About Gender. Notice: You can find the original article here
By Sarah | Published: November 10, 2010
(This post was written by Erin, SAFER’s Campus Accountability Project Coordinator, and originally appeared at Change Happens)
In response to CNN’s article, “Male, Female or Neither? Gender Identity Debated at Same-Sex Colleges.”
So, let’s just get one thing down, friends. Gender is way more complicated than two. In fact, in the near history of binaries – I can’t think of one that really accurately describes a social/cultural/bodily phenomenon. The knife of dichotomy is blunt and unapologetic, and leaves so many for whom the shallow simplistic split of “male/man/masculine” and “female/woman/feminine” not enough room to breathe.
It’s moments like this, when reading an article about the challenge genderqueer and trans students present to historically single-gender colleges that I realize, again, how grateful I am to be a queer born in this era where we have the language and theory to get deeper about gender identity. For this, I thank every person who was and is strong enough live on the outside what they knew/know on the inside. I have friends who take issue with calling this “brave” or “courageous” but the truth is – it is quite a feat to push against the imposed “truth of two” and ride the crest of personal identity, sometimes abandoning traditional notions of family along the way. (But often landing in a beautiful chosen family in the process.) It is the lives of real individuals on which wider gender theory can be based, and it is this theory that can move other people to practice a more inclusive comprehension of the permutations of gender identity.
I want to underscore the critical importance of policy in the experiences of the people quoted in the CNN article linked above, and as these schools move forward with the emerging “conflict” of students who don’t fit the mold of traditional gender norms. The easy answer is that these schools must become explicitly trans and genderqueer inclusive, even if they maintain a primarily single-sex identity. Unfortunately, it’s not always so simple and, as always, I think these solutions must come from the ground up and center on the voices and perspective of those who are effected most by campus policy. In this case, trans and genderqueer students and their allies at historically single-gendered schools.
I do, however, think that the sexual assault policies of these schools MUST be all-gender inclusive. This means policies should not use gendered pronouns and should not assume the gender of the victim/survivor or perpetrator. Furthermore, the policy should indicate directly that anyone, with any gender identity or sexual orientation can both be a victim/survivor and on the same hand, anyone is capable of violating someone’s consent and thus be a perpetrator of sexual violence. (To find out if your school (or alma matter!) has a gender neutral policy, check to see if it’s in our policies database! If it’s not, submit your policy today to the Campus Accountability Project!)
(Gender Neutral Sign Courtesy of Trans Torah, download yours here.)I have to say that I am pleased that mainstream news is covering these questions of college policy and gender identity, and overall the article does a relatively fair job of covering the issue. The exceptions being that the author uses gendered-pronouns for folks who describe themselves as not identifying as either masculine or feminine. The author also fails to point out a few simple mechanisms that these colleges can employ to alleviate some of the conflict, such as removing gendered boxes from the application and having students fill out a blank with the words that work for them best. Even if we don’t have all the language to fit us just right, at least we can begin to share these common nuances. We can start to make room within ourselves and our communities to really flesh out what gender could be if we just gave it a little more air and little less binary constriction.