Late Night Hypothetical Thinking

I have insomnia a lot, and I find myself increasingly using that time to think about the abstract.

So here's a hypothetical for everyone. I'm not so much looking for personal advice here, as I'm kind of comfortable with where I stand for now, and I'm not ready to go rocking the ship so soon after the waters have finally calmed, but it's still a question to which I find myself completely muddled for an answer.

So, here's the question:

Is there a difference, in terms of gender roles and transgender, between *enjoying* femininity and *being* female? Not genetically speaking of course.

For example, a person is born male, doesn't necessarily feel their male body is "alien", but at the same time, would still prefer if circumstances allowed them to live as a woman, as opposed to someone who just -knows- they were born in the wrong body?

I know several folks from the latter, but I don't really feel right asking them about something so deeply personal. Better to ask at a place like this and let folks answer if they want to answer, y'know?

Like I said, insomnia gives me time to think about these things when I should be trying to get some sleep. :p

For my part, for all the years I've been researching gender issues, trying to figure out this Rubik's Cube of a soul God handed me, I still don't feel comfortable or qualified trying to answer this one.

I'm mostly just curious how others see this, although it's also something I'll file away for the day I finally meet a shrink I trust too, just to pick their brain ;)

And I'm going to stop there before I really start to ramble.

~Zoe

Edit to add: Heh. I reminded myself of my favorite poem. Noone else ever "got" it, but I loved it. ;)

NIGHT THOUGHTS OF A TORTOISE SUFFERING FROM INSOMNIA ON A LAWN
(E.V. Rieu)

The world is very flat--
There is no doubt of that!