To gender or not to gender? That is the question.
There have been many news stories in the recent week, regarding the LGBTQ+ community. Traversing from a fake bomb threat in a gay night club within London to the latest reveal of Harry Styles being cast in a queer role for an upcoming film, set in Brighton. As well as the up rise of more and more people deciding to disregard gender rules altogether.
That’s what I want to talk about today; the theory that identifying as ‘Gender Non-Conforming’, has become more common in today’s culture. When we live in a world that has been so focused on separating women from men and men from women; being able to see the real change of a set structure crumbling, allows our minds to truly consider this type of change as possible.
To identify as Gender Non-Conforming is “to not obey to societies gender norms”. Not to confuse this with identifying as ‘Non-Binary’, which is to refer oneself as “not male or female or having the flexibility to be both”. Gender in general, is simply how you express yourself, not what is between your legs. So, having this expression of oneself is having the opportunity to create a sense of freedom in who you are and whom you want to be.
I’ve started wondering myself, why gender is still a fixed notion when gender has always been a social construct aimed to address the idea of a power hierarchy. For the freedom to be you is such a liberating feeling. Yet by not conforming to gender ideals or simply portraying an image that is unlike others, can be a scary thing to the cisgender heteronormative community. Difference is unnerving you see because they feel they cannot connect with you or work it out and put you in a box like they’ve been taught. With this type of thinking being pushed on us in the early years of our childhood, it’s only natural to instinctively want to separate men and women into left and right concepts.
Today’s theory of being a boy or a girl, male or female, a man or a woman, means there are so many rules on what we can/can’t be. Breaking down these fixed approaches to gender stereotypes means we’d have to look at what truly makes us male or female. Although, if you think about it, to be a man is to be human and use he/him/they pronouns. To be a woman is to be a human and use she/her/they pronouns. This is the 21st century and the restrictions on such concrete ideals like ‘boys like cars’ and ‘girls like flowers’, is something that has begun to formally change.
With all this being said, I urge you to go out into the world and simply wear what you want to wear. Dress the way you want to dress, because if you feel comfortable and confident in it, then that’s all that matters. If you like wearing make-up, do it. If you like the way suits make you feel empowered, do it. Let us change those heteronormative concepts; throwing away these outdated rules and restrictions, creating a more liberating society. A more open and accepting world.
