Reading Alok Vaid Menon’s Beyond the Gender Binary was a bittersweet thing for me. Seeing a South Asian queer person thrive and be unabashedly themselves was inspirational and gave me a sense of pride. On the other hand, reading about their experiences was a sad feat. It baffles my mind how people are so bothered by someone’s existence (someone who has no effect on their daily lives whatsoever) that they go out of their way to torment them. I was equally surprised to see the level of discrimination non binary people face, even from the government. I mean I knew things weren’t that good but I guess I chose to be optimistic, maybe for the sake of my own conscience. This makes me realize the privilege people like me, who identify with a “society-approved” gender, have. Even with the privilege, there is no denying that perpetuating gender roles is not beneficial for anybody. Maybe the people in power that came up with the concept, but I can’t imagine it’s helpful to regular people. Distributing work equally has to be better than making certain people do certain jobs. Two people working and doing chores together is definitely more fruitful than one person only working and the other doing chores.

Perpetuating outdated ideas of gender is especially worse for non binary people. Which makes me admire Menon and other non binary people even more. The subjugation, violence and overall sh*t they face should make them a vengeful group wanting retribution. Instead, they simply just want to be accepted and live a life without fear. And they want to make the world a better, more open place, so that no child is forced to snuff their interests. Also, even through all the hindrances, Alok still manages to see the beauty in life, comparing our identities to stars in the galaxy. It’s truly amazing.

P.S. Sorry for the language, I couldn’t find an alternative that conveyed the same meaning and emotion

After reading a few of the excerpts from “Beyond the Gender Binary” By Alok Vaid Manon, as well as watching the short interview, I was left in complete awe. Alok shared their personal experiences with complete transparency and utilized their platform for the greater good. A few of the things that I admired from both the video and the excerpts were the comparisons that were made to prove a point: How can one person, out of almost 8 billion people, only be able to choose between two genders? Alok emphasized thinking beyond this belief. Both genders, male and female, should instead be viewed as two of an infinity of options, “like two stars in a galaxy”. By stating that there is a galaxy, we are not only recognizing the existence of two stars but also acknowledging the billions of other stars that make the galaxy as wondrous as it is. 

If I’m being completely honest, as appreciative as I was to read and learn more about this matter from the perspective of someone who is both nonbinary and nonconforming, I couldn’t help but also feel angry. Of course, I have heard about the unfortunate experiences that many have gone through for simply being their authentic selves. Yet to recall that there are individuals who make such hateful comments on a matter that they choose to not learn about is not only disheartening, but ignorant. As Alok stated, I hope that as time goes on, we will all do a better job at not emphasizing and exaggerating the differences between both males and females but instead celebrating them. I was taught from a young age that the world is so much more beautiful when you remember that you’re not the only one in it, and I can only hope that others will remember to do the same.

This is my first time reading Alok Vaid-Menon “Beyond The Gender Binary”. Reading this a very interesting book because he focuses challenges the world to see gender not in black and white, but in color. Drawing on their own experiences as gender nonconforming artists, they show us that gender is a malleable and creative expression. He’s trying to make it clear that the only limit we have is our imagination. While reading I found it interesting what his definition of non binary is to him. He defined it as gender identities that are neither male nor female dentities that are outside the gender binary. A word that stood out to me is “gender fluid” and this refers to change over time in a person’s gender expression or gender identity, or both. That change might be in expression, but not identity, or in identity, but not expression. Or both expression and identity might change together. For example if people are people whose gender changes over time. A gender-fluid person might identify as a woman one day and a man the next. Alok mentions a lot of terms that he wants his readers to pay attention to, like transgender, gender nonbinary, gender fluid and cisgender.veryone else. Non-binary people shouldn’t feel insecure about themselves. They should not feel offended for wearing certain clothes. Non-binary people are not protected by the government, which I find wicked. It doesn’t matter what the gender of a person is, first of all a person. Overall Alok shows that gender is a malleable and creative form of expression.

I had never heard about Alok Vaid-Menon before reading his book “Beyond The Gender Binary”. Which by the way is a very well written book. It is not difficult to understand and the words are clear. I wasn’t too excited to read this for the simple that I thought it was about the discrimination and oppression of LGBTQ communtiy. It is not that I am not sympathetic to this way of living, it’s just not something I care to read about. However, the book was very interesting and I learned some things from it. The word “effeminate” stuck out to me and it means a man showcases women’s tendencies. For example, the way a male walks or carries oneself, that comes off as feminie or girly. I also learned the terms non-binary and gender norms of just female and male. There is many different types of gender terms, such as cisgender, transgender, bigender and more. Alok wishes these terms to be a part of social norms. There has been a lot of discrimation against non-binary people. I feel as if non-binary people are humans too and they deserve the same respect anybody else receive. Non-binary people shouldn’t have to feel unsafe in their own skin. They shouldn’t feel looked down upon because they are wearing certain clothing. Non-binary people are not reaching protection from government, which I think is outrageous. No matter a person’s gender they are a person first before anything.