#gender study

[goatgai]

hello! i& have made a survey for multigender folk to describe their gender identity!

the google forms can be found here (link)

those who are plural or a system can submit multiple responses (one per alter/headmate/part, please!)

[badwolf1271]

This is an essay I wrote for class during my summer semester in a gender psychology class about the gender formation of Spencer Reid. I thought someone out there might like to read it so here it is!

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Criminal Minds (US TV) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Spencer Reid Additional Tags: Character Study, Character Analysis, Essays, gender study, Gender Analysis Summary:

This is an essay I wrote for class during my summer semester in a gender psychology class about the gender formation of Spencer Reid. I thought someone out there might like to read it so here it is!

[therapist-of-space]

I was thinking about a gender bent Beauty and The Beast, and I realized that making a woman into proper wife was already a narrative in a couple story's. Theirs this idea mostly in media targeted at women of "fixing him". The idea of taking an unmarriable woman and making her a proper wife has other implications though, not of fixing but of taming her.

The Beast is in a position of power over Belle but is still under her power because if he cannot get his act together he will stay the monster that he is and alone. Though it is Bells father who's captured first, staying a captor in a castle is a decidedly feminine thing, damsel in distress and all. If it was written masculinely first though, how would the story start? With the Beauty intending to kill the Beast gallantly? How tipped are the scales of power now, women being thought of as worthless after a certain age and monstrous is already true, no requirement for being rude necessary.

Taming of the Shrew is a play all about a woman who's uncouth and can be rude, and the way they go about making her nicer is fbi torture methods. Depriving her of food, water, sleep, until she'll do what you want. Making her unrecognizable, zombified. This is also in My Fair Lady to a a lesser extent, taking this country bumpkin and making of her a suitable lady.

Comparing these to the Beast narrative is not entirely fair. The Beauty and The Beast story to me is not about loving someone only by changing them fundamentally, but loving someone changing them and making them better. Media about fixing men, it's typically sweet, through the power of love they become better. Media about fixing women though involves repressing the woman, making her unrecognizable to the viewer. Seeing her not as a person to get better, to be loved, but a pretty object with an unfortunate inside you must warp to your liking. The men in these stories are very much still the beasts. Fixing a man and fixing a woman have such deeply different connotations and I find that neat.

[feverish-clod]

One of the big things that peaked me as a radfem, was truly comprehending the difference between sex and gender.

Sex is biological, it is what you are. There is no way to change the chromosomes in your cells.

Gender is what you do. Gender is entirely a social construct that you consciously and subconsciously participate in.

[touchoffleece]

G Witch hair cut choices and character design used as tools for storytelling; hypothesis

I answered the following to someone that pointed out the shaggy mullet like hair styles in the latest season of Gundam (Gundam the Witch from Mercury), and wanted to make my response it's own post.

I had spotted the mullets and shaggy hair in episode 1 and 2, and thought it was because gender neutral hair styles have been a rising trend, especially for the younger generation as we progress/evolve as a society. I have stated that this Gundam is pretty gay, and I didn’t just mean it because we are told Suletta and Miorine are fiances. (Think back to Miorine’s comment on gender not mattering much when Suletta mentions they both can’t be engaged because they are both women. In the story’s present ‘gender norms’ aren’t valued so much; implying their society being more fluid about such labels and concerns about what is proper or not based off of gender expectations.)

Maybe I’m noticing this because LGBTQI+ media consumers have learnt to analyze media for scraps of LGBTQI+ representation, and maybe it’s why I hardly don’t see anyone mention the gender neutral/gender fluid designs in all the characters. I do feel some others have noticed it, but the observations pointed out don’t get much notice or get ignored. We’ve seen how some people are trying their hardest to ignore the fact that Miorine and Suletta are the main couple of the show, thus the show being gay and focusing on Girl Love (GL). Backtracking to the gender fluid haircut choices: Geul for me is an easy example to refer to, but not my only example of the gender fluid designs in the anime, with long shaggy hair to the shoulders resembling the irl haircut known as a wolf cut. Wolf Cut: ’Popular across genders, the wolf cut is thought to have originated in the salons of South Korea, taking its name from the wild, untamed look the heavy layers create, resembling the fur of its namesake. To take things further, the style is often set in place on loosely permed hair, to ensure an expertly tousled look.’ A majority of the main cast have this type of hair. Suletta, Miorine, and Geul are the main three that instantly come to mind.

I can’t find a good refence but Geul’s the long shaggy hair can then get tied to a pony tail and BOOM easy to play with his image and make his design more of what we traditionally categorize for men.

Thinking about this, the anime most likely uses the gender fluid hairstyles a fair often to frame certain moments, because we (at least a majority of people) still rely and identify/categorize gender into 'boxes’. I doubt it’s a coincidence, because character design (a visual tool) does play a considerable role in story telling. Which can and probably is being used by G Witch to help emphasize points to their story. (Call back once again to Miorine’s quote about gender not mattering much in their society, and it’s considered conservative to do so.).

Even in that picture above it’s easy to have Miorine’s long hair blend into the background and thus give viewers an illusion of a cool shorthaired character announce a proposal to Suletta (who we see with her long ponytail). But this is why I think if there’s a reason for the mullets or wolf cuts (however you label the hairstyle designs of the 3 major characters), it’s done intentionally to emphasize the narrative (which helps world build) that things are less gender locked in the setting of this Gundam’s world.

I tried keeping 100% to the og post I made, but I did change a sentence at the end to better clarify that when I used "them" I was referring to a hairstyle. OG sentence: 'however you think of them designs in 3 major characters' Edit version sentence: 'however you label the hairstyle designs of the 3 major characters'

[magicpotatothoughts]

FRUITS BASKET | a commentary on the societal rejection of "maternal" and "feminine" qualities in people

It seems like both Yuki and Akito reject the aspects of themselves that are what we consider to be traditionally "feminine" or in other words internalised misogyny. I think it may be the mangaka's intention to call out the larger systemic issue that society has with people in general that considers traditionally "feminine" qualities such as

gentleness

"weakness"

feminine sexuality

passiveness

to be inferior to traditionally "masculine" qualities. In fact, every character on the show suffers from some sort of internalised misogyny. Arisa got mad at Kyoko for no longer being the "cool Crimson Butterfly" in her youth gangster days after she had Tohru but Kyoko then simply said,

"I've calmed down."

And then we see that Arisa learning that it's ok to embrace the parts of herself that craves to be enveloped in this maternal gentleness which she so clearly was deprived of as a child. Same with Rin and Hiro and finally finally our dense-brained Kyo, it took them a while to realise that they don't need to put up such a strong front all the time, they can lean on Tohru, who is the complete embodiment of all these qualities.

it is society that "genderises" these qualities because society as a whole is still for the most part, quite sexist.

These traits are not exclusive to men/women or queer individuals. But because if the sexism that still exists in today's society, that's why Yuki and Akito has issues with their femininity and masculinity. Honestly, I cannot stop thinking about Yuki and Akito as characters. They are SUCH WELL WRITTEN MIRRORS AND FOILS of each other.

Akito

1.Ok can we please just put the spoilt god/toxic thing aside for two seconds, that's a whole other theme that I want to tackle. Akito seriously reminds me of the ironclad women in leadership that feels the need to abandon their femininity and adopt masculinity in order to be taken seriously in their roles. Honestly, it's something that most men would hardly understand how much the everyday woman have to think about the way they dress for job interviews in order to be taken seriously even though the way we dress should have absolutely NOTHING to do with our intelligence. Akito of course was raised like a boy but undeniably is a woman.

The moment I found out that her character was a woman, my heart wept for her for I saw not only myself in her but thousands of women in leadership who suppress their "feminine" qualities in order to be taken seriously.

2. Akito feels a hate for Tohru because Tohru embodies everything that she herself cannot have and cannot display openly. Akito hates all the women in the zodiac for being able to display and embody any ounce of femininity that she herself cannot display. It's cruel but isn't it honestly so sad?

3. Akito was given a literal box, but the box she discovers is empty the moment she opens it but she doesn't know how to react to it so she kept it hidden. Until finally she realises that she creates her own identity, she doesn't need to be shackled by how others define her.

Yuki

1. Yuki due to feeling an amplified sense of abandonment from his parents, he sees his weakness and his gentleness as parts of himself he needs to fix. Because of this societal sexism and genderism, he ends up grouping those qualities with other traditionally "feminine" aspects of himself (aka his appearance, which honestly has nothing to do with these personality characteristics) and takes it incredibly personally whenever anyone comments or points them out.

2. He feels a love for Tohru but because of feeling like he needs to reject these qualities, he still conforms to his "prince-like" facade. Which is why he opts for the route of seemingly trying to seduce Tohru (asserting his masculinity or what he thinks traditional "masculinity" looks like), but it sickens him and confuses him, because that's not actually how he feels for Tohru. Tohru says multiple times, "Woah, he really is like a prince!"

3. Upon reflection, what touched Yuki about Machi was Machi said immediately that "Yuki was nothing like a prince." and that "Yuki was lonely." So Yuki's facade came down straight away with Machi. Which meant that his feelings and affections didn't have to be rehearsed, they were *genuine.

That chalk scene is undeniably the most romantic scene I've ever seen in my entire life. Well done my man Yuki, you don't need to play the Prince card, my heart was stolen the moment you did this for Machi holy shit I love you.

4. Yuki, just like Akito, has kept a lid on himself and needed to open it to become his true self and does so by joining the student council, which was a HUGE GROWTH STEP. In doing so, Yuki actually comes to terms with the fact that Akito and him are the same, Akito is just seeing Yuki as a reflection of herself in the mirror and therefore looking for someone to blame and bare the burden of the pain of denying one's true self. That's why Akito got so triggered when Yuki said

"I forgive you".

Akito at that point hasn't accepted her true self yet.

These two characters are so freaking well written it's actually incredible. I feel like I learnt so much from this anime.

History has a tendency to sway hard to the left and then hard to the right, newer generations outrightly rejecting older generational values but then it's overdone, and the next generation rejects the older set of values again with greater turbulence. The women suffrage movement led women, including myself, to grow up internalising and rejecting traditionally "feminine" tasks such as cooking, sewing, nursing, baby-sitting.

This anime is a social commentary that it's ok to want and desire "feminine" and "maternal" things in life such as marriage, kids and family.

I don't know if these things are what I do envision for my future but it's definitely made me reconsider the way I view these things and for that, I am grateful for the new insight it has provided me.

[book0ftheday]

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, originally published 1969, 50th anniversary edition published 2019. Cover design by Jim Tierney.

From Chapter 16, Between Drumner and Dremegole:

Light is the left hand of darkness

and darkness the right hand of light.

Two are of one, life and death, lying

together like lovers in kemmer,

like hands joined together,

like the end and the way.

[k00255226]

A sketch I did while studying media composition on 10.27

The top sketch is a still from the dance scene ‘I’m Old Fashioned’ from the film ‘You Were Never Lovelier’ (1942) starring Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth. The sketch on the bottom is a still from Orville Peck’s music video for ‘In the Dead of Night’ (2019). 

My notes at the bottom say:

Use of draping, slightly sheer curtains with light visible through fabric 

Poses

Conceptually - a safe het[erosexual] romance allowed to be told vs. a gay artist creating his own space in a hostile genre

Elegance vs. gritty showmanship

Peck’s costume is a blend of the masculine lines of Astaire’s suit with feminine embellishments of Hayworth’s dress

The two pieces of media are very different on the surface, but I think in terms of composition for the purpose of storytelling and in the impact both pieces can have on an audience there’s a lot of connections to make between them.