Author: haizea.olivaliberjen

Queer emerges as an escape route for all those who do not want to define their identity based on the male-female binomial and all that it implies. They are fluid, plural or ever-changing ways of being, which sounds much healthier and more real than living conditioned by your gender, but also much more uncomfortable (and even dangerous) on a social level. Non-binary or trans people find themselves in a totally unfavourable situation, both in the legislative framework and in their daily interactions.

Their treatment is often full of (pre)judgement, violence and lack of protection. For example, in 2021 alone, 573 hate crimes related to the gender identity or sexual orientation of the victims were registered only in Spain. The problem is that this figure is only a reflection of the cruelty and rejection that have permeated our societies for centuries and that so many people still persist in exercising.

Although governmental plans are now beginning to be developed with the aim of protecting trans or queer people, there is still a great deal of ignorance among the population. And we know what the unknown provokes: usually fear. It is a fact that those who question the binary are a danger to the structure with which we have been organising ourselves for years. And they do not only threaten the system, but also our individual identities, which is part of the origin of the rejection: the most comfortable thing for the majority is to continue as they are, without questioning the limits or whether there are other ways of being or living.

However, with all this information in hand, we must be brave and dare to review our own privileges and preconceptions. Above all, we must stop believing that those who do not integrate are because they do not want to. Ending stereotyping, discrimination, exclusion, limitations and invisibilisation depends on questioning the construction of our identities and managing public education from an intersectional, inclusive and, yes, feminist perspective.

On this occasion, we will focus all our attention on the concrete CAUSES and consequences of binarism and heteronormativity:

As you can see, what we, as adults, teach to kids has long term consequences. If we don’t start making a change, the gender roles (or, better said, prisons) will continue reproducing themselves through us, as they’ve been doing for the past centuries…

The basis of our binary system is the heteronormativity: we are all presumably cis-heterosexual.

CIS are people who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. That is, girls with female sexed characters and boys with male sexed characters.

HETEROSEXUALS (or straight people) are boys who like girls and girls who like boys.

The reason why heteronormativity does not admit anything that has to do with trans or queer is because it would mean recognizing that there are realities outside the hegemonic. And, from this axiom (women and men are cisheterosexual until proven otherwise), two gender frames are generated, two sets of ideas about what is considered expected and acceptable behaviour on women and on men.

Furthermore, since, from this point of view, we are expected to pair up in straight couples, masculine and feminine are understood as opposites. An approach that, at the same time, causes inequality to be seen as natural. In this sense, all elements of popular culture and formal education work to create men and women from “templates” that complement each other.

Thus, to sum it up in one sentence, HETERONORMATIVITY and binarism are the ones to look at if we want to understand why women and men develop different personality traits, abilities and deficiencies.

The main “channels” through which we learn how we should behave and what we should like are:

Interactions within our personal environment (family, friendships…). During pregnancy, external genitalia, internal genitalia, chromosomes, sex hormones and other elements of the organism are sexed in both directions. Unlike what is often thought, there are no traits that are exclusive to men, nor to women: all sexual characteristics, all of them, are compatible and occur, to different extents, in both women and men. However, depending on what our genitalia looks more like when we are born, we are assigned “boy” or “girl”. This categorization extends throughout our whole life. In fact, in most families, the roles of each member are very related to their gender. It goes the same way in our social interactions, because our personalities are built around our gender.

School and regulated activities (formal and non-formal education). No one escapes the clutches of binarism, which means that even our teachers and educators are affected by this. Actually, they are much more conditioned by their gender than the kids they teach. From the way they describe the same behavior differently on boys and girls, to the game options that they offer to the children: schools are not gender-free spaces.

Elements of popular culture (advertising, geopolitical context…). Publicity is one of the main channels of social control, specially gender-wise. Every advertisement, movie, show, book, song, etc. is full of gender stereotypes and “slogans”. Products are different depending on the target they want to appeal and the message they want people to get.

In short, there is no situation in our lives in which the GENDER DEVICES don’t put their hands on us.