A Personal Definition of Gender Variance and the Societal Difficulties That Come With It
Although many people within the western hemisphere believe transgender is the best way to describe those who are not cis-gender or do not feel they belong to the gender they were assigned at birth, I prefer the term gender variant. Gender variant means that you do not conform to the social norms of society when it comes to gender. The societal norms are that if you were born with a penis then you are a man and if you do not have a penis you are a woman. Gender variant individuals not only do not conform to these implications but they may not conform to gender in any way. Some people may describe themselves as woman born in a man’s body or vice versa when describing themselves as transgender. This is problematic because this causes individuals to believe that people belong in one group or another causing a gender binary. Some gender variant individuals may not identify as man or woman. Gender variant does well as an umbrella term because non-western countries have their own terms for what western countries would call transgender only the definitions do not necessarily match up. Using the term gender variant is a way of including transgender and other terms for those who do not conform to the societal standards of gender.
There are many ways that gender variance provides insight into gender in a broader sense. One example of how gender variance provides insight is in terms of performativity and how the societal construct of gender roles is problematic. In the reading (De)Subjugated Knowledges by Susan Stryker, Stryker references Judith Butler on page 10 in this reading. Performativity is the theory that being something relies entirely on whether you may a voiced statement saying what you are. To explain Stryker uses the example of a couple. This couple can consider themselves married but until they say “I do” they are not considered married.
These people also “perform” the acts of a married couple similar to how someone who is gender variant will perform what society deems as the acts of whatever gender they have labeled themselves as. Although, for some, these acts are performed by gender variant individuals because they wish to gain passing privilege so that they may be addressed how they would like, for others it is also about safety. Nearly 80% of gender variant individuals experience harassment and 15 transgender deaths in 2015 occurred because they are/were gender variant. Sometimes because people can not put a gender variant person into a certain category they become violent do to the fear of the unknown.
However, if a person conforms to societal norms of gender roles they may gain passing privilege which may limit the harassment and violence that these individuals experience on a daily basis. This is partially why gender roles are problematic in terms of gender variance because it helps promote violence if people do not follow the “rules” whether a person is gender variant or not. For example, if a woman decides not to shave and chooses to wear “men’s” clothing than she may experience violence as well even if she is cis-gender and straight. Gender variance brings to light the other issues when considering gender.
Studying gender variance also opens discussion of gender within a classroom setting. In the reading A Certain Kind of Freedom: Power and the Truth of Bodies by Riki Wilchins, Wilchins mentions on page 63 about school bullying involving gender and sexuality. Due to the attention brought on from school shooting involving gender variant students schools have begun to address gender variant issues with more understanding in order to limit violence concerning students.
Recently my mother started teaching middle school. There is a transgender student in this classroom who has informed their teachers what pronouns they prefer and what name they prefer to be called by. The staff respects these requests and have gone to lengths to inform parents and students that they should also respect them. This has enabled school to be a safe space for this student and for others who may have similar requests. This also teaches compassion and acceptance at an early age and enforces the teaching that you must respect others decisions and personal requests or you will face consequences. These lessons for students are not only important to halt violence concerning gender variant students but for men and women as well. Teaching students to respect others requests even if it is harder for them is crucial in terms of rape as well. Often parents would not like to discuss rape at middle school age but, especially impressionable young men, need to learn that when someone says no this is the end of the discussion. Women are more likely to be victims of rape than men and men are proven to be physiologically stronger than women. It teaches young men that while in most cases they may be biologically stronger sex this does not permit them to do as they please when a person tells them no. Gender variance opens many doors to different discussions of gender and the problematic issues surrounding gender.
Bibliography
Stryker, Susan, and Stephen Whittle. The Transgender Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.
Wilchins, Riki. A Certain Kind of Freedom: Power and the Truth of Bodies. Print.
