Post by ashliy on Oct 5, 2016 15:12:45 GMT
America’s concept of gender is dramatically changing.
"There’s nothing wrong with taking a label for gender and finding out it doesn’t work for you," Yesenia Ruelas, a self-described "gender apathetic" 18-year-old, said. "I went through several labels before I figured out what works for me. And if anyone tries to shame you for quote-unquote experimenting, fuck them. That’s not their business — your gender, your sexuality, whatever. As long as you’re not hurting anyone, feel free to experiment."
It’s a comment that might confuse some people: What does it mean to experiment with gender? And what labels are involved — what is there beyond male and female?
But as LGBTQ and transgender issues drip into mainstream discussion, so too do views that go further to challenge America’s gender norms. It’s now more accepted if someone is a man and loves a man, or if someone is designated a woman at birth and identifies as a man later in life — or perhaps during childhood. Seeing this progress, others are trying to expand concepts of gender even further — to directions many Americans may not be used to.
These groups are known by a variety of names — gender nonconforming, genderqueer, gender nonbinary, genderfluid, and much more — but they tend to share a trait: They totally reject the traditional conception of a "gender binary."
That binary is the idea that gender is limited to only two categories: man or woman. People who identify outside the binary don't identify or express solely as men or women, instead adopting gender roles and traits outside society’s typical expectations and other times taking elements from both masculinity and femininity. An androgynous person, for example, may identify as nonbinary or genderqueer.
www.vox.com/identities/2016/9/28/12660752/gender-binary-spectrum-queer
Having gender boxed into a restrictive binary is something that should be opposed if we are opposing false binaries presented as options or ascribed things. Black and white thinking is irrational and this could include gender seen as a binary.
"There’s nothing wrong with taking a label for gender and finding out it doesn’t work for you," Yesenia Ruelas, a self-described "gender apathetic" 18-year-old, said. "I went through several labels before I figured out what works for me. And if anyone tries to shame you for quote-unquote experimenting, fuck them. That’s not their business — your gender, your sexuality, whatever. As long as you’re not hurting anyone, feel free to experiment."
It’s a comment that might confuse some people: What does it mean to experiment with gender? And what labels are involved — what is there beyond male and female?
But as LGBTQ and transgender issues drip into mainstream discussion, so too do views that go further to challenge America’s gender norms. It’s now more accepted if someone is a man and loves a man, or if someone is designated a woman at birth and identifies as a man later in life — or perhaps during childhood. Seeing this progress, others are trying to expand concepts of gender even further — to directions many Americans may not be used to.
These groups are known by a variety of names — gender nonconforming, genderqueer, gender nonbinary, genderfluid, and much more — but they tend to share a trait: They totally reject the traditional conception of a "gender binary."
That binary is the idea that gender is limited to only two categories: man or woman. People who identify outside the binary don't identify or express solely as men or women, instead adopting gender roles and traits outside society’s typical expectations and other times taking elements from both masculinity and femininity. An androgynous person, for example, may identify as nonbinary or genderqueer.
www.vox.com/identities/2016/9/28/12660752/gender-binary-spectrum-queer
Having gender boxed into a restrictive binary is something that should be opposed if we are opposing false binaries presented as options or ascribed things. Black and white thinking is irrational and this could include gender seen as a binary.
