Where are you from?
Suffolk.
What do you do?
Recently graduated in Anthropology. I’m now working in Monocle’s “Kioskafe” selling magazines and making coffee.
Facebook now has over 70 genders, what gender do you identify with?
I identify as a male.
When did you first become aware of your gender?
Probably when I accidently walked in to the “ladies” lavatory for the first time, when I was about four.
What do you like most about your gender?
I’ve never spent time considering what I particularly “like” about identifying as male. It’s a bit difficult to say really. I don’t identify with my gender because I “like” anything about it per se. With “gender” being a cultural construct intrinsically linked with “sex”, it’s just easier for me to say I am “male”. However, I acknowledge gender is fluid and it is actually difficult and tenuous to ever attach gender to anything. So, in short, I don’t actually know what I like most about my gender, sorry.
What do you like most about the opposite sex?
Their bum’s? Haha, I don’t know whether you mean “sex” or “gender” with this question to be honest.
What’s the biggest gender stereotype we need to overcome and why?
I couldn’t possibly pinpoint the most problematic stereotype as they’re all probably as important as each other. I guess the worst result of gender stereotyping and oppression over the years is a widespread ingrained and inherent view amongst many that a woman is worse at holding a position of political power. It is undeniable that this view pervades the Western “liberal” society and many other societies around the world, and has resulted in a severe lack of representation of women and a reinforcement of the stereotype that men are more responsible with political power. There are, however, so many problems with how people are expected to act in certain ways and are forced in to identifying with a specific gender because they were born a certain sex. Facebook having 70 genders is a step in the right direction I guess, but I don’t think it suggests anything revolutionary.
Credits
Photography Ian Kenneth Bird