Member-only story
Non-Binary & Female Personhood
Years ago, feminists would argue that women were multifaceted, complex and capable. Qualities previously reserved for men, it was crucial to women’s liberation from the stifling gender role in which they were thought to be so intrinsically bound that the emphasis was placed on their ability, as women, to be able to openly exist as such. It is something most of us would take for granted now — after all, we can be journalists, CEOs or even presidential candidates. Society, we are told, has rid itself of sex-based limitations; instead, oppression manifests in our denial of gender plurality and an individual’s right to live as their ‘authentic self’. The ever growing popularity of ‘non-binary’, however, raises serious questions about how limitless sexed bodies really are and what it means to inhabit (or escape) them.
Recently, the Guardian published statistics that reveal gender identity clinics have had a 100% increase in referrals in the last year. Female referrals now outnumber males’ at 913 to 485, despite only 10–30% of trans men going on to have bottom surgery compared to 60% of trans women. Arguably, the disparity between these statistics indicate a different dynamic involved in the experience of having gender dysphoria and being female — one that points towards a discomfort first and foremost with an external eye and social pressure. Surgery, it is worth noting, is not even a necessary…
