I’m not sure I even know what it means to “identify as“ anything. It seems like when you “identify as“ a thing, you need external validation to maintain that identity. And I’m not sure I can think of any “identity” of mine that relies on outside validation.

I sort of “identify as“ a fastish cyclist. But that’s equally true regardless of whether I or anyone else believes it. Maybe Strava leaderboards provides “validation“ in that they record my relative fastness compared to others. But Strava is just recording objective measurements.

I wouldn’t say I “identify” as a software developer—I just am one. It doesn’t matter whether you validate that identity: I’ve built all this stuff that only a dev could build. There’s nothing for you to invalidate. You can’t erase an objective fact.

I also don’t “identify” as a man—I just am one. It doesn’t matter whether you validate that identity: see, my body developed along a certain developmental path. There’s nothing for you to invalidate. You can’t erase an objective fact.

I guess I could “identify” as, say, a welder, buy a torch, & try to convince everyone to pretend along with me. That would be fun as long as I don’t have to actually join two pieces of metal. It wouldn’t be fun when people stopped playing along, erasing my welder-identity.

What does someone mean if they say “I identify as X”?