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THE ALLEYNIAN 709
OPINION, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
If you think there are only two genders, think again, says Alleynian Student Editor Arjaan Amos Miah (they/them) (Year 12)
distinct third option; some occupy two, three or more genders at the same time (for example, being a man and a woman); some have no sense of gender whatsoever; and some fluctuate between different genders (for example, having man days and woman days). These identifications each have their own terms – bigender, agender, genderfluid, and others among them – while some choose to use non-binary as a distinct label in itself. Although this may not seem intuitive when navigating gender in the modern, Anglo-American sense, we must note that this traditional idea of gender – one with a man and a woman – is not, and has never been, universal. In antiquity, Egyptians, Sumerians and Akkadians wrote about the many different people who were neither male nor female – sekhets, eunuchs, intersex individuals and others. In Indonesia, there were five genders as far back as 600 years ago, one of which, Bissu, was a combination of all the genders. In South Asia, the Kama Sutra spoke about Hijra back in 400BCE (the first word that other Desis – people from the Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi diaspora – think of when I describe my gender to them). Hijras were transfeminine individuals written about in Hindu texts, who existed as neither male nor female. They would typically be assigned male at birth – born with male sexual characteristics – and dress in feminine fashion, taking on traditionally female roles in the household. While there has been anti-Hijra discrimination throughout history, most of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh recognise it as a legitimate, distinct gender outside of the binary. Indeed, Hijras have been able to register as such on Bangladeshi passports since November 2013 – while the UK still has no legal recognition of non-binary people. Even in Britain, historically there has been some recognition of non-binary individuals. In 11th century Anglo-Saxon England, for example, they had the word wæpen-wifestre – broadly translating to penis-woman, man-woman, or, as we’d say today, intersex. Many years later, in the 17th century, a judge decreed that one Thomas(ine) Hall was ‘a man and a woeman’, making it a legal requirement for Hall to wear both masculine and feminine clothing at the same time. Furthermore, in the late 1700s, a Quaker preacher – The Public Universal Friend – professed that The Friend had no gender, refused to respond to The Friend’s birth name, and was referred to by most of The Friend’s followers and friends by name exclusively, rather than by pronouns – either being referred to as ‘The Friend’, ‘The Public Universal Friend’, or ‘P.U.F.’, as many diary entries from The Friend’s followers demonstrate. In a society where the ideas of masculinity and femininity have distinct associations with forms of speech, fashion and behaviours – and where people, therefore, cannot help themselves from instantly labelling others as female and male – navigating the world as an enby (non-binary = NB = enby) can be difficult, and full of misunderstandings. For some in the enby community, deliberately androgynous gender expression – the way that someone may dress, walk, speak or behave – is chosen, so as to challenge as many cisgendered people as possible, in a world where cisgendered people, by and large, refuse to treat people in a
gender-neutral manner. While many enbies are happy to present as clearly masculine or feminine, for others, the goal is to prevent the assumptions of the general public as much as possible. Pronouns are a frustrating part of navigating a binary world as an enby. Most enbies use singular they/them pronouns. However, singular they is not, by any means, the only option for enbies, and many use he/him and she/her pronouns, while others use neopronouns , such as E/Em (dating back to 1890s Boston), Xe/Xir and Ve/Vir. While these are far less commonly used, a significant and growing number of people in queer circles use neopronouns today, with Xe/Xir and E/Em being two of the most prominent. A significant number even use it/ its pronouns, no pronouns whatsoever, or multiple pronouns. The use of singular they in the English language, although used in many contexts outside of non-binary people, actually dates back to the 1300s (while we were still using thou as the main pronoun to address one, single person). This began to be challenged in the 1800s, when prescriptivist linguists declared that, since Classic Latin had no gender-neutral pronouns and was a superior language to English, singular they had to be erased. Nonetheless, use of they persisted in common usage and formal writing – and still does. In other languages, this problem can be greater or lesser than in English. In spoken Chinese and Bengali, for example, third person pronouns aren’t differentiated by gender but, in the case of Bengali, by proximity and familiarity of relationship. On the other end of the spectrum, some languages – romance languages like French and Italian in particular – have gender built into them. In these cases, the problem of language extends beyond pronouns into conjugation of adjectives, verbs and most parts of speech. For some enbies, notably in Canada, where English and French are both commonly spoken, highly gendered languages are a no-go, leading them to almost entirely eliminate them from their lives. This isn’t to say that there aren’t many attempts to accept enbies in countries speaking gendered languages, or that there aren’t thriving non-binary communities within them, but the intricacies of those extend far beyond the purview of this article. Even with the best of intentions, many people slip up and misgender non-binary individuals, using pronouns or language that doesn’t reflect their gender identity. The overwhelming majority of enbies, however, ask for nothing more than quick self- correction and minimal fuss – contrary to popular belief, we don’t get too antsy when you assume our gender . Most of us try to help anyone who works, in good faith, to change their use of language. Non-binary individuals are nothing new, but many binary people are still unaware of us or baffled by us. My hope is that, after reading this article, such people will have gained a slightly better grasp on some of the key concepts, so that they can go on to impress all the non-binary people around them, start thinking a bit outside of the binary, and, maybe, even help others better understand the rich world of non-binary gender.
AN INTRODUCTION TO NON- BINARY GENDER
ARTWORK — JUDE PEARSON (YEAR 13)
I would need more fingers and toes than I possess to count the number of times that cisgendered, heterosexual people have commented on the complicated terminology of the LGBTQ+ community. Commonly, this perception applies to identities that don’t fall under the first four letters of the acronym. Many people can manage to remember ‘lesbian’, ‘gay’, ‘bisexual’ and ‘transgender’, but get confused after that point. With the growing number of people who are coming out beyond those identities – as queer, asexual, aromantic, polyamorous, and, in this article, non-binary – it’s important that we all learn to understand the many people of genders and sexualities that we may not have heard of before. This article will provide a brief insight into the rich history of genders that don’t fall into the category of ‘male’ or ‘female’. It will not be engaging with the poorly evidenced arguments that such people do not exist, which many believe in, despite strong cases that stand against them. We will be operating on the assumption that nobody can understand someone’s internal identity as much as they, themselves, can. ‘Non-binary’ is a blanket term for those whose sense of gender falls out of the gender binary – the one into which most people fall, as either men or women . Some non-binary individuals identify with a
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