Those who identify as female or male, two genders that are taught certain things and think that we should live that way but we should be able to learn the same things. In the book ” Beyond The Gender Binary” page 27, ” We are taught from a very young age tha; this is how things have always been and this is the only way to live. We are taught that masculinity belongs to men, femininity belongs to women,.” Honestly we shouldn’t have to be living like this but we still see this today. Both genders should be treated equally and not at a point where a female should like certain things or a male. Going back to what I mention at the beginning, I remember my mother telling me about growing up that if people saw men cooking it would be an embarrassment for them because that’s something they shouldn’t do and that it’s only consider for women to do. Now imagine what those people have said that’s when you know society needed a change. Society hasn’t change at least to me because of how both female and male are still being treated. While I was reading the book “Beyond The Gender Binary” a part that stood out to me was when it was talking about how were doing the same thing for the next generation. On page 31, “We do the same thing to the next generation that was done for us. We divide billions of people into one of two categories and tell them that this is way thing’s are.” This is where we know that after each generation were still dealing with same issue. Gender can affect us in many ways and some are by the way we understand what gender is to us or the experience. When it comes to female and male I think about how both genders should be treated equally because everything would be different and in a good way such as making decisions, learning, behavior and the opportunities we both would have.

In, Beyond The Gender Binary by Alok V. Manon, the excerpt states “We are taught that masculinity belongs to men, femininity belongs to women, and these are the only two options for self-expression.” 

I chose my snapshot because I feel it best reflects the quotes I used, as well as the artist’s intent in the painting shown, which demonstrates that everyone’s character possesses both masculine and feminine characteristics. 

Many people assume or act as if women can’t have more masculine characteristics or that men can’t have feminine characteristics when, in fact, they can. It also shows that as a society, we tend to place people in boxes, especially based on their looks. 

I believe that as a society, we need to be more accepting and not place people in boxes or assume an individual’s gender solely based on appearance. We need to be less critical of others, as well because not everyone fits cleanly into the categories of “man” or “woman.” Some individuals, for example, have a gender that combines aspects of both male and female genders, or a gender that is neither male nor female. Anyone, in my opinion, should be able to identify or express themselves in whatever way they want, whether it’s how they dress, what fragrances they wear, how they walk, how they dance, how they speak to other people, through make-up and accessories and more. 

Manon also states, “I was feminine to be a boy and then to Masculine to be a girl.” This demonstrates that many non-binary people, I believe, struggle, particularly when others try to fit them into categories that they don’t fit into. People either want non-binary people to act as a male or they want them to be more feminine. 

This is because many individuals have a mentality of categorizing people and classifying them to a certain gender based on their appearance. “If it quacks like a duck, it looks like a duck,” Which is a quote a lot of people believe. I feel that not only is it disrespectful but it is ignorant since we should be more accepting and open to asking what people’s pronouns are.

Ultimately, a person should be able to dress more masculinely and wear their hair short if they want to. It’s also okay if they have long hair and like to dress more femininely, but it doesn’t indicate their desire to identify as a woman or a man. 

Gender identity should be determined by a person’s desire to identify as that gender and how they express it. It doesn’t matter who we are; we can choose to match our sex at birth or to be different. However, someone expresses themselves is none of our concern since it does not really affect us. I wish we paid more attention to the things that matter the most rather than concentrating on what someone chooses to identify as. Instead, we should concentrate on people’s actions or behavior, as well as their intentions as a person.

Binary people having a hard time expressing themselves and what they wear since people in places dislike the way they dress. But the thing is that they don’t even dress for other people but for themselves so I don’t really understand what is it to judge base on what people wear everyone have their own style of wearing. I feel like everyone shouldn’t judge how a way a person dress because the way they dress you might not like it but they might like how they dress so just leave them alone. In the book the quote states ”Bias and discrimination are not just being endorsed, they are given the green light. This gives many people permission to harass us in public everywhere we go”(Page:15) People would come to them and judge why are you wearing that. We want people to see that what they wear and for them to feel comfortable in instead of being judged as wearing some kind of dress and not feel safe in the environment. The thing is that they have to accept who they are and continue with their lives and ignore people that are just rude because there is a bunch of rude people around this world.