Non-Binary Gender

The argument of this paper is that, despite their limits, gender 'proliferations' like non-binary and genderqueer are the most effective and pragmatic approaches to overcoming or dismantling the gender binary whilst also expanding the range of 'cultural resources' of gender in the meantime. We make this case with the political and ethical caveat, however, that it would be politically ideal for these invocations of proliferation to be complemented by ongoing attempts to challenge sex/gender itself. We first outline the many ways that non-binary and genderqueer identities are invoked by numerous commentators as either symbols of progress, or weaponised for antithetical political purposes by a coalition of forces hostile to their proliferation. We then outline a defence of these identities as ontologically, pragmatically and socially justified, with feminist and queer political potential. We will make an argument as to why the invocation of non-binary and genderqueer as identity or subject positions is both understandable, due to the cultural constraints of the compulsarity of gender identity in society, and a potentially politically effective strategy. We then go on to engage, generously, with some potential limitations around non-binary and genderqueer and their potential collapse in to normativity, and consider how these may be addressed or mitigated against by a queer ethics. In short, we argue that non-binary and genderqueer can be understood as ways to make space in a structure that is not likely to crumble any time soon. NOTE: Both authors wish to acknowledge that they live and work on stolen land, never ceded by the custodians, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past and present and to the ways that gender and sexuality have long been understood by the Indigenous custodians of these lands.

This resource guide provides information, advice, considerations, and reference materials for the inclusion and protection of the Trans*, Non-Binary, and Gender Non-Conforming community in higher education. The guide is based, in part, on survey  data gathered from gender minority students in Irish third-level education.  

Transgender and gender diverse people often experience voice-gender incongruence, which is inversely correlated with health and quality of life. Such incongruence could be reduced with voice and communication training, but expert-administered training is often inaccessible while self-guided training is difficult and potentially risky. Training could alternatively be provided through software (eg, smartphone apps), but such software is at an early stage. This qualitatively driven mixed-methods study thus includes surveys and interviews with 21 transfeminine, transmasculine and nonbinary people to identify general views of voice and communication training software as well as most desirable features of such software. Participants were positive about the general idea and described ways to effectively implement four critical features: feedback, accountability, automated goal setting, and training characteristics other than pitch. They also discussed optional or undesirable features. These findings may inform development of voice and communication training software, thus improving health and quality of life for gender minorities.

Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IQiDqOJe58

Please cite as: Walsh, R. and Einstein, G. (2016). (Trans)Feminism, Bodily Autonomy, and Situated Neuroscience: Separating Gender from Genitalia in Medicine and Feminism to Move Beyond the Binary. In Trans*Formations (pp. 16-18). 14-15 June 2016. Lisbon. Retrieved from https://transrightseurope.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/trans_formations-abstracts-and-bios3.pdf

Abstract:
A recurring problem for many marginalised groups is the ubiquitous trend to use sex and sexuality as a site for
sensationalism and moralisation. The barriers to equitable societal circumstance for stigmatized sexual expressions
- lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer (LGBQ) people and sex workers - centre on a social construction of a norm
defining the acceptable nature and context for sexual congress, the boundaries of which are policed by public and
private discourses. A similar and well documented issue exists for transgender people for whom a focus on their
genitals as the site of gender identification polices their gender. One outcome of this is that because genitals are
viewed as binary, sexual identifications are viewed as binary and trans individuals are expected to tell a story about
their ‘transness’ that is either male or female. This constrains gender and allows a very small box in which to fit one’s identity, and may lead to trans patients being indirectly pressured into a more binary gender and transition than best suits their identity. Another outcome is that the practice of transitional medicine becomes engulfed in a focus on genital binarism which then corrupts both research and clinical practice. For example, a majority of standardised diagnostic questionnaires for ascertaining gender identity are built on an assumption that desires for surgical and endocrinological transition will be central to the experiences that define a person as trans. These questionnaires may therefore fail to highlight other, perhaps more important, factors in the experience of gender identity such as social dysphoria (concerns with how one is perceived by self or others, in respect of one’s gender), or the surprisingly prevalent other forms of gender variance which do not conform to the dominant narrative of trans* genders, and in which gender identification contrary to assigned birth may not present dysphoria of the sort these surveys tend to anticipate. For example, upwards of 35% of presumed-cisgender individuals questioned with a non-dichotomous gender identity questionnaire identify to some extent as the ‘other’ gender, both or neither (Joel et al., 2013). Thus, the assumption that needs to be challenged is that identification with a gender (in terms of group identity or perceived traits) is the same as identification as a gender (personal identity), and that either of these implies a particular sex-identity, or even a particular body map. These assumptions are born of the three cornerstone misconceptions of cisgenderism: (i) that in a state of natural good health the human body is sexed in a dichotomous way that has only two forms; (ii) that the sex of the body is directly equivalent to the gender of the person; and (iii) that the external characteristics of sex (especially the genitals) are the sole signifiers of sex and gender, and are themselves therefore binary. Surprisingly, important theoretical parallels and contrasts may be drawn between trans people who seek or have undergone surgical changes to their bodies that reflect their sex- identity and women with female genital circumcision/mutilation/cutting (FGC) showing that the focus on genitalia as determining gender creates categorical binaries that haunt other groups as well. In fact, on some accounts and cultures, FGC is carried out in order to instantiate a gender binary where one was not thought to exist prior; establishing gender by modifying the genitalia is one important reason that cultures practice FGC. (One might say that this is also why cis women undergo ‘cosmetic’ surgery.) In turn, women with FGC face similar issues as trans people vis à vis researchers' and clinicians' preoccupation with their genitals in almost every aspect of research about them. FGC intervenes upon their genitalia, as the presumed location of gender. An interesting overlap between the group of women with FGC and male trans individuals is their very literal meeting in Trinidad, Colorado where both go to modify their genitalia to match their gender; women with FGC go for clitoral ‘restoration’ and trans men go to receive phalloplasty or similar ‘masculinising’ gender-reaffirming surgeries – all undergone because gender is linked in the collective social consciousness to genitalia. How do we move beyond this binary? Using feminist principles such as a mixture of approaches which blended reflexive awareness of the personal narratives of participants (first person), and the interpersonal spaces in which interviews and physiological examinations took place (second person), with the impersonal, traditionally "objective" measures of physiological states and changes (third person) Einstein (2012) examined the neuroplastic changes beyond the genitalia that followed FGC in a group of Somali-Canadian women living in Toronto. She called this ‘situated neuroscience’ and through this mixture of methods she was able to bring the subjective under scientific scrutiny - a platform previously reserved for 'objective' observations - or rather, observations made through the hegemonic and consequently hidden subjectivity of white, cis-het, male privilege. As the nervous system may become a locus of change by FGC, some trans individuals identify an aspect of their brain (somewhat or sometimes in its relation to their society) that requires them to modify their bodies, thus involving the brain and nervous systems in both these performances of gender. the phenomenon of phantom genitals in pre- and post-surgery trans persons as compared to cisgender persons with similar modifications to their body for other medical reasons (e.g. penectomy for the treatment of cancer), wherein the presence of such a phantom is positively correlated with the extent to which the individual identifies with those genitals and their functions as social signifiers of gender (Ramachandran and McGeogh 2007). We believe that feminist approaches may be helpful in eliminating the focus on genitals and the accompanying sensationalism and moralization and as a corollary, a reification of gender binaries. For example, if we move beyond the genitals alone, to their connection with the nervous system, we see the reciprocal relationship of the nervous system and the rest of the body expanding to omnidirectional influences of brain, body and society upon each other and thus, opening pathways for imbrigation of every body system with each other and with the world. As an occasion for demonstrating their utility, this paper aims to use feminist approaches to address the methodological and ethical implications of the reciprocity between body, brain and society that these similarities and differences between the corporeal interplay experienced by both Somali-Canadian women with FGC and transsexual persons, and develop an understanding of the role of feminist science in the pursuit of social connectedness and bodily autonomy for both these groups. In this way we hope to move beyond the simplistic binary account of genitalia equals a binary notion of gender to one which is properly situated (as in Haraway 1988) in the intersecting systems of the corporeal body (includes the brain, Grosz) and society, and so to enhance bodily autonomy.

As a research team focused on vulnerable youth, we increasingly need to find ways to acknowledge non-binary genders in health research. Youth have become more vocal about expanding notions of gender beyond traditional categories of boy/man and girl/woman. Integrating non-binary identities into established research processes is a complex undertaking in a culture that often assumes gender is a binary variable. In this article, we present the challenges at every stage of the research process and questions we have asked ourselves to consider non-binary genders in our work. As researchers, how do we interrogate the assumptions that have made non-binary lives invisible? What challenges arise when attempting to transform research practices to incorporate non-binary genders? Why is it crucial that researchers consider these questions at each step of the research process? We draw on our own research experiences to highlight points of tensions and possibilities for change. Improving access to inclusive health-care for non-binary people, and non-binary youth in particular, is part of creating a more equitable healthcare system. We argue that increased and improved access to inclusive health-care can be supported by research that acknowledges and includes people of all genders. K E Y W O R D S gender, gender-and sex-based analysis, gender identity, health research, non-binary gender, population health, research methodology, transgender, youth In March 2015, our research team went to a Vancouver high school to administer an annual questionnaire in a longitudinal study on student wellness. We had arranged to visit all of the classrooms–sur-veying nearly 1400 students—over 2 weeks. On Friday morning, a student asked why there were only two options describing sex (male and female), rather than a range of options for gender (e.g., girl, boy, genderqueer). We explained that while it was not ideal, we had chosen to limit the options to male and female because in past school-based surveys, providing a write-in option for gender identity in addition to sex has led to measurement error. Some youth do not understand questions about gender identity, or they treat the question as a joke. We encouraged the student, and the entire class, to use the comments section to express their opinion about the question. We said we would investigate other options for the survey next year. Over the next week, a student in every classroom we visited asked us a similar question.

This study adds to the growing body of knowledge on gender nonconformity aspects of heteronormativity by examining its impact on the life course of hijras and their access to fundamental human rights in Pakistan. Drawing on 50 semi-structured interviews conducted in two sites, the findings suggest that the participants’ lived experiences associated with gender nonconformity significantly influenced the direction of their life course and their ability to have access to human rights. These experiences spanned from childhood to elderhood across a wide range of settings, such as family, school, guru dera (residence headed by a hijra guru), workplace, and interactions with authorities. The participants’ human rights were not recognized, resulting in abuse, social stigma and discrimination against them and their exclusion from mainstream society. Finally, implications are drawn for public policy and future research on third gender concerns in Pakistan and elsewhere.

Keywords: Access to fundamental human rights, gender binarism, hijras, life course, Pakistan