Labels Matter: How we talk about Gender matters.

Males and Females are for flowers, Men and Women are for people, and that makes space for the rest of us.

If we use Male and Female to define us, we define by biology. There are specific physical traits assigned to each. We reduce everything to biology. It is about the parts on show or in use at the time.

In this way of talking about people, there is no space for anyone outside of this binary. If you try to exist in the middle space between these poles, discussion is always about bodies and genes.

This reduces us all.

Identity and Biology

If identity and biology are combined we allow a medicalised ideology when the lens is focussed on sex - becuase sex and biology is all we can think about.

Our early understanding of trans was about biology - we as a society allowed an ideology to define trans and ideas around gender. Biology and identity were linked. To move across the divide took medical professionals - they dictated who, and when, how and why.

When ideas around Gender came into more mainstream thought - the idea that we define as a society what makes a Man - by defining Man we define Woman in opposition. By defining the Gender Binary, we can define genders outside of the binary.

We can move beyond artificial binaries - by using Masc and Femme we develop ideas that arent’ about opposition - those that can be expressed jointly, singly, or absent across all of the gender spectrum.

Technology influences Society and Society influences Technology

How we look at Diversity, how we measure it, is set by our technology. We decide what matters when we measure our gender in only two categories. When we measure like this we limit how we think, by accepting a technical limitation we as technologists should enable our bold new visions of how we see ourselves.

By limiting how we record gender to protect data - using ‘Legal gender’ is not enough - it reflects out of date thinking.

Technology should enable the future.