what is gender?

[Raboon]

So, I've been trying to figure out what my gender is, but to do that, I need to have a better understanding of what it actually is. It makes no sense to me because I honestly can't see what the differences between femininity, masculinity, and everything else are. I don't even know what my preferred pronouns are... they're all really just different words used for the same functions. I don't mean this offensively, as I understand that pronoun use is important to many people; I don't mean this disrespectfully to anyone who knows their pronouns and/or gender... I just have a bit of trouble seeing the difference in myself - everything I've tried always seems a little bit off, y'know?

[illumi]

here are the two dictionary definitions for gender. though to me gender is your subjective identity that stems from biological sex [most of the time]. how you feel and present it can be defined with femininity masculinity androgynous neutral etc

keep in mind that femininity masculinity etc are not gendered though it was. its just words to describe ones appearance at this point and what you wear and how you act does not necessarily correlate with your gender since identity vs how you present your identity are two different things

based on the info you filled in regarding your gender i would recommend checking out fluidflux since your gender fluctuates and in intensity also

[mushroom]

To put it bluntly, gender is just a social construct.

A transwoman is still a woman even when/if she is misgendered, so gender doesn't equal pronouns or outside perception of a person/you. A feminine man is still a man even if he wears a dress, so it isn't physical presentation of masculinity/femininity/androgyny.

Gender can be seen as rules, physical/social presentation, and traits pushed upon a person based on their assigned sex. So, trans people have-in a sense-reclaimed the idea of gender to be nothing but a feeling, which consequentially strips societal confines from gender. That said, it... doesn't have a definition.

There's are theories of dysphoria and the theories of brain sex. There's theories and discussions of the feeling of gender.  But there's no clear cut answer. 

So? Gender is whatever you want it to be. Whatever makes you happy.