capitalist mode of production.
In applying Marx’s categories to D’Emilio’s explanation of homosexuality, we could say that homosexual behaviors are an expression of labor, or self-activity, and homosexual identity is a one-sided, alienated form of labor unique to capitalism. It distinguishes the difference between a person who consciously engages in homosexual acts, and one who is defined by one form of labor: a homosexual. Women and people of color experience something similar in the development of capital; a shift from engaging in certain types of labor to engaging in feminized, or racially relegated forms of labor. To put it another way, under capitalism, we are forced into a box: we are a bus driver, or a hair stylist, or a woman. These different forms of labor, or different expressions of our life-activity (the way in which we interact with the world around us) limit our ability to be multi-sided human beings.

If we understand “identity” in this way, we will struggle for a society that does not limit us as “bus drivers,” “women,” or “queers,” but a society that allows everyone to freely use their multi-sided life activity in whatever ways they want. In other words, we will struggle for a society that completely abolishes, or transcends, “identities.” I will explain more on this later.

https://libcom.org/library/i-am-woman-human-marxist-feminist-critique-intersectionality-theory-eve-mitchell

Definitely agree with the conclusion at any rate.

[Lily Briscoe]

Idk, reading over that piece again, there are a lot of problems with it. I guess I think it's interesting because it attempts to explore the connection between capitalism and the sort of obsession with personal identity (I sometimes feel like people on revleft, for example, see 'gender' as like a magazine quiz where you begin at 0/'agender' and then go down a list and rate how well e.g. your fashion tastes conform to various cartoonish stereotypes of ultra-masculinity and ultra-femininity and then tally up your score to determine what percent of your 'intrinsic being' is male and what percent is female...).

Curious whether people here know of any other (better) analyses of the relationship between capitalism and personal 'identity' (I.e. Sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity etc)?

[Ele'ill]

Idk, reading over that piece again, there are a lot of problems with it. I guess I think it's interesting because it attempts to explore the connection between capitalism and the sort of obsession with personal identity (I sometimes feel like people on revleft, for example, see 'gender' as like a magazine quiz where you begin at 0/'agender' and then go down a list and rate how well e.g. your fashion tastes conform to various cartoonish stereotypes of ultra-masculinity and ultra-femininity and then tally up your score to determine what percent of your 'intrinsic being' is male and what percent is female...).

Curious whether people here know of any other (better) analyses of the relationship between capitalism and personal 'identity' (I.e. Sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity etc)?

A lot of us treat these types of threads and other threads like it as just what you noted because there are so many of these threads and the fact that options are always inadequate and to be critical towards the homogenizing aspects of tumblr/magazine identity culture.

[Volksgemeinschaft]

Heterossexual male. Yeah, and I am white:grin:

[uncontent_soul]

I'm a Bisexual cismasculine. I you want to get scientific I'm a Pomosexual homoflexible lithromantic Aroflux. I swear I'm not a poser emo kid killing for attention. These "labels" define me. Just saying I'm bi only works for people who don't understand that much LGBT stuff. I don't even want to use labels and that's what me being a Pomosexual is technically a huge paradox.

Pomosexual- Sexuality can't be defined as person doesn't iss labels
Homoflexible- Predominantly gay but technically bisexual.
Lithromantic- Desires romantic relationship but doesn't frequently experience any romantic attraction
Aroflux- Fluid aromantic orientation

[uncontent_soul]

Testing

[Lily Briscoe]

I'm a Bisexual cismasculine. I you want to get scientific I'm a Pomosexual homoflexible lithromantic Aroflux. I swear I'm not a poser emo kid killing for attention. These "labels" define me. Just saying I'm bi only works for people who don't understand that much LGBT stuff. I don't even want to use labels and that's what me being a Pomosexual is technically a huge paradox.

Pomosexual- Sexuality can't be defined as person doesn't iss labels
Homoflexible- Predominantly gay but technically bisexual.
Lithromantic- Desires romantic relationship but doesn't frequently experience any romantic attraction
Aroflux- Fluid aromantic orientation

So you don't use labels and you're a "pomosexual homoflexible lithoromantic aroflux" (I didn't know any of these were actual terms before reading this post...)?

I don't understand why it's even necessary, like should we next invent "defining" identity categories based on having a preference for brunettes, or a fear of commitment, or an exclusive attraction to people who are a bit older? It seems a little ridiculous.

[BIXX]

So you don't use labels and you're a "pomosexual homoflexible lithoromantic aroflux" (I didn't know any of these were actual terms before reading this post...)?

I don't understand why it's even necessary, like should we next invent "defining" identity categories based on having a preference for brunettes, or a fear of commitment, or an exclusive attraction to people who are a bit older? It seems a little ridiculous.

Agreed. I read a piece but can't think of where it came from about how the logical conclusion of that kind of thought is, for example, not the abolition of prisons, but infinite prisons, streamlined for.each individual, or not the abolition of workplaces, but an infinite number of workplaces to maximize our output.

[BIXX]

I just wamma live my life and not think about what gender or whatever I am but I would like to be more androgynous but I don't know if I have the motivation/courage to actually do it.

[Hieremias]

Recently learned to embrace my trans womanhood; it took years to come to terms with the undenible fact that my inner woman was being oppressed by society's emphasis on gender norms. Oh, I am also bisexual/pansexual.

[Zoop]

Pansexual. Regarding gender: I never think about it or label myself anything. I'm just...me. I'd be happy to abolish gender. The whole concept is quite vapid to me.

[The Modern Prometheus]

Apparently i should have ticked other and wrote moron to explain why i totally overlooked Cisgender and only ticked Male and Heterosexual :o . But yes i was born male, identify as such and am Heterosexual.

[REDwhiteandblue]

Bisexual Male

[Sewer Socialist]

I never know how to answer this.

"Hot mess," maybe.

[kombatwombat]

Gay, male
:)

[RedAnarchist]

My gender identity is very much a confused mess and is probably some form of genderqueer identity, although in real life I mostly pass and act like a cisgender male (internally is a different matter altogether). My sexuality is a sort of asexual/pansexual thing that is also just as confused.

[Comrade Jacob]

Pansexual Genderfluid person :)

[Zoop]

Bisexual or pansexual and genderqueer I'd probably say. Don't really care about sex that much to be fair, nor do I place much importance on my gender identity, or lack thereof, so it doesn't really factor into my identity.

[Comrade V]

Male. Bi. Straight relationship (Married). Being Bi does not mean you find all men or all women attractive any more than than for straight or gay people but you'd be surprised how often people think it. There's still a lot of binary prejudice where if you're not one or the other than you're either "confused" or an insufferable sexual maniac. I find some men attractive and some women, gay sex with some men is appealing, straight sex with some women is appealing.

Ditto. Minus the married part.

[Guardia Rossa]

Male, straight, but pratically assexual.
I'm 17 so I don't really care too much.

[YouAreNotAlone]

Cis heterosexual male.

However, I'd like to behave more "gender nihilistic" as I'd like to call it by rejecting gender roles and not caring at all what I wear (female clothing etc.).

[N. Senada]

I'm male born, but it's irrilevant to me.

My assumption is that in-capitalism sexual choice must be political choice.
Being feminist and reject some categories that imply a distinction between a "norm" and a "trasgression", should be a major issue in a revolutionary approach to sex, gender and science itself ('cause bourgeois science higly interfere with sex and gender, human nature, normality, and even homosexuality and heterosexuality are non-scientific bourgeoius concept and we, as revolutionary, should reject them).

[Adam James Fernandes]

I am Pansexual and identify as bigender

[Sea]

Looking back on this I really regret just voting "other". If I were to re-take this poll, I would have checked all of the boxes.

[Ale Brider]

This is so sad, is this what fighting for the working class has come to? BTW I am fucking attack helicopter now check your non-helicopter privelge

What's the matter with you? And more importantly, why haven't you been banned yet?

[Raul Castro]

freedom of speech Ale Brider, I am sorry for my aggressive mannr let's have a discussion, ask me a question and i shall respond

[Ale Brider]

freedom of speech Ale Brider, I am sorry for my aggressive mannr let's have a discussion, ask me a question and i shall respond

I am for freedom of speech, but this is a revolutionary leftist forum for people with such views. As you can see, I'm always up to discussion with different tendencies, even if I disagree with them. But I see no point in tolerating alt-right rhetoric and crypto-fascistic style here. But it's not my business, the mods decide, of course. And if you can provide a rationale for your reactionary views, I'm ready to hear them, but don't expect me to be convinced.

[Raul Castro]

I am for freedom of speech, but this is a revolutionary leftist forum for people with such views. As you can see, I'm always up to discussion with different tendencies, even if I disagree with them. But I see no point in tolerating alt-right rhetoric and crypto-fascistic style here. But it's not my business, the mods decide, of course. And if you can provide a rationale for your reactionary views, I'm ready to hear them, but don't expect me to be convinced. I am a communist, I just think the notion of white privelege is turning off to white working class men the kind of people we need to recruit for our political parties

[Gavrilo93]

I am a communist, I just think the notion of white privelege is turning off to white working class men the kind of people we need to recruit for our political parties

Bullshit. Everyone knows that the term "white privilege" does not mean that a white proletarian cannot be oppressed. It means that because of racism a black proletarian is even more oppressed. Compared to him, the white one is in a relativily good situation. Not only the rich capitalists, but also his fellow white proletarians are putting the black one down constantly. As far as the white one is concerned he is only exploited by capitalism, and he does not have to face hate in a daily manner. Do you deny this?

[comrada]

About 11% of people on this poll identified as women.
That explains a lot about the types of posts I've seen on these boards...

[RainbowRevolution]

I'm a transgender woman, who's a lesbian. I'm about...110% gay...give or take 10%. So, for reference, I'm the L and the T in the LGBT+! Woo! :P

[IbelieveInanarchy]

About 11% of people on this poll identified as women.
That explains a lot about the types of posts I've seen on these boards... Like which ones, can you maybe link some threads? :)

[Johnnyred]

Gay male.

[AngryDwarf]

apparently this is the most important issue for modern leftists
19771

[GLF]

Marx is rolling over in his grave.

The only identity that matters is WORKER.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Whether you like it or not, some of the most active social movements in recent history have been engaging with issues that specifically affect certain identities whether black, women, trans etc. As revolutionaries, one of the most important things you need to learn is not the ability to talk but the ability to listen. Learning about the broad range of struggles that workers go through, particularly the struggles of minorities, and showing solidarity towards them is not only essential to presenting the concepts of class in such a way that is relevant to themselves and their individual experiences but it is also something that should be done to just be an agreeable human being.

[Niallo]

Heterosexual male who is also a cross dresser but not open about it except to my partner. May have some bisexual tendencies but never any experiences.