Paper #1: Understanding Identity

 Paper #1: Understanding Identity                                                            (1,132 Words)


Intersectionality is “an understanding of human beings as shaped by the interaction of different social locations (e.g., ‘race’/ethnicity, Indigeneity, gender, class, sexuality, geography, age, disability/ability, migration status, religion)” (Hankivsky, 2014, p. 2). Since I am human, I have a variety of different social identities that make up who I am. Intersectionality specifically is the focus on the power relationships between each social identity. In my case, as a dark-skinned, non-binary African American, I occupy two historically suppressed minority groups. However, because my gender expression usually differs from my gender identity, society sees me as a black male. Thus, the scripts of black males get imposed on me. But when I'm more feminine, society is disgusted at me and sees me as someone who needs to stay away from children. No matter what gender identity I identify with, I will always be seen as a danger to society because I'm a transgender, dark-skinned, African-American

First, what is gender and gender identity? ChatGPT states, “Gender refers to the social and cultural roles, behaviors, and expectations associated with being male or female in a given society. Gender identity, on the other hand, is an individual's deeply-held sense of their own gender, which may or may not align with the sex assigned to them at birth” (OpenAI, 2023). In this definition of gender, we have a binary opposition. With gender having to be male or female, with no in-between. However, I am in between; I am Non-Binary. I exist outside of male or female. My pronouns are They / Them. TikTok influencer Soladarling stated, 


My pronouns are like an approximation, It’s language that can never contain all of who I am. so when I say my pronouns, are they/ them, I’m just letting you know I would like for you to acknowledge the fact that I am not a man or a woman. You cannot misgender me because my gender is something that is personal and beautiful… it’s unique, it’s unprecedented (Soladarling, 0:00:45).


When I first heard this, I knew this was the best explanation of my gender. Soladarling states that the pronouns they/them and the gender nonbinary isn’t about not being a male or female. It's about not being seen through the eyes of gender scripts. I can't fit into a binary category because I'm not a one-sided person. I chose to occupy the in-between; this is hybridity. The freedom to take on some aspects of one gender and ignore the rest. When I was a child, I was a boy. I grew up knowing that there were only boys and girls. However, once I learned about the LGBTQ movement, I realized my gender didn’t match the sex assigned to me at birth. So, I decided to occupy the liminal space between the recursively defined concepts of "male" and "female." Not identifying as a man but also not identifying as a woman. This was a transformation of my gender; I became transgender.  


But how does me being non-binary make me a threat to society? To many conservative Americans, transgender individuals are seen as a threat. The latest GOP presidential debate occurred on Wednesday, September 27th, 2023, where presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy stated, “transgenderism, especially in kids, is a mental health disorder” (FOX, Second Republican Presidential Debate, 2023, 00:57:28). In America, if a Republican candidate for president can openly say I have a mental health disorder based off my gender alone, this attitude will be passed on by the everyday American. 

“The pervasiveness of gender as a way of structuring social life demands that gender statuses be clearly differentiated. Varied talents, sexual preferences, identities, personalities, interests, and ways of interacting fragment the individual's bodily and social experiences. Nonetheless, these are organized in Western cultures into two and only two socially and legally recognized gender statuses, ‘man’ and ‘Woman.’ In the social construction of gender, it does not matter what men and women actually do; it does not even matter if they do exactly the same thing. The social institution of gender insists only that what they do is perceived as different.” (Lorber, p. 58)


The entire concept of gender exists to separate people into classes. Because you are this one gender, you must be good at sports or housekeeping. Scripts and stereotypes socially construct gender. Because I am not in a normal gender category, I am outside of the normality. Because I exist between male and female, I am perceived as different. You can’t assume that I am good at sports or that I like the color pink. People fear things they don’t understand. Republicans fear me. 

I am to be feared is the common narrative I have grown up with. If I present myself as masculine with my gender expression and clothing, this makes people perceive I am a male. I’m put back in a standard gender category and am now “normal” again. If, I wasn’t black. I am a Darker-skinned, tall, and big Black individual. So, when I express myself in a masculine way, society sees me as a dangerous, uneducated, savage Black male. Unlike gender, which is malleable and transformative, race is not. Race is assigned to you based on your skin color. If you are dark-skinned, you are not caucasian; you are not privileged. Throughout history, dark-skinned back men have been seen as savage, dangerous, violent, and less than human. In documentary films such as Ethnic Notions, we are portrayed to the white American by white Americans as savages. In 1776 and 2023, we say that all men are equal. Although progress has been made toward equality between black Americans and their white counterparts, we aren’t equivalent. In the study, The Mark of a Criminal Record, Devah Pager found that when applying for jobs, White people with a criminal record got more callbacks than black Americans without criminal records (Pager, p. 956). This means that as a Black Male without a criminal record, society perceives me as dangerous, more dangerous than a white convicted felon.  

If I present myself to the world as non-binary, society will think that I am mentally ill. Walking the streets as a black male, the scripts associated with black males follow me larger than my shadow on the pavement. But these two characteristics make up who I am. I am not just non-binary, nor am I just black. I am a black non-binary. I exist at the intersection of these two historically oppressed groups. I am a target for violence because I am both black and LGBTQ. So now, In 2023, It seems I have to conform to certain scripts associated with being a black male for personal safety. America's promise is to be the land of the free. But true freedom requires ignoring the harsh realities of our existence






Carter Vaughn                                                                                                       09/29/23

Works Cited Page



Hankivsky, O. (2014). Intersectionality 101. https://womensstudies.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/66/2021/06/Intersectionality-101.pdf

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (GPT-3.5 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

[Soladarling]. (2023, April 2). Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CqjfuImNKL5/?img_index=2

[Vivek Ramaswamy]. (2023, September 27). Second Republican Presidential Debate [Video]. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/video/6337443912112

Lorber, J. (1996). Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender (p. 58). Yale University Press. https://sites.oxy.edu/ron/csp19/readings/LORBER-NightToHisDay-SocialConstructionofGender.pdf

Pager, D. (2003). The Mark of a Criminal Record [Thesis, Northwestern University]. American Journal of Sociology. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/pager/files/pager_ajs.pdf

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