julie's feedback (josh)

After the meeting with Julie it was made very clear that we unfortunately were using the wrong terminology which drastically changed the meaning of our ideas. Bellow I have supplied definitions of keywords which allows us to be more accurate when talking about our project, making it much clearer to the audience.

Gender - the state of being male or female

Transgender - denoting or relating to a person whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional notions of male or female gender.

Gender Fluid - Gender fluid is a gender identity which refers to a gender which varies over time. Agender fluid person may at any time identify as male, female, neutrois, or any other non-binary identity, or some combination of identities. Their gender can also vary at random or vary in response to different circumstances.

Gender Neutral - suitable for, applicable to, or common to both or neither male and female genders, denoting a word or expression that cannot be taken to refer to one gender only.

Feminism - the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes

Sexism - prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex.

(Video research) Gender is not a straight line

Charlie Hobman

• “Ladies and Gentlemen” is extremely oppressive
• Gender identity, Gender expression, Sexual Orientation

(Video research) Why is Gender Identity is so important

Rikki Arundel

• 20 CREDIT MODULE ON A MASTER'S DEGREE: Sex or Gender?
• Sex has two meanings, is sexual relations, etc…
• Pinkification for girls in lego
• Nature vs nurture
• Males and Females have different parts in their brain (works differently)
• Used to be called gender identity disorder now called gender dysphoria (distress)
• A man wearing a pink shirt is called gay. A women wearing male clothes is claimed as style.
• Start to challenge gender identity
• Treat everyone with dignity and respect

(Video research) Hey Doc, some boys are born girls

Decker Moss

• Gender isn't how we feel in our society, it’s how we look?
• We are assigned to it at birth
• “I wanted to scream”
• Choose to have your breasts remove, as a female
• ‘Gender identity disorder’ to be allowed to have surgery

(Video research) Gender Fluidity

Gabrielle Burton

• ‘Steered away’
• Binary division
• To fit society and our culture
• Gender Expression

(Video research) What kindergarteners taught me about gender

Batya Greenwald

• She could not wait one more day to be “herself”
• She hated going to the boy’s bathroom.
• Myth 1: Gender is binary, female is feminine and male is masculine
• Myth 2: Sex and gender are different things (biology/anatomy)
• The earlier we allow children to express themselves then there will be less prejudice in the world.
• 1/2000 (more than 2 babies a day) are born (anatomy) are not conformed to either binary gender.
• “Breaking the rules”
• Society doesn’t know what to do with people who are out of the gender binary.
• Why is gender so important to us?

(Video research) Gender Transgression

Carly Mitchell

• Gender binary, we should be one or the other
• She was born gender fluid, body and mind don’t conform to that system
• Drop out of school
• 41% of gender nonconforming people attempt suicide
• Nature vs nurture
• She took oestrogen that only heightened her depression
• She took testosterone and felt psychologically oppressive
• In LA it is legal to be topless, however she was yet threatened with imprisonment.
• She did an experiment in a toy store and noticed that both male and female children were attracted to the ‘girl’ section. However, parents who had boys would stray them away from that section.
• Men are seen to be more aggressive than females as she believed that you should allow boys at a very young age to express themselves instead of oppressing them.
• 4% of those who assigned themselves to the gender binary of males attempt suicide or have succeeded.
• She believes that we should create a culture that embraces a gender spectrum.
• Gender transgression is necessary for gender equality, it takes vulnerability.

(Video research) Everyone is Trans

Ian Harvie

• Sexual Orientation, who you are attracted to
• Gender identity, is how you feel about your body
• “It is so important to share our stories with each other because it allows us to feel like we exist we see ourselves in somebody else we feel that things are possible.”

(Video research) Are you a boy or a girl? You don’t define me

Becky strohmer

• Cultural construct
• We base stereotypes on personality traits and characteristics
• Stereotypes are learnt behaviour from parents, schools and the governments
• Stereotypes are ‘self prophecies’
• Gender identity and Sexual orientation are not meant to be put together, the difference in meaning is that gender identity is what you personally choose to identify with and sexual orientation is “who you want to fuck”
• “I want to define myself, it is fine to be in the middle you don’t need to be in the binary”

(Video research) The Gender Tag: Authentic Gender Expression

Ashley Wylde

• What is gender? How do we learn gender? What does it mean? What does it look like? What does it feel like?
• The Gender Tag Project:

• Even if you haven’t thought about your gender identity before you still have one?
• No one person experiences gender in the same way
• Gender is socially constructed
• Confusion

• What is Gender?

Gender describes characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine.

(we choose)

• Gender is not determined by biological sex
• Western: Male and Female biological sex is different to their actual gender
• Binary, socially we are given male and female
• Gender is socially and culturally constructed
• Different gender systems across different cultures
• Gender is taught and learnt
• Normative ideas of gender are reinforced

 

(Video research) Why we need gender-neutral bathrooms

Why we need gender-neutral bathrooms – Ivan Coyote

·   A trans’person’ who does not fall into the gender binary

·   Changing room dilemma

·   Genital inspection?

·   Promote ‘transphobia’

·   For people who fit into 2 gender boxes

·   So called ‘public’ bathroom

gabriella's research on 'pens for her' (feminism)

gabriella's research

ryan's research on gender neutrality

ryan’s research on gender neutrality.

Gender neutral parenting is when a couple decide to bring their child up with no set defined gender, so neither male or female.
There are many reasons for families to decide parenting this way, the main reasons include the avoidance of gender discrimination, gender stereotyping and personality conforming.

This style of parenting is on a very slow increase in recent times and some well documented cases are gaining a small following with approval from many parents, however many sceptics about how this may affect the child themselves in later life is largely up for debate as very little research and cases have been recorded to determine the long term affects.
Unfortunately there is no data on exactly how many parents in the country or world are raising their children gender neutral.

The number 1 concern for parents raising their child's this way is their opinion on gender stereotypes, as they feel it is unfair or old fashioned to think genders have set personality or activity traits, for example boys are heavily associated with the colour blue and girls naturally being associated with pink.
The 'new generation of parents' (as some newspapers have labelled) feel their children (or any child) shouldn't be subject to set traits of how they should live their life or what they should play with etc. They feel eradicating them of any gender at all provides them with a free platform to develop a personality from absolute scratch, as a result anything supplied for the children will be viewed in their eyes without a predisposition of gender association with that particular toy or activity.

A more heavier and serious reason for this style of parenting is the issue of gender inequality. Gender inequality is different from gender stereotyping as it is a form of discrimination. Parents feel their child may not get the same opportunities or choices in stages throughout their life just because they are male or female.

One other reason for gender neutral parenting is to help their child develop better mannerism towards people when they grow up. They feel that giving their child a blank canvas to delve into stereotyped aspects such as, giving their child toys considered only for boys/girls and same with clothing and activities, that this would let them see the world through other people's lives and therefore not discriminate others or have preconceived ideas about that person's personality due to their gender.

A major example of gender neutral parenting was a child called Sasha who was born in 2007 was raised for 5 years as gender neutral.
Parents Kieran Cooper and Beck Laxton decided to raise their child as gender neutral for as long as they could, their reasons for doing so was that they felt gender stereotypes are "stupid" and that children and adults likewise shouldn't be placed into groups due to their gender.

For the first 5 years of sashas life, Mr Cooper and Miss Laxton provided their child with gender neutral toys and addressed their child as "the infant" instead of the traditional 'him/her' labelling.

Their influence for carrying out this lifestyle for their child was directly from Miss Laxtons family members, as her parents personalities seemed to differ from most others, her mother being more sporty and firm and her father being more openly emotional and 'feminine'. This made her feel stereotypes do nothing but generalise people and define their characteristics for them.

Sasha would be clothed in anything from a standard buttoned shirt and trousers to a dress and skirt, both those items of clothing considered more associated with one sex.
The same approach would be taken with daily activities as Sasha was provided with dolls and comics. All this done in the hope that their child will not be prejudice to the worlds view on genders.
This as a result alienated other parents which meant Mr Cooper and Miss Laxton were unfortunately labelled as unusual and lost them social interaction with other families, however this did not phase them as their focus was on making sure Sashas gender was not revealed.

Eventually the family had to reveal the gender of Sasha, who is biologically a male, due to the difficulty of his undesignated gender when starting primary school.

A psychologist, Dr Daragh McDermott, was asked for his opinion on how this style of parenting can affect a child's mental state when reaching adult hood but personally couldn't say how it might affect Sasha or anyone else for that matter.
Due to the lack of research and lack of gender neutral people in the world not enough is known about the affects of this particular lifestyle.

(Video research) Is Gender Identity real?

Russell Brand The Trews

• Objectifying women, giving them a rigid gender role, passive and objectified.
• “Just like you are one of a kind” - into consumerism.

(Video research) (2009) Gender quest

Alexander Cannon

• Gender names
• Language
• Toys
• Environment

• Sexuality: who you are attracted to
• The definition of sex is complicated
• We all have different genitalia
• We are all on a spectrum
• Can you imagine a world without gender?