From:
Ellie
My photo is a take on the story of
the child X. In the story, X is a child
who was raised to have no gender. This is seen as a problem for everyone except
the person it affects, X. The parents, the school board, and the principal are
all trying to conform X into one of the
two “normal” genders.
“They
demanded immediate action. The Joneses, they said, should be forced to tell
whether X was a boy or a girl. And then X should be forced to behave like
whichever it was. If the Joneses refused to tell, the Parents' Association
said, then X must take an Xaminiation.
The school Psychiatrist must Xamine it physically and mentally and issue a full report. If X's test showed it was a boy,
it would have to obey all the boys' rules. If it proved to be a girl, X would
have to obey all the girls' rules, and if X turned out to be some kind of mixed
up misfit, then X should be Xpelled from
the school. Immediately!”
This
quote from the story is about how one of the families from school were upset
that X didn’t have a gender. This is very common with a lot of gender queer
people. People who have no say over a person’s gender try and place the person
in a box. In my picture, I tried to
capture this by having the background be one side “girl” toys and the other
“boy” toys. The picture also shows my partner, who is gender queer, gagged and with
a gun to their head. The reason I gagged them was to symbolize the fact that
society is holding a metaphorical gun to gender queer people’s heads are not
letting the actual person speak about how they feel about their gender. They
just dismiss them. The gun was there to put a sense of no choice and
forcefulness. It is shown to symbolize society forcing people into either
female or male. The photo of my partner, Mel, is in black and white because
people who are forced into one of these categories are often times depressed
and feel like they aren’t actually themselves. Mel told me that before they
started identifying as gender queer they felt like they were just in a shell of
a human being. Overall, I feel like this photo has a very clear message about
how society perceives non-cis people. It sends a message that says society
wants you to be in one of these categories, or we don’t need you.
Works Cited
Gould,
Lois. “X: A Fabulous Child's Story.” Ms., July 1972.
4 comments:
From: Carrie
This photo caught my attention right away with the contrast in the black and white photo and the bright colors of the toys in the background. I didn’t notice the subtler details until I looked at it harder, like the differently gendered items in the background or the gun against the subject’s head, but I did notice the position of defeat and the bound mouth. I think it’s really interesting how people can’t be grouped into broad categories of gender, and how we keep getting told that something is wrong with us for liking things that are “inappropriate” but actually nothing is wrong with us. It manifests in different ways.
For example, I was never given any reason to question my behavior until I was hitting puberty. I was encouraged to do anything I wanted as a young child but suddenly was forbidden from many of my favorite activities (including writing of all things!) because they were unladylike. I questioned whether or not I should (or did) identify as trans for years and while it was a long journey my ultimate decision was that just because I’m gender nonconforming in a lot of ways doesn’t mean, for me, that my sex or gender are unaligned from my body, but that society does not have the right to constrain my body in any way.
Would I have even had reason to question my gender if I wasn’t repeatedly told things like “not like other girls”, “just one of the guys” “you’re not like, a REAL girl... I can talk to you about cool stuff” and the like? My identity as a woman doesn’t hinge on whether society thinks I make a “good” one or not. I also think that more exposure to imagery like this is good for the world, too, because it shows that people can live outside of these boxes in not just one or two but a myriad of different ways. I think many people do experience this sort of pressure and defeat that your photo represents and have not had the language or confidence or security to express it, even if they don’t self-identify as trans or queer in any way.
One of my favorite things about this photo, though, is that I never would have seen anything like this when I was in high school. I know this is a college class but going through school in Texas I never once learned about a queer person (or the existence of queer people) in class, or in the case of a few poets, the information was simple left out. Even turning in a project with queer themes would have resulted in a phone call to parents. I’m so excited to see that there is a place now for queer voices to be heard in meaningful ways.
From: Alexandra
The brightness of the the pink and blue to symbolize, respectively, the ‘girl’ and ‘boy’ cultures really makes the black and white figure in the center stand out. To have colors that are so vibrant, or loud, makes it that much more thought-provoking to then see the person’s mouth being covered. It’s a great way to make the statement that society is more comfortable with children expressing themselves through their gender-appropriate toys and clothes than with their own words. This theme also shines through with having the Barbie doll in the corner of the picture looking at the viewer, whereas the gender queer person is looking down. Barbie looks right at you with her blue eyes. Nevertheless, even though she is blonde, even though she is thin, even though her femininity plays out in technicolor, even though she is our culture’s text-book definition of a ‘perfect woman’— her mouth, too, is covered. It symbolizes that if you do abide by society’s gender rules, you will be seen in a righteous light, but that is as far as your self-expression can go, because society still doesn’t want you to speak out and make waves. Society, including the parents, the school board, and the principal at the school cited in this essay, only want us to look the part and play the part. Any sort of deviance from mainstream girl and boy culture is taken to be negative and abnormal human behavior. If a person doesn’t stick to the status quo, then society doesn’t know what to do with them. And without society being able to label gender queer people, it results in them not being acknowledged in the same way a cis person would be.
From Hannah:
The fact that society feels the need to identify people with a specific gender and how it affects the people who do not want to be identified, is clearly depicted in your photo. In today’s society there are so many ways that you can identify yourself when it comes to gender and sexuality and most of them are accepted. But when it comes to people who do not want to be pigeon holed as a certain gender, that is when society starts to have a problem with it. When someone identifies as gender neutral or genderqueer, people tend to freak out because they do not know how to deal with them or where to place them within society. I like how you showed in your photo that the person who does not identify as a specific gender is forced to choose between being a boy or girl, hence the gun pointed at their head. Also the fact that the person's mouth is covered showing that society doesn't care what they have to say or want when it comes to their identity but that society will decide for this person if they don't.
From Hannah: (revise version) 250 wordsThe fact that society feels the need to identify people with a specific gender and how it affects the people who do not want to be identified, is clearly depicted in your photo. All through time societies have grouped people into genders being only male female until more recently. In today’s society there are so many ways that you can identify yourself when it comes to gender and sexuality and most of them are accepted. But when it comes to people who do not want to be pigeon holed as a certain gender, that is when society starts to have a problem with it. When someone identifies as gender neutral or genderqueer, people tend to freak out because they do not know how to deal with them or where to place them within society. I like how you showed in your photo that the person who does not identify as a specific gender is forced to choose between being a boy or girl, hence the gun pointed at their head. The use of color clearly shows the difference between the two sides (female vs male), and the fact that the person was in black and white demonstrates how she did not conform with either side. Also the fact that the person's mouth is covered showing that society doesn't care what they have to say or want when it comes to their identity but that society will decide for this person if they don't. The artist clearly demonstrates the gender neutral person and how society feels the need to make them identify as one specific gender.
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