Question
What does it mean to be Gender Fluid?
Answer
Gender fluid refers to a person whose gender is not permanent. While most people have had the same gender identity their whole life, and maybe you feel like a man today, and you felt like a man five years ago, and you'll feel like a man 10 years from now, that's not the same for everybody. There are some people who are gender fluid.
Sometimes that means that they feel much more masculine today, and much more feminine another day, sometimes that can change by the day, sometimes it sort of changes over time. So, it's a slow process and maybe the person identifies as really masculine in January but by June, they're more feminine, sometimes it's years in between, it's really specific to the individual.
As a clinician, you might start to notice this in the clothing that they're wearing, if they're conforming to their gender. So, if we see that maybe you see somebody who comes in, who has, if we're going to go on the stereotypes like combat boots and very masculine clothing. And at some point, maybe you start to notice that it's combat boots and a dress. And then maybe at some point, it's a dress and high heels. You can ask about that, you can mention that you're noticing the change in clothes and ask them to talk to you about that. Maybe it's just their fashion sense and their gender expression. Maybe it's only that, or maybe their actual sense of self is fluid.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar, A Social Worker's Introduction to Gender Minorities, presented by Kryss Shane, MS, MSW, LSW, LMSW.
