129 The Inescapable Gender Binary
Ryan French
While we can reject and deconstruct our assigned gender by having qualities that are in opposition to our given gender identity, we are always doomed to replace them with other ideas of gender that are within the same binary. The fact that we have a concept of gender at all means that all notions of gender, even those such as gender fluidity and gender nonconformity, come from a place of a gender binary.
To be gender fluid or gender nonconforming means to move some qualities away from one end of the binary to the other side. There is no true middle ground, because the middle ground is only a mixture of individual binary qualities. A female with short hair, beard stubble, but also a rounded jaw and long eyelashes may appear to be in this “middle” ground, but in fact just has a mixture of qualities that are on both ends of the gender binary.
These thoughts came into my head on Thursday, April 10, when my girlfriend and I attended Plymouth State University’s annual “Gay-la”, hosted by the student organization PSU Pride. The Gay-la is an inclusive, semi-formal dance that is designed with LGBTQA+ students in mind. According to The Clock’s online blog, PSU Pride Vice President Andrew Dawe said, “[The Gay-la] creates an atmosphere where people don’t have to worry about being judged for dressing how they wish to. And above all else, it’s simply an opportunity to have fun.”
Dress was certainly something that stood out to me as I watched the event’s dancing participators. I saw people who I typically considered to be female wearing narrow blazers, black trousers, and leather oxfords. I also saw people that I would typically designate as male wearing bright lipstick and high heels.
Gender performativity was all over the place, and I felt hesitant every time I spoke to someone, fearful that I would use the wrong pronouns. I often saw people that I was certain were biologically male be referred to with female pronouns, and those who I was certain were biologically female be referred to with male pronouns. After a while, I decided that it was easier to just avoid using any gendered pronouns at all, and simply referred to everyone as “they”.
The whole shindig brought my thoughts back to Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan’s explanation of constructivist feminist theory in Literary Theory: An Anthology. This theory critiques the concept of gender as a social construct, originated to keep women subservient to patriarchy.
Gender, in constructivist theory, is not just about sex chromosomes. It is about the appearances and attitudes that are socially designated to people based off of their sex. For example, boxers, bowties, and trousers are clothes typically considered to be “men’s” clothes. In reality, however, these clothes are genderless; the “men’s” labelling is an idea that is reinforced by culture.
Clothes may be an obvious example, but the conditions of gender are broad and culturally reinforced, making them inescapabl