Masculinity does not belong to men. Femininity does not belong to women. They are expressions of energy, and every human being carries their own relationship with both. Today at the gym, a man intentionally misgendered me in an attempt to insult me. When I asked him to repeat himself, he wouldn’t. And it reminded me how deeply some people have been conditioned to believe that a female person must perform femininity in a particular way in order to be valid. I am nonbinary. I am also completely comfortable being called a woman, being called she, being called they. My masculinity has never made me less connected to the feminine within me. Neither contradicts the other. There is softness in my strength. There is masculinity in my expression. There is femininity in the way I love. There are parts of me that cannot be neatly placed into either category. And I love all of them. Because embodiment is not about performing the version of gender that makes other people comfortable. It is about becoming honest enough to inhabit yourself completely. Because another person’s freedom has a way of illuminating the places where we still believe we need permission. To every masc woman, feminine man, lesbian, gay person, trans person, nonbinary person, fluid person, queer human, and anyone else who has ever been told you are too masculine, too feminine, too much of one thing or not enough of another… You do not owe anyone a performance of gender they can understand. Find the balance that feels like home inside your own body. Wear it. Move through the world in it. Love from it. And let other people’s reactions belong to them. We become much freer when we stop asking one another to shrink into categories… and start allowing human beings to be whole. Love, Jay. 💛 #queervisibility #LGBTQ #nonbinary #lesbians #masc - @followtheyellowbird