Being a woman is the one thing about me I always assumed would be a given. I never planned how I would present that fact to the world because it just seemed like an obvious fact. No matter what I wore or what I did, I was always seen as a female.

So when I cut my hair, I didn't think anything of it. I was so used to the privilege of effortlessly displaying my femininity that I never thought it was something I should be afraid of losing.

The first time I was misgendered, I laughed it off and was slightly intrigued by the idea of being able to "pass" as a guy. I would look in the mirror and imagine myself as a guy, trying to see what other people saw and it was weird. But it was just one of those things where you go "hmm... intersting" and move on.

But when it started to happen more frequently, all the humor and intrigue I originally felt evaporated. I started to look in the mirror and hate what I saw. I felt ugly and my confidence and self-esteem took a huge hit. Suddenly, being called a guy was the worst insult someone could say to me.

For the first time in my life, I experienced the cold reality that society has an idea of what a woman is supposed to look like and how she is supposed to act. For the first time in my life, I realized how significant referring to someone as a person instead of as gender could be. For the first time in my life, I truly realized how degrading it feels to be misgendered, and this was just after a handful of misgendering experiences.

I can't even imagine how torturous it must be to go through that daily.

I hope one day we as a society can get to a place where people don't have to worry about what they wear or what they look like or how they act to be recognized for who they are. A person can just be seen as a person and if that person says she is a woman, she's a woman. It should be as simple as that.