Gender Pending: About

Gender Pending is a project created and designed by Bonny Guang and Lowell Reade, two students at Harvey Mudd College, California.

The premise of this project is to broaden the Mudd community's perception of what gender is, and what gender norms are. The thing that bothers us the most at Mudd in relation to queer issues is the complacency of the community in ignoring gender variance on its campus. This project hopes to address this problem by confronting the narrow construction of gender. It draws on the ideas of performance and performativity, and embodies a queer aesthetic by queering the campus through forcing people to see aspects of their peers that were formerly invisible. This is the reason we have decided to title this project Gender Pending. It draws an analogy to title pending, as well as gender bending, and further queers peoples' expectations of a well-defined gender. We hope that this project will spark discussion on campus revolving around gender.

If you have something to say, please comment! We'd really appreciate it.

Gender Pending: Methodology

A range of quotes and pictures are flyered across the entire campus. They include responses to gender-hate, gender-victimization, gender norms, and just plain gender.

We took pictures of 8 Mudd students in their natural gender expression at a location of their choice. They all submitted a quote as well critiquing gender norms or talking about gender identity. We formatted the quote across their picture, printed it black and white onto a tabloid/newsprint sized paper, and then put copies of it up around campus.

All had a link to this blog, which hosts a digital copy of every poster we put up. By scrolling through, you will be able to experience quotes and visuals, develop ideas. We invite you to comment on posters, whether you liked or disliked them, what you thought of them, what they made you think.

Terms

Terms that may help you navigate:
Transgender: A general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to diverge from the normative gender roles.

Transsexual: A person who identifies with the "opposite" gender than the one they were assigned at birth.

Genderqueer: A catchall term for gender identities other than man or woman.

Genderfuck: Self-conscious effort in fucking with traditional notions of gender identity and performance.

Queer Aesthetic: A type of aesthetic that seeks to break down preconceived notions of the roles men and women play in society.

Most definitions are culled from Wikipedia. Wikipedia probably stole them from elsewhere. We attempt to give proper attribution to the source that Wikipedia took the words from.

Katie

Megan

ambiguous is beautiful

beauty is ambiguous

Bonny

e e cummings

girlyfag?

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this poster. DOS stamped it because it is a gender identity. I (Bonny) personally think it is a gender identity as well, and when I thought of it (yes, it is my quote, the majority of the non-picture ones are actually my quotes, as otherwise we wouldn't have had enough material to put up) I actually imagined it as something happy, uplifting and childish with a question mark at the end. However, other people do not feel this way, and we can recognize this in hindsight.

What can I say? Maybe someday fag will be reclaimed in the mainstream as something celebratory, just like queer has, and this poster won't be construed as offensive anymore. Even queer hasn't really been reclaimed, as the older generation still finds it a derogatory term.

Until then, I apologize for the distress this has caused anyone.

-Bonny Guang, 12/16/09

FAERIE!

Monday I'm a Boy, Tuesday I'm a Girl...

credit goes to: http://trans.kolyafloit.com/archives/parents-why-were-way-too-hard-on-them

Fuck the gender binary, buck the gender finary!

I Love Being Trans, Don't Make Me A Victim

Bob

Man? Woman? 8 Page Essay on My Gender?

Don't Call Me a Lady, You Didn't Ask

1. Not everyone at Mudd identifies with the gender they were assigned at birth. Why do people have to be addressed as ladies? They're just people.

2. Referring to people as ladies is patronizing.

Just because I'm butch, doesn't mean I don't wear skirts

Lowell

Elly

Bea

Ozzie

For Further Reading

We are not a fountain of information. We hope that this project sparked your interest, and that you would like to learn more about gender as a social construct. If you see us around, feel free to talk. In regards to the reach of this project though, this is the end. However, if you're interested in learning more, take Queer Studies! Barring that, reading more about gender and gender variance:
-Diagnosing Difference
--Brilliant movie. Documentary on GID (gender identity disorder) being a psychological disorder in the DSM-IV (diagnostic statistical manual 4). A broad view of being transgender.
-Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity by Mattilda Berstein Sycamore
--Anthology regarding the notion of passing as part of the violence of assimilation.
-That's Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation edited by Mattilda Berstein Sycamore
--A radical book dedicated to resisting the homogenization of queer culture, to activism, and to challenging ideas of class, gender, race, and social change.
-Transgender History by Susan Stryker
--How it really went down.
-Transgeneration
--Movie on four transsexual college kids going through college and going through the transitioning process.

There's more, obviously. There's always more. This is just a beginning.


Or, ways in which YOU (yes, YOU!) can help create a safer place for gender variant people:
-http://www.safe2pee.org
A wiki-style site where anyone can enter in gender neutral and disability accessible bathrooms in the area.
-http://www.rpya.org/Qmunity/
Rainbow Pride Youth Alliance, the one-room queer resource center to serve all of San Bernadino to Riverside. Opportunities to volunteer galore, if you're willing to take a Metro ride out to San Bernadino.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun#Summary
A list of gender pronouns. Clearly this is not an exhaustive list, but it is a start. (Thanks Skye)
-Keep in mind gender pronouns. Ask if you don't know. Don't assume. Make the effort to learn.