Genderqueer: Difference between revisions

The term "genderqueer" is a relatively new term in gender theory and identity, only becoming popular within the last couple of years. Basically when used as an identity, genderqueer means that person's gender is not contained within the traditional gender binary -- this means that they might identify as transgendered, transsexual, [[Agender|non-gendered]], [[Polygender|poly-gendered]]...the list is infinite. Genderqueer is to the male/female gender binary (or genderstraight) as being queer is to being straight -- the term queer encompasses anything that is outside the "norm." But, as should be remembered with all identities, it is up to the person to decide what it actually means, and the term genderqueer's definition is unique for every person who uses it to describe themselves.</blockquote>Also in 2002, a genderqueer Livejournal community appeared, using a similarly broad definition:<ref name=":0">"Profile". Genderqueer Livejournal community. https://genderqueer.livejournal.com/profile/</ref><blockquote>This community is for those of us who don't feel we fit the binary gender system in use by most of society. Ungendered, many gendered, a gender other than the one society thinks you should be? Do you express your gender(s) in nontraditional ways? You just might fit in here!</blockquote>As of 2024, the community had 2,036 members and 4,030 journal entries; the last post was in January 2017.<ref name=":0" />

Over the next decade, genderqueer developed as a standalone identity with particular (sub)cultural expectations and connotations, while the tendency to identify particular experiences under its umbrella seemed to diminish. Zinester Rocko Bulldagger critiqued the expectations that genderqueer identity acquired in this period, observing that people in genderqueer scenes were more concerned with constructing an identity that "reject[ed] M/F" than including a wider range of people who transgressed or engaged consciously with gender. She criticized the scene's increasing unfriendliness to people outside a narrow range of embodiments and expressions. Increasingly, "genderqueer" meant white, young, female-assigned and masculine people who did not use she/her, adhered to specific fashion trends, and had not passed certain milestones in medical transition.<ref>Bulldagger, Rocko. "The End of Genderqueer". From ''Bleach Blonde Bimbos'', vol. 2. 2005. New York City, USA. Accessed via Queer Zine Archive Project on October 22 2024. <nowiki>https://archive.qzap.org/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/112</nowiki></ref> However, both uses are still visible in different online and in person communities.