a gu(y)ide to g(wom)ender fl(yo)uidity
What is Gender Fluidity?
Someone who gender identity or expression shifts between man/ masculine and woman/feminine or falls somewhere along this spectrum. National Geographic
Gender fluidity is the idea that there aren’t just two genders and that gender is on a spectrum. Tom, 24
I think it means someone who may think of themselves as male or female (or somewhere in between) at different stages of their life. Perry, 50 I believe it to be where a person does not assign to one gender. Freya, 18
Gender fluidity is strange combination of words,but fluid is substance that flows easily such as a liquid or gas. So in the context given, presumably it means the ability to flow easily between different genders. John, 85
Interview with Alex Van-Gelder chair of SHU LGBT+ group and identifies as gender fluid
Chloe Re
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CR: When did you realise you wanted to identify as gender fluid? AVG: I can remember being four years old and thinking to myself one day, ‘I want to be a girl when I’m older,’ then a few days later looking back and thinking ‘I don’t want to be a girl, that’s weird’. I’ve always done that, I’ve always jumped from one to another.
ees: How would you explain gender fluidity?
-Gelder: Gender fluidity is a bit of an umbrella term, so gender means someone who their experiences with gender changes of a iod of time. So gender fluidity is where you feel like your sex and an express your gender, it can move. So some days you can wake o ‘yeah I’m definitely a guy, I’m not really sure where this whole ng came from’, and the next day you can wake up look in the d you can’t leave your house because everything feels wrong.
CR: Do you think there has been an obstacles you have had to face being
AVG: Um, it depends, personally, my god yes, every fricking day, it’s a nig and the uni is even worse. So for example, gender fluid means that you’re t a lot of gender fluid people change their name. I think people used my ‘de in here on Friday, bearing in mind, they’ve never known me as anything oth
CR: There has been a lot fluid lines, what do you t AVG: The most popular on it was started by a woman lesbian and her partner is what you do is you send a clothes. You pick and cho works if you’re stupidly ric
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AVG: It has an absolute massive impact on your life with relationships being gender fluid. It complicates things, it can make things that are normally quite simple, things like that can get complicated very quickly. Other things are, have you ever tried buying heels in a size ten?
of brands that have tried to create gender think of this? ne that is used across the world, was started in America and n, she’s actually a cis woman, she’s not trans but she is a s trans. I can’t think for the life of me what it is called, but photo in of styles that you like and they basically send you oose what you want, only a t shirt is around 400 dollars, so it ch, average Joe it doesn’t work so well.
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CR: Zara is a high street brand who have attempted a gender fluid line much shape to itand when I’ve been looking into gender fluid clothing t particularly in America that do it but like you said the stuff is so expen
AVG: There is a reason for it as well, when you make things for gende non-binary people(non binary is everything in-between), you can ge pletely different anatomy, so you can get people who have breasts, y have larger hips and then you can get the reverse, its very difficult t people like that because you can’t take all of those things into accoun CR: What are your thoughts on celebrities such as Ruby Rose who identifies as gender fluid? AVG: The vast majority of the trans community have massive crushes on Ruby Rose. I think in media, there is a very very big problem because they tend to make a very very big thing out of someone being trans; I don’t know if you’ve seen the OA on Netflix? In that, there is a trans character, its mentioned once, it is never mentioned again, its not like it is avoided its just not relevant, its not a thing, its just normalised. Whereas, the vast majority of media and so on glam it all up and make it sound completely different to how it actually is.
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er fluid people or et people with a comyou can get people who to assign clothes to nt easily.
AVG: When you take all those things into account, it means that trying to produce clothes for people with all these different things can be very very difficult because you’d need loads of different styles, loads of different templates, that’s why they’re so expensive.
CR: What do you think could be done to make people more aware of th gender fluidity? AVG: The issue I have personally with gender fluid is if you say that to so immediately stop taking you seriously but there was also a time where if y say to someone, I’m gay they would stop taking you seriously. Society has progressing over time, I think it will be one of those things that takes tim gress, it will become more and more integrated into society and eventuall like just saying you’re gay for example.
CR: Do you think it is important for people to start understanding this? AVG: One of the key things for someone who is gender fluid is pronouns. The most common ones are he, she and there is a lot of people like myself who use they. I don’t think there needs to be an awareness in terms of knowing loads about it, in my opinion, unless it actually affects someone else then there is no need to make them aware of it. What there is a need to make people aware of is pronouns. When you’re gender fluid or trans at all, when someone gets your pronouns wrong, it is a little bit soul destroying.
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Questions most of us don’t know the answers to What does androgyny mean? A combination of masculine and feminine traits or a non traditional gender expression. National Geographic What do you think androgyny means? Androgyny (I think) is more to do with outward appearance of the gender rather than the individuals gender ‘assignment’. Tim, 27 Androgynists have both male and female body parts – they may identify as one or the other or may not but it is about physical features. Debbie,48 Androgyny is the combination of male and female characteristics. John, 85
What does it mean to be transgender? Sometimes abbreviated to “trans� , an adjective used to describe a person whose gender identity does not match the biological sex they were assigned at birth. National Geographic
What do you think it means to be transgender? This is where someone is biologically assigned to one gender but surgically changes gender they feel they are. Freya, 18 This is where something thinks of themselves as not being male or female despite being born with the physical attributes of either. (or somewhere inbetween) Perry, 50 I think it isto have switched genders at some point or to be in the process of switching genders. Tom, 24
Gender Fluidity goes beyond fa Gender fluidity is a concept that most of us are just being introduced to, we have been aware of the term transgender for many years now and this is another minority group we as a society need to become aware of. Gender fluidity within the media is portrayed as a trend and as though it doesn’t go further than how individuals dress. It is so much more than waking up in the morning and conflicting with yourself about whether to put a skirt and heels on, those who identify as gender fluid battle with it everyday in their own heads and within society. Fashion has began to invest in the revolution that is identifying gender as a spectrum, high street brand Zara launched a gender neutral line called the ‘ungendered’ collection which consisted of 8 key pieces: t-shirts, hoodies and jeans. The only colours these pieces come in are grey, white and navy and for most people this wasn’t good enough in terms of an attempt at creating a gender fluid line. The garments they chose to include in their collection didn’t challenge fashion ideas enough for consumers to get excited, men and women have been wearing jeans and hoodies for years.
ashion At the higher end of the fashion market, Louis Vuitton featured actor Jaden Smith wearing a skirt in their Spring 2016 Womenswear campaign. Jaden Smith enjoys wearing what he wants, he doesn’t see gender in clothing and says he is “just expressing how I feel inside, which is really no particular way because everyday it changes how I feel about the world and myself.” He represents a generation who are pushing boundaries when it comes to fashion but his experience is marginally different to those who identify as gender fluid. It appears fun for Jaden to deliberate each day with what he wants to wear but for gender fluid individuals, every day can be a battle and it isn’t enjoyable. Although, Jaden is a great advocate for encouraging all of us to wear what we want, gender fluid goes beyond this and society needs to learn that is isn’t just a trend that fashion can latch on to for one year.
Written and Produced by Chloe Rees Photographs by Chloe Rees With thanks to Sheffield Hallam University LGBT+ Group