I get it -- the gender binary and masculinity are social constructs that hurt us all.
Men's violence against women is sustained in part by rigid gender codes, the policing of manhood and rigid constructions of a gender binary between masculinity and femininity, men and women, and male and female.
What the I.A.A.F. did to Caster Semenya last week puts her on a new frontier — and compels us all to ask tough questions about how we understand the old binary oppositions of masculinity and femininity.
They communicate that non-heterosexual or transgender are somehow less appropriate than straight or cisgender, but also dictate norms of acceptable behaviour within the gender binary of ideal masculinity and femininity (for example, girls should not be 'too' sexually active, and boys should not be passive or emotional).
"It is all about breaking gender binaries and redefining femininity, masculinity and everything in between and outside of," Vita said.
Anita Dolce Vita, who is also Dapper Qs editor-in-chief, told host Alex Berg that while queer fashion is undefinable because it is specific to the individual, it is "systemically rooted in gender non-conformity". "It is all about breaking gender binaries and redefining femininity, masculinity and everything in between and outside of," Vita said.
This is a cleverer, crop-top-free version of Girl Power and femininity is not at its core – by and large, these drags kings want to prove that gender, masculinity and other binary opposites are flimsy.
Importantly, young men need to engage as active agents in change, to recognise benefits in such change, but mostly to recognise their own vulnerability in a rigid binary system of gender where masculinity is constrained by adherence to particular kinds of performances, not only dangerous for young women and women but equally for young men and men.
Yet, as highlighted earlier, appealing to aspirational models of masculinity risks reinforcing gender binaries and promoting the assumption that there can be positive masculinities.
Whether it is possible to introduce gender-equitable forms of masculinity or whether gender-binaries need removing, and whether either of these outcomes is achievable, or rather an ideal to strive towards, remains a central theoretical question in this work.
