I cannot believe I sat through that StyleLikeU garbage video! No doubt I sacrificed several brain cells I'll never get back from watching that. The world is a crazy place, and the fact that a channel like this has over 600,000 subscribers and over 128 MILLION views only reinforces that. What the actual hell did I just watch?! Just the headshots across the top of their "About" page (
https://www.youtube.com/c/StyleLikeU1/about) traumatized me, especially the hairy-chested black man wearing the lacy, black bra. That's some sick
right there, and I've concluded I'm apparently just too old for this new world!
Not to drift too far off S&G and the topic at hand, but as far as I'm concerned there are two sexes, male and female, not 128 with many heretofore still undefined and unnamed. Words "mean things," and "gender" isn't interchangeable with "sex." "Gender" didn't even used to be a part of the English language. It's prevalent in languages like Spanish, German, and French where WORDS have different "genders," but today you hear the two words used interchangeably in English. I think of "gender" (WRT "sex") as a spectrum, from "uber frilly, traditionally girly, and pink" at one end to "rough, tough, no-nonsense, traditionally-masculine, blue" at the other with people, regardless of their biological sex (the very rare case of intersexed individuals an exception), falling all along the "gender" spectrum without any correlation to their biological SEX.
For example. I am a 60+ biological female, or as people say today, "I was assigned female at birth."
But I was never a "girly girl." I was a lot more interested in toy cars, erector sets, Lincoln Logs, Legos (back when they were just red and white bricks, and kids used their imaginations w/o little "people" figures), riding bikes, playing in the dirt, and, as an only child, simply having to entertain myself for hours on end. One of my favorite toys was a metal gas station with a parking garage on top and ramps you could drive little cars up and down. Another was a Motorific Racerific race car set. (I even purchased a collector Racerific set on eBay a few years ago I'd like to set up on a sheet of plywood and display... just because.) And I had an all-electric train set my dad enjoyed as much if not more than I. I enjoyed building model cars and planes and playing baseball and organizing football and baseball cards. I took piano and other musical instrument lessons. I made straight As in school. I was that "weird kid," today's "nerd," who didn't fit anyone's mold because I never neatly fit into a distinct hole. No one TOLD me I was supposed to like dolls or dresses or "tea parties" (one of the most ridiculous UNinsteresting and pointless activities imaginable). I was just a reasonably happy kid who didn't fit in very well but didn't really care. One of my least favorite colors was pink. Dolls actually creeped me out! I hated having to wear dresses (required by school desk code and going to church on Sundays), and my mother always said it was a battle to dress me in a dress or nightgown.
I've never had any confusion over the fact I'm a biological female, and same-sex attraction never even occurred to me. To each his own, but the whole idea has always been distasteful to me personally. (That is, for ME. I'm of the opinion... "you do you.") I dated boys/men in high school and college, but as the only child I was, I was often "set in my ways" and felt smothered by being expected to talk to my boyfriend for an hour or longer every night when nothing new happened that day. I finally gave up dating a while after college and accepted that I was likely going to die "an old maid" (LOL), but it's never bothered me. Have I sometimes wondered how different things may have turned out had I found "Mr. Right" and married? Certainly... occasionally, but I have no regrets. I must have been about 10 when my mother asked me if I didn't want to grow up and have children of my own, and I didn't have to even think about the answer. I said no. No doubt this was disappointing to my parents, but I took care of them until the days they died, and I did it willingly and lovingly... just without ever making them "grandparents." I've seen way too many of my peers from back then who married (several as many as 4 or 5 times!), had children, and many of their marriages ended in contentious divorces. Many of their children had major behavioral problems. Me? I had cats. LOL!
I'm not sure where I was going with all that. I was making a point about S&G in there somewhere and went down a couple of rabbit holes. Like many, I was inspired by them for a while in the early days, but soon, like many others claim, the novelty wore off, and the idea it's all a big farce became apparent. Finding this forum has really opened my eyes and shown me it's not "just me"!
More than enough about me. Please do carry on!