Gender Nonconformists: Male and female,
reconsidered By Aimee Maude Sims / Associated
Press, ASAP service
January 24, 2007 (Associated Press - ASAP service) AIMEE MAUDE
SIMS considers the taunting and violence directed at people who don't
fit into society's gender roles. An asap podcast.
Some young people don't comfortably fit within society's conventions of
male and female -- the boy who plays with dolls, say, or the girl who
plays football. They may or may not be gay or transgender, but that
doesn't matter to those who taunt them or assault them -- or,
occasionally, even murder them.
"Gender nonconformity" is a term used to identify such people, who are
particularly at risk of name-calling -- or worse -- if they're going
through their teenage years.
Riki Wilchins, executive director of the Gender Public Advocacy
Coalition, or GenderPAC, says it's a matter of "gender identity" and
"gender expression." The topic is sensitive and a matter of considerable
debate, but generally speaking, "gender identity" is defined as an inner
sense of being male or female while "gender expression" is how we all
manifest our masculinity or femininity.
In other words, how a person experiences and expresses gender come
together as part of the fine art of being human.
For some, failing to match people's expectations about gender can put
them at serious risk.
GenderPAC released a report called "50 under 30: Masculinity and the War
on America's Youth," documenting the deaths of 50 gender nonconformists
under the age of 30 from 1995 to 2005. The youngest, Sakia Gunn, was 15.
According to the report, which used Web sites, hate crimes reports,
newspaper accounts and online databases to compile the data, most of the
victims were people of color who died particularly violent deaths. All
of the assailants are believed to be male.
Though the report methodology states that it's "impossible to determine
with complete confidence" whether gender was a factor in the crimes,
there's no question that young people who "transgress" gender lines
often experience persecution for presenting themselves in a way that's
too feminine to be "manly" or too masculine to be "ladylike."
This
podcast aims to explore the reasons behind the humiliation
and harassment many gender nonconforming youth face on a daily basis,
and tries to unravel why these conflicts sometimes end in murder.
