The End Of Gender As We Know It?!?!?!?!?!?
At the end of their article, Dembroff asks, “Are we nearing the end of gender as we know it?” What do you think?
I don’t think we are nearing the end of gender as we know it. I hope we are but I don’t think we are as close as we want to be or should be to the end of gender as we know it.
Media tells us a lot about our society, it is a reflection of people’s views, and looking at the GLAAD 2020 Where We Are on TV report we get a good visual as to how far we still have to go. Consider this excerpt from the 2020 report; “Across all three platforms [Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime], there are 29 regular and recurring transgender characters. These characters include 15 trans women, 12 trans men, and two trans characters who are non-binary.” There is a huge lack of trans character, and within the lack of trans characters there is an even greater lack of non-binary characters.
Media both impacts and reflects society and if we don’t have mainstream media that pushes past society’s current view of gender as a binary then a similar trend will be seen in society. There are groups within our society that push against the idea of binary gender (mainly the queer community) but these groups are minorities and are often ignored, underrepresented, and mistreated.
There are also so many layers to dig through to be able to uproot the traditional view of gender. There’s the colonization aspect(gender binary and the strict gender roles that we have are intrinsic of colonialism) as we learned when we looked at the various gender identities that existed in cultures before colonization attempted to erase them. There’s also the extreme misogyny that still exists (which both will be dismantled when gender is dismantled and also needs to be dismantled in order for gender to be more easily dismantled because misogyny feeds directly into and is fed by traditional binary gender roles).
I think our society is becoming much more accepting of queer identities, more with sexuality then gender, but a lot of progress has been and continues to be made in regards to both. However, acceptance is not the same as actively trying to change how we see gender as a society and though it is a step in the right direction and with enough time and enough work from the people in positions of power then I think we can reach the end of gender as we know it.
What do you think about this topic?
Have you seen the GLAAD reports before?
Do you think society is more impacted by media or that media is just a reflection of society? Or a combination of both?
I agree with you, Bronwyn! I think that as much progress as we're making with being accepting and making attempts to change our views of gender, there are still institutions and places where gender binaries are still heavily pushed, which is holding us back from officially declaring gender to be dead. However socially, I feel that a lot of people are reevaluating their own gender and are realizing that they don't have to be whatever society is trying to push onto them. So, we are moving away from pushing gender roles, but we still have a ways to go.
ReplyDeleteAs an add-on to my comment, I had not seen the GLAAD reports before, and it was interesting to see how much LGBTQ+ representation there was. I agree with you that media impacts and is a reflection of society. An example of media impacting society is characters from shows that inspire viewers to feel confident in their identity and feel free to identify the way they feel. For me, that show was Steven Universe, however that show still has a ways to go with addressing racism. An example of media reflecting society is on shows that mainly contain straight, cis characters. This shows that gender binary and heterosexuality are still considered the norm, even with as much progress as we have been making.
DeleteI think the GLAAD study is a very good addition to this post, as I was completely unaware on where trans people, as well as the LGBT community as a whole, are in terms of being properly represented. I agree with you that while the fundamental deconstructing of gender roles is the best hope for the future, it doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon. I think one important point as to the reason for that is because large mainstream media networks and corporations are always years behind the current climate, and since they are the ones who supplement the economy the most, they will be the last and most prolific groups to continue to uphold gender roles.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen the GLAAD reports before and that definitely gave a clear idea of how little representation there is on trans people and the LGBTQ + community in media. I agree with you that the media both influences society and reflects it, which we can see with the results of the GLAAD report you mentioned. Although there has been notable progress with representation, inclusivity, and visibility until now, it is still not nearly enough, in both media and society, thus affecting one or the other (not sure if that sentence made sense but hopefully you get what I'm trying to say).
ReplyDelete