Was there ever a internet comment that actually really hurt you?

You're viewing a single thread.

116 comments

There were too many for me to count.
Most of then were misgendering me. Let me say this one more time. I. AM. NOT. A. GIRL. I've never been a girl. I'm not even a transgender woman. I was assigned male at birth, and I identify as male.
Now that I think about it, I should change my legal name.
- Girl gotta do what a girls gotta do
  
  I meant the fact that my real name "Imrane" (a male name) looks too similar to "Imane" (a female name). Just the absence of the letter R makes people think I'm something else entirely.
  And I used to use my real name on social media until about a year ago. I guess that was kind of on me.
  
  Oh man, I think it's the 'e' at the end of your name, which in a bunch of Romance languages would make it feminine. If it's any consolation, solid men's English names like 'Lindsay' and 'Ashley' are almost exclusively women's names now for the same reason. (The "-y" or "-ie" marks a cutesy diminutive version, i.e. "bird" to "birdy".)
  I don't think it's the similarity to "Imane" (unless this is happening in your home culture) because I have never heard of that name before. However, I have seen "Imran" and I would have assumed that "Imrane" was the feminine version because of that 'e'.
  Wasn't Imran Khan a famous cricketer?
  
  Nope, that is not the case at all. A lot of Arabic names tend to be written with an E at the end in countries that experienced colonialism from the French, just to match French phonetics. I happened to be taught to spell my name this way.
  
  So it's Francophones, not Anglophones misgendering you?
  
  Well, no. Quite literally anyone does it unfortunately.
  
  I have a girls name and my last name is a very popular Asian female name too.
  My entire life I get misgendered on phone, email, chat. It’s not a big deal. Hell, it can be an advantage - I’ve gotten more than one job interview because they expect a woman.
  
  Well, that's one way to look at it.
  Time to be tran- oh wait, it's illegal to be transgender in my country. This is why I hate being Moroccan.
  
  I think your name is cool
  
  It ain't my real name... yet.

116 comments