1. Being given toys that involve gender roles (Toy soldiers, playing cops and robbers, star wars action figures)
These toys helped me re-enact male identified roles in the military, and behave like male identified characters in movies. I was given toys which had body types anatomically similar to my sex assigned at birth. I used these to practice how I was supposed to behave based on societies prescribed gender characteristics.
2. Being told what I could wear and that clothing being of masculine color and style.
Rather than being given the option of what I wanted to wear growing up, my clothing was purchased for me at second hand stores and typically were of masculine color and style. I was given polo shirts, …show more content…
My dad would take my brother and I canoeing and fishing.
Since my dad was performing his gender of male, he taught my brother and I how to be male as well. He did this by taking us out doing activities that he did as a young boy such as canoeing and fishing. This served to further teach me what activities boys did and asserted my existence as a boy in the world.
10. Being given male haircuts
Growing up I had very long blonde curly hair when I was little. As soon as I started getting haircuts I did not know what I wanted my hair to look like, so the hair stylist gave me a very typical short "boy" haircut, and that is how I have continued to cut my hair since. This was just another way that I had gender done to me and I continued to do it as behavior I deemed as normal.
11. Having my sex assigned to me at birth.
This is a very obvious one but this is the beginning of it all in my case. I was assigned the sex of boy and so I was put in the boy NICU unit, I was given small blue clothing and a blue hat. The minute I came out the womb I was being gendered and people talked to me differently than they might have if I was in pink clothing and sexed a girl.
12. Being bullied for being skinny and lean (ectomorph) and not being muscular and