[GoneGirl]

I think my gender identity is changing. I'm talking about my conscious gender identity. I shaved my lower legs for the first time last night, and it felt good. I still have the nail polish on from last night, too, and I think I can leave it on all day today. That makes me feel good, too.

My wife says I seem happier since I've discovered Clara and allowed her into our daily life. I like being Clara even when I'm not dressed. I can be her on the inside and no one is the wiser. I just have to avoid mirrors ...LOL!

Some will say that my gender identity was always what it is, subconsciously, and I can buy that. But it's the conscious expression of that identity which makes the difference in one's sense of well-being.

I feel like I'm going through a process of constructing my female personality while at the same time deconstructing my male personality. It's like remodeling a house -- replacing the stale, useless, and outmoded with freshness, function and style. Yummy!

Clara

[kimdl93]

I speculate that gender identity is somewhat malleable, that positive reinforcement influences us. But I have a feeling that much of what we think is rewriting may simply be our mind catching up with our biology. We spend so much of life in denial or repression that each step out into the light may be rewarding and encouraging what is already there.

Notice my use of speculate and may. Who really can say?

[PleasantlyFascinated]

Wow! You all sure have me thinking about things I’ve merely come to accept about myself. The more I read here, the less clear it is to me where I'm currently keeping my gender identity, either real or assumed.

For most of my adult life, I've felt that the core self does not have a gender. I think that gender identity is a matter of social programming and biological/hormonal functions.
I think that hormonally, we have a lot of mutable possibilities available to us. Socially, however, we are mostly kept in chains, and we become our own prison guards, until we are brave enough to question our own beliefs.

I'm wondering what is the most comprehensive and current psychological test that is actually useful for gender evaluation/ categorization. The Kinsey scale and the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid are so sophomoric as to be ludicrous. Certainly there ought to be a better guide, to aid in self evaluation.

I’m very interested to understand how I am differentiated, compared to others. I’ve always known I am a little different, but maybe I'm a lot different, and don't know it.

I think that shifting gender identity fuels the drive for NBE. Also, I would believe that hormonal changes caused by NBE alter the internal environment through which the self is experienced. Each affects the other. Certainly this is how I experience it.

My own experience of NBE is not something I've actively ever set out to do, unless you count heavy pectoral workouts in order to seem like I've got them. But then, gynecomastia just sort of happens to me if I'm not careful, and my female side has lately been temping me to let 'em loose.