The Myth of the Gender Monolith
In 2019, Vogue magazine featured Estrella Vazquez, an indigenous transgender woman, on the cover of their December issue. Vazquez’s feature highlights the ways in which indigenous transgender and multiple-gendered systems have been gaining visibility on a global scale. Following European colonization, gender identities outside the heteronormative paradigm of “male/female” have been stigmatized and othered. Through social media, awareness of the various ways in which gender identity can be expressed is growing substantially. Various cultures with fluid views of gender and gender roles built into them have been historically attacked after the imposition of European norms of a two-gendered social system. Increasing visibility through media can reflect how gender is not a monolith and that the fluidity surrounding gender has existed across cultures for hundreds of years, which ultimately highlights the need for a more inclusive education on gender within Western societies.
Many non-Western cultures have traditionally held fluid views of gender identities and sexualities, highlighting how the gender binary does not exist across the globe. Within Navajo culture, there is the concept of the “two spirit” individual who exhibits “both male and female spirits.” These spirits may be expressed differently depending on the social context of the individual, the people they are with, or their stage of life. This term illustrates how gender expression is not fixed, but rather constantly changing and transforming, a fact completely different from the mentality surrounding gender that was introduced and imposed following colonization. Similarly, countries such as India and Mexico have people who identify as the “third gender” built into their cultures as seen through hijras in India and muxes in Mexico. The third gender represents a transgender identity in which individuals consider themselves to be neither male nor female. Despite the fact that people who have identified outside of the gender binary have been historically accepted within their cultures, within modern times, they are often subject to different forms of abuse, discrimination, and stigmatization. Due to the oppression faced by people who do not identify within Eurocentric gender constructs, there have been political movements within the past decade to gain more rights, such as in Argentina and Pakistan that have passed laws supporting rights and protections for gender non-conforming individuals. There has already been some progress following the introduction of new bills across the world that advocate for gender rights, highlighting how those advocators are on a path toward more equal national legislation. This fight for legal representation for people who do not identify within the gender binary has gained a lot of traction recently thanks to the increased use of media to elevate their stories.
With the increase of media that represents various gender identities, there has been a growing debate as to how well they actually support the reclamation of gender identities that have historically been suppressed by mainstream media. This phenomenon can be studied clearly using documentaries to elevate and share the experiences of the Brotherboy community in Australia. Brotherboy is an Aboriginal Australian term that describes individuals who identify as men but were assigned as female at birth. Recently, there have been several documentaries following Brotherboys that have allowed them to not only gain visibility but to also provide them with representation. Ultimately, through actively seeking the use of media to depict people with non-binary gender identities, some can elevate stories and generate more visibility for these often discriminated-against communities. A growth in this field could lead to a more open and understanding perspective of gender on a large scale, while also enabling people who have gender identities that may not pertain to the strictly female or male binary to find more representation and respect from the global community.
Through increasing portrayals of the genderqueer community in media, content producers run the risk of stereotyping transgender and non-binary individuals that can exacerbate the issue of lacking representation. This commonly occurs when cisgendered actors portray transgender or gender nonconforming characters, or through the creation of stereotypical molds for how transgender and gender diverse community members may behave. Additionally, there is a suppression and a lack of inclusion of gender perspectives across cultures within most media portrayals. This can be exemplified through the use of the Native American “two spirits” to explain gender fluidity pre-colonization; this has often been used to represent cultures that also have more broad understandings of gender nonconformity and sexuality. Australian Brotherboys are often compared to two spirit individuals; however, that expression is not analogous to the Brotherboy experience as the Native American culture does vary significantly from Aboriginal Australian cultures and understandings of gender. Some Brotherboys have drawn attention to the harm of their comparison to two-spirits because they are drawn from different cultures and embody different ideas, thus making it hard for Brotherboys to feel seen and understood. The assumption that all cultures have similar traditional gender identities is harmful as it can prevent people from feeling represented and can contribute to the suppression of their own cultures. With the rise in portrayals of gender non-conforming individuals, there is a potent risk of misrepresenting them or creating stereotypes that are ultimately counterproductive, which could hinder a more equitable world in terms of gender identity.
While the growth in gender inclusive media is likely, it is also critical to teach about gender systems of indigenous cultures in order to support inclusionary practices and to have a more holistic look at gender expression. The lack of inclusion of different cultures in conversations about said cultures can lead to people feeling underrepresented, as is highlighted through the experience of Brotherboys. Gender-inclusive education is a growing movement, and it encompasses the need to stray from any monoliths that could cause alienation. Instead, there should be a focus to educate on a wide array of cultural gender systems to elevate voices from different cultures and traditions.
Ultimately, an increase in inclusive genderqueer visibility through media that incorporates the voices and views of gender and sexuality across the globe is a necessity. By doing this, people will not only gain a deeper understanding of the different ways that gender can be understood and expressed, but will also give visibility to cultures that have faced much repression following colonization so that seeing a transgender individual such as Estrella Velazquez is normalized.