23 year old AMAB. All my life, I've considered myself cisgender, but recently, I've begun questioning that. I'll sometimes see posts like "if a potion/pill/button existed that could turn you into the opposite sex, would you use it?" and think to myself "Yeah, I'd be down to at least try that." I know that doesn't automatically make me trans, but it does make me question.
At the same time, however, I get a lot of euphoria from presenting as a man. When I start questioning my gender, I'll look in the mirror, or at pictures of myself, and think "I look good with this masculine hairstyle", "I like getting dressed up in a suit and tie", or "I want to try growing a beard". And the idea of being a father someday does bring me a lot of joy.
I've done a bit of research already, and based on my experience, I think I've narrowed my possible identities down to two options.
- Cisgender male who is just curious about the female experience
- Demiboy with a secondary identity of female
The thing is that I'm not sure where to go from here. This isn't exactly a problem, since I feel no dysphoria when presenting as a male, so am comfortable living as cis in the meantime. But I would like to figure this out at some point, ideally sooner than later. Do any of you have any suggestions?
Side note: I'm currently living with my parents, and while they're generally nice people, they hold some pretty transphobic views. I do expect to move out sooner than later, but anything that would require a totally safe physical space might have to wait.
Gender identity and expression are different things, but they can be hard to differentiate if you don't have a strong sense of gender identity. It sounds like that's the case for you. If you find it useful to call yourself a demiboy, like if you want to signal that you're not super attached to man, go for it.
In language, the rules are made up and people don't really care about the fine details anyway, so don't get too stuck on technicalities of definitions. Demiboy or not, good luck on self discovery!