Gender essentialism
Binary view of gender
Gender Stereotype Gender
Prejudice against
Identification
non-binary people
Figure 2.3 Indirect effect
more definable space of being. A wide variety of gender identities are available to those previously unresolved. They have thus formed their own associated groups around identity; placement is more suited to a spectrum or range, rather than previously restrictive binary models of being. This formation of shared identity is the purpose of the inbetween: it is the area where the undefined becomes defined, and
of gender identification on prejudice against nonbinary people. Diagram adapted from Defending the Sex/Gender Binary: The
where differences are embraced.
Role of Gender Identification
Before one creates an identity in opposition to normativity, it must first be found within a space of supposed uncertainty. The common place misconception about queer people is that they exist in a state of uncertainty until they do not (until they come out of the closet). While you would be right about this to some extent, queer people are subject to a perpetual state of uncertainty, in a constant state of disclosure and concealment, since gay identity is neither hidden or displayed.6 With a growing acceptance of homosexuality in Western culture, it is less clear if the space of uncertainty will remain a prerequisite to the space of being or the space of identity creation. An unlikely scenario could be the emancipation of uncertainty all together, and a welcoming of fluid identity transformations and a shared comfort in existing outside of a heteronormative binary.
by Morgenroth, Thekla,
and Need for Closure. Image
Existing in a space of uncertainty includes far more than one's sexual preference or gender identity, encompassing ideas of race, ethnicity, politics, etc. Although this research remains anchored in queer and gender theory, it can be applied more broadly and then narrowed into a
6
Henry Urbach, “Closets, Clothes, & disClosure,” in assemblage no. 30, (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996), 63.
Queer Tectonics: Unfolding Liminal Space
16
Sendén, M. Gustafsson and Lindqvist, A. Sage Journals. 2020.
