You’ve just finished lifting weights. You’ve been at it for a really long time. You remember when you first started training, how weak you felt and how vulnerable you felt. Now, after 3 months of going at it, you’ve started to feel and see the difference those hours have made. Head for the showers, walk out of the gym, and start walking home feeling exhilarated after a great workout. You walk towards a group of men, and even though you’re staring straight ahead, you feel their eyes bore into you. You close in on yourself, and cross your arms over your chest but it’s too late. Once you walk past them, you can hear their unusually loud whispers, as if they meant for you to hear them saying; “Was that a man or a woman?” and “Did it have tits?” or “That was unnatural”. We all know that guy who sways his hips a little more than usual, who has a smooth soft voice and cares for his appearance. We call him fag, label him gay even if he has a girlfriend, run him to the ground because he doesn’t fit as a typical man nor is he a biological woman because we, as Western civilization, criticize and ostracize anyone who doesn’t fit into the concrete gender binaries we have today. Gender isn’t black and white but either, a rainbow. In the words of Lacey Roop, poet, gender is a universe and we are but mere stars apart from that great galaxy. Before the 1950’s, blue was considered as a feminine colour while pink was considered to be masculine. Today in our society, it is reversed. Gender conformities are fluid, they change with the passage of time. Women didn't wear pants until the late 19th century, and it was fashionable for men to wear high heels between the 16th and 18th century. We are forced into girl or boy the day we are born. This judgement follows us throughout our lives. You’re supposed to be delicate, sympathetic. You can’t sit with your legs wide open, that’s what men do. You’ve got to wear that skirt, you must, you shouldn’t, do’s and do not’s. And boys, you’re supposed to be strong emotionally and physically. You’re not supposed to be sensitive and you’re the one who takes charge of the family and keeps everyone on track. You’re supposed to love sports. These are the qualifications that we’ve made. Skirts are only for women. Construction is a man’s job. And to deviate from these norms makes you less of a person? I’m not sorry to sat that these presumptions are completely absurd and irrelevant. You don’t have wear high heels to be feminine, nor do you need to be muscular to be a man. Gender diversity shows us that we do not need to conform by our western standards. We are taught at a young age that pink is for girls, blue is for boys. But is this all really necessary? No, it isn’t. We are not categorized, and moulded into the shape of your “average” boy or girl. You don’t need to be a boy to like wrestling, just like you don’t have to be a girl to enjoy baking. As people, we need to surpass gender conformity and accept that we are all different. We don’t all have to fit into one mould. We can be as many as we want, fit into both, or neither. Some girls lift weights and don’t wear lipstick while others do, and that is perfectly ok. Some guys prefer to write poetry over watching the super bowl, and there is nothing wrong with that. We judge and condemn those who deviate from our gender norms. Those who take a step back, and decided not to jump into the melting pot assigned to you by what’s between their legs, and for what purpose in mind? Who are we to judge someone one what makes them feel good about themselves and happy? I don’t tell you what your favourite colour is, or your sexual orientation. So why should we decided the fate of those who are not comfortable with what’s between their legs, or those who don’t correspond to our gender norms? If something you love to do was considered a gender non-conformity, would you stop doing it? Would you follow social norms, follow the crowd, like sheep? Would you jump off that bridge if everyone else was? Deviating from the gender binaries won’t make you less of a man or a woman. Just like a girl having short hair doesn’t mean she's into chicks, and being a boy who enjoys dancing doesn’t make him gay. Gender doesn’t stop at male and female. Unlike your sex, gender is fluid. There are countless of possibilities, as there are stars in space. Someone once said, they didn’t understand women who wear men’s clothes. They said that it was weird and unnecessary. The way someone expresses themselves has nothing to do with you. No one told you to tattoo yourself, or to pierce your ears. You dress and present yourself in the way you feel the most comfortable in. Westerners need to realize that gender truly is a universe, and what we call normal isn’t the only star in this great gender galaxy. Many cultures around the world have accepted that we are not only men and women. The Native American's two-spirited, India’s hijras and as well as the Bugis people of Indonesia have 5 different genders, cisgendered (your gender assigned by your sex) male and female, bissu, calabai, and calalai. These people have acknowledged this universe and have accepted that there aren’t only two stars. Even if I might not feel like a woman, or if George wants to play with Barbie dolls or if Mary wants to be a firefighter when she grows up, we as people have the right to be who we want to be and not what everyone tells us to be. Transgender, transvestite, transsexual, agender, genderqueer, two-spirited, genderless, bigender, gender normative, man or woman we are all people, so why do we waste time criticizing those who don’t correspond to gender norms? Gender isn’t black and white, it’s many colours, shades and personalities. Gender is a universe, and we have yet to discover the millions of stars out there.
