In this book, ” beyond the gender binary” by Alok Vaid- Menon, speaks about gender fluidity, the challenges the community faces, and what it would mean to get passed those challenges. Gender has always been a big topic but has grown over the years. Although the subject of gender identity is growing, there is a lack of understanding about it. Alok states that ” a lot more airtime is given to other people’s views of us rather than our own experiences” when instead, it should be reversed. This is important because, over the years, more restrictions have been placed on their community at the local, state, and federal levels. Doing this would stop covering up the truth about the hardships and put them one step closer to ending the discrimination faced by the gender-nonconforming people. And instead of living as people with no fear of losing their jobs, homes, or everyday privileges just for expressing who they are” that it’s all states, ” I do not have the luxury of being. I am only seen as doing”, that it’s all an act and that they go back to being a man or woman at the end of the day. Going beyond the gender binary norm wouldn’t mean being tolerated but instead accepted. It would indicate safety, understanding, acknowledgment, and being seen as other human beings expressing themselves and who they really are.

My gender as a woman goes against the binary norm: burning in public, taking out my wedgie, cursing a lot in public, speaking my mind, etc. These are something things that people will not usually see women do these things in public. They expected women to be kind and ladylike all the time. Now how my gender fits the binary norm will be wearing girl clothing, putting on make-up, laughing with my mouth covering my hands, shaving my legs, doing my nail, etc. All these things are what women are supposed to be dressing or doing. This is how it used to be in the older generation, so I don’t know how it will be now in today’s society.