Do you feel like a man?

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I'm not naturally very feminine in my interests, thought processes, or mannerisms, but I'm not very masculine in my mannerisms either.

If I try to take on a "girly girl" persona I inevitably come off feeling like a guy who is really NOT passsing as a woman, but I'm completely heterosexual and emotionally I do have very female tendencies.

I think much of what we consider masculine and feminine is really a construct of society. Now that society is becoming less polarized I think we are seeing more men and women shift a deviation or so from their traditional place in the masculine/feminine spectrum and settling into more biologically natural roles, where we are humans first and male or female second.

Perhaps I only deviate from the modern women just a bit in my interests, a few things about my thought processes (though it is generally not applicable to compare me to NT's on this matter) and the fact that if I were born with a male body and my current brain, I don't think I would really care enough such that I would demand a sex change to become biologically female.

So it's somewhat irrelevant to me outside of my roles in a relationship.

Hmm, I wouldn't say I felt like a man, but then I don't feel like a girl either... more of a... just me lol I've never been a girly girl, never into pink or anything, dont wear skirts or dresses or make up or heels or anything. I much prefer shorts and a polo shirt, so much more comfortable and practical. I dont really act like a girl, but then nor would i fit in as a boy, I'd be too pathetic lol. I've always been called a tomboy, but when I think about myself in my head, I dont really give myself a gender, which is odd... But Im pretty sure I'm heterosexual, and I'm comfortable with who I am, even if its different to what a normal girl is meant to be, so thats all that matters

I think it's interesting that so many women here on "the spectrum" feel that they are more like guys than girls, yet I have Asperger's and I'm a "man" who would rather be a woman. The same disorder associated with gender incongruity in both directions? Seems quite strange...

Up until I was 12 I wanted to be a boy, and although I'm getting better at being a woman, I've always felt like a man. I dress sort of asexual and have an asexual haircut and I'm mostly straight (I'm pretty sure I'm slightly attracted to some girls ) but I'm fairly masculine. I think it'd be great to be a man, less limitations, more freedom. I'd have higher self esteem and feel a lot better about myself if I was a man, although this could be due to a lot of bullying I got for being a girl (e.g. I didn't fit in with the girls because I developed at a really young age so they teased me about getting my period, having breasts etc, but I didn't fit in with the boys because i was too weak) and most of my friends say I'm manly and "basically a guy," but they don't say it mean and i like them acknowledging that part of me. I talk like my guy friends and act like they do, I for some reason act gentlemanly towards my girl friends (e.g. I open doors for them, drive them places, comfort them, fix their TVs and stuff around their houses so they don't have to call repairmen lol) I'm also really competitive, can't go without physical activity for long at all, wished i was bigger and stronger (I have a tiny frame so never going to happen), and drink lots of beer!

Oh i realised I already posted a reply some time ago, and thought this was a new thread! Never mind!

Maybe you feel emotionally vulnerable around other men, and that you can't compete with them, and think being a woman you wouldn't have to deal with this.

Maybe it's just that people with AS don't fall into social gender roles well either way because they are social constructs.

Only when I'm around other women, really. I always just felt like myself but I definitely feel like I have a more masculine energy around women and I was actually "accused" of being a man online not to long ago. Heh.

It's not so strange. I wrote something a long time ago about how the stereotypical "nerd" image is an androgynous image. Nerdy boys are pegged as not manly enough, and nerdy girls get pegged as too manly. Now, I am not necessarily claiming here that nerd = autistic, or that all people on the spectrum fit that image, but the common thread there is trouble with social interaction. So much of social interaction is gendered...if you can't get the hang of it, you can easily feel like something entirely apart from men and women.

Woman! I feel like a man!

I feel girly on the inside and masculine on the outside. Is that normal?

While there are many autistic people who don't fit into their assigned gender roles and muse about changing because they see definite social advantages to membership in the other gender, for some of us the incongruity is far stronger and deeper and emerges at an age where we don't have the slightest comprehension of the social constructs of our genders. For as long as I could remember, back to at least age four, I had this overpowering sense that something was gravely wrong and I simply belonged to the gender other than the one I was assigned to. I could not begin to understand no less articulate why, but the feeling was very real and immensely and indescribably powerful. To those who have never felt this, I cannot offer an analogy, as nothing else in my experience comes remotely close to it. Of course, this phenomenon occurs outside of the autistic world, but seems to occur with significantly higher frequency among our ranks.

Being unhideably autistic, I am far from your typical woman, in both demeanour and interests. However, to most people aside from some people who knew me "before", I am just a woman who is "different" in a subtle, unidentifiable and unthreatening yet still unmistakable way.

i kinda feel like i'm an androgyne. I've never felt like a girl, maybe because i'm so masculine. But i don't really see myself as a man either. But i'm cool with being androgynous. It means freedom from gender normes

I don't feel like a girl at all. I don't understand them, I don't like anything they like and I don't have any idea what they are going to do next. They confuse me and have always confused me. When someone talks about what girls like I am listening like I might learn something.

Sometimes I feel like I'm 'being a man'.

I remember there was a guy I liked and we went out together but he wasn't being very sexual with me, and then we were having a conversation and he said 'You're very strong, I respect you.' (we'd met at the gym and he'd seen me lifting...I forget what I could lift at the time...)

I felt like s**t and thought 'What have I done to myself? I'm so pissed at myself, I'm a monster.'

I like the idea of being an androgyne, really. Both mentally and physically. You could have the good qualities of both a male and a female.

Around age 3-4 I had that overwhelming feeling that I should have been born a boy.

As an adult, I just feel like a gay guy trapped in a woman's body.

I have a lot of male friends and not a lot of female friends so yeah I'd say 75% of the time I feel like a man

I don't feel like a man, but I do feel distinctly unfeminine and uncomfortable around most women. All my female friends are either gay or tomboyish girls. Whenever I walk into Victoria's Secret to buy bras and I have to see how beautiful and girly the women working there look I feel like dying