Gendering the Youth

Exploring the gendered world.

[jcohen888]

The Pakistani trans community is unlike the West's: hijras, as they are known, consider themselves a third gender, neither male nor female, and refer to themselves as "shemale". Samira Shackle meets Pakistan's first hijra electoral candidates.

http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2013/05/politicians-third-gender-shemale-candidates-pakistan

[jcohen888]

Daniel Tosh: Bros Pose Like Hoes Photos

[jcohen888]

Portrayal of superheroes as women

[jcohen888]

Out-dated stereotypes...

[jcohen888]

Dressed like girls...

[jcohen888]

[jcohen888]

"Yesterday my mom posted a picture on Facebook of my 5 year old brother Sam wearing a pair of shoes he picked out for his first day of preschool.

She explained to him in the store that they were really made for girls. Sam then told her that he didn’t care and that “ninjas can wear pink shoes too.”

Sam went to preschool and got several compliments on his new shoes. Not one kid said anything negative toward him about it.

However, my mom received about 20 comments on the photo from various family members saying how “wrong” it is and how “things like this will affect him socially” and, put most eloquently by my great aunt, “that shit will turn him gay.”*

My mom then deleted the photo and told Sam that he can wear whatever he wants to preschool, that it’s his decision. If he wants to wear pink shoes, he can wear pink shoes.

Sam then explained to her that he didn’t like them because they were pink, he liked them because they were “made out of zebras” and zebras are his favorite animal :)

What does it say about society when a group of adults could stand to take a lesson in humanity from a class of preschoolers?" 

Found on Facebook

[jcohen888]

Men can wear skirts to Oxford University exams

July 29, 2012

"Under the new regulations, students taking exams or attending formal occasions will no longer have to wear ceremonial clothing that is specific to their gender.

It will mean men will be able to sit tests in skirts and stockings and women will have the option of wearing suits and bow ties.

The new laws, which will come into force next week, comes after a motion put forward the university's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer society (LGBTQ Soc) was passed by the student union."

Telegraph Article

[jcohen888]

Swedish School’s Big Lesson Begins With Dropping Personal Pronouns

"...the teachers avoid the pronouns “him” and “her,” instead calling their 115 toddlers simply “friends.” Masculine and feminine references are taboo, often replaced by the pronoun “hen,” an artificial and genderless word that most Swedes avoid but is popular in some gay and feminist circles."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/world/europe/swedish-school-de-emphasizes-gender-lines.html?_r=0

[jcohen888]

Hen was first mentioned by Swedish linguists in the mid-1960s, and then in 1994 the late linguist Hans Karlgren suggested adding hen as a new personal pronoun, mostly for practical reasons. Karlgren was trying to avoid the awkward he/she that gums up writing, and invent a single word "that enables us to speak of a person without specifying their gender. He argued that it could improve the Swedish language and make it more nuanced. ...But not everyone is keen on this political meddling with the Swedish language. In a recent interview for Vice magazine, Jan Guillou, one of Sweden's most well-known authors, referred to proponents of hen as "feminist activists who want to destroy our language." Other critics believe it can be psychologically and socially damaging, especially for children. Elise Claeson, a columnist and a former equality expert at the Swedish Confederation of Professions, has said that young children can become confused by the suggestion that there is a third, "in-between" gender at a time when their brains and bodies are developing. Adults should not interrupt children's discovery of their gender and sexuality, argues Claeson. She told the Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter, that "gender ideologues" have managed to change the curriculum to establish that schools should actively counter gender roles.

Slate Article

[jcohen888]

Beck Laxton, 46, and partner Kieran Cooper, 44, decided not to reveal baby Sasha's gender to the world so he would not be influenced by society's prejudices and preconceptions. They referred to their child as "The Infant" and only allowed him to play with "gender-neutral toys" in their television-free home. For the first five years of his life Sasha alternated between girls' and boys' outfits, leaving friends, playmates and relatives guessing

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9028479/Couple-raise-child-as-gender-neutral-to-avoid-stereotyping.html

[jcohen888]

Alice Dreger: Is anatomy destiny?

Alice Dreger works with people at the edge of anatomy, such as conjoined twins and intersexed people. In her observation, it's often a fuzzy line between male and female, among other anatomical distinctions. Which brings up a huge question: Why do we let our anatomy determine our fate?

[jcohen888]

Johanna Blakley: Social media and the end of gender

Media and advertising companies still use the same old demographics to understand audiences, but they're becoming increasingly harder to track online, says media researcher Johanna Blakley. As social media outgrows traditional media, and women users outnumber men, Blakley explains what changes are in store for the future of media.

[jcohen888]

How to Choose Gender Neutral Colors for Your Nursery| Pottery Barn Kids

Pottery Barn releases video for parents who do not want pink for girls and blue for boys.

[jcohen888]

Dancing For Gender Equality

These gentlemen are upset that all their videos of their dance routines are being taken down by YouTube, but women dancing are everywhere. So now, they're dancing for gender equality. It's nice to see people get involved in the fight for equal rights.

note: must sign in to prove you are 18 years old to watch!

[jcohen888]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/babymantis/gender-is-1opu

"Inspired by posters distributed by UMass Amherst's Stonewall Center, DeviantArt user snoogan2dope created this neat printable graphic explaining what gender is… and is not."

[jcohen888]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/fjelstud/gender-swapped-super-mario-characters

"Beth, of “Rolling Rabbit Productions” was challenged to recreate the most famous Super Mario characters as their gender opposites. The results are pretty excellent. Especially because Waluigi basically looks the same, while a female Mario just looks like a really nice mom."