Wednesday 10 August 2011

Trans* and Genderqueer Categories Part 5

Only two more articles in this "in-depth" series to go! Have you enjoyed the articles so far? Have you learned anything? I hope the answer to both questions is "yes".

Today I'm going to attempt to say what the term "GenderQueer" is and how people who identify as such see themselves. I say "attempt", because it can get quite confusing.

Genderqueer, in a nutshell, is non-binary. People who are genderqueer do not identify as either a man or a woman, but rather a mixture of the two or totally outside the gender binary "norms". People who identify as Genderqueer may think of themselves as being both a man and a woman, neither male nor female, moving between genders, or being part of a third gender.

Some genderqueers go through transition in some degree or another by taking hormones or having surgery (either top or bottom or both) to make their body outwardly look the way that they feel in their minds. Some don't. Both are okay. Some genderqueers prefer to be addressed by gender-neutral pronouns such as "ze", "hir", "they", "their". Others prefer the more conventional binary pronouns such as "he" and "her". It's really up to personal choice.

Genderqueer is seen as freedom from conventional binary genders that society has placed on us. Everyone is seen as equal, because no one is better than any one else.

I'll leave you with a quote from genderqueer person:

"I don't know if I'm male or female or both or neither. All I know is that when I'm filling out a form and it makes me choose "male" or "female", I really want to tell it to f*ck off."


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