Gender binary
[8] Discrimination against transgender or gender nonconforming people can take various forms, from physical or sexual assault, homicide, limited access to public spaces, in healthcare and more.
[13] Scholars who study the gender binary from an intersectional feminist and critical race theory perspective[14] argue that during the process of European colonization in North and South America, a binary system of gender was enforced as a means of maintaining patriarchal norms and upholding European nationalism.
[18] Personal pronouns in the English language are typically associated with either men (he/him) or women (she/her), which excludes people who do not identify as a man or a woman.
[20] According to Hyde and colleagues, children raised within English-speaking (and other gendered-language) environments come to view gender as a binary category.
[23] Those biases can appear in information processing, and can affect attitudes and behavior directed at those both inside and outside of the gender binary language system.
For example, in Sweden a proposal was published in a national newspaper to expand the personal pronouns of hon (she) and han (he) to also include hen.
Many argued in support that hen could operate as a pronoun for nonbinary individuals who preferred it, and would make language more gender fair and be able to avoid binary labels imposed on things like workplace advertisements.
[27] These characteristic while stereotypes, can be encouraged and influenced through objects like toys (e.g. baby dolls introducing maternal and domestic labor) but also in schools.
[34] In the contemporary West, non-binary or genderqueer people do not adhere to the gender binary by refusing terms like "male" and "female", as they do not identify as either.
In some cases, attempting to conform to societal expectations for their gender, transgender individuals may opt for surgery, hormones, or both.
[36] During the balls, the gender binary is thrown out the window, and the people competing are allowed to express themselves however they interpret the category.
"[38] Lorber argues that this corroborates the fact that the gender binary is arbitrary and leads to false expectations of both men and women.
For example, the labels "mentally ill" and "confused" are stereotypes uniquely assigned to transgender individuals by cisgender people.
These result in conflicting and false images that directly and violently harm trans people; a study in conducted in 2021 found that cis individuals would stereotype a trans-man as "aggressive like cis-men, weak like cis-women, and mentally ill like trans-women.
"[41] Transphobic stereotypes like these contribute to violence against trans and gender nonconforming communities, where transgender individuals are physically assaulted or killed, misgendered, denied access to spaces that affirm their identity, and are legally blocked from changing their identifies on government and other official documents.
[41] Discrimination and assault rates are even higher for trans and gender nonconforming people of color than their white counterparts.
[45][46][47] Public figures that identify as of non-binary gender include Sam Smith, Indya Moore, Brigette Lundy-Paine, King Princess, Jonathan Van Ness, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Amandla Stenberg, Demi Lovato, and more.
[51] Styles rejected the implicit separation of feminine and masculine by wearing both a dress, a clothing item associated with women, as well as a blazer, which is associated with men for the Vogue cover.
