Gender Fluidity In The Digital

My thoughts on gender fluidity, expression and androgyny within the digital sphere.

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Androgynous model and social media influencer Nelly Atsmon breaks gender norms in my recent photoshoot 🖤

Recently I met up with Atsmon, a good friend of mine, who is big online for her androgynous fashion and gender expression for a photoshoot to showcase on my Tumblr blog. She perfectly encapsulates what the message I'm trying to send across within this blog.

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Judith Butler's ideas about gender being 'both a public action and a perfomative act', can be applied to gender being an individual choice within the digital sphere, as it is performed for a wider audience. I'm very fascinated by Butler and with how digital spaces can provide us with a free space to express our gender in interesting and niche ways that break the gender norms put in place by hegemonic values within society.

Butler, Judith. (1988). “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.”

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Thoughts on Xenofeminism

Xenofeminism is a gender abolistionist, anti naturalist, technomaterialist form of postmodernism initiated by Laboria Cuboniks.

I am intrigued in the way Xenofeminists advocate for gender categorisation and binarys to be abolished through technology. In the manifesto, Laboria Cuboniks discusses 'gender abolitionism' as intending to sway towards a contemporary society where the binary and categorisation of gender becomes eradicted as a whole.

If gender categories were to be eradicted it would help to diminish the fixed gender binary within society. However, their argument could be argued as being too optimistic as the man made gender division within society may be too ingrained within our culture. Although, I think we are gradually moving towards a society away from this.

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BREAK THE GENDER NORMS

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Technologies are allowing us to construct our identity and gender far more than ever before.

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Digital media can have a positive impact on teaching audiences on androgyny and gender fluidity. Online media platforms have established a space to educate and inform younger and older generations on gender fluidity and expression.

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More shots from the photoshoot with Nelly Atsmon 🖤🤍

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Andrew Tate gets banned from social media due to his damaging views👏

I am thrilled to hear that social media star Andrew Tate has been banned from Instagram, Youtube, Tiktok and Twitter, due to his highly misogynistic views.

Tate reinforced hegemonic values around masculinity which was incredibly damaging to his younger audience making toxic masculinity seem justified. These views could affect his male audience in harmful ways within digital spaces online. It may cause his audience to be put under the impression that it is 'un-manly' to tap into your femininity and be explorative with your gender and identity.

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Harry Styles on his androgynous appearance and expression in both the public and digital sphere. "I want things to look a certain way. Not because it makes me look gay, or it makes me look straight, or it makes me look bisexual, but because I think it looks cool." - Harry Styles

In recent years, I've been more and more drawn to Harry Styles' androgynous expression within his digital presence. Styles repeatedly breaks the gender norms online hitting back at those who uphold toxic and hegemonic values on masculinity.

Comments I've found such as the one above reflect how damaging toxic masculinity is within masculine culture, with it sometimes holding back male individuals from expressing their femininity within digital spaces.

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Social media as a tool for gender expression.

Social media has absolutely helped to aid people's gender fluidity and expression online. Some of my favourite socials such as: Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, have allocated individuals the power to express themselves how they want within the digital sphere.

Socials allow us to announce to others how we wish to express our gender and how we wish to be referred to in terms of our gender and identity. An example of how socials gives us this choice is platforms such as Instagram now adding the option to declare your pronouns on your profile shows progress as it helps to prevent individuals from being misgendered online.

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"Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed"

-Judith Butler

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✩ Welcome to my blog ✩

I've grown a profound interest into the ongoing construction of gender online, as well as the digital showcase of androgyny and gender fluidity across multiple platforms. I intend to disclose my interests and thoughts into this topic area on my Tumblr diary/blog.