I waffled about it for a while. But I guess, ultimately, I'd describe myself as a woman with a higher-than-average ratio of masculine traits.
That said, I think the vast majority of qualities are gender-neutral. Most of it is just expectation.
which masculine traits are you talking about?
I thought the same of myself growing up but simply because my parents taught me that things like being intelligent, confident, strong etc were manly things
I never thought of myself as male nor wanted to be a man but I definitely didn't identify with what a woman was meant to be in my community (zero agency, ruled by emotions, baby making machines)
Now I consider my traits just idk part of me and I'm feminine so they are too
I'm not referring to gender roles and expectations, so much as the relatively uniform psychological results of them and whatever biological factors may be at play. Since, obviously, I was subjected to the same expectations as other women, much of the results are the same as well. And the more I think about, the more I do identify with women. But I suppose what stands out to me as particularly unfeminine is my directness. I'm straightforward to the point of social brutishness, I find it harder to read nuance or to meet people on their own mental terms than most women do.
This is why men have typically been easier company for me. I feel like I make mistakes with women that I don't fully understand, and my urge is to solve it by communicating my thoughts exactly as they are in my head. I understand it when men fall back on that classic stereotypical complaint that women are "overly" complicated, that they don't just say what they mean, that the men feel like they can't just say what they mean back and have things resolve themselves. The difference being that I blame us for that shortcoming, while they usually blame women for not being more like them.