Gender fluidity suggests diverse ways of representing oneself in society; anatomical sex has always been defined socially by a gender role and subjectively as gender identity (Stryker, 2006).
Judith Butler perfectly explains how sex, gender and sexuality interact; she questioned the gender binary distinction, suggesting that “biology is always given cultural meaning and, therefore, perhaps sex was always gender” (Butler, 2008, as cited in McCann, 2020, p. 4).
If biology and sexed bodies are given cultural meaning, then the very concept of distinction that there are only two genders has always been created and, therefore, contrived. This essay will convey how gender identity is a social construct and, therefore, mutable.
Susan Stryker (2006) challenged this fixed idea of an identity based on sexed bodies and said, “What we typically call the sex of the body, which we imagine to be a uniform quality that uniquely characterizes every individual whole body, is shown to consist of numerous parts–chromosomal sex, anatomical sex, reproductive sex, morphological sex-that can, and do, form a variety of viable bodily aggregations that number far more than two.
The wholeness of the body and “sameness” of its sex are themselves revealed to be socially constructed” (Stryker, 2006, p. 9). Stryker’s argument highlights the need to critically examine the social and cultural norms that shape our understanding of sex and gender. It underscores the importance of recognizing the diversity and complexity of human bodies and experiences (Stryker, 2006).
The central ideas of Queer Theory highlight the rejection of fixed identities and rigid categories. “The insistence of indefinability hints Queer Theory as a lens that emphasizes the slipperiness of meaning and the transgression of categories and boundaries” (McCann, 2020, p. 4).
According to feminist theory, gender is distinct from biological sex (Mikkola, 2019), but scholars such as Judith Butler, argue that it is essentially the same. Gender can also be nourished and developed; according to Jack Halberstam (2017, p. 118), “one should be able to freely choose and cultivate, and as of gender as a set of free-floating custom options for an embodiment that must be protected and not submitted to a regime of forced decision making”.
Intersexuality challenges traditional binary gender norms as well, by presenting a spectrum of biological variations that defy the male/female dichotomy. “As the ambiguous bodies of the physically intersexed demonstrate in the most palpable sense imaginable, “sex,” any sex, is a category “which is not one” (Stryker, 2006, p. 9). In short, the wholeness of a body within a gender category and the idea of having homogeneity within a gender when every single body is the same is not accurate.
There are variations from body to body; it is at this point of palpable evidence that trans theory, in particular, problematizes the gender binary and the heteronormative’s cultural conception of having two stable, rigid binaries.
There continues to be a diversity of ways that one can identify without being constrained by sexed bodies. New understandings of ‘transrealties’ have emerged along the deep engagement with the notion of performance and performativity (in basic terms, how sexed bodies are socially assigned roles and prescribed behavioral patterns).
This is a point where trans theory subverts these expectations and problematizes the binary standards. An adequate and resisting notion of gender fluidity challenges normative or naturalized ways of representing gender and inherently affirms that gender is a fluid concept (Russell, 2023b). It recognizes that rigid gender identity can have social benefits and disadvantages to an individual. For instance, the term ‘trans’ is often preferred in academic studies as it problematizes normativity and, according to Halberstam (2018, as cited in Russel, 2023a) “, refuses to deliver certainty through the act of naming, which can potentially be freeing” (1.11).
According to the Queer, the term genderqueer, for example, describes a personal identity that exists outside of the gender binary. “Second, it can refer to an identity that consists of a particular amalgamation of masculine and feminine traits (or even the rejection of all such traits). Third, the word can represent an identity that embraces a fluidity of gender” (Otis, 2015, p. 6).
Queer theory highlights the need to resist the heteronormative views of gender and restriction to the embodiment of sex (McCann, 2020). In addition, in a queer-representing memoir, Dress Rehearsals by Madison Godfrey explores the fluidity of gender and sexuality, depicting the protagonist’s journey to self-discovery through various gender identities.
In the novel, there is a poem dedicated to self-love and learning to identify oneself within one’s body; it is an embracing message to the queer community (Godfrey, 2023). Dress Rehearsals challenges the traditional binary construction of gender and presents it as a spectrum of possibilities (Godfrey, 2023). The work also highlights the intersectionality of identities and the importance of embracing diversity and complexity.
Queer theory and Transgender theory, in particular, question both the fixity/biology of sex and the wholeness/fixed meaning of the body. Trans studies show that the body is a narrative fiction meant to construct a sense of the wholeness and self-consistency of the body; in that, we can argue, according to theories like Stryker’s, that numerous parts of a body, chromosomes, anatomical body parts, reproductive organs form a variety of viable bodily aggregations (Stryker, 2006).
To conclude, it is imperative to acknowledge that gender is not limited to just two binaries. The human body’s numerous multiplicative and invariable factors give rise to a diverse range of gender identities.
References
Godfrey, M. (2023). Dress rehearsals. Allen & Unwin.
Halberstam, J. (2017). Trans: A quick and quirky account of gender variability. Berkeley: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520966109
McCann, H. (2020). Defining queer theory. In queer theory now: from foundations to futures (pp. 1–21). Red Globe Press.
Mikkola, M. (2019). feminist perspectives on sex and gender. In Edward N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2019 Edition). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2019/entries/feminism-gender/
Otis, H. (2015). Genderqueer: What it means. Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado, 4(3), 2.
Russell, M. (2023a). Transforming gender. [ilecture]. Blackboard. https://echo360.net.au/ui/player/440b870e-4ec9-49c4-900a-e9225a932c4d?secureLinkAccessDataId=985e5411-10fe-475b-8d5b-bd763c4735f9&autoplay=false&automute=false
Russell, M. (2023b). Queerness. [ilecture]. Blackboard. https://echo360.net.au/ui/player/562692d0-74f1-459a-8012-e0187c92623f?secureLinkAccessDataId=b3ed89fa-b318-4693-bf25-ba79a9a96fa1&autoplay=false&automute=false&sessionId=cd0f8cd1-3a79-436e-ba65-d71de3008136
Stryker, S. (2006). (De)subjugated knowledges: an introduction to transgender studies. In Susan. Stryker & S. Whittle (Eds.), The transgender studies reader [electronic resource] (pp. 1–15). Routledge.