Genderquake - Our next generation?
I was wondering if any of you have been watching Genderquake on E4.
I found this program fascinating, having grown up in a world where the most unusual gender issue would be whether you are gay or not.
The concept for the program was to put a number of people with various gender identities into a house together for a week.
There was a gay man, a gay female, a straight man, a straight woman, a number of transexuals post and pre surgery, a person who had the XXY chromosome and another who was gender binary
I had never heard of gender binary (where someone doesn't identify with either male or female), and the issues that this can create for a person.
Similarly, I had not heard of the XXY Chromosome or Klinefelter Syndrome where a male is born with an extra X chromosome which can lead to some changes to their body at puberty, including the growth of breasts. In this program the person with this condition identified as female but I understand this can be different for everybody who has this condition and many can go through puberty without significant changes.
It was really interesting to see how these young people coped with their gender identities, some were accepting, some confused, some 100% comfortable.
The thing that saddened me the most was seeing the oldest of the group at 30, a female to male transexual, seem to be the least accepting of acknowledging who they were. They didn't tell the group they were trans and so it came out as gossip during the week, which that person didn't feel comfortable with. Prior to this he had kissed the heterosexual woman who was clearly now very uncomfortable with this, as she said 'women are women and men are men' she didn't see or understand anything else, which raised the question, should he have told her he was once a woman?
This question divided the group. And no clear answer was reached, which isn't surprising as this is an incredibly grey area, I would certainly want to know if I was embarking on a relationship with a trans person as this may have an impact on things like how we have a family, however, just for a kiss...? I am not sure I would need full disclosure for that.
We saw when the straight female talked in the group, and said you couldn't be a woman with out a uterus. Which is ridiculous. As I tweeted, I am an adopted child, a uterus didn't impact the woman who bought me up, she was an amazing woman and mother.
What was clear, was the lesbian and gay man were very comfortable with who they were and that was reassuring to see that in today's society that has come on leaps and bounds from my generation and before, where sexuality was hidden and people were embarrassed to be who they were.
I was also hearten to hear the gender binary person feel confident enough to talk about this, even though this is something people haven't talked a lot about over the last fifty years, to my knowledge anyway. I suspect it is more common than you think, when you think about that person you have worked with, maybe, who never had a relationship and just kept themselves to themselves...?
I think it is wonderful to see the next generation of people being able to be open about their gender identities, they are still bullied and pressurised but they are making way for the next generation and the next, why can't we be more gender fluid if we want to?
I am proud to be in a country where people can talk openly about gender and how they feel, but I fear that there are still people with so much ignorance out there, hopefully this type of program can only educate and improve how we think.
I found this program fascinating, having grown up in a world where the most unusual gender issue would be whether you are gay or not.
The concept for the program was to put a number of people with various gender identities into a house together for a week.
There was a gay man, a gay female, a straight man, a straight woman, a number of transexuals post and pre surgery, a person who had the XXY chromosome and another who was gender binary
I had never heard of gender binary (where someone doesn't identify with either male or female), and the issues that this can create for a person.
Similarly, I had not heard of the XXY Chromosome or Klinefelter Syndrome where a male is born with an extra X chromosome which can lead to some changes to their body at puberty, including the growth of breasts. In this program the person with this condition identified as female but I understand this can be different for everybody who has this condition and many can go through puberty without significant changes.
It was really interesting to see how these young people coped with their gender identities, some were accepting, some confused, some 100% comfortable.
The thing that saddened me the most was seeing the oldest of the group at 30, a female to male transexual, seem to be the least accepting of acknowledging who they were. They didn't tell the group they were trans and so it came out as gossip during the week, which that person didn't feel comfortable with. Prior to this he had kissed the heterosexual woman who was clearly now very uncomfortable with this, as she said 'women are women and men are men' she didn't see or understand anything else, which raised the question, should he have told her he was once a woman?
This question divided the group. And no clear answer was reached, which isn't surprising as this is an incredibly grey area, I would certainly want to know if I was embarking on a relationship with a trans person as this may have an impact on things like how we have a family, however, just for a kiss...? I am not sure I would need full disclosure for that.
We saw when the straight female talked in the group, and said you couldn't be a woman with out a uterus. Which is ridiculous. As I tweeted, I am an adopted child, a uterus didn't impact the woman who bought me up, she was an amazing woman and mother.
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| As all the Genderquake pictures are copyrighted, here is a lovely picture of a peony. You're welcome. |
What was clear, was the lesbian and gay man were very comfortable with who they were and that was reassuring to see that in today's society that has come on leaps and bounds from my generation and before, where sexuality was hidden and people were embarrassed to be who they were.
I was also hearten to hear the gender binary person feel confident enough to talk about this, even though this is something people haven't talked a lot about over the last fifty years, to my knowledge anyway. I suspect it is more common than you think, when you think about that person you have worked with, maybe, who never had a relationship and just kept themselves to themselves...?
I think it is wonderful to see the next generation of people being able to be open about their gender identities, they are still bullied and pressurised but they are making way for the next generation and the next, why can't we be more gender fluid if we want to?
I am proud to be in a country where people can talk openly about gender and how they feel, but I fear that there are still people with so much ignorance out there, hopefully this type of program can only educate and improve how we think.
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