I enjoyed this week’s reading to the point that I want to read the entire book. Alok Vaid Manon managed to put into words and answer some of my questions that kept me from fully accepting the abstract and fluid nature of gender. As a science-minded person with biology as an intended major, I was concerned with how our modern definition of gender interacts with biological sex and the behavior of humans based on that. I have an indisputable belief in the huge role of our hormones and brain activity on the way we act and feel, yet I also genuinely support the idea of gender identity as something totally separate from your chromosomes. Here’s one quote from Aloc’s book that relieved me: “Societal beliefs about sex affect what questions scientists ask and the knowledge they gain.” And this is true of any research – the way you shape the question will affect the outcome.

Another thing that I loved about the reading is the eye-opening facts about the existing problems of gender diversity. Because I’ve never lived anywhere else except New York, it is hard for me to perceive the real struggle of non-binary and transgender people, because there’s less judgement and violence addressed towards them in the city. Here everyone either minds their business or praises you for being different. For that reason I often felt like this is an already resolved issue and everyone is accepted. For the longest time I did not understand why people still talk so much about it. Yet if I step out of my mind’s comfort zone just a little bit, I can still recall that many post-soviet countries, where I’m from, still think of “transgender,” as something fundamentally wrong and negative, while the concept of being non-binary is almost not present. I also learned from Aloc’s book about obvious discrimination and hate existing in many U.S states. For example, Texas proposing financial compensation for reporting transgender people using the restroom or Department of Justice announcing that trans and gender non-conforming workers are not protected by civil right law. Even if I consider my own feelings, I can confess about the discomfort of sharing my gender fluidity with people who know me.