What an interesting question. And such interesting and informative responses. Pretty much everything everyone has said resonates with me!
My gut feeling is, well, as the song says, I enjoy being a girl (despite the sexist expectations, discrimination, harassment, and far worse that I, in common with most women, have faced, not to mention the inconveniences and annoyances occasioned female-specific hormonal ups and downs.
Weird, isn't it? Is this like making lemonade because life threw you lemons? More likely it is the pure luck/ privilege of having been born cis-gendered and white and middle class in a place where education for women was possible, and at a time when feminism was a word in circulation and women were working to improve our situation. In other words, I could hope that there might be a better future. Maybe I could even contribute to that better future.
But who is to say? If I had been born in a different time and place, I can't imagine I'd have wanted to be a woman, given the risks and pains involved.
And, on the other hand, if I had seen more varied models in media at a younger age, maybe I'd have identified differently. I definitely have an androgynous bent.
rabbit, I have been thinking about this a lot also -- just as women often identify with male characters first in fiction (and boys never do), I suspect many people of colour end up identifying with white characters (for want of options) and gay people may identify with straight characters, etc. -- but always, those identifications will feel a bit uncomfortable or "off" and it must be so affirming to find someone in literature or movies or ads or billboards who looks like you. Or who obviates the issue somehow. No wonder anthropomorphized animals are popular characters for kids in the latency stage. (Watership Down is my (increasingly non-binary identifying) daughter's favourite book; I'll have to ask which rabbit is the one she identified with most!
Whenever I teach I try to include work by as wide a range of writers as I can, for exactly that reason. It is good for everyone in the class. (And for me, too.)
